Your people watch what you do, not what you say
My doctoral research followed one founder-led company and found 24 small actions that shaped its culture more than any policy did.
Have you ever noticed how some companies just feel different the moment you walk in?
That question drove my doctoral research at Clemson. I wanted to know how a founder shapes a company's culture. Not through speeches or mission statements, but through everyday actions.
I followed one company from its early days and talked with the people who worked there about what they noticed. When a leader consistently drives an electric car, installs solar panels, and recoils from plastic water bottles, employees notice. Those actions speak louder than any written environmental policy.
Twenty-four things nobody wrote down
Through those interviews I identified 24 distinct non-verbal behaviors that caught employees' attention. They fell into four groups:
- Environmental choices, like driving an electric car and installing solar panels.
- People-centered actions, like stopping to chat in the hallway and keeping offices the same size.
- Visible emotion when the founder talked about the company's values.
- Consistent daily habits, even when no one was watching.
Values people take home
The key finding was clear. Employees are deeply influenced when they see their leader living the company's values. Rather than simply following rules, they adopt those values as their own, feel proud to work there, and often carry them into their families and communities.
One employee even turned down a higher-paying job elsewhere, because the company's values had become that personally meaningful.
What this means if you lead anything
Most leadership advice focuses on what leaders should say. The evidence points somewhere else. What leaders do, especially when they believe no one is paying attention, has a far greater impact on culture.
I spent 25 years in business before I taught a class, and this rang true from that side of the desk too. People read the office layout, the car in the parking lot, and who you stop to talk to on the way in.
Your daily actions are always teaching your people what matters. Make sure you are teaching the lessons you actually want them to learn.
The same is true in a classroom. Students watch how we grade, how we answer email, and whether we live the standards we set for them.
About the author
Dr. Dirk Roskam
Dr. Dirk Roskam spent 25 years as an executive, general counsel and startup advisor before becoming a business professor. He writes about what academia gets right, what it gets wrong, and how to make it better.