The best and worst
Here’s a question for you: how would you describe the culture of the best place you have ever worked in three words?
And: how would you describe the culture of the worst place you have ever worked in three words?
When you ask these questions of around fifty people from different backgrounds and sectors, you’d expect different answers. In fact, at a recent event I attended run by the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter (GEC), they were remarkably similar.
The worst places were described as: aggressive, controlling, hierarchical, bullying, sexist, competitive……and more
And this is how people described the best places: encouraging, supportive, upbeat, friendly, respectful, considerate…..and more
Wouldn’t we all like to work in the best places?
The big question is how you create the “best place” culture, where people enjoy coming to work and do their jobs well?
At the GEC event, we discussed how we would define good employment and how we would define culture. We are not usually aware of the impact of culture on our behaviour. Culture is like water to a fish – we swim in it and take it for granted, it’s normal. We don’t think about it. Changing a culture – and the behaviours that create it – is hard.
These are some of the topics we discussed and ideas we shared. What do you think?
Values
Most organisations have stated values – excellence, customer delight, passion, team-working and so on – they sound good, but they are abstract words and can mean different things to different people.
Try asking people to picture an elephant, then ask them what they pictured – they will have different images, different colours and sizes, different settings, different movements. Even though an elephant is a concrete thing, there is massive variation in our perceptions – so you can imagine that it’s even more variable with abstract values. (Thanks to Dr Nancy Doyle for this example).
What matters is how you turn those values into specific actions and practices. Culture comes from how people behave – from your words and actions, from what you do and say. It’s our “values in action”.
For each value that your organisation espouses, you can work out how to turn it into practice – words and actions. For example, if you have a value of “respect”, but then allow people to engage in “banter” – is that supporting or undermining the value? If on the other hand, you make sure that people’s views are heard, then that is demonstrating respect.
Leaders
The behaviour of leaders is especially important because they set the tone of the culture and set the boundaries of what behaviour is tolerated in the organisation. What they say and do influences how other people think and feel. And how others think and feel affects their motivation and their performance. Leader behaviour is directly linked to business performance.
The “hygiene factors”, like pay and policies, have to be right, but what is more important for a good employment culture, is how you make people feel. Behaving in a way that makes people feel good, that makes them feel significant (that they matter), competent (that they are respected) and likeable (that they are liked) is essential.
How you give feedback can build confidence and competence or undermine it; how you set goals and delegate affects whether people have a degree of autonomy; how you connect with them influences whether they feel they belong. There are lots of simple actions leaders can take to enable people to meet these core psychological needs at work.
Trust and Voice
We recognised that people want to be valued and have a voice. They want to be treated with dignity as people, whatever their role in the organisation. They want to be able to work without fear. They want to be trusted.
Trust is two-way, starting with the leader trusting others.
“It’s often when others instinctively trust us, that we’re inspired to trust them” (Canon Angela Tilby on BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day 28/11/25).
Trust is another abstract noun that needs to be turned into concrete actions to be meaningful. How do you know that someone else trusts you? How do you show trust in others? What do people do or say that demonstrates trust? Find out what you can do to build trust here.
At the event, we discussed the importance of having a boss who stands up for you and who is willing to take the risk of calling out bad behaviour by their peers or their own boss. These behaviours undoubtedly demonstrate trust.
Multiple Cultures
There isn’t only one culture in an organisation. Different groups and teams within it have their own micro-cultures – sets of behaviours that are regarded as acceptable or normal for that group. This can sometimes lead to clashes or competition with other groups. Leaders need to bridge the gap between groups to get the benefits of collaboration across the organisation.
Finally….
Values, Leaders, Trust and Voice. Key aspects of an organisation’s culture, which, if they work well, lead to good employment outcomes. And most of them depend on the leaders at all levels.
If culture is like water to a fish, then leaders, as Gillian Drakeford said in her keynote, are the the filter that keeps the water healthy.