Think that your organization’s culture doesn’t affect your company’s performance and bottom line? Stephen Paskoff, President and CEO of Employment Learning Innovations Inc., respectfully disagrees. Paskoff is a nationally recognized speaker and author of CIVILITY Rules. In his recently released book, he offers a new business approach that helps boost performance and limit risk by building lawful, professional operations that align with organizational values.
Paskoff credits his experience working with a group of cardiac surgeons for the inspiration that led to CIVILITY Rules. “I saw how bad behavior could wound an organization, lead to low morale, increased turnover, quality concerns, reputational issues, unnecessary complications, and even fatalities.” he said. Although the behavior that he witnessed wasn’t illegal, it clearly violated the organization’s values of integrity, respect, decency, and professionalism. To Paskoff, it seemed they were often given secondary importance or simply ignored.
“In order to maximize performance, an organization’s leadership should focus on their behavioral values that cover the full spectrum of conduct, from legal to illegal and everything in between. That includes behavior that may be considered rude and unprofessional.” Paskoff said. CIVILITY Rules delivers relevant models and case studies from leading employers explaining how day to day behavior can actually result in enormous business benefits. It also delivers a roadmap to ensure the alignment of values with behaviors is expressed at all levels in an organization.
Leaders have a key role in changing behavior to will enable an organization to operate in line with their values and maximize their strategic objectives. Change is not effected solely through policies, rules, or posters displayed in the workplace. Although they are important reinforcements, the true catalyst is witnessing how leaders routinely act, communicate, hold others accountable and welcome concerns. That’s where it all starts.
Another objective of the book is to give leaders and team members a common way of looking at behavior and addressing issues. Linking behavior and values, and working through them using a common language makes the task of changing behavior easier, long lasting, and culturally sustainable.
The optimistic message of the book is that with many organizations, you’ll find that specific behaviors developed over a long period of time and ultimately became self-perpetuating. What current leaders, and their team members can do is set new standards for daily behavior for current and future members of their organizations.
Interested in reading more? Download a free excerpt of CIVILITY Rules from the ELI website.
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