265 | Why Culture Matters in Leadership

In this episode of the LeadCulture Podcast, host Jenni Catron discusses her new book, 'Culture Matters,' which focuses on the importance of organizational culture and how leaders can create environments that foster thriving teams. She shares personal anecdotes that shaped her understanding of culture, emphasizes the need for a structured culture plan, and outlines a five-part framework for building a culture operating system. The episode also highlights the significance of pre-ordering the book and engaging with the community to enhance leadership practices.

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Transcript

Well, hey, leaders, welcome to the LeadCulture Podcast, part of the Art of Leadership Network. I'm your host, Jenni Catron, CEO of the 4Sight Group. We're a company dedicated to helping leaders develop thriving teams. Each week, I'll be your guide as we explore practical strategies to equip you with the tools you need to lead with clarity, confidence, and build unstoppable momentum in your organization. My mission is to be your trusted coach, empowering you to master the art of self-leadership so you'll learn to lead yourself well so you can lead others better. Each week, we take a deep dive on a leadership or a culture topic. You'll hear stories from amazing guests and leaders like you who are committed to leading well. 

So let's dive in and keep learning on this leadership journey together. So friends, today I have kind of a special episode for you. I'm even in an unusual setting, not at home, not in my normal workspace, but wanted to record an episode to talk about my new book, Culture Matters. So I've hinted at this on and off over really the last several months. I've been working on the book honestly for about a decade, but actually writing the book, the better part of this year. And it has been a journey. It actually has been eight years since The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership released. So it has been eight years since my last book release. so needless to say, although I do a ton of writing regularly, writing a book is just a different discipline in so many ways. And there's probably other stories that I need to share at some point about just the

discipline of writing again with that commitment, that regularity, that like those deadlines and the expectation that you're creating something that lives on for years to come. And I was actually processing some of this with my husband and saying, you know, as we're looking back at Clout and The 4 Dimensions and just how proud I am of that work and that I still feel like it holds up. But that also put a lot of pressure on this book

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to say, hey, how do I make this book a book that lasts the test of time? Like, how do I make sure I put enough commitment, energy, research, and just intentionality into this book for it to have a lasting impact? So this might feel a little bit like a self-promotion episode, which I hope it doesn't. That's not the intention. The intention is this is work that I can't

cannot wait to get into your hands because all of you that listen to LeadCulture, you care deeply about leadership and your teams, right? That's why you're here. You are allies with me on the importance of making sure we have healthy leaders and thriving teams. And so I feel like this is just an opportunity. In fact, I know it's an opportunity to continue to equip you to do really good work in the organizations that you're a part of. So what I want to do today,

is I wanna give you just a little bit of a sneak peek. So this is not very scripted. I have a few bullet points. This is me just kind of talking from my heart about this book and this work because you guys are my people. You're the crew that are with me week in and week out, learning together, journeying together in this journey of leadership and organizational culture. And so you're my people. And I want you to hear some of the things I'm excited about.

some of the why behind this work. And then I want to give you a couple opportunities to get into the book, get access to the book early. So let me just take you back a little bit. This whole concept of organizational culture has been a passion point for me for a really long time, although I wouldn't have known it early on. In fact, I reflect on some of my earliest experiences and I do write about these in more detail in the book. But I think back to like my first summer job at

the ice cream shop in small town Wisconsin, where I had an amazing boss and owner of the store, great coworkers, just a fun place to work, a high level of belief, high level of connection, high level of clarity, and absolutely thrived in that space. And then you contrast that with my winter job, which was working in a Christmas tree farm, making Christmas wreaths.

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And it was like the environment was literally cold because we're in Wisconsin in the winter, you know, November, December. And the my coworkers were kind of cold and cranky, like they just did not seemingly love what they were doing. And what should have been this fun and festive environment was just kind of this miserable place to work. And so that was like my first early experiences. And then fast forward, I go on to work at the record company in Nashville out of college

and was part of an amazing team. Like just fabulous leaders who I'm still friends with to this day, amazing coworkers who, you three of them I call my golden girlfriends. We go on trips together every year. We have a constant text message going, you know, every day. Like, like my deepest truest friends were from that era of work. And, and then we went through a corporate merger.

And overnight, the experience went from amazing of like a team of people I loved working with, we were succeeding, were just accomplishing big goals. Like we're working hard, but we were having fun and we loved who we were doing it with. And then we merged with the other division in our company and overnight it went to this place that I absolutely loved. Like I absolutely loved it. And that was the moment that got my attention of like...

There's something about culture. There's something about the environments leaders create that either attract or repel people. And so that was the thing that I said, I've got to figure this out. I've got to figure out how do you, as a leader, like how do you create environments that great people want to be a part of, right? How do you create environments that great people want to be a part of? And so...

From there, I went to work at the church that I was a part of. And I was employee number five. I was second chair. I was executive director in the organization. And I recognized that I now sat in the seat of influence. I sat in the seat where I was going to be shaping the culture for that team. And I had to be really intentional about the culture that I was creating.

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I had to be really intentional to create an environment that great people wanted to be a part of because in that context, we were a small church plant, very limited budget, right? Just didn't have a lot of resources. So we were attracting great people because of the mission and we were only going to keep them if it was an environment that they enjoyed being a part of. And not only that, we could only hire a handful of staff. We needed to recruit hundreds of volunteers.

And so I recognized that there had to be something more than a paycheck that kept people engaged. And that's when I began to really dig into culture. And then I began reflecting back on the ice cream shop and the Christmas wreath place and thinking about the ingredients that made for a great culture. And so that became the work that that I share in Culture Matters, a Framework For Helping Your Team Grow, Thrive and Be

Unstoppable. That's the title of the book releasing February 11th. So we've got a few months before it comes out. But again, I want to give you kind of a sneak peek of what's happening inside of this book and where it comes from. It was really that recognition that the environment that leaders create matters significantly. And you know this, you've experienced it. Think about one of the best teams you've been a part of, best organizations you've worked in.

there was something that attracted you, there was something that compelled you, and it wasn't just kumbaya. It wasn't just the fun stuff and the perks and the things like that. fact, a lot of times great organizations don't have all the bells and whistles. They have a group of committed people that have clarity around a shared goal and are working effectively together to make that happen. And that's at the heart of culture. In fact, my definition that I share in the book is culture is who we are, that clarity of who we are as an organization, as a team.

What's our mission? What's our vision? What's our purpose? Like, what are the distinctives about what we do even as an organization that make us unique? So the clarity of who we are and how we work together, the values, beliefs, the behaviors that guide how we interact to achieve our mission, that ultimately it's about that mission, that we are a team on a mission. And so we need that clarity of who we are and how we work together to achieve that mission.

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And when that is clear and every team member understands it, their ability to achieve that mission just is exponentially greater. That's when they're unstoppable. And so that was my why. I began to look at my own experiences and recognize I want every person who's on a team that I lead to have this experience too, right? Like I want them to thrive. I want them to flourish. I want the best of the people on my team to show up.

day in and day out because I am helping draw out the best in them. And so what I noticed as I began to study this, so I'm reflecting back on the teams that I'm a part of, both the good ones and the bad ones. I'm looking at organizations and teams around me because by this time I'm writing and speaking on leadership. So I'm seeing a lot of team dynamics. And I noticed that there's a breakdown after about a dozen staff or more, right? That up until you have about a dozen staff,

everybody kind of catches the culture, right? You have proximity to the owner or the founder or the senior leader. And so you kind of get how we do things here, right? Like that idea of this is how we do things here, or that's not how we do things here. Like you get it. You're in close proximity. Most of the team is together all the time. And that's wonderful. That's actually a really, really fun stage of organizational life. And so when you're in those stages, like soak them up, you know, enjoy every minute of it. But what I noticed,

was that as soon as you couldn't all sit around the table together, as soon as not everybody was in every meeting together, which by the way, I don't recommend, like you can only do that for a short season, usually in startup stage, and then you need to grow beyond that. And so you have to develop systems, infrastructure, behaviors that reflect a growing and maturing organization. And so the same thing is true with culture, in that what happens is a lot of times we're responding, we're growing, we're adding people, the team's expanding.

And we are just assuming that everybody is still catching the culture. Well, it couldn't be further from the truth in that people are starting to bring their own interpretations, their own experiences. And because not everybody's together all the time and we can quickly kind of course correct on misunderstandings of, here's who we are and here's how we work together. Like as soon as there's multiple interpretations of that, you need to define that.

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more clearly, you need to get really honest about what does it mean to be a part of this team? What does our culture look like? And that's what I noticed is that most organizations that I was interacting with didn't have a plan for their culture. Now, one of my favorite things to ask leaders is, and I've done this a number of times in a conference setting where I'm speaking and I'll say, how many of you have spent significant time maybe hired in a consultant?

spent some resources to define your mission and your vision, right? Like you got really clear about your purpose, right? So you spent considerable time crafting that, defining that, getting support around it. How many of you have spent time and money building a strategic plan? So many of you probably bring somebody in at least once a year and or you at least spend a day or two away as a team.

working on your strategic plan. So while you might not be hiring somebody, you're spending considerable amount of time and employee hours to actually work on a strategic plan. So most often all hands go up in the room. Then I asked the question, how many of you have a plan for your culture? How many of you have spent time, money, invested in defining your culture? Rarely does a hand go up. And this is the premise of

this work is that we need a plan. In fact, culture, the stewardship of your people is arguably one of the greatest resources, is arguably the greatest resource for your organization because you need a team of people to accomplish that plan. They are the linchpin between your purpose, your mission, your vision, and the strategy to achieve that mission. Right? It's the people, it's the team that are rallied around you, aligned around that mission to accomplish it.

And so if you don't have a strategy for the health of your team, you're leaving the whole thing to chance, right? You're leaving the whole thing to chance because they are the very linchpin. In fact, there's a ton of research right now in the marketplace where they're saying culture is the differentiator. Like culture is the thing that sets the best organizations apart. That attention to how do I equip my team? Like how do I steward the talent of the people? Like the stewardship of people.

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is a core essence of organizational culture. And so that's what I've defined in Culture Matters is I've helped you build your culture operating system, help you build a plan. There is research that reinforces those questions that I've asked. It says that 90 % of leaders believe that an engagement strategy or a culture plan will have an impact on their organization, but only 25 % of them have a plan.

All of us assume, not even assume, believe that culture matters, but only 25 % of us have a plan for making it important, right? And so that's what Culture Matters, the book, is designed to do is to help you build your plan. Because the problem is we know good culture, like we feel it when we experience it, but we don't know how to protect it or to rebuild it. I've been there.

And I suspect some of you are saying the same thing, hey, our culture is good right now, but I don't really know exactly why. I'm kind of holding my breath and hoping everything is okay. Or maybe your culture went sideways and you don't know how or why, and you don't know how to get it back. You know what it looks like when it's good, but you don't know how to get it there. And so that is what I've mapped out in Culture Matters is actually giving you a system to build your culture plan.

to recognize that culture doesn't happen just by accident. Like it is this intentional thing that you invest time, energy, resources. You give as much attention to this as you do to your purpose and strategy. And I promise you, your organization will flourish and your team will flourish. So the book is divided into five parts. I give you a five-part framework for helping you build your culture operating system. And those five parts are we're gonna assess where you currently are. What's your current culture?

Good, bad, or indifferent, right? Like you have a culture, whether you've defined it or not. And so what I need you to do is I need you to get a really good honest assessment of that. And here's the thing, for most of us in senior leadership seats, the culture is never as good as we think it is. It always feels better at the top of the organization because we have the most influence over it. So if we don't like something, we change it. Well, the rest of our staff don't have that luxury. And so they are probably experiencing things

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that you don't even quite realize. And depending on the health of your culture will impact how honest they will be with you about that. And so I give you a lot of resources and tools for assessing your current culture, getting really honest about where are we now, just what's our reality. And then we define, we define what do we want to be? What do we look like at our best? what...

is the culture we aspire to, because you have to know where you want to go. If you all remember back before we had these fabulous little devices that could immediately give you a blue dot telling you where you are, and then you could plug in where you want to go, and it like, you know, maps the whole route. Back before that, we had these wonderful old school maps, right? Like these big atlases that you would open up on a road trip. But before you could say, hey, I want to go to Atlanta,

you had to figure out where you actually were on the map, which meant, okay, what street am I on? What cross street am I near? Like you had to figure out exactly where you were on the map. And then you had to say, and now I wanna go here. And then you had to map the route from A to B. Well, the same thing is true in your culture. That you have to clearly assess where you are. And then you have to define where do we want to be? Like, what do we aspire to? What does our culture look like at its best? And you're gonna look for clues from your history.

you're gonna look for those values that intuitively guide you and you're gonna pull all of that forward and you're gonna get it defined. Because here's the thing, back when you were a small team, it was defined, but it was more like, just kind of understood, right? Like your leader had probably subconsciously defined your culture of like the values and behaviors that guided you. And so then they kind of provided,

direction around that just very naturally, right? Just organically. So what you have to do is you have to say, hey, we have to truly articulate what are the values that guide how we work together? What are the behaviors that are critical for success here? What does it look like when we're operating at our best? So you have to define it. The third part of the framework is you have to assess, define, and then you have to build.

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You have to build the plan to get from here to here, to get from your actual culture to your aspirational culture. You have to build a plan, right? It needs a plan like every other critical system in your organization culture needs the plan. So we're gonna build that plan. Then we're gonna equip you to build, to execute that plan and to maintain the momentum around that plan. That's the critical piece is that you have to be so intentional to keep

investing in your culture, right? That your leaders have to be equipped to make sure they're not unintentionally sabotaging the very thing you're trying to define. So that's where the leadership development piece comes in. We call it the lead culture framework because leaders need to lead culture. So we assess, we define, we build, we equip, and we commit. Number five is commit, meaning this is an ongoing system.

This is not an episodic, like we're gonna just do this one day hurrah, we're gonna do this one time assessment. No, this is a commitment saying we are going to commit to the ongoing work of the health of our team. And so those are the five phases of the framework in brief. And that's what we walk you through in helping you like take basically wherever you are with culture, whether you have some semblance of something's defined, whether

It's very organic and just kind of understood because you've got a small team or whether it is off the rails, like everybody has their own interpretation. The Lead Culture Framework in the Culture Matters book will help give you the operating system, right? It is going to walk you through it from beginning to end. And so it is for who's this for, right? So some of you saying, okay, well, who's this, who's ideal, who ideally is this for?

Honestly, it's for founders or senior leaders. Like if you have disproportionate influence in your organization of helping shape the culture and leaders do. Let me clarify this. Every person on a team is influencing culture, right? Every person on your team influences culture. You know what that looks like. You have a great employee and they have disproportionate influence on the culture. have somebody who is not a good place. They're toxic. They're having a negative impact on your culture. So every person contributes to your culture. But

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your leaders have disproportionate influence just because of the nature of their roles. So if you are a founder, senior leader, you're in the C-suite, you're a senior pastor, you're an executive pastor, executive director, like you are in that executive or senior level leadership, like absolutely this is a book that you want to check out. Like you need to be implementing this framework. If you are the culture champion in your organization, maybe you're the director of people and culture or you're...

the director of HR, if you're responsible for some of the people elements of your organization, this is a great resource for you. And then even if you're a leader of a team, so maybe you're somewhere mid-level in an organization, maybe you're overseeing a volunteer team, maybe you're overseeing a division of your company, you have influence over the sphere of the people in your span of care, that's your sphere of influence. And so you can create a culture within that team by employing the principles from the framework.

So even if you're not able to influence at the highest level, you might be able to do this within your team. And so if you have a team of people that you're responsible for, this framework will work for you. And so that is my heart and my desire. I want you to have the plan. And in some ways, this feels a little bit like a sales pitch of sorts, right? Like, okay, Jen, it's your new book. We know you're excited about it, but here's why I'm excited about it, you guys.

because I talk to leaders day in and day out, who their people problems are some of the things that are holding them back the most from accomplishing their mission, right? And every leader wants a team of people aligned around a mission. And here's the thing, every employee wants to be a part of something great, right? Everybody wants to give their lives and their energy to work that matters. They wanna be a part of something significant. They wanna give their life and their work to something meaningful. So we want the same goal.

Right? Or we have the same goal. Employee and employer, we have the same goal. We want to do good work that matters with people we love being with. And so that's what building your culture operating system is about. That's why culture matters. And so my desire in taking my work from the last decade or more and putting it into this framework is to say, I want to make that accessible. Some of you have worked with 4Sight through the years. Maybe you've done a workshop with us.

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Maybe you've done some coaching with us, but that's an investment, right? We get it. Like we get it. It is a significant investment to have that kind of energy and time spent. So the heart of writing this book was to say, I want to give everybody the opportunity to put this framework into effect. I give you the whole plan. I kind of do. I don't know whether that's smart or not, but I know that my heart is to make sure every leader and every team are thriving and achieving the mission they feel called to.

And so the book gives you the plan. And then here's the fun part. Couple of like fun things for those of you again, who are just part of our community, who are with me kind of in the trenches of this, because I'm finally coming out of the fog of all the book writing and the book edits and going, now I get to tell people about it, which is so stinking fun. So we're doing a couple of fun things leading up to the release, which is then February 11th, 2025. That feels like so far away, but it's actually not. It's actually

Less than five months, is that right? And so here's what we've got. If you pre-order the book, now let me give you this caveat. You've probably heard this from other authors. Pre-orders are a big deal. And so I'm not even like, I just kind of need to just honestly say that because you're part of the community. want you to hear it. Pre-orders actually really matter. It's what tells...

The publisher, it's what tells the bookstores that, this book might actually be worth stocking. This book might be worth putting on our shelves. And particularly for myself, who is a person of faith, often writes in the faith space that sometimes we get a little bit less shelf space. This book, by the way, is very accessible to every organization. So you don't have to be a faith-based organization for this framework to work. I am not shy about my faith.

But I also, the framework operates inside of any organization. If you have to be a little more neutral about faith in your organization, the framework still works, the book still works. So if you're a Christian, but you're in a corporate setting or a business that you can't just bring in things that are based on scripture, the book is gonna work for you in that context. Anyway, I digress. The book pre-orders matter in that it helps

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Again, bookstores, publishers know, okay, there's an audience for this. There are people who want this book. So it's a big deal. It just helps us get the exposure and the awareness and the attention so that the book gets stocked well. So here's what I have for you. If you pre-order the book starting now up through February 11th, we have a ton of extra bonus material. So you can go order the book wherever you buy books. So go to Amazon, go to Barnes and Noble, go to your local bookstore, wherever you go.

Then go to culturemattersbook.com. So you'll go pre-order wherever you pre-order. Then go to culturemattersbook.com and you're gonna see a spot there where you can plug in, hey, your name, your email, and your order number from your receipt, okay? So you'll just go grab your receipt number from, or your order number from Amazon, just plug it in there. That will let us know, hey, you have pre-ordered here. Then it's gonna unlock a bunch of bonuses. So here's what you'll get. You will get a,

free advanced digital copy of the book. So this is like not final proof stage. This is kind of the stuff like advanced readers and endorsers get, but you're gonna get a digital copy of the book. So you can dig into the framework right away. So you'll get a digital copy of the book, a PDF copy of the book. You'll get a workbook that goes along with it. So again, a digital workbook that will help you start to put at, you know, take action on it. And then you are going to get a masterclass that I've recorded.

only for people who pre-order the book. Like I'm not doing this as a webinar. I'm not doing this in some other space. Like this is content exclusively for people who pre-order the book where I'm giving you, I'm walking you through, like coaching you through the first phase of the framework. And then we're doing a Culture Matters Summit in January where myself and a number of friends are going to do a live free summit all around Culture Matters. And you'll get access to that as well as the replay.

of it. So you get a bunch over $300 worth of freebies if you go pre-order the book now. So what you do there, go pre-order the book wherever you buy books, go to culturemattersbook.com and plug that information in. And then you're going to get, I think it's an email. My team knows all the details. You're going to get an email with all of your bonus resources. So that is one of the best ways you can help me just promote the book, share the book, et cetera. So I would love for you to do that.

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Secondly, I am leading an exclusive cohort beginning this month. So this is coming out October 24th. So this is very like, hopefully you're listening to the podcast episode in real time. October 24th, I am launching a Lead Culture Accelerator Cohort where I'm going to take a small group of people, like very limited number of individuals for five sessions beginning in October, ending in January. I'm gonna take you through five sessions, five phases of the framework.

and I am going to live coach you in a group setting, like I'm on video, we'll use Zoom, and we will be in a cohort together where I'm going to coach you through the framework. Now that's a little pricier, but it's significantly less expensive than having myself or one of our certified coaches come and work with your team directly. So it's a great way to get my live coaching on the framework.

with a small group of other culture champions that you're going to meet and get connected to. And I'm going to take you through the whole framework so you can get a jumpstart. ideally this is you're like, okay, it's the end of the year. It's fourth quarter. It's super busy. Here's the deal. You're going to carve out 90 minutes once a month over the next few months. And then you will be ready to implement it at in the new year. So we're going to wrap up in January and then you're going to be equipped to lead your team through that. So if you think 2025 is the year I need to invest in my culture.

I need to give time and energy and resources and you want me to personally coach you through that, this is the group and this is the opportunity. I'm not intending to do the cohort ongoing. This is a one-time thing kind of pre-launch that I'm doing. And so if you're interested in that, just email me at jenni, J-E-N-N-I at get4sight.com, G-E-T, the number four, S-I-G-H-T.com. And I will send you the link with all the details and the registration. I'm super excited

to lead a handful of leaders through this content, even as we approach book launch. And I would love for you to be a part of it. So one of two things, please go pre-order. That's such a huge help and such an encouragement to me, honestly, that you're with me and you're supporting this book launch with me. So go buy your book from wherever you buy books, go pre-order it, go to culturemattersbook.com, put your info in. We'll send you all the

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the bonus materials. And if you're interested in the Cohort, just email me jenni at get4sight.com and I will send you all the details and get you plugged into that Cohort because we are going to have an amazing time kind of continuing to learn and flesh out the framework together. Friends, thank you for being on this journey with me. Thanks for caring about the stewardship of people, recognizing that culture really does matter, that people are the point.

And I can't wait to see the impact we have. can't wait to see the organizations that flourish because of their intentionality and investing in their team. I can't wait for the individuals that flourish because of their engaging with a team that they love doing work that matters, exercising their gifts and just being able to achieve great things. I can't wait to hear more and more of those stories. So thanks for being with me today.

I would love for you to share this with a friend, maybe somebody else you know who really believes in the importance of culture and you're like, they need to get this book. They need to know, they need to be, just be equipped with a tool that will help them continue to build on the great work they're doing. And you might listen to it with your team just to say, hey, this might be a great book study for you to do together. We actually have some bundles. If you get bulk books, you can also get like extra bundles of that and we'll give you more details on that. That if you want to.

take your whole team through it. That'd be a great resource. And I'd love for you to just let us know how we can serve you better. Like if there are ways that we can help equip you to keep leading well, to reinforce that culture matters, please reach out to us on socials. I'm at Jenni Catron and you can also find us at at Get 4Sight and all of the socials and also rate and review. That always helps. We're super grateful for that.

So pre-order your book, go to culturemattersbook.com and next week I'll be back with another interview with another great guest. So friends, thank you for leading well. Thank you for caring about the health of your team and striving to be a great leader. Until next time.