What would your team say?

Whenever I kick off a new cohort of leadership training, I always ask the same question early on.

“How would you describe the culture in your organisation?”

What I usually get is a variety of thoughtful answers.

Different perspectives. Different experiences.
Usually with some clear common themes running through them.

And when we start discussing those answers in the group, there’s almost always a moment where someone says,

“That’s not how it feels in my team.”

Which makes sense.

Because while there is an organisational culture, there’s also a sub-culture in every team.

A slightly different flavour.
A different lived experience.

And that experience is shaped, day in and day out, by the leader.

I lead my team with my personality, my behaviours, my defaults under pressure, my leadership style.
You do the same.

So no, culture doesn’t feel identical everywhere. And it never will.

What really matters isn’t personality. It’s alignment.
Alignment to the organisation’s values.
Alignment to the behaviours in the competency framework.
Or whatever your organisation calls “how we expect leaders to show up around here”.

And yet, I hear this all the time:

“What are they going to do to improve the culture?”

As if culture lives somewhere else.
With HR.
With the exec.
In a strategy document or a town hall deck.

But the uncomfortable truth?

We contribute to the culture every single day.

By how we respond when things go wrong.
By how well we disagree.
By how safe it feels for someone to challenge us.
By whether people can speak up without paying for it later.

And another thing (here I go…)

People often assume the culture must be great because there’s a fancy coffee machine, free snacks, or some other shiny perk.

You can have the best coffee in the world, but if people are scared to challenge, afraid to disagree, or get slapped down for speaking up, the culture isn’t great.
It’s just well-caffeinated.

Yes, some things need to be in place;
Clarity on the culture you are trying to build.
Clear expectations.
Consistent standards.

But after that, the question isn’t:
“What are they going to do?”
It’s this:
“What am I doing to build the culture I say I want?”

Because culture is happening wherever leadership is happening. Not just at the top.

What would your team members say if I asked them to describe the culture in your team?

Not what you think it is.
Their lived experience.

What do you think they’d say?
What would you like them to say?

And what do you need to do more of or less of to make that happen?

Because culture isn’t built by what you believe.
It’s built by what your team experiences.

Rock on.

(Psst! If you want culture to change without changing how you lead, that’s not culture work. That’s fantasy.)