A Basic Team Culture Model For Managers - Part 1

Culture is talked about a lot in organizations. Often, it’s assumed that because the entire organization has a culture, individual managers should not have their own culture. But this is wrong, at least in part because organizational cultures either aren’t communicated well, or tailored to your team’s work. But you CAN and SHOULD have your own culture. In this guidance, we share how you can create a simple culture for you and your team.

Do you have a team culture? The answer is always, “yes.” That’s because culture is nothing more than the sum of all of the behaviors of you and your team members. Your team behaves, so it has a culture, and that culture is whatever the behaviors of your team add up to. The problem here is those behaviors - which IS your culture - may not be what you want them or it to be.

So, what kind of culture do you want? Most managers assume they have what they have. But you don’t have to settle for that. You can create any culture you want (obviously, within reason).

In this guidance, we share what we think the base culture ought to be for all managers. You may wish to add more - that can be fine. Just be careful you don’t have too many culture touch points - at some point they’ll start conflicting with each other.