Trickle-Down Culture Is Real (And It’s Probably Why Your Workplace Sucks)
Company culture isn’t about free snacks, mission statements, or whatever fluffy LinkedIn post your CEO wrote last week. It’s about behaviors. And those behaviors start at the top.
Do you ever notice how, when leadership works 24/7 and sends emails at 2 AM, suddenly the whole company feels like they need to be online at all hours? Or how, when execs are disengaged and aloof, middle managers follow suit, and employees start checking out?
That’s trickle-down culture. And it’s very, very real (unlike economics).
Leaders Set the Tone—For Better or Worse
People don’t mimic company values. They mimic leadership behaviors. Your core values don't mean anything if your leadership doesn't live them. If the boss operates in crisis mode 24/7, everything becomes an emergency. If leadership is constantly changing priorities, employees stop taking initiatives seriously because they know the goalposts will move in a month. And if the CEO treats people like numbers on a spreadsheet? Well… that part should be obvious.
Conversely, great leadership sets the foundation for a great company culture. When leaders: Take time off, their teams feel empowered to do the same. When leaders show vulnerability, it creates psychological safety for employees to be honest. When leaders trust their people, it fosters ownership and accountability and shows that they can be trustworthy themselves.
Bad Leadership = A Slow, Painful Culture Death
Culture isn’t what you say; it’s what you tolerate. And when leadership tolerates (or worse, encourages) toxic behaviors, those behaviors become the norm.
If leadership: Micromanages, managers will micromanage their teams. Encourages overwork, employees will burn out and leave. Makes decisions in secrecy, trust erodes and people stop speaking up. Put down other leaders and departments in the company, their team also feels like the rest of the company is incapable and discourages cross-collaboration.
The worst part? These behaviors don’t just stay contained within the leadership team. They ripple downward, infecting middle management and frontline employees. Before you know it, you have a toxic workplace, not because people are inherently bad, but because the culture has been set that way from the top.
If You’re a Leader, Here’s Your Reality Check
You don’t just manage people, you shape the culture, set the pace, and are seen as a leader whether you realize it or not.
If you don’t want a burnout culture, stop rewarding burnout behavior, and start rewarding critical thinking, collaboration, supporting each other, and even trying new things and failing.
If you want people to take ownership, start trusting them, and allowing them to explore their ideas and decisions, instead of poking holes in it, or hovering and being a helicopter leader. If you want a workplace where people actually like coming to work, act like you want to be there too.
People don’t leave companies. They leave bad culturess, and bad cultures are built (intentionally or not) by leadership.
So, What Can You Do?
If you’re in leadership: take a hard look at your own habits. What expectations (spoken or unspoken) are you setting for your team?
If you’re a manager: recognize that you have power too. How you support your team matters just as much as what’s happening above you. Be the shield for your team from the leadership around you if necessary, and help them understand the effects they are causing.
If you’re an employee in the trenches: it’s not on you to fix broken leadership, but it is worth recognizing when a culture problem isn’t your problem; it’s a company-wide issue.
Culture isn’t just words on a poster or free pizza and ping pong. It’s the actions taken throughout the company, starting from the very tip-top, and those actions trickle down.
Now, I want to hear from you: What’s the biggest culture shift you’ve experienced at a job—good or bad?