Company culture isn’t an afterthought. It happens whether leaders choose to design it deliberately, or because they didn’t. Either way, culture is – and it can be directly measured by how much time, energy, communication and resources, a CEO is willing to give it.
Someone I think is an amazing culture builder is Raj Singh, CEO of Accolade. I asked him something along the lines of how much time he spends on culture, and his answer stands out to me as the measure for how much of an investment CEOs should ALWAYS be making:
“If you’re leading a company, and you think the amount of time you’re spending talking about culture and people is too much, and that you can’t stand to hear it anymore, then you’re probably close to saying it enough. It has to come out of your mouth every time you talk, because that consistency is what people are expecting and what people need. Talk about it more than revenue goals. If it’s not consuming a significant percentage of your day, it’s a miss. The idea of telling the story and making sure the stories aren’t just the happy stories, but also the stories about the hard things gives them permission to realize that everyday isn’t going to be a perfect day at the office. But everyday is an opportunity to work with a bunch of people you care about and who can help you solve problems; that’s an important part of the story.”
On Tuesday, May 2, I get to continue the conversation on culture with three more incredible CEOs:
- Nick Huzar, CEO, OfferUp
- Liz Pearce, CEO, LiquidPlanner
- Steve Banfield, CEO, ReachNow
I can only assume each of them are experiencing all the levels of the emotional roller coaster that come with building culture as their companies are exploding with growth. It’s going to be an awesome conversation, and I hope you can join me. Register here.
Watch the latest CEO Forum coverage on Leading Change with advice from Steve Singh, Concur, Jean Thompson, Seattle Chocolates and Stan Pavlovsky, President, Allrecipes.com. Thank you to our sponsor Talonn The “From the CEO’s Perspective” leadership forums are intimate conversations founded, curated and moderated by Teri Citterman, author of the book “From the CEO’s Perspective” which captures the intimate thinking, wisdom and stories from some of the top CEOs. Teri Citterman is an executive coach and founder of the Leadership Lab no. 19 coming this October.