My Point of View on Company Culture

Let’s tell it like it is. Recently, there has been a resurgence in conversations about company culture. What is it? How is it changing? Which direction is it headed?

I think we can all agree there is a litany of reasons why these conversations keep popping up. Employees are still facing immeasurable obstacles (and overcoming them with great success, I might add!) Obstacles like COVID-19, the Great Resignation, hybrid work environments, and political activism are sparking spirited conversations across the country.?

So, back to the first question - what is culture? In my book, RESET, I put it simply: it’s how things get done. In today’s day and age, we can’t afford to stand on fancy phrasing in a PowerPoint.?

Yes, culture is about productivity, but why is that? For me, it’s because the purpose behind any project, any task, is to advance the underlying purpose of the organization.

Now we can see why so many organizations are failing at their company culture.?

When employees don’t feel connected to their company’s culture, or unable to identify the underlying purpose of their work, they are less likely to be productive, less likely to deliver timely results, and less likely to have joy in the work they are doing.

The call to action for any leader is this: be intentional about your culture, define it with purpose, and live it authentically.

Once your employees begin to see you embrace your company’s culture, it will begin to disseminate throughout your organization like osmosis - from top to bottom and across various departments.

For better or for worse, corporate cultures are enduring, stable, and hard to change. They can be a source of advantage or disadvantage. You can write down your corporate culture, but when you do so, you’re discovering it, uncovering it—not creating it. It is created slowly over time by the people and by events—by the stories of past success and failure that become a deep part of the company lore. If it’s a distinctive culture, it will fit certain people like a custom-made glove.

And once you identify those teammates whose personal goals align with those of your company – who truly work to create the culture you seek in your workplace – watch the feats that happen in all other parts of your business.

Let me finish with this thought – in some ad-hoc conversations with other leading LinkedIn voices on company culture, I brought up the SHRM Global Workplace Culture Report. I started reading from the report.

“Nearly 1 in 3 workers (32 percent) indicated that they dread going into work, potentially due to a poor workplace culture.”

The issue is clear – we have a culture endemic going on in workplaces across the country. Now the question is, how are we going to change that? And the silver lining – all of us do have the power to change it. Including you.?