Everything you do communicates

I’m an avowed Ben Horowitz fan, and I’ve been thinking a lot about his book, What You Do is Who You Are, as we finish our seventh month in lockdown.

What does culture mean when we’re not together? When we’re not doing offsites, having All-Hands meetings, welcoming new people with big lunches out, giving out company hoodies?

Your culture is still there, it’s just opaque. It’s eye contact on a Zoom call, it’s kind encouragement on Slack, it’s being delighted rather than annoyed to see (or hear) your co-worker’s baby in the background.

Ben says, “Who you are is not the values you list on the wall. It’s not what you say at an all-hands. It’s not your marketing campaign. It’s not even what you believe. It’s what you do. What you do is who you are.”

When you, as the leader, pay attention during the whole video call, you’re showing other employees that they should do the same thing too. When you shut down scabrous conversations on Slack and create a channel for recognition and encouragement, you’re setting an example about how employees should be treated at your company. When you have your own baby on your lap during a company call, you’re showing your team members that you recognize that we’re all human, that we all have lives, that we are all capable of merging work and life in pandemic times with grace and humor.

You can’t outsource modeling the right way to behave. Your people are smarter than that. What you do as the leader matters so much more than what you tell people to do. They want to be like you, to win your approval. They’ll ferret out the real way to do that. They will copy you. Be what you want to see in your team.

Ben says, “Finally, you have to pay close attention to your people’s behavior, but even closer attention to your own. How is it affecting your culture? Are you being the person you want to be? This is what it means to create a great culture. This is what it means to be a leader.”