I just returned from giving a keynote address and a couple of workshops to more than 200 leaders of Kansas Department of Transportation. It was really rewarding to see how many of these leaders from every level of KDOT responded to the idea of building their own powerful subcultural organizations – in spite of being in a period of reduced revenue and ever-tightening budgets.

I was amazed at how excited many of them were about the idea of taking the initiative to improve the effectiveness of their own organizations; not waiting for their leaders to do it for them.

Of course not all of those leaders will go home and implement my model to build organizations that:

1. Consistently produce outstanding results
2. Attract, motivate and retain top talent
3. Readily adapt to changing conditions

However, my experience has been that the next generation of general managers and executives always comes from the ranks of those leaders who demonstrate their ability to build high performance organizations, wherever they are in the enterprise, in spite of difficult operating conditions. It was really a joy for me to have a number of KDOT leaders approach me concerning their excitement about their opportunity to use my model to improve the performance of their own workplace culture.

Yes, times are tough right now. However, it is times just like these that emerging leaders will take the initiative to lead their organizations to new levels of performance through effective workplace cultural leadership.