Lead Upwards

CHAPTER NINELearn the Company Culture and Define It with Your Team

How does your company work, especially in the remote‐first post‐Covid world? What's the wiki? How do you collaborate? What are company norms and cultures? As an executive, you're setting the tone for your team, and you're also working within a broader organization. Here's how to get in deep so you can set yourself up to win.

A startup's decisions are driven by its values. These values impact everything from how vendors are treated to how much budget is allocated to employees' desks to parental leave and more. According to a recent Deloitte Millennial Survey, millennials want to work with mission‐driven companies that align with their values.¹

UNDERSTANDING STARTUP VALUES

Each startup operates within an implicit or explicit value system—a set of principles that guides every aspect of the startup. Values help companies orient and make decisions when they reach impasses.

The company's values provide an answer to the question: “Does this align with what we want to achieve?” and should be consulted before proceeding with any major decision.

COMPANY VALUES DRIVE BEHAVIOR

Whether implicit or explicit, these values impact behavior. For instance, at an early‐stage startup I worked for, even before the value was written explicitly (it was later codified in the company wiki), we all knew that we were supposed to treat contractors and vendors with as much respect as our customers and employees.

The CEO made ...