Company culture: How leaders can be the frontrunners of it!

Simply put, an organisational culture is nothing but the way you are treated. If you treat others the way you want to be treated, things will be smooth sailing in any organisation. And that’s one form of organisational culture. So who is responsible for putting such a template in place? The management, of course. Or more precisely, the leadership team. These include the CEO, the founder and their team of department heads. This work scenario is similar to what happens at home. The children inherit certain skills while observing their parents, both consciously and subconsciously.

Similarly, in an organisation, the employees try to mirror themselves around their superiors. How the leaders react in a particular situation have an impact on the employees they are governing. If the management excels at people management, the employees will prosper too, like founding new companies and growing further. However, if the organisational culture breeds negativity, pessimism and unruly behaviour, it can only lead to unrest, confusion and attrition. This leads to lower performance and dipping productivity.

Casting the right shadow on the employees is crucial to entrepreneurs. This is particularly crucial in startups where every employee they hire should feel a sense of ownership. This can only happen if the founders breed a culture of self respect, recognition, rewards and equal opportunities. Such values define the company culture and lead to a high-performing environment.

So what should the leaders possess?
Well, simple put, they just need to be humane, fair and accountable. Just because they are the founders should not mean the company rules do not apply to them. For example, if the senior management is preaching austerity measures, it should apply to them as well. They should ditch business class in favour of economy. Similarly, they should be held just as accountable to the company’s faults if things go wrong. Taking the blame for their team is the first rule of leadership. Just finding faults in others and passing the buck will set the wrong shadow on the employees who will do the same to those working under them. This perpetuates a vicious cycle that can only ruin an organisation. Therefore, building a winning company culture is all about walking the talk. Are you up to it?