Business leaders marvel at the distinctive, customer-focused cultures associated with legendary firms like Southwest Airlines, Apple and Disney. As executives of these companies readily acknowledge, their organizations’ outstanding performance is due, in large part, to the corporate culture they have created.
But how does such a customer-focused culture arise? Executive SummaryTime-starved, multitasking executives engaged in drive-by conversations with employees are poor models for employees to emulate when they interact with customers. Instead, executives who give their undivided attention to internal team members embody the customer-focused cultures they seek to create, writes Watermark Consulting’s Jon Picoult, also describing other subtle gestures of responsiveness that set the right tone for their organizations.
Despite all the talk about culture from leadership gurus and management tomes, it still remains a decidedly abstract concept for most business people.