Hot Seat

Chapter 31. Creating Culture

Company culture is such an organic and nebulous thing that it can be frustratingly hard to be deliberate about it. In fact, you have only three tools at your disposal to create or change a company’s culture.

Tool 1: Example

Most company cultures are outgrowths of their CEO’s or founding team’s personality. You don’t see thrifty cultures when the CEO flies first class, or open and honest ones where the executives are tight-lipped. Company cultures are echoes of their leadership, so if you are trying to lay the groundwork for the culture of your startup, you will need to start by showing your team what you expect.

This goes double if you are trying to change a culture. You simply cannot expect a team to follow an example that you don’t provide. Rand Fishkin, until recently the CEO of Moz, told me about a conversation he had with Jerry Colonna, his executive coach. He said he didn’t like that his team was emailing at all hours, often until 1 or 2 a.m. He worried that they’d inadvertently developed a “bug” in the culture where people felt like they could never shut down or have time with their families.

Jerry asked if Rand replied to those emails at 1 or 2 a.m., and Rand admitted he did.

“Well, there’s your problem,” Jerry replied.

Tool 2: Hiring

You can’t build or maintain a company culture if you bring in a steady stream of people who won’t participate in it. Whatever your culture is, you need to find a way to promote it through your hiring process. ...