What Shapes a Company’s Culture?

What causes a company culture to be fun, productive and professional while others are full of politics, disintegration and dissention?  Why do some companies make the book of lists for best place to work and others don’t?  Simply, a company’s culture is defined by the behaviors of its people, most notably by its leadership, beginning with the board and the Chief Executive Officer. 

Behavior defines culture and what the leadership of a company values effects the way they behave and therefore the entire organization.  Each person within a company comes with a certain worldview of things.  This worldview is a collection of what they have been taught and experienced from the earliest age until working age.  What we each value evolves as we age and those values cause us to behave in ways that define our culture.  Therefore, a company culture is defined by what it values.

Employees within a company shape their behavior to match what is acceptable and what is not acceptable according to behavior of the company’s leadership.  The leadership within a company can help to shape employee and their own behavior by specifically outlining the purpose of the organization and its core values.  A written mission statement, purpose, vision and values can be useful in helping to define the guardrails of behavior when it is combined with a humble leadership team who is willing to be scrutinized by their own written purpose and core values. 

We’ve all seen companies whose written mission and values hang on a wall yet behavior is not affected by those written words because of a lack of willingness in the leadership to use those values as a guide for people’s behavior including their own.  If what you value is important, you should write it in a succinct statement that can help guide behavior.

I participated as an executive in the leadership of a company, including the CEO, to define and use a mission statement that outlined our purpose and values into a single mission statement.  It went like this:

“[Company] is an innovative professional services and software firm that partners with clients worldwide to maximize their use of new and existing information technologies.  In fulfilling our mission we act with mutual respect, honesty, uncompromising integrity, and fiscal responsibility resulting in long-term relationships with:

• Customers:  We seek to exceed their expectations.
• Employees:  They are our greatest asset.  We provide a progressive environment with opportunities and recognition.
• Partners/Vendors:  We work together to our mutual benefit.”

The combined purpose and values in this statement lasted for many years.  Executives and managers used it to recruit, and as a guide for behavior during one-on-one and group interactions.  Our strong CEO asked people to hold him personally accountable to the mission and values contained within.  The culture was exciting and fun because we felt strongly about our values and allowed it to guide our behavior. 

Another company I visited recently stated the following three values to guide behavior:

• Customer Loyalty
• Employee Quality of Life
• Sustainable Profitability

Compare that with the specificity of the core values I recently read of another organization:

• Absolute Truth
• Absolute Compassion

In both cases, the organizations are attempting to write down what they value to guide behaviors.  In the first one, the values do not specify what behaviors are acceptable for customer loyalty or sustainable profitability.  Its focus is more of a purpose.  In the second one, the organization outlines specific behaviors of the individuals within which to operate but not necessarily the finer points of its purpose.  In each case, I may be missing the finer details of how they communicate their mission and values but hopefully the point is made that you need both to more specifically guide behaviors that shape culture.

If you don’t have a written purpose or mission statement along with specifically stating what you value in your organization, you should take the time to write it down.  Invite your leadership team to participate in a session where you discuss their own personal values and upon completion, ask each individual to hold you accountable to them.  It’s a simple exercise that will guide behaviors and therefore shape your culture.