There are plenty of examples of “good” and “bad” company culture out there in the corporate world, but to find real answers to the question of how the best came to be, you need only to look as far as its leadership.

The truth is, company culture exists on many levels, and an absolute equation is largely undefinable. We’re dealing with people, after all – enterprising humans complete with free will and egos. Anything could happen, and it does.

That said, we can definitely draw a correlation between strong leadership and a winning culture.

Company culture is more than just the way things get done within an organization – it’s a many-layered organism that needs to be nurtured by its ecosystem – much like colorful fish in a koi pond. At first glance, we see what’s on the surface, but it’s actually what’s beneath the surface that is feeding the habitat.

If the habitat is keeping the fish alive, who or what is keeping the habitat healthy?

The same parallels can be drawn in a corporate environment. On the exterior, all we notice is the customer-facing parts, and we rightly assume that if everything is working efficiently, there must be good organization at its root. While this is largely true, it’s actually the person (or people) that keep that machine well-oiled, motivated and driven to continue carrying the message that deserves the credit.

Culture, then, is something that actually evolves from the leadership efforts – as opposed to being a page out of the employee manual or a vague statement that was circulated as a memo from the c-suite.

An example of a winning company culture

While startups are well-known for their unconventional cultures, they manage to attract and retain the right people over the long-term. While some might put it down to millennial idealism, companies like Tony Hsieh’s Zappos are winning in ways you would never associate with their primary business model: mail-order shoes.

Zappos begins with a “cultural fit” interview that is as much a part of the hiring process as the candidate’s skill set. If they do proceed to training, they are offered $2K if they decide after the first week of training that it’s not for them.

The company makes a conscious decision as to what the corporate culture is going to look like, then it reinforces these values throughout HR and all management processes based on ten core values, a sampling of which includes:

– Deliver WOW through service
– Create fun and a little weirdness
– Pursue growth and learning (they even have an employee library list of recommended books that are provided free of charge)
– Do more with less
– Be humble

Each core value represents a point in the training process, as new hires are trained separately in each point. Every single new hire hears the same messaging. If the candidate does not pass the cultural fit interview, they simply won’t be invited to meet the hiring manager.

Once hired, each employee is required to spend up to a month manning the phones in their call center so that they fully understand how to respond to customer needs. Following this, they are offered $3K to leave if they want, the concept being that if they haven’t become a good fit by that point, then the company would actually prefer that they leave.

The result? Employees who are all on the same page, speaking and living the same values. Working together, if you like, in perfect harmony. Zappos has a very good reputation for its customer service, and its culture drives that excellence. Its CEO, a serial entrepreneur whose vision has catapulted his company over the top, is its driving force with a mission to deliver happiness – which, by the way, is the title of Hsieh’s best-selling book.

While not every company culture is quite as complex or as ingrained as Zappos, the result is the same as it is for any company with strong leadership, vision, and a commitment to supporting its culture. Zappos is considered a great company to work for, employee attrition is almost non-existent, and they continue to lead the market in their niche, and that’s largely based on one thing: happiness.

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