Part 3: Behaviors Drive Culture. Your Words Don’t.

As a leader, you are the single biggest determinant of your company’s culture.

Not the values posted around the office. Not the buzzwords in the latest article you share with your team. You are the role model, whether you want to be or not.

Are your behaviors matching the culture you say you want?

We’ve both worked with founders and executives who feel that something is missing in their team. “I wish my leadership team would be more entrepreneurial, rather than waiting for me to set direction.” “My team just doesn’t have a sense of urgency.” “They’re working in silos, rather than collaborating and learning from each other.”

We get it. These are critical elements of team performance. But before you call HR to begin a culture-change initiative, prescribe a lofty list of values for everyone to follow, or engage your leadership team on the topic, stop and reflect.

• What environment are you creating every day, through your own behaviors, through your own presence?

• When pressure mounts, how do you react?

• When a mistake is made, what approach do you take?

More than any words, your employees watch your actions when determining how they should act. Rules posted on a wall don’t stand a chance if you’re not demonstrating them.

As leaders, we tend to forget just how impactful we are, or even deny our impact. The responsibilities of a leader are obvious. The decision-making authority is clear. But the unintended consequences of everything we do and say are less visible. Have you ever seen a leader make an offhand suggestion in a meeting, only to have someone take significant action based solely on that one comment? Self-awareness here is key. When you’re clear on your impact, you can leverage it to drive the culture you need.

You want your people to take risks, show initiative? Take those risks yourself. Not just the usual CEO risk-taking (doing a deal, raising outside capital, taking your company public). Admit what you don’t know. Own a mistake you have made. You risking failure or embarrassment makes your team comfortable doing the same.

Want to drive collaboration? Ask for help. Encourage alternative perspectives. If you want your team to grow and learn, show them you are willing to learn. Be transparent about your leadership struggles, your development areas. If you want your team to take on responsibility, push the boundaries, be innovative, be entrepreneurial, admit their limitations, you do it first. Lead by example.

Yes, these approaches make you vulnerable. As we’ve said in prior posts, that is a sign of a strong leader. One who is clear on their vision and is humble enough to know they need a team to succeed.

So think about what’s missing from your culture. Is it one of the tough ones – accountability, initiative, risk-taking, and transparency? We’ve noticed that these are particularly sensitive to leadership role modeling, requiring leaders to act in congruence with their words. If we say accountability is critical, for example, we must hold others accountable.

Our actions, not our words, set the standard.

This is what we’ve seen create meaningful, lasting company culture. Asserting that ideal culture is not enough – how can you lead the way by demonstrating it?

What culture is critical to your company’s success?