Sean Glaze argues that mission statements are meaningless without the daily actions to back them up. Leaders set culture through behavior, not words: 76% of employees say their manager shapes the culture. Real values show up when it's inconvenient.
Your mission statement doesn't matter. I just finished an event with a leadership team here at Topgolf and realized that the values work we did today was far more important than mission statements. I could walk into most any inner organization in America, spend a week watching how people respond, and tell you exactly what their real values are without reading a mission statement. Because culture isn't what you write. Culture is a symptom of what leaders and their people do, especially when it's inconvenient. According to Sherm Research, 76% of employees say that their manager is the one who sets the culture. Not a poster in the break room. The person who's in front of them every day. Your people are watching. One decision that contradicts what your stated values promise can do more damage than 100 carefully crafted mission statements. Missions are important, but values determine day-to-day behaviors. And defining them is vital for teams. Leaders who talk about integrity but end up not telling the truth when it costs them something, managers who say people come first but throw someone under the bus when pressure is on, people see that and they remember it far longer than they remember a mission statement. Want people to believe in your culture? Live by the values that you and your team have defined as behaviors. Especially when it's hot.
