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People and leadership · peer advisory council

Culture and employee engagement

“Our values are on the wall. I’m not sure anyone could tell you what they are.”

What it often sounds like at the table

Culture is what people experience every day when they come to work, and owners are often the last to hear how it really feels. The room asks what you’re seeing, what you’re tolerating, and where the stated culture and the real one don’t match. Other owners share what changed engagement in their companies, and what didn’t.

You might recognize this if…

  • Good people leave without much explanation.
  • Effort varies a lot from team to team.
  • Problems get discussed in the break room instead of in meetings.
  • Your values don’t come up when decisions get made.

Questions the room might ask you

  1. What behavior are you tolerating that doesn’t match what you say you value?
  2. Who models the culture best, and do they know it?
  3. How do new people find out what’s expected?
  4. When did you last recognize someone for living a value?
How the council works on it

What happens when you bring culture and employee engagement to the room.

  1. You put it on the table

    You lay out the situation in your own words, with the numbers and history that matter. Ten or so owners give it their full attention.

  2. Questions before advice

    The room asks questions like the ones above until everyone, including you, understands the real issue. Often that’s where the breakthrough happens.

  3. Experience, not opinions

    Owners who have faced something similar share what they did and what they would do differently. No competitors sit at the table, so nobody holds back.

  4. You make the call

    The group doesn’t run your company. You decide what to do, with a lot more perspective than you walked in with.

  5. Say it out loud

    You name your next step before you leave. Next month, the room asks how it went.

What you leave with

One behavior to address and one to reinforce, starting this month.

Bring this to the table Why it matters: Becoming a better leader

Related conversations

Leadership effectivenessThe way you lead has to change as the company grows.Organizational structureOften the trouble sits in how the work is organized.Hiring and leadership-team developmentAnother hire doesn’t automatically solve a capacity problem.

Prefer to work on culture and employee engagement privately instead of in a group? I also do this one-on-one (opens JeffreyRands.com in a new tab).