When people join your organization, they are signing up to discover, evaluate, and embrace or challenge your work culture. If they question or challenge your culture — your way of doing things — and it presents an opportunity for growth and increased diversity of thought, the dialogue is valuable. If the employees challenge your culture because it feels like a “parent-child relationship” with the focus on rules and consequences, you may want to re-evaluate the work environment your policies and practices have created.

Does your culture affirm the value of each employee? Are your employees given permission to bring their entire selves to the workplace: body, mind, emotions, and spirit? Do your policies and practices create an environment of trust and respect?

Here is a solution that will help you answer “yes” to each of those questions: Review your employee handbook and policies. If the focus is on rules and consequences, consider re-writing them to reflect your commitment to a culture of accountability and professionalism.

It’s so easy to let policies, practices, and rules define how we work together.  Let’s change that.  Hold yourself and each other accountable for creating a culture that brings out the best in each of you while you contribute to the company’s bottom line.

We each have our policy pet peeves.  Mine is the typical bereavement policy, which allows someone else to tell me who is important enough in my life to support paid days off to attend a funeral.

What are your policy pet peeves?  What policies or rules would you like to see changed in your organization?

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Gary is retiring earlier than planned as a senior executive of a successful company. He made a proposal to the company’s CEO on a way to transition out of the company. The proposal was turned down.

Leslie is an administrative assistant who feels unappreciated by her boss. She has called in sick three times to avoid her performance review.

Gary told me, “I understand they chose to manage my retirement in a different way. I just wish they had taken the time to understand my request.” A few days later, Leslie said, “Why should I meet with my supervisor? She doesn’t listen, it doesn’t matter what I have to say.”

Gary and Leslie are no different than you and I. We want to be heard. We want to know that our opinions matter. We want someone to send us a signal that says, “You are important. I’m interested in what you have to say.”

Our workplace could change dramatically if we would regularly choose to take a few extra moments to look someone in the eye and listen. Really listen. That means that we don’t answer the phone during the conversation. We don’t sign letters. We don’t interrupt. We focus all our attention on that other person.

And listen.

Look around your organization today. I bet you’ll see someone who is waiting for you to listen to her. Take the time. Remind her that she is important.

We want to be heard.

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My sisters and I helped Mom move. She and Dad had lived in their home for 53 years. After Dad died, we put the house on the market. And it was sold.

That house was filled with wonderful memories. I remember learning new things – roller-skating in the living room until the carpet was burlap. I remember a sense of community – sitting in the stairway, listening to my parents laugh late into the evening with their friends. I remember taking risks – posing for prom pictures in a dress that was so yellow you needed sunglasses to look at it. I think about that house, and I smile.

Our work environment creates memories, too. Each of the environments I’ve worked in elicits a different emotional response.

Think about your organization. What will your employees remember when they leave? Will they remember it as a place to grow? A place where relationships laid the foundation for success? A place where they could take chances, try new things, and grow professionally?

 What memories do you have of the places you’ve worked? What emotional responses do they elicit?

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