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The recent changes
in a global economic environment forced a lot of companies to change their
values, priorities, and organizational cultures. Still, following the path of
transformation is impossible without being guided by a successful, prominent,
inspiring, and culture-driven leadership. How to become an effective leader of
a culture-first organization and what does it mean to be? Let’s find it out.

How are Culture
and Leadership Interconnected?

The company’s
culture and its leadership style are always directly interconnected. What’s
more, it is quite difficult to say where the reason is, and there is the
consequence. Does the leader develop the culture? Or does the culture define
the suitable leader? It looks like an egg and a chicken dilemma but still, the
core cultural values affect the suitable leadership model, and the leaders
themselves should support, promote and follow these values as well. 

Below are five
steps that will help you become a leader of a culture-driven company. 

How to Become
an Effective Leader of a Culture-First Company

What does it mean
to lead a culture-driven organization? Perhaps, it means saying every word and
making every decision being strongly guided by the cultural framework accepted
in the organization. For example, the top sites listing cheap custom writing services have assisting their users and never posting pre-ordered reviews as
their main priorities and cultural foundations. 

Leading a
culture-driven organization means driving the company’s growth while sharing
and promoting its values within the team and beyond it. It also means the way
of doing business itself by making ethical decisions which will strengthen the company’s
reputation as a culture-driven one. Lastly, it means making sure your employees
sincerely share the company’s culture and are ready to stand for it.

And here is how to
achieve these goals.

1.    
Be Self-Aware

Any effective
leadership begins from within, deeply in the soul of the leader. To become a
leader of a culture-driven organization, consider getting started with
yourself, your values, and your priorities. How do the ones of the organization
match with the cultural cores of the company? Do you share them sincerely? Do
you believe in what you are going to do? If you have answered in a positive
manner, you have quite a lot of chances of leading this company’s growth.
Still, make sure you understand your gaps as well and work on improving them.

2.    
Stand for Your Values

Standing for the
values the company promotes is the second step an effective leader should make
every day. What’s more, you should stand for them in every action you do.
Translate these values when communicating to your team, when dealing with the
customers, when solving the problems with the partners and when outlining the
company’s growth strategy. Stand for these values when telling about the
company you are leading regardless of the environment.

3.    
Promote Shared Vision

Being an effective
leader is good but your efforts lose their meaning when you have nobody to
lead. What’s more, effective leadership is always built on the set of values
the leader and the team support and share. People believe in people, and most
of them would like to feel like a part of something important, great and
significant.

This means that you
have not only support and promote your values. You should also make sure your
team members do the same, and perfectly, they should do it sincerely.

4.    
Improve Job Satisfaction

There is no great
corporate culture without a high job satisfaction rate among employees. What’s
more, those team members unhappy with their work conditions, work tasks, the
leadership style, and the company’s attitude towards them will never support
its culture and will never promote its values. That is, improving employees’
job satisfaction is the task worth putting first on the list.

How to do it right?
The only way is to support and promote a trusting environment at the workplace,
encourage your team members to share their opinion, and show them the company’s
gratitude for their efforts.

5.    
Listen to Feedback and Keep
Learning

You got it right –
readiness to open communication and listening to the feedback of your team and
upper leadership is one more key to becoming an effective leader of a
culture-driven organization. Still, listening wouldn’t be enough without a
careful analysis of the reasons and consequences. Make sure to focus on the
existing problem, look for its root causes, and try to solve it by being guided
by the cultural values the company stands for. Analyze the mistakes and suggest
ways to avoid them in the future.

Conclusion

Being an effective
leader is challenging. Being an effective leader of a culture-driven
organization is challenging even more. Fortunately, there are no secret tips.
The only winning strategy is to sincerely stand for the values of the company
and keep them in mind at every step. 

About the Author: Frank Hamilton is a blogger and translator from Manchester. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.