The Importance of Organizational Culture

In considering How Our Organizational Culture Impacts Onboarding, we often tie this directly back to what a new (or even potential) team member hears through the process. Who they hear it from matters too! But talking is usually the easy part! Making sure the walk that follows comes anywhere close to matching is a bit tougher… 

An APNews article I found shared this variance: “Results indicate a significant disconnect between how executives and employees view company culture: 76 percent of executives say their organization has a defined value system that is understood and well-communicated, while just 31 percent of employees believe this to be true.”

Let’s be honest with ourselves here, the steps we take in leading our organizations definitely impact the overall culture! That’s why it’s so important that we back the message sent during the entire onboarding process with matching action. But we can’t just assume that everyone on the team we’re responsible for sees our words and deeds as lining up with one another. We also have to be sure they understand how anything we expect of them falls in line with it all. We all know what assuming does…

We’ll circle back to where values fit into this equation soon enough. For now though, I want to be sure we’re on the same page with just how important organizational culture is to our bottom line.

I remember a conversation I had with a good friend several years ago while he was serving as CEO for a local company. We were discussing some interaction he had with a few of his direct reports; more specifically, what they had expressed as frustration with the interaction. He said to me, “I don’t have time for that touchy-feely stuff. I’m responsible for growing the business and getting results.” I could certainly relate since he and I share a highly DRIVEN communication/behavioral style. The challenge in his situation though was that his constant push for results had created a culture where everyone around him was miserable. And several of his key team members were looking to jump ship!

My point in sharing that story is that far too many people in executive roles equate their role in developing or maintaining a great culture to that touchy-feely stuff my friend said he didn’t have time for. For what it’s worth, my immediate pushback when he told me that was that he didn’t have time not to pay attention to it…

With that in mind, think back to the stat I shared above showing the variance between executives and their team members. In many cases, I’ve seen it viewed as “we told them what our culture was like, shouldn’t that be enough?” That may indeed be enough IF what those same team members see and feel moving forward match what they had been told. If (or when) it doesn’t, we can count on some trouble in one way or another!

Next time we’ll put together a working definition of organizational culture that’s not just touchy-feely. After that, we’ll work through some key steps we can take to make sure our culture matches what we say it is. Before that though, here’s something to consider on just how much organizational culture really does impact our bottom line from that same APNews article I just referenced:

“Cultural factors such as collaboration, employee engagement, employee retention, and customer satisfaction have a clear relationship with revenue growth. Executives who say their culture is extremely healthy are 1.5 times more likely to report average revenue growth of more than 15 percent over three years. And among public company survey respondents, those with extremely healthy cultures are nearly 2.5 times more likely to report significant stock price increases over three years.”

To me, both the 15%+ revenue growth and the significant increase in stock price seem like things any executive could tie back to getting results - and they may even be worth doing some touchy-feely stuff to achieve…