What defines Culture? The Behavior of the Leaders
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Back in 2015, when we were leading a growing services business at Revenue Analytics, we brought in an executive coach to help us become better leaders and improve our ability to translate strategy into execution.
We hired a fantastic coach, Bruce Longshore, who has since retired. But he taught us lessons about leadership, management, and communication that have shaped our work over the past 10+ years. He had some unorthodox methods, like using a giant feather to tickle people who broke his rules of engagement in workshops, but his work with us was highly impactful and a lot of fun.
Perhaps the most poignant lesson that we learned from Bruce was about establishing a company culture. We had always thought that we had a strong culture, and that had been validated in employee engagement surveys. But Bruce asked us why we thought our culture was strong. Our initial answer was that we had build a great team of people who worked hard and liked to have fun… and we had beer in the fridge!
Bruce frowned and shook his head. Culture, he said, had nothing to do with beer in the fridge. Culture is defined by the behavior of the leaders.
If you want to have a culture of accountability, each leader must always keep their commitments, and set the expectations that others do the same.
If you seek an entrepreneurial culture that embraces big new ideas, the leaders must always be open to hearing new ideas.
If you want a company that truly lives by its Core Values (thus reducing the need for other rules and policies), then the leaders must constantly communicate decisions in terms of how they fit with the company’s Core Values.
Even part of our original answer, hiring smart people who worked hard but didn’t take themselves to seriously, actually went back to our own behaviors. For years, we had talked about how important those attributes were in making hiring decisions, so they naturally became important in hiring decisions further down the organization even if we weren’t involved.
The reverse is true as well – if leaders are not honest, open, and transparent, they will never be able to create a culture of trust. And if people see that they are making decisions based on their own best interests, rather than the interests of the company’s customers, people, and shareholders, then a selfish and siloed culture will be the result.
So, our advice to operators is that when you are thinking about establishing a great corporate culture, start with your own behaviors and how you communicate about your decisions. It’s really that simple – culture is the behaviors of the leaders.
