How Your Company’s Leaders Shape Your Culture (and How to Help Them Do It Well)
You’ve invested a lot of your time and energy into shaping your company culture. You’ve identified your core values, solicited employee feedback, and launched a variety of employee benefits and initiatives.
And yet, your efforts seem to be falling short. The culture you’ve defined on paper doesn’t match what’s actually happening within your organization.
Before you come up with another program or campaign in an attempt to course correct, it’s time to take a close look at this aspect of your company: your leadership. Are your executives and managers walking the walk when it comes to your culture? Or is there a noticeable mismatch between what they practice and what you preach?
For better or for worse, your company’s leaders play a huge role in guiding your internal communication and influencing your culture—but it’s an area where many leaders struggle. This is your guide to helping your leaders bolster (rather than undermine) your ideal company culture.
Culture (really) matters—but employers are falling short
Your culture matters. It has a direct impact on nearly every outcome you care about—including employee engagement, productivity, and retention.
According to a report from the Society for Human Resource Management, employees who rate their workplace culture highly are more satisfied at work and more committed to their organization. And, on the flipside, a toxic culture is one of the top reasons why people leave their jobs, even ahead of low pay.
So, it makes sense that so many organizations are eager to shape cultures that keep their best employees around. That often begins with identifying (and publicizing) their core values.
Unfortunately, that’s where the work ends for many organizations. There’s no extra legwork or follow-up to ensure that those values translate into real action. Employees are increasingly cynical about their employer’s core values and admit they don’t expect leaders will live those values in their daily work. Even further:
According to data from Gallup, only 27% of employees strongly agree that their organization’s leaders are committed to their cultural values
Research from MIT Sloan Management Review shows little to no correlation between an organization’s stated values and its corporate culture
It’s proof that there’s a significant gap between a company’s vision for its culture and what employees experience. This misalignment fuels frustration and, eventually, costly turnover.
Internal communications: Understanding this key piece of the culture puzzle
One of the things that makes organizational culture so difficult to grasp is that it’s multifaceted and somewhat nebulous. It’s one of those things that’s hard to define but easy to feel within an organization.
Put simply, your culture is the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how people work and interact within an organization.
While it’s tempting to think that your culture is shaped mostly by your perks and catchy slogans, you can’t neglect the behavior piece of the puzzle. With that in mind, your internal communications are probably one of the biggest levers you can pull to meaningfully influence your company’s culture. Effective internal communications can:
Build trust between leadership and employees
Define and reinforce your company values
Reduce confusion and misunderstandings
Encourage employee engagement through questions and feedback
Shape employee behavior and interactions
Support alignment across the organization
Promote inclusivity and belonging across teams
Reinforce responsibility and accountability
Boost engagement, satisfaction, and morale
Lead employees through times of change, uncertainty, or crisis
But while internal communications are typically thought of as an HR responsibility or a standalone initiative, it’s important to remember that the vast majority of internal communications your employees receive come through their direct managers and supervisors.
It’s not your HR point person or chosen representative who’s executing your internal communications strategy—it’s your leaders who are responsible for effective messaging that relays pertinent information to their teams.
Change your communication, change your culture: 5 tips to turn your leaders into cultural champions
So, your company leaders are the ones carrying the bulk of the responsibility for internal communications and, as a result, your organizational culture. That means you don’t want them to flounder or fumble through.
Here are five tips to help your company’s leaders step up their communication skills and ensure their interactions with their teams are demonstrating and bolstering your core values.
1. Refresh (and reinforce) your values
Why aren’t your leaders effectively upholding your company’s values? It could be that they don’t know them. As a first step, host a meeting or training to get all of your managers on the same page about your organization’s core values.
Go beyond platitudes, buzzwords, and branding hype here. Dig into what these values mean to your organization and illustrate how they can be demonstrated in daily work and interactions.
Providing examples and opportunities to practice will help your leaders develop a deeper understanding of these values, which means they’re better equipped to implement them.
2. Provide regular leadership training
Training leaders on your core values is important, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of other topics related to internal communication that you should train your leaders on, including:
Active listening
Change management
Communication methods and tools
Conflict resolution
Consistent communication
Crisis communication
Emotional intelligence
Inclusive communication
Providing feedback and constructive criticism
Recognition and appreciation
Tailoring their messaging
Not all of your leaders are natural communicators. Offering this type of educational support will help them sharpen their skills so they can deliver the information and experience your employees expect and deserve.
3. Equip leaders with information and resources
Your leaders are the liaison between your organization and your employees. But, even with the right training, it’s difficult (if not impossible) for your leaders to communicate effectively if they’re out of the loop.
For example, rather than simply telling leaders that a decision was made, provide insight into how the decision was reached. Or, when asking managers to relay difficult news to their teams, also provide additional resources or support options they can share with employees.
According to a recent Axios survey, 77% of leaders think their communications share the context that employees need to do their jobs well, yet only 46% of employees agree. Additionally, 70% of leaders think employees have ready access to information while only 46% of employees say the same.
By going the extra mile to ensure leaders have adequate information and resources, they’re set up for success when communicating with their teams—rather than feeling like they’ve been thrown to the wolves.
4. Provide adequate time and support
Your managers are already overwhelmed—they’re dealing with relentless demands and unreasonable workloads. On top of that, communication is time-consuming, with some estimates stating that managers spend anywhere from 50-80% of their work time communicating with their teams.
Asking them to change or improve their approach? That’s yet another task on their already-towering to-do lists.
So, instead of doling out directives to “do better,” back up your words with action by giving them the necessary time and space they need to focus on improving these skills. That might mean extending deadlines, shifting priorities, or rebalancing their workloads. But, when it comes to leveling up your company’s communication and culture, it’s a worthy (and important) trade to make.
5. Regularly solicit employee feedback
All of the research shows that there’s a disconnect between what managers think they’re providing and what employees are experiencing.
Rather than letting this mismatch continue to breed frustration, get ahead of it by frequently asking employees for feedback. Periodically request their input on things like how:
Your organization is living its values
Their manager is embodying those values
Their manager is communicating important information
You can’t improve something if you don’t realize it’s a problem. Regularly soliciting these insights from your employees will help you spot areas for improvement and take swift action to correct them before they have a ripple effect on your culture.
Cultural change starts with your leaders
Your company’s culture is shaped by people—especially your organization’s leaders. And while it’s tempting to point the finger at your supervisors and managers for not living out your values the way they should, they don’t shoulder all of the responsibility.
Ultimately, it’s your job to ensure your leaders have what they need to communicate effectively with their employees and positively shape your work environment. Use this guide to empower your leaders and watch as your communication (and your culture) change for the better.
