Help people to speak up to build strong work culture

07/01/2022

Work culture is most influenced by communication, effective channels to give feedback and find redressal for grievances. It also benefits from a culture where future career planning is encouraged and employees are supported in achieving their life goals: both personal and professional.

What are the crucial elements of a strong democratic and transparent work culture?

SA Many large organisations have become less hierarchical and status driven in recent years, however there is still a lot of work to be done in order to strive for democracy and transparency. The pandemic kickstarted some of these overdue changes inevitably. The lockdowns forced many a Leader to rethink the way they operated. Instead of being leadership centric where decisions may have been made by a select group of people, then undergoing a trickle-down effect, the forced work-from-home made team leaders quickly turn around the way they worked before. Instantly they had to relinquish decision making to much younger managers who could be placed far away from them physically. The empowerment scenario became overwhelmingly important and leaders had to ensure that their approach was more encouraging and motivational.

The pandemic therefore showed us exactly what are the key elements of a democratic and transparent work culture. Firstly, it is trust: look...

Simin Askari

is a Board and Executive Advisor and former Group CHRO & Head of Business Excellence at DS Group. Her leadership journey spans frontline technology and media sales, entrepreneurshipand eventually the people function at scale; a rare cross-functional arc that gives her a genuinely integrated view of business.With over three decades of experience across diversified industries, she brings a systems-level perspective on leadership, performance and culture. She is widely recognised among India's leading HR voicesand globally among the top practitioners in her field.

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