The purpose of your organizational leadership development efforts should be to establish a leadership culture in the organization.  A leadership culture is created when everyone in the organization is connected to the strategy and clearly sees how their role fits into the achievement of the overall objectives of the company.  When you have a culture of leadership established in your company, leadership becomes an expectation of everyone not just upper management.  What are the key characteristics of a leadership culture?  Let's explore three characteristics that make a leadership culture.

A leadership culture starts with the strategic direction of the company.  Having a strategic plan and communicating the plan in a manner that it is understood by everyone lays the foundation for the organizational culture.  In a lot of cases the strategic plan is something the leadership team does once a year and then put the binder on the shelf.  A strategic plan should be a living breathing document that guides the day to day activities in the company.  One issue is most leaders have not bee trained in how to think strategically.  That's where your organizational leadership development program comes into play.  Part of the training program needs to focus on strategic planning: what it is and how to do it.

Once the strategic direction is in place, there needs to be a set of core values that the organization lives by.  The core values become the "rules" by which the organization conducts business, deals with employees, vendors, and customers.  People want to be a part of something larger than themselves and when they feel they are a part of something that has a purpose, a direction, a goal, there is an attachment to that purpose.  This is attachment is commonly called employee engagement.  When you have a strategic plan in place coupled with core values then employees will use discretionary effort to help the organization reach its goals.

Another characteristic of a leadership culture is accountability.  The first thought that may come to your mind when we speak of accountability is micro managing.  That is not what we are talking about.  Accountability is actually empowering to people.  Employees want to know be held accountable because holding people accountable demonstrates that what they do makes a difference.  If you as the leader don't show you care if something is done correctly and on time, neither will anyone else.  Accountability is not just top down in a leadership culture.  In a leadership culture everyone is accountable to everyone else regardless of position in the company.  This means the managers are accountable to the staff.  The staff is accountable to the managers.  The staff is accountable to each other. 

Establishing a leadership culture will create an environment where people get results.  Organizational leadership development will be a big part in establishing the culture.  Organizational leadership development will not only help everyone in the organization develop leadership skills, but also the right attitudes and habits.  Don’t' neglect this vital part of creating the kind of culture you want for your organization.