Culture is paramount. The success or failure of an organization or team depends upon its culture—the norms and behaviors around how employees communicate and collaborate. Most leaders agree that culture is hugely important. But that seems to be where the agreement stops. Many leaders disagree over exactly what culture is, why it is so important, or even what a healthy organizational culture looks like.

In this episode, we’ll cover three assumptions most leaders get wrong about culture.

Culture Is Unique

Unless leaders get culture right, not a whole lot else goes right in the organization. And while none of these assumptions will cause a culture to go toxic immediately, misunderstanding what a positive culture looks like and how its built means leaving the eventual culture to chance. By contrast, getting these elements of culture right means building an environment of common understanding, psychological safety, and a prosocial purpose that helps everyone do their best work ever.

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//ABOUT DAVID

He is the best-selling author of four books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USAToday, Fast Company, the Financial Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS This Morning. Since 2017, Burkus has been ranked as one of the world’s top business thought leaders by Thinkers50. As a sought-after international speaker, his TED Talk has been viewed over 2 million times. He’s worked with leaders from organizations across all industries including Google, Stryker, Fidelity, Viacom, and even the US Naval Academy.

A former business school professor, Burkus holds a master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Oklahoma, and a doctorate in strategic leadership from Regent University.

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