3 steps to building a powerful culture

Ahoy,

Today we’re talking about culture.

For most people, defining the culture of a company is seen as the role of the CEO.

“I’m not the top boss, I don’t get to make decisions on that.”

In actual fact, what the CEO says about the culture means nothing if the people behave differently.

And that starts with you.

It doesn’t matter what step on the leadership ladder you are on. If you have more experience or a higher rank, people will watch the way you behave, and that will start to form the culture.

Whether it’s the whole company, or your small team, you impact the culture.

So here are the 3 steps to ensuring the culture you’re building is positive.

Choose your values

Don’t go crazy with this.

What are the 1 to 3 values you want your team to take seriously.

• Initiative

• Humility

• Ownership

• Innovation

• Commitment

These are just a few examples but you’ll need to pick these based on the function of your team.

Take the time to think about this seriously.

One way to look at it is:

Next up is to let people know that these are the values you want to see in the team.

The best way to do that?

Obviously tell them…

But to get them to take it seriously?

Show them.

Your actions need to mirror your values

You can tell people that the culture is anything and it wont make the slightest difference if you can’t take it seriously enough to embody them yourself.

You need to show daily that you take these seriously.

If one of the values is honesty but you hide information from the team and they find out, how do you think that will go?

Firstly, that is never going to go well, even without trying to develop values.

But on top of what would already be a terrible move, you’re now also a hypocrite.

You’re in charge. Take ownership. Set the example.

Embodying the values you set will reinforce to people that you are someone that is worth following. - Someone that people want to work for.

Reward the values you want to see

Building a culture starts with you.

You set the example, but you also want to ensure people follow your example.

How do you do that? Simple.

Reward the behaviour that demonstrates the values you want in the culture.

Studies have show that positive reinforcement promotes longer lasting behaviours than negative reinforcement.

Regardless of the values you’ve picked, you want people to enjoy working for you, and you want them to carry these values for the long term (that’s culture).

So when you say one of your values is initiative and a member of your team says they made a decision without including you: reward it.

But what if it was a terrible decision?!

Then take ownership. You probably haven’t trained them as much as you should have!

But reward the action and watch the rest of the team embody those values.

Finally, be consistent.

Culture isn’t formed over night.

Just because you start on a good trajectory, doesn’t mean you can take your foot off the pedal after a few weeks. Consistency is key.

Over time you’ll see the transitions to the culture you want to grow.

So that’s it for this week.

As always I hope you got something out of this.

Make sure you share Silent Leadership and feel free to get in touch with any questions, comments or feedback through X (Twitter) via the link below!

Have a great week.

Reece