“Leaders create culture. Culture drives behavior. Behavior produces results.” Urban Meyer
In every aspect of life whether it’s in your family, the workplace, or on a sports team culture is present. Then one must ask who or how is culture shaped? Who has the greatest influence on culture? For a family it’s a parent, for a sports team the head coach and for the workplace the leader of the organization. The leaders’ behavior, decision making, and style of communication shapes the organization’s culture. Therefore, culture starts at the top and the C-Suite must model the core values. Many organizations have core values but are those values modeled starting with the C-Suite. If the C-Suite behavior is in contrast to their core values, then the core values are merely words on a wall. Thus, such behavior will trickle down throughout the organization. Hence, it can be surmised upper level leaders play a pivotal role in modeling the core values which is a predictor of the organization’s culture.
Why Culture Matters: Culture matters when it comes to employee engagement, employee satisfaction and employee belonging. It is the culture that determines the employee’s experience and the organization’s level of productivity. “Employees working in companies that have a positive corporate culture are healthier, happier, more productive, and less likely to leave. Research also shows that companies with positive workplace cultures have higher average annual returns.” Therefore, culture matters as it indicates an employee’s experience and the organization’s level of productivity.
If you are a leader, ask yourself:
- What type of culture do I want our company to have?
- Does my behavior exhibit our company’s core values?
References:
https://builtin.com/company-culture/bad-company-culture#
https://professional.dce.harvard.edu/blog/why-workplace-culture-matters
https://careers.iconplc.com/blogs/2024-4/home-sweet-office-why-culture-compatibility-matters#