Culture: It's Not What You Say, It's What You Do

Culture is the soul of your organization. It is an invisible force that defines how your team works, interacts, and deliveries results. It’s not just a buzzword or a box to check on a leader’s to-do list. Culture isn’t surface-level, nor is it something you can install like a new piece of software. It’s alive, evolving, and deeply rooted in the everyday behaviors of your team. Leaders often speak about building a specific culture, but the reality is you don’t create culture in a meeting, on a call, or by a poster on the wall. Leaders enable it, shape it, and ultimately, it becomes what your team does consistently.

What is Culture?

Culture isn’t a program or a policy. It’s the sum of your team’s actions, behaviors, and outcomes. Whether or not you can articulate it, your organization already has a culture. It’s present in how people treat each other, how they approach their work, and how they engage with customers. Even within large organizations, every team naturally develops its own culture over time.

Picture a store where employees avoid eye contact with customers, focusing solely on their tasks. That’s a culture. Compare that to a team that greets every customer warmly, offers genuine assistance, and takes pride in going above and beyond expectations. That’s a culture too. The difference? One reflects intentional effort, while the other evolves from a lack of direction.

There is always a culture

“We need to build a culture,” someone might say, as if none exists. But culture is already there. It’s the environment and behaviors you’re experiencing today. If your team feels disengaged, task-oriented, or indifferent, that is your culture. You may not like it, but it’s real, and it’s where you need to start.

The first step to meaningful change is acknowledging the current culture. You can’t fix what you don’t recognize. Once you identify the behaviors and attitudes that define your team today, you can address the root causes and begin to shape a culture that reflects your vision for the future.

One of the most difficult things I have always found when working to identify the culture of a team, a location, or even a company is understanding the role key individuals play in influencing the culture. That often becomes the starting point for change. Getting the right people in the right roles is often core to the ability to shape the future. If someone that has influence on the team is always negative, that will need to be overcome. Contrast that with someone who is well thought of, but maybe hasn’t had the voice to affect what they would like. Empowering that person can assist in creating movement in new directions.

Culture is self-sustaining

There is a very positive effect of the self-sustaining quality of culture when there is an excellent environment for people to work in. It attracts more people like those already behaving the way you want. If your culture is one where everyone smiles, greets people genuinely, and goes the extra mile for customers, anyone who joins the business that does not act or serve in that same way would quickly find themselves an outcast. The culture itself will snuff out the poor behaviors when leaders maintain high standards and support all associates that reinforce that through their actions and words.

Culture functions like a flywheel gaining momentum in the direction it’s already heading. That’s why leadership is critical. What you tolerate, encourage, or ignore as a leader sets the tone for your entire team. If you allow poor quality, disengagement, or negativity, those behaviors will spread and take root. On the flip side, when leaders set high standards and support positive actions, those behaviors become self-reinforcing.

Imagine a workplace where every team member smiles, greets customers warmly, and supports one another. Anyone joining that environment who doesn’t embody those behaviors will feel out of place. Over time, the culture itself weeds out actions that don’t align with the team’s standards. But this only happens when leaders uphold and model the desired behaviors every day. Take Chick-fil-A, for example. The phrase “It’s my pleasure” isn’t something leaders have to remind new hires about constantly. It’s embedded so deeply in the company’s culture that it becomes second nature. Team members who don’t align with this standard naturally find it challenging to integrate into the environment.

Culture is a choice

Culture is a choice, but one that takes continual effort and a community that believes in the vision established by its leaders. Each member of that community is a part of whatever culture exists and can serve to be an ambassador for maintaining a positive environment or to change to something new. Culture is not dictated by a memo or a single training course, and it is not the single act of any individual. Culture is who you are and what you do collectively as an organization.

Culture is collective and intentional. It doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a choice your team makes every day through their actions and engagement. As a leader, your role isn’t to dictate culture, but to create an environment where the right behaviors can flourish. That means recognizing and celebrating the actions that align with your vision while addressing those that don’t.

Culture isn’t created by a memo or a single training session. It takes continual effort, intentional leadership, and a community of people who believe in the vision. When leaders and team members share a commitment to the same values and behaviors, culture becomes the heartbeat of the organization. It’s who you are and what you do together.

What does culture mean to you? What behaviors do you see in your team that reflect the culture you want?

Get leadership tips and new articles you can use directly to your inbox. Join the thousands of other leaders continuing your leadership development journey with Effective Retail Leader.com.

Photo by rawpixel.com on Unsplash