Build Culture with Joy

Leadership and culture building are inseparable. As Adam Grant writes: "Good leaders build products. Great leaders build cultures. Good leaders deliver results. Great leaders develop people. Good leaders have vision. Great leaders have values."

The statistics back this up powerfully:

• The "Shadow" Effect: Approximately 70% of employee engagement is directly attributable to the quality of their manager.

• Executive Disconnect: While 92% of executives believe culture drives business success, only 21% of employees strongly agree that their manager explains how that culture actually impacts their specific role.

• Retention Value: Employees who feel their leaders are genuinely committed to cultural values are 9.8 times more likely to rate their workplace culture as "excellent."

Culture Isn't Determined by the Leader

Here's the crucial caveat: as a leader, I don't get to decide whether my culture-building efforts are effective. I can make commitments and put in the work, but it's the employee perspective that ultimately matters. The culture exists in their experience, not in my intentions.

Be the Person Who Tries

This brings me to the second key point: while you should invest in building culture, you can't let staff perceptions drive your mood or sense of worth. If you create cultural initiatives and staff members respond enthusiastically—great. But if people say nothing, don't get upset about the lack of gratitude. Instead, be satisfied that you're the type of person who makes attempts to build positive culture.

This principle came into sharp focus for me about seven years ago when I received a scholarship to Seth Godin's altMBA. During the program, Seth told us that while scholarship recipients should work hard, he'd also seen people drop out or not put in the effort. What struck me was his response: he wasn't going to stop offering scholarships because some people didn't follow through. He was going to be the type of person who offers them.

That's the mindset shift—decide the type of person you want to be, then move in that direction.

Culture Building as a Source of Joy

Finally, culture building has become a way for me to incorporate fun into my job. I genuinely enjoy creating staff contests—coloring competitions during the holidays, and for Valentine's Day, I'm planning a staff love story contest. These initiatives hopefully build positive culture, but they also let me engage in things I like. Creating the Valentine's contest, for example, gave me practice using AI to design a contest flyer.

Culture building isn't just about what it does for your team. It's also about who you become in the process and the joy you can find along the way.

What culture-building activity could you create this week that would bring you genuine joy, regardless of how your team responds?