You’re Being Watched! How Organizational Leaders Embed Culture

Mark Komen, President

Kodyne, Inc.

Minneapolis, MN

Over decades of culture-building work, one truth remains: leaders sustain culture through their behavior. Your staff is watching you for clues on how to fit in and what success looks like because, whether you know it or not, you’re modeling it.

How Leaders Embed Culture

What leaders pay attention to, measure and control

Do you focus only on “the numbers” and the bottom line?
- I believe there needs to be a balance between fiscal responsibility and supporting the staff you hired to do the work.
Do you emphasize developing high performers?
- Is there visible investment in learning, rewarding achievement and supporting professional development?
Are your messages centered around “Beating the Competition?”
- Winning matters—but when internal teams are pitted against each other in the name of market share, it can backfire.
Are you focused on being seen as an industry leader?
- If that’s in your vision statement (and it often is), your people will expect you to raise performance expectations—and back that up with resources.
How is failure perceived and addressed?
- Is failure considered a learning opportunity? Learning can happen from things going wrong as well as things going right. A wise client of mine once stated, “Make new mistakes!”

How Leaders React to Crises

Do you default to “blame-storming” or do you lean into collaborative problem-solving? Do you take ownership of mistakes, apologizing, repairing and learning – or do you deflect, delay or make snap decisions that create more problems?

When Culture Cracks Under Pressure

A company I once worked for pushed very hard to roll out a new product – one of the most complex systems I ever worked on. An eager customer was sold on being the first to receive this ‘game-changing’ system. Except the product had not been fully tested as a system, only as individual subsystems. When everything was finally connected, either the system didn’t work, only partially worked, failed to meet performance specs, or remarkably — hadn’t even been tested to see if it could survive shipping! Yet the edict from senior management was, “Get it to work and get it delivered!!” Predictably, the finger-pointing began. Software engineering blamed hardware engineering, hardware blamed production testing, production blamed the vendors, everyone blamed product management and marketing. It took a massive effort to align teams, fix the hardware, software, assembly and test issues. Working around the clock, we finally got it to the customer.

And the system worked.

A testament to the dedication – and resilience — of the staff at that organization.

How Leaders Allocate Resources, Rewards and Status

This is the classic “who gets what?” question. It includes everything from:

Offices with windows
Workspaces with upgraded furniture
Plum assignments and stretch projects
Who gets to represent the company at events or in front of clients

Deliberate Role Modeling and Coaching

Who gets access to mentoring and coaching?
Who doesn’t?
And what message does that send?

Recruitment, Promotions and Exits

Do you hire to complement your organization’s strengths or people just like you?
Who gets fast-tracked for promotions and stretch roles?
Who receives intentional development, mentorship and exposure to strategy?
And who gets overlooked or slowly pushed to the margins?

These choices speak volumes—and staff is listening.

Promoting Bullies: A True Story

I once worked for a major electronics manufacturer whose style would best be described as “Management by Intimidation.” That included name-calling, public belittling and what we’d now label as workplace bullying. And guess what? Those were the people who got promoted.

Ironically, senior leaders were deliberate about the culture – they wanted “butt-kickers” in management and rewarded that behavior. It wasn’t accidental. And it cost them. People quit. Including me.

Culture is always happening.

You can shape it intentionally, or let it happen by default. And “organic growth” isn’t a strategy –it’s a gamble.

Do’s and Don’ts for Culture-Building

Be clear about what success looks like. Don’t assume that staff knows what’s expected – make it explicit
Hire for fit to the culture you need to build your future. Don’t just hire for the one you have now if it’s not producing results.
Include accepted behaviors in job descriptions and reviews. Don’t let toxic behavior slide just because someone performs.
Make sure performance reviews reward the right behaviors. Don’t promote based on metrics alone if the human cost is too high.
Revisit your cultural messages regularly. Don’t assume what worked five years ago still holds. Culture should evolve with your goals—and your people.

Want to shape a culture worth watching? Start by watching yourself.