Culture, Connection or Control

I find it interesting that, post-pandemic, many brands have demanded their staff return to an office setting. The reason for this shift back is often described as "culture," but I question what "culture" means to many leaders and how intentional they are about it.

I believe there is a need to clarify three distinct areas of brand culture and for leaders to truly assess where they fall within these three categories: culture, connection, or control.

 What Is an Intentionally Designed Culture?
Just as a brand is not merely a logo, a culture is not just about how you hang out with colleagues. It can and should be a clearly designed framework that celebrates the behaviors you want to see and diminishes those you don’t. A great way to think about this is to ask the question, “What behaviors are you prepared to walk by or not?”

There are four key areas to consider when defining a culture:
1)  Your values and how they connect to your brand.
2) Your focus of constituency.
3) Your style of people culture.
4) Your value discipline.

Values
Your values dictate the behaviors you believe are necessary to consistently deliver to your customer. Values should be actionable and teachable. For example, “always transparent” is a value that people can act on in their daily work.

Focus of Constituency
When making decisions, where does your loyalty lie? Is it with your employees and their growth, shareholders, or customers? While it’s essential to consider all three, if you had to pick one and focus your culture around it, which would it be?

Style of People Culture
Your people culture addresses how and whom you reward and how you shape your teams. In an opportunity-based culture, leadership is responsible for creating opportunities for employees, and those who seize them are rewarded. A performance-based culture retains only those staff who perform at the highest level, while others may leave. A loyalty-based culture rewards those who have been with the company the longest. Lastly, a lifestyle-based culture demands every aspect of your life but provides everything you need, such as food and accommodation.

Value Discipline
What value are you creating for your customers? Are you client-intimate, efficiency-driven, or innovation-driven? Again, you need to address all three categories, but where does your primary focus lie? Client-intimate brands offer a personalized experience for their customers. Efficiency-driven brands find savings and pass them on to their customers—Walmart comes to mind. Innovation-driven brands focus on R&D and pushing the boundaries of new ideas. 

Connection
I remember moving to London in my 20s and starting a new job. I didn’t know anybody in the city and used work as a means of connecting with my peers. Connection between staff is important to any brand; it is not the strategy behind your culture but the outworking of it. Authenticity and trust are built much faster in person than over a screen, which is crucial when creating a unified and aligned brand story. However, connection by itself is not enough for a successful culture—connection can be manufactured by management, even in a remote workforce. Consider the average age of your staff: Are they looking to make connections beyond work?

Control
This is where I believe most leaders in organizations need to be honest with themselves: Do you trust your staff? My guess is that many don’t, and the reason they want staff to return to the office is control—the ability to see firsthand what is going on. If this is the case, there are many issues at hand, including leadership failing to create a narrative worth working for, resulting in disengaged staff, or leadership holding on to staff that routinely underdeliver. Either way, major changes are needed to turn that around.

I think if most leaders examined their cultures, they would find they have yet to define an intentional culture and preach it consistently. I believe most want connection or control. The question is, can you intentionally build a culture that allows you to trust your teams, give them the opportunity to connect with each other, grow, and offer them the flexibility to work when and wherever they want? I believe you can, if you are willing to challenge yourself enough.