Key Takeaways:

• • Company culture is defined by behavior, not perks.
    It’s the atmosphere created by how your team works — what you do, how you do it and what it signals to everyone around you.
  • Leaders have an outsized influence on culture.
    What you model, tolerate and reward will become the standard for your team.
  • Moments that often are most revealing happen under pressure.
    Conflict and adversity reveal far more than recognition or routine. Pay close attention to what your day-to-day interactions are telling you about the health of your team culture.
  • What you say you value only matters if it shows up in your actions.
    Culture isn’t just a statement on the wall. It’s what shows up consistently in how you operate and treat others.
  • Your leadership leaves a lasting impact.
    The benefit people get from being on your team will stay with them long after the work is done.

It seems that I inadvertently offend someone every time I speak publicly about workplace culture. To be fair, it’s not really inadvertent — I know I’m going to. It’s just that I believe what I have to say is important enough to risk it.

One of the things that drives me crazy is when businesses have “culture meetings.” They are usually over lunch or at the end of the day, when the real work is over. A culture meeting often involves cupcakes, an awkward “Happy Birthday” song and then an even more awkward recognition speech by someone in HR.

This kind of meeting is as much about culture as — well, I can’t even think of an analogy because it’s a total mislabel.

What Is Company Culture, Really?

Culture is the atmosphere that results from all the things a group does to accomplish its purpose. In other words, it’s how the norms of a group impact the way people feel.

When you ask someone to explain the culture of their company, they typically talk about feelings: “Our culture makes me feel empowered or creative or supported,” or “our culture makes me feel suppressed or oppressed.”

You are talking about culture when you tell someone new, “Let me show you how we do that,” or “Oh, we would never do that here.”

You don’t get a break from culture. Everything you do impacts the atmosphere, because all the decisions you make say something about what you value.

For example, a leader can say that they value diverse viewpoints, but if they shut down any new idea that isn’t theirs, their team will know what they really believe. A leader could say that they believe in respect, but if they ignore the cruel behavior of a top performer, what they really value is obvious.

If you want to understand a group’s culture — how their norms make people feel — ignore the cupcakes. Instead, watch how the group handles conflict. Listen to how they disagree — or if they are even allowed to disagree at all. Find out how they give feedback when someone isn’t performing. See what they do when things are going wrong.

How members of a team treat each other — and most specifically, how a leader acts during these difficult moments — is incredibly revealing when it comes to a team’s culture.

Showing Up When It Matters Most

Leaders have an outsized influence on culture because they have an outsized influence on what the people on their teams do. They can lead by example or by decree. They can incentivize certain behaviors and punish others. All of their actions and decisions impact company culture and reveal what they value and believe.

But how they show up in the most pressure-filled moments is the most telling of all.

For example, one of the core values at our company is “Others First.” It’s easy to say you are “Others First” when things are going well, but how do you act when someone is speaking badly about you? You might make the wise, long-term decision when you are ahead of budget, but will you make that same decision when you are behind plan? You could challenge your team to grow and keep getting better, but are you willing to listen to feedback that challenges what you’re doing to achieve those goals?

Every moment matters, but there are some moments that carry more weight in defining what matters most.

The Question Leaders Must Ask Themselves About Company Culture

If, as a leader, you influence how the people on your team feel, it begs the question:

How do you want the people on your team to feel?

Imagine that 10 years from now, someone interviews the people you lead today. The first question they ask is, “What did you get from having (you) as your leader?”

What would they say? Or better yet, what would you hope they’d say?

I don’t know exactly what your answer is, but I bet I know what it’s not: “What did I get from working for Shane? All I ever got from him was a paycheck!”

My guess is that you would hope they would say something like, “I got a leader who invested in me. I got a leader who challenged me. I got the confidence to do things I didn’t think I could do. I got to spend time with someone who helped me become better.”

Here’s one more for the list: “During one of the most challenging moments of my career, he showed me what it means to stay true to what you believe.”

My challenge to leaders is a timely one. Whether things are going well for your business or you are in the midst of a stressful season, ask yourself: Am I leading in a way that will get that kind of answer 10 years from now?

You are in a significant position of influence as a leader. Don’t miss the opportunity to use that influence to do something significant for the people you lead. Make it a point to make your company culture about so much more than cupcakes.

Learn more about how leaders can actively shape workplace culture in Fostering Culture: A Leader’s Guide to Purposefully Shaping Culture.

Shane Jackson is president of Jackson Healthcare^®, the trusted authority in healthcare talent and workforce solutions and one of the nation’s largest private companies. Under his leadership, the organization is recognized as an employer of choice, having appeared on the Fortune^® 100 Best Companies to Work For^® and Best Workplaces in Health Care^™ lists; the PEOPLE^® Companies that Care list; and earning both national and global recognition as an Inspiring Workplace.

A trusted voice in leadership and company culture, Shane’s work centers on how leaders shape culture through their actions — and how they can build environments where both people and businesses thrive. As a keynote speaker and author of Fostering Culture: A Leader’s Guide to Purposefully Shaping Culture and This Is the Thing: About Life, Joy, and Owning Your Purpose, he challenges others to live and lead with intention — aligning principles with practice and purpose with action.