Imagine… Your Culture Actually Meant Something
Culture isn’t what you write on the wall. It’s what you tolerate.
Every company has values. The difference is whether those values are lived… or ignored.
One of my clients, I'll call him Alex, had a set of values printed everywhere. They looked good. They sounded good. But they didn’t mean anything.
People showed up late. Accountability was optional. And when things got tough, those values vanished.
That’s what happens when culture is decoration instead of direction.
When Alex and I started working together, we didn’t touch the posters. We didn’t create new buzzwords. We started with clear foundation.
Through the Small Business Growth System, we focused on three things:
🎯 Defining values that actually shaped behavior.
🎯 Aligning the leadership team around what those values looked like in action.
🎯Building rhythms that reinforced those values in hiring, reviews, and meetings.
Within months, the shift was obvious. Alex’s team wasn’t just quoting the values anymore, they were living them. And culture stopped being a slogan. It became a standard.
The truth is all businesses already have values. What they don’t have is alignment. And that’s why culture doesn’t stick.
Here’s what I see over and over:
Values are vague. Words like “integrity” or “innovation” mean different things to different people.
Values aren’t reinforced. If they don’t show up in hiring or performance reviews, they disappear.
Leaders don’t model them. And when leaders don’t live the values, no one else will.
Culture isn’t what you say. It’s how people behave when no one’s watching.
If you want culture to actually mean something, start here:
Audit your values. For each one, ask: What does this look like in behavior?
Check your rhythms. Where are values reinforced in the systems you already use?
Look in the mirror. Leaders set the ceiling. If you don’t live the values, your team won’t either.
Alex’s shift wasn’t about new posters. It was about clarity, alignment, and discipline.
That’s what most small businesses need. Not new words. Just leaders who are aligned, teams who live the values, and systems that reinforce them every day.
Let me leave you with a question... If someone shadowed your team for a week, what would they say your culture really is?
If you are interested in discovering how you score on your culture, take my Free Leadership Assessment
