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HR Doesn’t Own Culture, Executive Leadership Does

The Bailey Group | May 18, 2015 | Blog | CEO Advisory | 2 minute read

happyteamAre you an executive leader who believes culture is “covered” within your organization because you farmed it out to HR, yet you’re not clear about why there is no execution of strategy? Or maybe you’re a CEO who thinks culture has been well-defined for your company because printed copies of your mission, vision and values are posted in everyone’s cubicles, yet staff turnover is like a revolving door and it perplexes you?

What’s the point of my rhetoric? There is often a disconnect between getting to where you want to go—the desired result—and the culture in which your teams are functioning. As the CEO and executive leaders of your company, you are designing and influencing the culture each day. Your behaviors and beliefs are directly contributing to the experiences and relationships you cultivate with your employees, customers, community you serve and/or do business in, vendors, strategic partners, investors. Your influence and impact are wide, and while HR plays an important role in providing the supporting resources influenced by culture, it’s up to you to shape it and lead it.

Those whom I’ve seen do it best form an interconnectedness between three things:

  1. There is a collective behavior. How people experience your company comes from the set of ongoing behaviors witnessed while interacting with people in the company. CEOs and executive teams model the behaviors; teams and individuals emulate them. Adam Grant’s tribute to SurveyMonkey’s late CEO Dave Goldberg describes this beautifully. He spoke at a company event and couldn’t get over how the entire organization seemed so “generous” and “curious.” As he was asking how they had gone about creating such a culture, it kept coming back to Dave. He set the tone for the expected behavior, modeled it and hired for it, and it is what shaped the culture.
  1. The environment is created from the collective behavior. Your company has a vibe and it’s saying something about you. Is it what you want it to be saying? Best places to work create the space that supports the behaviors that define their company. This includes technology, resources, work spaces, attitude and energy level. Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh is shifting the environment by going to a “no bosses” structure (Holacracy) so Zappos can be more innovative. While 14% of employees opted out, those who decided to stay are clear on how the company is supporting an innovative environment. The deliberate structure is part of the culture.
  1. Both are created through intention. Most CEOs I’ve worked with have very vivid images of what and how they want their companies to be. When it fails to translate, we look to how they are personally shaping the culture. It requires being very intentional to transfer the images and feelings to actuality. It requires a commitment to “being” that can be seen, heard and adopted by everyone in the company.

How would your company culture measure up? Next executive team meeting, dedicate some time to asking the team to define the culture and behaviors that support it. Where are you aligned and where is there discourse? This will begin to give you a sense of what the rest of the company and your customers are experiencing.