Culture Is More Than Values Posted on a Wall

After nearly 30 years of leading people in the military, manufacturing, and workforce development, I've learned a simple truth:

Culture isn't your mission statement. It isn't the list of values hanging in the lobby or printed in the employee handbook. Real culture shows up when things get hard.

It shows up when production falls behind, when a quality issue surfaces, or when an employee raises a concern that nobody really wants to hear. It's even more visible when leaders are disconnected from their teams and aren't aware of the trust issues quietly spreading throughout the organization.

You can say "People First" and "Safety First" all day long. What employees pay attention to is whether leaders actually put people and safety first when the pressure is on.

Culture is reflected in everyday experiences. Do people trust their leaders? Do actions consistently match stated values? Are priorities clear and aligned? Do employees understand what's expected of them? Do they come to work with energy, commitment, and a sense of ownership?

Research continues to confirm what many leaders have seen firsthand.

Gallup's 11th Q12 meta-analysis examined more than 3.3 million employees across 183,806 business units. The findings showed that employee engagement was linked to every performance outcome studied. Compared with bottom-quartile teams, highly engaged teams experienced 23% higher profitability, 14% higher productivity, 32% fewer quality defects, and 63% fewer safety incidents. (Gallup's 11th Q12 Meta-Analysis)

SHRM found similar patterns. Among employees who described their workplace culture as good or excellent, 83% were motivated to produce high-quality work. For employees who viewed their culture negatively, that number dropped to 45%. Employees in positive cultures were also nearly four times more likely to stay with their organization. (SHRM: Workplace Culture Fosters Employee Retention)

Here's where I think many leaders can miss the mark:

Employees don't experience an organization's average culture.

They experience a specific location, department, shift, team, and supervisor.

Two facilities operating under the same company banner can have dramatically different levels of trust, communication, alignment, and engagement. I've seen this firsthand. The policies, values, and expectations may be the same, yet the employee experience can be very different depending on where you sit in the organization.

That's why culture can feel very different from one part of an organization to another.

In fact, SHRM's research highlights a significant perception gap. While 82% of executives rated their organizational culture as good or excellent, only 47% of individual contributors agreed. (2024 SHRM State of the Global Workplace, page 12)

Think about that for a moment.

Leadership may believe they're creating one culture while employees are experiencing something very different.

Google's research on team effectiveness identified five critical factors: psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and a clear understanding of how the team's work contributes to broader organizational goals. Those findings align closely with many of the elements that contribute to healthy workplace cultures: trust, integrity, clarity, engagement, and alignment. (Team Dynamics: Five Keys to Building Effective Teams)

Of course, assessments alone don't change culture.

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Leadership does.

But leaders make better decisions when they have a clearer picture of what's really happening. They need to understand where culture is supporting performance, where it's creating friction, and where their attention can make the greatest impact.

That's one reason I'm excited to add the Maxwell Leadership Team Culture Health Scorecard™, powered by OrgIQ Suite, to the work we're doing with organizations.

The scorecard provides an anonymous, data-driven view of culture while revealing differences across locations, departments, teams, and leadership levels. It helps organizations move beyond assumptions and gain insight into what employees are actually experiencing.

The goal isn't a score just for the sake of having a score.

The goal is better conversations, more focused leadership, and meaningful action.

Whether leaders realize it or not, culture is already influencing performance every day. The real question is whether they can see it clearly enough to do something about it.

If your leadership team has a sense that something is off but can't quite put a finger on the cause, it may be time to replace assumptions with evidence.

The University of Louisville KY-MEP Certified John Maxwell Team members will be glad to share more about how the assessment works and how it can help leaders better understand the culture they're creating.