Culture is how organizations behave and act in order to get things done. These behaviors have helped organizations become successful in the past and it is difficult to change because the aspired culture hasn't been proven to deliver results.

Behavioral norms are formed based on leader role modeling and what is rewarded in the business. Like it or not, your culture has created a system that can either help or hinder your growth. The role of leadership is to ensure that the reputation and character of an organization are identical.

From my experience as a culture lead, below are tips that can help leaders accelerate their culture transformation. These are fundamental to employee engagement, productivity, and growth:

1. Hold Up the Mirror: Great leaders don' t ask people to change behaviors or live by values they are not demonstrating themselves. People don't change because we want/tell them to. They change because they want to. Lasting cultural change is inside out. It starts with the leader holding up the mirror and asking the man/woman in the mirror to change first. Rather than tell, show your people what change looks like.

Change is an outer expression of a transformed inner self

2. Leadership Alignment: 100% alignment is essential on the leadership team for desired behaviors to take root in your business. Cultural transformation is leader led. People take cues from their leaders on how they should behave. Bad actors will sabotage your cultural evolution. It is worth stepping back to get your leadership team on the same page before going public.

3. Honor the Past: What made you successful in the past may not be sufficient to create a desired future. Yet, it is important to cherish and celebrate the assets that are working in your existing culture, while embracing new behaviors for the future. People are open to culture transformation as an evolution rather than a revolution. Make it about the journey not the destination.

4. Grace: Once you have articulated your aspirational culture, there should be a grace period to allow people to make mistakes, learn and grow into the new way of being. It takes at least 30 days of doing something daily for it to become a habit. Organizations are a lot more complex. Enroll influencers who are demonstrating the desired behaviors, and reward and recognize early adaptors. This will help get some wind behind your change efforts.

5. Tough Love: Organizations are torn between holding leaders accountable for not demonstrating the desired behaviors because they fear the impact to the business and the bottom line. Such tolerance, more than anything, tells your employees what is rewarded. What is rewarded drives the culture in your organization. If there is no accountability at the top, your culture change will eventually fail. One fly in a bowl of soup makes the whole meal a waste.

6. Empower: I believe whoever sweeps a room should choose the broom. If we are expecting people to act in new ways, we should carry them along in the process. Leaders should articulate and be clear on what success looks like and let the employees be creative on how they are going to get there.

7. Connect: Think about the amount of time the core team took to decide, agree and be bought into the new change effort. How much time do you think you should spend selling this change to the employees? Lasting change has a heart-head connection. Tap into the emotional energy of your team while rolling out your change effort. It starts with telling stories and creating experiences that inspire your team to action.

Change is an outer expression of a transformed inner self. A wise man said, "Show me your friends and I'll show you your future." Similarly, show me your leaders and I'll show you the future of your business.

I would love to hear from you. What's your experience with leadership and culture?