Culture is what happens when you are not there

Every company has a culture. The only question is whether you built it or it built itself.

Culture is NOT the values statement on the wall. It is what your crew does at four thirty on a Friday when a job is almost right and nobody is watching. It is how the person answering the phone treats an angry customer. It is what happens when the owner is not in the room.

Why I made culture an actual job

At our company I served as Chief Culture Officer along with being CEO. People asked whether that was a real job or a nice title. It was real, and it was one of the most important things I did.

Culture was NOT a side project we got to after the work was done. It was how the work got done. It decided who wanted to join us, who stayed, how safely we worked and how customers felt after we left.

Recognition followed. Our TEAM was named a top workplace ten times, and more than once we were voted the best in our field by the people in our own city. Those awards mattered to me for one reason. They came from the people who knew us best. Our TEAM Members, our customers, our industry and our community.

Culture is built by what you tolerate

Owners like to talk about culture in terms of what they celebrate. The harder truth is that culture is set by what you tolerate.

If your top producer treats people badly and stays, you have taught everyone that results beat respect. If a safety rule gets skipped when the schedule is tight, you have taught everyone that the schedule beats safety. Nobody hears the speech. Everybody sees the decision.

The hardest calls I ever made involved good producers who were wrong for our culture. Every single time, the TEAM already knew before I acted. They were waiting to see whether what we said was true.

Four things that actually move it

Hire for it. Skills can be taught. How someone treats people usually cannot. Put character in the hiring conversation on purpose, not as an afterthought. One of the best questions I learned to ask myself was, 'Would I trust this person with a key to my house?' If not, they're likely not someone you want on your TEAM.

Be specific. Words like integrity and respect are too easy to nod at. Say what they mean in your business. Respect might mean we call the customer before they have to call us. Integrity might mean we tell them what we found even when nobody would ever know. Our slogan was: Integrity is our family business.

Talk about it constantly. Values that come up once a year at a meeting are decoration. Tell the stories. When somebody does it right, say so out loud and name the value it demonstrates.

Pay attention to the people who set the tone. Every crew has someone everyone else watches. Sometimes it is the supervisor. Often it is not. Find those people, invest in them, and your culture spreads without you in the room.

What it is worth

Culture is not soft. It shows up in turnover, in safety numbers, in repeat customers and in whether your best people leave for an extra dollar an hour somewhere else.

It also shows up in what the business is worth. Buyers pay attention to whether a TEAM will stay after a sale. Families pass down companies where people actually want to work.

Start where you are

If you are reading this thinking your culture is NOT what you want it to be, you are not behind. You are just being honest, which is the only place this work can start.

Pick one behavior that matters and make it the standard for ninety days. Maybe it is that every customer gets a call before they have to chase us. Maybe it is that nobody works around a safety rule for any reason. Talk about it every week, catch people doing it right, and deal with it plainly when someone does not.

Culture changes one visible decision at a time. Your TEAM is already watching. All you are doing is giving them something better to see.

The numbers matter. The people behind them matter more.