The Five Benefits of a Healthy Culture

When an organization’s culture is healthy, it is poised to thrive when executing their strategy, navigating adversity or crisis, or capturing unexpected opportunities (AKA the Three Functions of Business).

Now, if you’re like a lot of leaders I’ve worked with over the years, you might be concerned that you’re already too busy. How could you possibly squeeze in caring about something as fuzzy as culture? To put it bluntly, what do you get out of it?

Can I just be candid with you? Your culture is already determining your success, whether by default or by design. 

If you feel like you don’t have enough hours in the day, that’s largely a result of your culture in action. 

If you’re always having to put out fires and handle conflicts within your team, that’s culture taking bites out of your energy and productivity levels. 

The reality is most leaders don’t recognize the culture effect because it happens gradually, like a river slowly wearing down a massive boulder. In the day-to-day, the effects are difficult to distinguish, but over time, the river wins. 

You may not always see the immediate effects of culture, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t already shaping what you do—and don’t do—every single day. 

Why A Healthy Culture Matters

When you intentionally design a healthy culture, a lot of good things happen. When you give culture the attention it requires, you can minimize the overwhelm and end up feeling more empowered to position your organization to win. 

Here’s why:

1. A healthy culture relieves pressure on leaders. Self-aware leaders know they can’t do it all themselves. If they try, they quickly burn out, and the results aren’t pretty. By focusing on creating a healthy culture, leaders create a context that takes care of things when they can’t be there. It enables you to essentially delegate critical responsibilities across your entire organization. When the people on your team embrace the culture, they take it upon themselves to carry the torch forward, freeing leaders to focus on the areas where you can have the greatest impact rather than needing to micro-manage every decision.

2. A healthy culture brings an organization to life. When a leader focuses on optimizing the right mix of the Four Culture Dimensions, he or she gives the gift of clarity. Those four dimensions include Complacent, Committed, Complaint, and Courageous. Learn more about the Four Dimensions of Culture here. When this happens, people they lead are free to be self-motivated. They know what to do because they buy into the mission and vision the leader has designed. Because they understand and embrace the why, they can more easily deliver on the what. 

3. A healthy culture creates a self-maintaining environment. When people have clarity on culture, they become self-regulating. When someone starts to drift off course, other team members pull them back on course. Great culture is self-inspiring, as good behavior automatically gets praised and rewarded, which leads to an increase in the desired behavior. In short, because it takes on a life of its own, a lot of things a leader might deal with in an unhealthy culture get taken care of by the team instead, saving time and money.

4. A healthy culture is there when you can’t be. Because leaders are busy and do have many responsibilities, they can’t be everywhere at once, but culture can be—and is—always there. Culture, for better or worse, delivers guidance when leaders can’t be there. Whether the guidance is good or bad depends on what has been done to design, deploy, promote, and protect the culture. Culture is a leader’s fingerprint on the organization. It is that shadow they cast everywhere, even when not present.

5. A healthy culture helps leaders attract and keep the right kind of employee. Not every person is the right fit for every organization. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the biggest one is culture. When leaders focus on culture, they can better envision what type of people are needed in the organization to carry out the mission and vision. Having a healthy culture equips leaders to engage, retain, and promote current employees also because they know they are more than mere cogs in the machine. They are critical parts of a team committed to achieving a meaningful mission.   

The bottom line: culture matters. 

What a Healthy Culture Can Achieve

A healthy culture gives leaders the confidence to strike when opportunities arise and the courage to navigate adversity. 

A healthy culture builds trust and creates a place for teams to flourish, recognizing individual brilliance and giving everyone a place to thrive together. 

A healthy culture develops leaders and helps them rise through the ranks. 

A healthy culture turns an organization into an idea factory. Everyone knows they have a stake in the game and puts their best effort and ideas forward. 

They become energized and engaged brand warriors who live and breathe the company message. 

A healthy culture allows every employee to see his or her own progress reflected in the company’s success. 

So, to answer your question from earlier about how you could possibly squeeze in something as fuzzy as culture? Well, if you want a healthy culture, you’ll find a way.