Company Culture and the Rockstar CEO

photo by michellerocks

It’s almost universally acknowledged that a company’s culture matters.

Some companies go to great lengths to ensure that they maintain their core values and it truly is the work of everyone in the company to set the social norms and out undesired behavior.   Often though, the ‘good cultures’ become inextricably linked to a ‘visionary’ CEO.  Even when their motivations are pure, so much of their time becomes dedicated to writing books and giving speeches that it makes it difficult not to get a little cynical. 

(note: we’re big fans of any CEO touting treating employees like intelligent, full-grown adults, but we don’t want their public ubiquity to make it easy for others to dismiss the importance of their words because there are lessons to extract.)

Cynicism aside, there are two massive issues with the rockstar CEO that tend to get overlooked:

• Culture usually starts at the top so the praise isn’t unjustified.  But it’s time we give credit to the people who manage the culture over the long haul.  The line managers who promote the right behaviors and admonish the wrong ones, the HR teams who build the internal programs to highlight core values and the hiring managers who do a better job than most of identifying those who ‘fit.’ A lot goes into building and maintaining a culture.  The fact that these CEOs have paid as much attention to it as they have is a testament to their understanding of what drives their business forward, but they get too much credit.

• Furthermore, there is no one right culture.  These guys wouldn’t be able to make as much money on the books if they said that but look at the list below.  Almost every one of them has/had a different style.  There is little in common between Jack Welch and Tony Hsieh other than their success.  But, each made it work by fostering a culture that worked for them and their business.  And each was ruthless in their own way of ensuring that the values stuck.

[Just a few off the cuff examples - Lee Iacocca, Yvon Chouinard, Jack Welch, Gary Erickson, Tony Hsieh, Gary Hirschberg, Herb Kelleher...and we could go on and on and on.]

Celebrate your culture and live it everyday – just don’t forget that in order to lead you need to have people willing to follow.

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