It's Not Rocket Science: 4 Simple Strategies for Mastering the Art of Execution

Chapter 29The Earn and Deserve Culture

The Challenge

“Pay attention to your culture,” “You need to strengthen your culture,” and “Your culture needs some work” are statements most would find reasonable and difficult to argue with. However, their general nature leaves much to be desired. After all, most leaders know what they should do; they simply don't know how to do it, don't do it, or don't do it consistently. This is why in the following pages I am going to present specific words, concepts, and mind-sets that you must weave into a high-performance culture. I will also offer specific words, concepts, and mind-sets that you must weed out of culture to strengthen its foundation. My goal is to help you by creating a portrait of the ideal culture by supplying specific examples of what must exist within a high-performing culture as well as what must be eliminated. Although you may never reach the ideal culture, the very act of striving toward it will lift you to far higher levels than you would have reached otherwise.

Earn and Deserve at the Bedrock

According to class attendees, one of the most helpful parts of my Up Your Business 2.0 Super Leadership workshop is when I have attendees create two columns on a page, writing “Strong Cultural Words to Weave In” on one side of the page and “Weak Cultural Words to Weed Out” on the other side. Over the course of the two days, I add to the list, making a blueprint of the mind-sets, values, attitudes, and behaviors you must embed in ...