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<v Speaker 1>Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of

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<v Speaker 1>performance through strong human relations, team building, and GOLA giving.

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<v Speaker 1>This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host

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<v Speaker 1>Paul Fellavledo.

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<v Speaker 2>Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.

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<v Speaker 2>It's episode seven thirty eight. Today, I want to talk

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<v Speaker 2>about something that almost every organization claims to care about,

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<v Speaker 2>yet very few organizations ever test culture. Most leaders talk

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<v Speaker 2>about culture when things are going well. The office is calm,

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<v Speaker 2>the team is getting along, the metrics look good, the

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<v Speaker 2>customers are happy, everyone is smiling in the annual report.

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<v Speaker 2>And that's not culture. That's comfort. Culture is revealed when

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<v Speaker 2>comfort disappears. Think about it this way. You don't know

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<v Speaker 2>if a bridge is strong because cars drive across it

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<v Speaker 2>every day. You know it's strong because engineers stress test it,

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<v Speaker 2>they push it, they challenge it, they expose weaknesses before

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<v Speaker 2>those weaknesses become disasters. The same should happen with culture.

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<v Speaker 2>The problem is most organizations never run culture stress tests.

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<v Speaker 2>They assume everything is fine until something breaks. So today

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<v Speaker 2>I want to share several culture stress tests that many

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<v Speaker 2>organizations never run, and if you're brave enough to examine them,

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<v Speaker 2>you may learn more about your culture in one week

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<v Speaker 2>than you've learned in the last year. The first stress

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<v Speaker 2>test is what I call the bad news test. How

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<v Speaker 2>does your organization react when someone delivers bad news. Imagine

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<v Speaker 2>an employee walks into your office and says, we lost

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<v Speaker 2>the account, the project failed, I made a mistake. The

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<v Speaker 2>customer is furious. What happens next? Do leaders immediately start

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<v Speaker 2>looking for someone to blame? Do people become defensive to

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<v Speaker 2>employees hide information because they're afraid, or do people focus

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<v Speaker 2>on solving the problem. The speed at which bad news

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<v Speaker 2>travels through an organization tells you everything about culture. In

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<v Speaker 2>healthy cultures, bad news moves quickly. In unhealthy cultures, bad

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<v Speaker 2>news moves slowly because people fear the consequences of honesty.

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<v Speaker 2>If your employees are afraid to bring you problems, your

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<v Speaker 2>culture is already failing the stress test. The second stress

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<v Speaker 2>test is the absent leader test. What happens when the

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<v Speaker 2>leader isn't there? And this one is powerful. Take a vacation,

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<v Speaker 2>leave for a conference, step away for a few days,

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<v Speaker 2>and then observe. Do standards remain intact, Do people continue

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<v Speaker 2>doing the right things? Do employees make good decisions? Or

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<v Speaker 2>does everything fall apart the moment you disappear. A culture

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<v Speaker 2>dependent upon constant supervision is not culture, its compliance. Real

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<v Speaker 2>culture exists when people continue doing the right thing when

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<v Speaker 2>nobody is watching. The third stress test is the new

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<v Speaker 2>employee test, and this one is simple. Ask a new

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<v Speaker 2>employee what they think after their first thirty days, not

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<v Speaker 2>after three months, not after they've learned all the political rules.

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<v Speaker 2>Ask them now. Fresh eyes see things. Veterans stop noticing.

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<v Speaker 2>New employees notice broken systems, They notice confusing processes. They

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<v Speaker 2>notice behaviors everyone else has accepted. Many leaders spend thousands

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<v Speaker 2>of dollars on consultants when the answers are sitting in

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<v Speaker 2>the breakroom wearing a new uniform. The fourth stress test

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<v Speaker 2>is the pressure test. What happens when things get busy.

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<v Speaker 2>Anybody can be respectful when call volume is low. Anybody

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<v Speaker 2>can be patient when sales are high. Anybody can be

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<v Speaker 2>kind when deadlines are easy. Pressure exposes character, Pressure exposes priorities,

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<v Speaker 2>Pressure exposes culture. When things become chaotic? Do your leaders

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<v Speaker 2>remain professional? Do employees help one another another? Do departments cooperate?

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<v Speaker 2>Or does everyone retreat into survival mode? As an EMS chief,

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<v Speaker 2>I've watched organizations reveal their true identity during a crisis.

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<v Speaker 2>The same thing happens in every industry. Stress does not

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<v Speaker 2>create culture. Stress reveals culture. The fifth stress test is

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<v Speaker 2>the truth test. Can people disagree safely? Think about that question?

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<v Speaker 2>When someone challenges an idea of what happens? Are they respectful, ignored, punished,

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<v Speaker 2>labeled as difficult. One of the most dangerous organizations in

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<v Speaker 2>the world is the one where everybody just nods their head.

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<v Speaker 2>You've heard me talk about the nodding leaders before, the

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<v Speaker 2>people who privately agree with concerns but publicly stay silent.

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<v Speaker 2>Those environments create blind spots, and those blind spots eventually

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<v Speaker 2>create disasters. If employees cannot tell the truth, leaders cannot

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<v Speaker 2>make good decisions. And if leaders cannot make good decisions,

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<v Speaker 2>culture begins to deteriorate. The sixth stress test is the

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<v Speaker 2>promotion test. Watch what happens when someone gets promoted. Pay

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<v Speaker 2>close attention. How does the team react or people genuinely

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<v Speaker 2>happy or are they cynical? Do they trust the process

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<v Speaker 2>or do they immediately assume politics played a role. Promotions

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<v Speaker 2>reveal whether employees believe the organization rewards performance or favoritism.

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<v Speaker 2>The reaction tells you far more than the promotion itself.

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<v Speaker 2>And here's the final culture stress test, the Monday Morning test.

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<v Speaker 2>What energy walks through your doors on Monday morning. I

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<v Speaker 2>love this one because it's impossible to fake. Watch the

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<v Speaker 2>parking lot, watch the hallways, watch the break room, Listen

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<v Speaker 2>to conversations. Do people arrive with purpose or do they

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<v Speaker 2>arrive defeated? Do employees engage with each other or do

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<v Speaker 2>they immediately begin counting the hours until Friday. Every organization

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<v Speaker 2>has challenges, Every organization has stress, Every organization has frustrations.

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<v Speaker 2>The question is whether people still believe their work matters.

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<v Speaker 2>When they stop believe, that culture begins to crack. And

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<v Speaker 2>here's why all of this matters. Most leaders measure the

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<v Speaker 2>wrong things. They measure productivity, revenue, response times, attendance, customer satisfaction,

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<v Speaker 2>all important metrics. Yes, culture operates underneath every one of

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<v Speaker 2>those numbers. Culture determines whether people tell the truth, whether

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<v Speaker 2>people stay, whether people help one another. Culture determines whether

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<v Speaker 2>problems get solved or hidden, or whether trust grows or disappears.

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<v Speaker 2>The strongest cultures are not the ones with the nicest

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<v Speaker 2>mission statement hanging on the wall. They're the ones that

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<v Speaker 2>can survive the stress test. They're the ones where people

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<v Speaker 2>tell the truth even when it's uncomfortable. They're the ones

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<v Speaker 2>where standards remain high when leaders are absent. They're the

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<v Speaker 2>ones where pressure brings people together instead of driving them apart.

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<v Speaker 2>And they're the ones where employees feel safe enough to

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<v Speaker 2>speak honestly, challenge respectfully, and contribute fully. Culture isn't what

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<v Speaker 2>your organization says. Culture is what your organization does when

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<v Speaker 2>conditions become difficult. That's the real test, and chances are

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<v Speaker 2>there are a few culture stress tests you've never run.

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<v Speaker 2>The question is what would you discover if you started tomorrow.

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<v Speaker 2>So leadership is not measured by the posters on your wall,

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<v Speaker 2>the slogans on your website, or the speech you gave

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<v Speaker 2>at the last staff meeting. Leadership is measured by how

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<v Speaker 2>your people behave when the pressure is on and nobody

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<v Speaker 2>is watching. So this week, pick one culture stress test

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<v Speaker 2>and evaluate your organization honestly. The answers may be uncomfortable,

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<v Speaker 2>but they will be incredibly valuable. This has been the

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<v Speaker 2>seven Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.

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<v Speaker 1>For more, Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfelloalito dot com,