Culture matters. And it's important. Okay, let's be honest — it is what separates those that are great from those that aren't. Google, Apple and Amazon have culture. Facebook and Twitter don't. There's a famous definition of culture by Max De Pree, renowned CEO and author of Leadership Is An Art. He said: "Of all the leadership tools, culture is surely the most powerful – because leaders create it." So, let's talk about how you, as a leader, can create good culture at work.

Create a culture strategy

To create a culture strategy, you have to first determine what your company's values are. Once you know what your company stands for, next comes the hard part: Getting everyone on board with those values. This can be tricky if some people don't share or understand the vision of what culture is supposed to look like. But it's important to try, you want everyone working toward the same goal so that everyone feels like they're part of something bigger.

It’s also critical that these values are communicated clearly at every level of an organization, from senior leadership down through middle managers and front-line workers. Once people understand what’s expected from them as an employee in their role and department, they can better align their actions with those expectations and make sure no one gets left behind because they didn't fully grasp their role in creating a great environment where people thrive together professionally (and personally!).

Define your culture and review it regularly

Your company's culture is the foundation of your business. So, how do you know if your culture is good or bad? Well, in short:

• Good cultures are defined by the way people work together and communicate with each other. They have a sense of trust and fairness that permeates everything they do.

• Bad cultures are marked by issues like low employee engagement and high turnover rates. This can lead to higher costs in recruiting new workers or trying to retain existing talent.

Build a culture playbook

A culture playbook is a document that describes the values and principles of your organization. It can be used to communicate with employees, potential employees, partners, investors and customers.

To create a great culture playbook:

• Be transparent about the company's culture (especially when it's not good).

• Make sure you're capturing everything you want in one place (and not on dozens of Word documents).

• Don't be afraid to change things as you go along, don't get caught up in having an outdated version of your culture playbook!

Take a data-driven approach to employee engagement

As a leader, you’re accountable for creating and maintaining a positive culture in your workplace. But what if the data shows that your team is disengaged? How do you know if your strategies are working?

Data is useful because it can show trends over time, and over different groups of employees (like managers versus hourly workers). The best way to measure employee engagement is through an annual employee survey that offers quantitative and qualitative questions about how your staff feels about their jobs, their coworkers, and the organization as a whole. You should also conduct periodic one-on-one interviews with employees who have been with the company for longer than three years so they can share their perspectives on how things used to be versus now.

With all this information at hand, it’s time to start making improvements! Here are some ways that leaders can use this data:

• Benchmark against other companies: If you find that only 35% of your employees agree that “my job provides me with opportunities for advancement” compared to 50% at other organizations doing similar work in similar industries, that might be cause enough for concern! Research shows that 70% or more of workers want opportunities for advancement; anything less than 60% could indicate areas where improvement needs attention. Look at how scores change over time: Are there any noticeable trends? Is there one department or location where scores tend toward low satisfaction levels year after year? Are there certain questions where new employees tend not understand why such things matter, or do older ones always struggle with those same concepts despite repeated efforts by leadership teams attempting change management initiatives designed specifically tailored.

Launch a company blog

Launching a company blog is a great way to build culture, because it can be used in many ways. It allows you to communicate with employees and customers on a regular basis, and keep them up-to-date on news and events that are important for both groups.

If you're looking for an easy way to get started with blogging, I recommend using WordPress.org or Wix.com (I've personally used both). There are lots of templates available so creating your own blog should only take a few minutes if you know how to edit text files in HTML or CSS (you don't need any coding knowledge).

Cultural consistency is key to successful organization

Culture is essential to any organization's success because it ensures that everyone involved knows who they are working with and what they stand for. If you want people to trust one another and work well together, then it's important that they have a shared understanding of what their role is in relation to others and what their company's values are.