The CEO's Crucial Role in Shaping Corporate Culture
Organizational cultures possess a potential energy that persists through challenges. For this energy to develop strength and add value, it requires clear leadership. CEOs bear the ultimate responsibility for shaping and directing a culture that serves all stakeholders. While negative cultures can emerge from anywhere, positive cultures must be intentionally shaped and driven from the top.
The "right" company culture aligns with the organization's purpose, serves the customer experience, and is defined by behaviors that reflect stated company values.
Evolving the Right Culture in a Changing World
In the face of instability and widespread change, CEOs must take the lead in reframing, rephrasing, and refreshing their company's culture. This requires acknowledging existing hurdles and embracing the necessity of change.
Leading in a Remote Work Environment
The move to remote work has dispersed the workforce, removing the communal space where culture was often expressed and reinforced. Virtual meetings have not fully bridged the social and emotional gaps left by the absence of in-person interaction. This creates a vacuum that only executive leaders can fill through intentional leadership and communication.
Modeling and Communicating the Shift
Any cultural evolution starts with the C-suite. The behaviors of top executives define the culture, so the CEO must define and model acceptable actions.
If the existing culture is strong, the CEO should actively reinforce it with storytelling and examples to build confidence. If a significant shift is needed, leadership must:
- Be Bold and Transparent: Clearly "call out" the need for a shift and explain the "what" and "how" of the changes.
- Set the Tone: Demonstrate the new direction through both words and behaviors that are visionary and inspirational.
- Confirm and Model: While HR may manage the process, employees will look to the CEO for confirmation and to model the desired behaviors.
Embedding Culture Throughout the Organization
To make a culture shift successful, it must be integrated into the entire system, from communication to recruiting.
The Power of Leadership Language
Language is the medium for cultural transition. To embed new values, organizations need to adopt a shared, change-fluent vocabulary. It is critical that the executive team is aligned on this language. All communications, from speeches to press releases, should be reviewed to ensure they are consistent with the desired culture and vision. The CEO must be the visionary and protector of this new cultural language.
Recruiting for Cultural Alignment
To build a sustainable culture, organizations should recruit for values-fulfillment rather than simply training for skills. The focus should be on hiring individuals whose behaviors align with the company's values. This makes the recruiting process less transactional and more transformative, ensuring new hires are aligned with the organization's spirit, vision, and direction from day one.
How HR and Talent Leaders Can Drive a Legacy of Culture
If CEOs empower the right culture, Talent and HR leaders are the ones who must enable its redefinition and implementation. They are the strategic resource for integrating the new culture into the organization's daily functions.
Strategic Talent Management and HR Functions
- Talent Assessment: HR should first assess the talent already in place to identify how existing employees can best serve emerging needs and where to recruit for gaps in potential.
- Language and Frameworks: As experts in communication, HR leaders can refine leader language and control the frameworks that measure behaviors.
- Values Integration: All HR functions—including recruiting, performance assessment, succession planning, and rewards—must be filtered through the lens of company values. For example, managers should connect daily work back to value realization, asking questions like, "What did your work today do to improve our customer experience?"
Sue Lebrato, Head of HR North America at DuPont Sustainable Solutions (DSS), emphasizes using "performance management tools as strategic business tools rather than pro forma exercises." Assessments must be aligned with values and adapted to new realities, such as remote work.
Conclusion: A Shared Responsibility Led from the Top
While HR is functionally responsible for reinventing and reinforcing systems, creating a lasting legacy of culture, especially one forged during a struggle, depends on the endorsement, investment, and active modeling of the executive team.