Your calendar is your culture statement. (#312)
The Confident Leader
BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This Week’s Edition
What is your team actually learning from your calendar about culture?
Clarify Your Thinking
Lisa cared about culture. She funded investment into it.
You can’t buy culture. You have to model it.
We name values and let the day-to-day squeeze out how we model those values. They end up being merely words on the wall.
I get it. Leaders are busy. Constantly prioritizing. Triaging. Fighting fires. There is no time for anything “extra.”
That extra is what actually allows you to be less busy as you build the team culture that shoulders that burden with you.
The “I’ll get around to that later” excuse quietly becomes the standard everyone else lives by.
Old Thinking: Culture is what I invest in and put on the wall.
New Thinking: Culture is who shows up consistently when it would be easier not to. I’m clear, and applying it on sight.
Thoughts Lead to Actions
If you think your culture responsibilities are competing with your calendar, your calendar wins every time. How could it not?
News flash: your behavior is the actual culture. Stop competing with yourself.
Integrate the two.
- If my team learned our values only by watching my calendar, what would they conclude?
- Which recurring commitment do I quietly treat as optional the moment something louder shows up?
- When I do show up, am I really present, or in the room with my attention somewhere else?
- What small thing can I start doing today to model at least one of our values?
- Where would a consistent presence say more than another initiative ever could?
Culture isn’t what you announce. It’s who’s in the room and how they show up.
Boost Your Performance
Want to build a culture your team actually believes? This week’s video shows you where it really comes from.
What’s Your Opinion?
What’s one recurring moment where your presence would teach your team more than any initiative could?
I’d love to hear your thoughts: robin.pou@robinpou.com
If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!
Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist
We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders.
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What is “The Confident Leader”?
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.
