Your Workplace Culture is More than a Feeling

One of my blind spots is describing an inanimate object in terms of humanity. “Does your new car have a personality of excitement?”

Ugh, what?

A Lamborghini…in a museum? Not exciting.

The Cash Cab Swagger Wagon? That’s kind of exciting!

When we talk about workplace culture, we’re not describing a “thing,” were describing a collection of experiences reduced to a few words. The description won’t fit all situations for all people, but it will fit well enough that people have a sense of what the culture is all about.

Because it’s imperfect, but definitely describable, what if we thought of workplace culture with a more familiar descriptor? Consider your workplace culture as your company's personality. Just like an individual, an organization has a unique identity, a set of characteristic ways it interacts, behaves, and evolves. Understanding and actively shaping this personality must not lie at the feet of HR as the Initiative-of-the-Month; it's a strategic imperative for success, talent attraction, and retention.

What Makes Culture a Personality?

Your company's culture is based on human interaction. How people engage with each other is the defining component of your company’s personality. It's the animation of your organization's core values, beliefs, practices, expectations, and leadership styles. This personality is fluid because it’s based on human behavior. However, the consistency comes from all people agreeing that the core values and principles are more than posters on walls. The words used to describe mission, vision, values, and goals must resonate with the humans who will live them out.

You can observe this personality in action every day: how employees perform their tasks, how they interact with customers and colleagues, how managers and employees engage, and how the company responds to challenges or new ideas. The foundation of the personality is consistency and authenticity.

Why Your Company's Personality Matters More Than Ever

It has been true for a long time that most people quit their boss, not their job. The relatively recent twist (dare I say, deflection), is, “People quit a toxic workplace, not their job.”

No disagreement in concept. Significant disagreement in principle. There is no toxic workplace without toxic or incompetent leaders. It’s not more complex than that. When a company is ready to actually move the needle towards an improved workplace culture, the first focus is how leadership treats people. Then a company can earn the opportunity to advertise their positive culture to attract and recruit top talent, better retain employees, experience fewer problems, and are generally more successful.

Post-pandemic, employees of all ages increasingly prioritize personal satisfaction, genuine relationships, authenticity, less stress, wellness, and work-life balance. If your company's personality is perceived as negative, employees are more willing to leave. Furthermore, a positive company personality contributes to higher average annual returns, boosts productivity, decreases turnover, and improves employee engagement. It also shapes how customers and stakeholders perceive your organization.

Shaping Your Organization's Personality: Actionable Insights for Management

Since wholesale culture change is rarely possible or desirable, the goal is to highlight and align strengths and use existing emotional forces differently. Here’s how mid- and upper-management can actively shape a thriving organizational personality:

1. Positive Reinforcement: Reward the behavior you want to see. In fact, empower everyone to reward behavior in ways that uplift and make sense for the person being recognized.

2. Be Stingy with Time: Trying to change everything at once never works well. That process is nebulous, difficult to understand, wastes time, and eventually ends up with people thinking “we can’t change the culture,” rather than, “we need a better approach.” Invest time up front to identify a small number of impactful changes that will likely affect behavior. Once those changes are commonplace, move the next few changes.

3. Don’t Let Formal Leaders Off the Hook: Leaders at all levels are crucial in safeguarding and championing desired behaviors. If employees see a disconnect between the espoused culture and what formal leadership practices, they will disengage. Consider this a top-down demonstration rather than a top-down directive.

4. Amplify Successes: Ideas and behaviors can spread virally through social media (from informal leaders, not just senior management) and structured group expansion, fostering connections and shared learning. This can be on traditional platforms as well as Intranet systems and internal newsletters.

5. Actively Manage Your Cultural Personality Over Time: No change of any value is done once and then left to go. This personality needs to be cared for and tended to. If the goal is to have a thriving existence, no person would accept responsibility for a baby mammal just to get said baby set up for a great first month, then assume all will work out. The care and feeding of your cultural personality is a forever job that gets easier over time, but never is to be considered, “finished.”

Super Cute, Doc, But What Do We Actually Do?

• Foster Psychological Safety and Trust: Employees need to feel safe to speak up, share ideas, take risks, and even admit mistakes without fear of retribution or ridicule. Managers must lead in creating this safe environment.

• Champion Growth and Learning: Invest in professional development, training, coaching, and new responsibilities to show employees you value their growth. This leads to innovation and a more skilled, adaptable workforce.

• Embrace Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Actively recognize and celebrate diverse perspectives and backgrounds to foster creativity, innovation, and a strong sense of belonging for all employees.

• The Manager's Pivotal Role: Managers have the most direct impact on the employee experience. They must establish a coach approach, provide weekly, meaningful feedback (discussing goals, collaboration, recognition, and strengths), and empower employees with mastery, autonomy, and purpose (kudos to Daniel Pink). Poor management leads to disengagement and high costs.

Your company's culture is its living, breathing personality. It's not a static document but a dynamic force that evolves gradually. By understanding its nature and applying these principles, mid- and upper-management can intentionally shape a compelling, high-performing personality that attracts and retains the best talent, drives innovation, and secures long-term success.