How to Instil a Disciplined Culture

Every leader wants to have more disciplined staff members. A team who is motivated, productive, and gets the job done with exceptional quality. A team like this is built on discipline!

So how do you instil discipline in your team? How do you lead a team on the journey of becoming and staying disciplined?

Focus on the WHY!

One of the biggest traps leaders fall into when trying to improve discipline and consistency is to implement procedures. While procedures themselves are not bad, they cannot function without proper leadership and guidance.

If you’re doing something because “that’s the way things are done”, then you need to take a closer look! As doing things simply because it’s the way things are done is the road to bureaucracy, the enemy of good leadership.

Instead focus on the why you are doing something and ensure that everyone in your team understands the why. Understanding the why behind the what you are doing allows you to build more internal discipline. This leads to more initiative and accountability amongst your team, as they know why they need to do specific tasks, as opposed to just ticking boxes.

Review Often

The second mistake many leaders make is to just leave things as they are. While I am not advocating that you change your ways often, reviewing them often is crucial!

After every game, rugby teams have a debrief to look over what they did. This happens after every game, regardless if they won or lost. This level of discipline is something you should instil in your organisation. As it adds to and reinforces the why behind what you are doing.

Some things to go through at these review sessions:

1. What is replicable? What happened and what could you replicate in other areas of the business?
2. What went well, what did not go well? Look over and understand why the results were as they were.
3. What should be changed? Look at the results and look for areas of improvement. Even micro improvements are good to look at!

Lead By Example

Anyone can draw up a task list and give it to an employee, only a leader can build a well-oiled machine. While understanding the why and reviewing your work will help to instil discipline in your organisation, it all starts with you.

Every ship needs a captain to steer them, regardless of how good the sailors are! So, make sure you are working on your own discipline to build the culture in your own life that you want to build in your organisation.

Paraphrasing Barack Obama, be the change you want to see in your company!