Employees are disengaged and blame runs rampant. Customers are letting you know they aren’t happy by taking their dollars elsewhere. Employees read the writing on the wall and you start losing your top talent. These are just a few of the potential indicators that your culture is not supporting your company’s success.
Employees “tell” their leaders every day that it’s time to pay attention to culture. I’ve seen this play out with hundreds of clients over the years in a multitude of ways.
From tangible indicators such as finding work elsewhere, to more subtle ways like disengaging, or even engaging in more passive-aggressive behaviors, there is no shortage of ways employees provide their employers with feedback. Unfortunately, all of these methods result in degraded business performance in order to get the message across.
But how do you approach your CEO about your company’s culture problem without damaging the organization? How do you engage your most senior leaders in a story that is leading down the wrong path?
Overcoming Your Discomfort
There might be several reasons you aren’t comfortable approaching your CEO with this feedback. It may be seen as an indictment on the CEO and senior leadership. You may find it difficult to clearly show the link between your company’s culture and its performance challenges. Or perhaps your culture isn’t one that openly accepts feedback from staff, and looks poorly on problem identification.
Even though it may be challenging to find the courage to give this type of feedback, time is of the essence. Organizations are living, breathing organisms, and one thing we know about living things is that they never stay the same. They are either thriving or dying. Things can get better, but they can also get worse.
Recognizing your own discomfort with the situation is a crucial first step. While you might be afraid of talking with your CEO or upset about the situation at hand, you have to arm yourself with the necessary resources to have a calm and productive conversation if you hope to influence things in a positive direction.
6 Ways To Talk With Your CEO About Culture
How do you put together a compelling case that will be heard by senior leaders? How can you help to ensure that the resulting action will drive positive, sustainable change in your organization? Here are a few things to get you started:
1. It’s not personal. You have to be careful not to assign blame to one person or group. An organization’s culture develops over time as its members learn what behaviors work and which don’t. The environment and challenges can change quickly. People don’t. As a collective concept, it’s formed and reinforced by everyone. Blaming the negative aspects of culture on one person or group isn’t getting at the root issue, and your frustrations with those people may stem from deeper, longer-term cultural misalignments that must be explored.
2. It’s about getting things done. If your plan is to waltz into your CEO’s office intent on airing your grievances, think again. While some people do take this approach, I’ve never seen it end up as planned. CEOs are working every day to drive the performance of the organization, focusing on top line growth and bottom line profits. They have a vested interest in the success of the organization and coming into the conversation guns-a-blazing is likely to make leaders feel defensive.
Instead, try focusing on the culture and not the individual personalities by using clear examples of how it is impacting employees’ ability to get work done. You stand a much better chance if you’re viewed as a partner rather than a torch-wielding posse out to burn someone at the stake.
3. Give a reality check. Provide clear examples of what is really happening and how the culture is yielding unintended behaviors. Coming to the table with some tangible examples of how the culture is influencing unproductive behaviors can help make it real for your senior leadership.
4. Be helpful. Be clear that your feedback is intended to benefit the organization and its members. Take time to plan your message. There’s a huge difference when coming into a feedback situation with positive intent versus approaching it from blame and venting perspective.
5. Find a fire, fight a fire. Offer solutions not just problems. CEOs are busy people and are hit from all angles – employees, customers, the Board. Help them help you. Don’t just come to the table with problems. Come to the table prepared to share possible courses of action, show that you’ve done your research and put some critical thought to the potential pros and cons of each. This is an opportunity to hone your business case skills.
6. Timing is everything. Finally, be thoughtful about when and how you approach your CEO with your feedback. Nobody likes to get ambushed and folks usually don’t enjoy being called out in front of others. Do your best to select a time when your audience can process the information appropriately. Dropping an information grenade in the CEO’s lap while giving your fifteen-second pitch may seem like a plausible course of action, but it probably isn’t setting you up for success.
Always be clear about your intention and desire to be a part of the solution and making the organization a great place to work. At the end of the day, you still have to come into the office tomorrow morning. Though it may be an uncomfortable conversation today, your insights might be the catalyst that helps your organization address the problems at hand and create a better working environment for years to come. Don’t let your hesitation in the short-term get in the way of terrific opportunities and success in the long-term.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.