How culture affects employee development

Everyone says it: ''My boss should be on this course.''

It's like going on a diet in a family of committed heavy eaters.

But if you wait until others change, you might never develop.

Regardless of how much others fail us, we can always ask ourselves: ''What can I do differently anyway?''

Focusing on what others are not doing is a dead end.

Suppose you want to empower your staff a lot more but your boss is a micro-manager, insisting on your knowing details.

How can you manage your boss to keep yourself from looking over your team members' shoulders?

What can you negotiate so you both meet your needs?

Can you arrange regular reporting dates and formats?

Break down your boss's generalized demand for instant data across the board into priorities and timeframes for different issues.

Find out which things are most time sensitive and negotiate a way of helping your boss get what he/she needs without you having to sacrifice your empowerment plans.

 Example 2:

Your competitive culture makes team work challenging and you want to foster more team work across the organization.

Instead of a blanket attack on the culture, can you form a few key partnerships with colleagues who see mutual benefits for doing so?

It's easy to fall into the trap of making blanket judgements instead of focusing on what we can do to get around obstacles.

If your partnerships pay off, you will show leadership to others.

In general, rather than see your culture as a problem, can you see it as a leadership opportunity for you? Regardless of how your culture blocks your development, see how you can work with the culture so both you and it meet your needs - more productive than fighting against it.