Missional Monday 1 of 7: Changing Employee Behavior to Support Your Mission

By Lisa Hochgraf CUES Symposium: A CEO/Chairman Exchange general session presenter Mike Neill wanted to add even more value for participants in last week's event and help them "bring it home," once the real world began to hit again--like it probably is already today. The added good news is that everyone can benefit from his plan for doing this. President of Michael Neill and Associates, Atlanta, and CUES' partner in ServiStar, Neill conceived the idea of "Missional Mondays"--a series of six posts on this blog corresponding to the six key behaviors of missional leaders. As a preface to Neill's Missional Mondays (maybe "Mike's Missional Mondays" makes better use of the assonance), here's my take on the part of the session that covered changing employee behavior to support your mission. Then use the links at the bottom of the page to read Neill's tips on implementing missional leadership in your shop.  Last Monday Mike Neill presented to attendees of CUES Symposium: A CEO Chairman/Exchange this quote from Leading Change by John Kotter.

"Most organizations delude themselves into thinking they are changing by implementing structures that allow them to think change is occurring, e.g. branch redesign, new products, sales training. The only thing that defines actual change in organizations is when behaviors change. Everything else is just an illusion."

Lucy Wander-Perna and Chuck Bruen (middle) check in with Mike Neill during a break in Neill's session about missional leadership. Wander-Perna is chair and Bruen is president/CEO of $971 million First Entertainment Credit Union, Hollywood, Calif.

President of Michael Neill and Associates, Atlanta, and CUES' partner in ServiStar, Neill emphasized that to encourage more behavior in support of a credit union's mission, leaders need to catch employees doing things right. If a credit union focuses on catching off-mission behavior, "employees want to do just enough to not get caught," he said. "Move away from an error log mentality obsessed with exceptions," he advised. Instead, he recommended, see employees' good behavior and talk with them about how it ties back to the credit union's mission. In addition, he said, don't tolerate any behavior that doesn't fit with the mission, even when good behavior is also demonstrated by the same employee. Success in this arena requires commitment and resolve, he empahsized. "If you're not willing to fire people for [non-missional] behaviors, you're not going to create a culture" focused on your mission statement, he said. Lisa Hochgraf is a CUES editor. Learn more about ServiStar, a joint offering of CUES and Michael Neill and Associates. Read part 2, part 3, part 4,  part 5, part 6 and part 7 of the missional leadership series.