You Don’t Impose a Company Culture, You Build One

Culture isn’t a memo. It’s not a slogan painted on a wall or a hashtag some consultant came up with during an offsite.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Culture is how work actually gets done when nobody’s watching.

The problem is, too many leaders still think culture is something you announce.

They roll it out like new software: “We’re All About Transparency!” followed by an all-hands where everyone nods politely while thinking “You mean the same transparency that disappears as soon as this meeting is over?” (Insert knowing eye-roll here)

Here’s the truth: you can’t impose culture because people don’t absorb values by decree or by force, they mirror behavior.

You don’t tell people to collaborate while rewarding individual heroics.

You don’t talk about innovation while killing every new idea with a “let’s put that on hold.”

You don’t say “we’re a family” and then outsource your people the second revenue dips.

Culture is built every day in small, unglamorous choices: who gets promoted, what behavior is tolerated, how conflict is handled, and whether leaders show up the way they said they would.

It’s built in how teams recover from mistakes and how success is shared.

Real culture isn’t what you write down, it’s what you reveal when things go wrong.

It’s the standard that holds when no one’s managing the optics.

And if you’re lucky enough to lead people, remember: your tone becomes their tone, your urgency becomes their stress, and your silence becomes their permission.

So no, you don’t impose culture.

You earn it, every single day, through the decisions that define who you actually are as a company, not who you say you are.