How do you define company culture? We know a good culture when we work in one, but are there specific components that we can identify and measure? Optimist and New York Times bestselling author Simon Sinek says: Company Culture = Values + Behavior

Sinek believes values such as integrity, innovation, and honesty, which we often see painted on the walls to inspire employees, should actually be written as verbs. He says:

It’s not integrity – it’s do the right thing. It’s not innovation – it’s find a new way to solve a problem. It’s not honesty – It’s tell the truth, which are behaviors. We can incentivize and reward those behaviors. And the people who are best at embodying those values, those are the ones that we should promote into leadership positions because those are the ones that set the example of how we work here.

I love this so much, but the issue often is that professionals start out in roles and are trained to do those roles well. The people who become very good at their job may get promoted to manage the people who are now doing that job. And while they may have received good training in their former role, the new manager may not get the training they need to manage well, much less to lead. 

In my career I watched star sales professionals get promoted to sales manager and fail miserably because managing people is a very different job and requires very different skills. My employer assumed (incorrectly) that these sales superstars would know how to manage a sales team. I had a new sales manager each quarter at one company for more than a year. 

Leading is different from managing. Sinek says good leaders become students of leadership. He says:

Quite frankly, we think about leadership as a rank or position like “I’m in leadership.” The question is: Are you a leader? Leadership is the awesome responsibility to see those around us rise. It is a skill set that needs to be learned and practiced.

When a leader takes their responsibility seriously, all the metrics companies like to track, including innovation and productivity, start to rise. 

This is a terrific short video. It’s well worth your time to watch it. 

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash