Pierre van Weperen

Totally agree with other contributors. Many articles and questions here come across very top down. 'What if the culture of your team is wrong', 'what if the team resists change?' Why is it always the team? Maybe you got it wrong? What is wrong btw? Leadership is definitely not this. Leadership is about bringing the best out of your people and team always. Resistance is relative and only as a response to something else. Maybe the something else is wrong and people feel that they are doing a really great job. It all starts by you being with the team. Leadership from within, you are not the boss because of your job title, you BECOME the leader by adding value, helping, leading by example, discuss, care, care about people and all that.

I find this all a bit academic. If there is anything wrong with the culture, are you the only one who thinks that, do your bosses think that, is the team not aligned with the company culture? In short, what's wrong under the hood and then you decide on the way forward. Is the performance off by the way? Might be that the team structure is wrong, maybe just removing one person makes the difference. Is the incentive system targeted at the right things? Guess who influences team culture most? Yup, you. So what can you change to make it work, don't look at your team first. Look at yourself, where have you messed up and fix that first.

Seems to me that there is some confusion about strategy and tactics. Too many people believe they are strategic and too many organisations are too tactical and operational and focus on execution (with KPIs that frustrate the strategy). What's the company vision, what are the issues, what does the environment look like and where are you going to make a difference. What are the 3 (you don't need more) strategies. This is not easy and then management and execution teams need to get it and then the execution needs to be flawless. That is plenty for a team to chew on and deliver and it all starts by defining what the team's remit actually is. I've seen plenty where strategy comes down to filling out power point templates. That is not it

Diversity is not a value. Respect is a value, just as honesty, fairness, openness. If you stick to those and enforce those with your team I would argue that diversity should not be an issue? Am I naive here or are we generally over complicating these things.

Silly question but shouldn’t we ask ‘what values and relating to what exactly’ first. There are plenty human values that we all share; don’t steel, don’t lie etc etc. In a work setting many of those apply, overcharging or treating similar customers differently but what else are we talking about here. Trust, honesty, respect, treating people equal and fair….. What other values are there that we need to consider? Maybe everybody should leave the rest at the door ? The rest is very often emotion and believes and behaviours deriving from that. They still fall into the above. Let’s not over complicate this. People first and foremost at work should be business professionals and stick to the above. Always. Done.

Stuff will go wrong. Clients generally demand more from external consultants than from their own staff. Higher expectations and don't accept under delivery. Double standards but that's how it is. Don't be afraid to tell them that you are better and be prepared to put your money where your mouth is. Think risk share contracting if milestones are not achieved by your doing and also think benefit share clauses. If you over deliver you get a bonus or equity. Equity is a brilliant thing btw. Let them pay you and agree to buy shares for let's say half of that. Now you have skin in the game and you can use that with them.