You are Your Culture

There are two questions we need to answer before this topic feels relevant.

1 – Am I building a culture? If so, where?

2 – Why is trust so important?

For the first question, I answer with a resounding YES. You ARE building a culture.
Where are you building it?
Wherever you go.
Wherever you interact with people.

Culture is an expression of what our character, habits, and values look like in action.

You could write it out as a mathematical equation like this:
My Culture = My Character + My Habits + My Values (x Action)

In other words…
You. Are. Your Culture.

How you show up, interact, and respond with friends, family, work associates, etc… plus how they feel when you show up… determines the culture others would define as yours. It determines the atmosphere that surrounds you.

Many of us have nice little sayings about who we are. We may call it our mission statement, group identity statement, or our core values statement. But despite what we call it, it is NOT our culture UNLESS it reflects what our character, habits, and values look like in action.

To answer the second question, trust is important because trust, or the lack of it, is the foundation everything else is built upon. Our relationships, our leadership, everything.

Without trust people second guess motives, withhold information, protect themselves, and hold back from sharing their very best thoughts. There is little to no innovation, honesty, vulnerability or asking for help without trust.

But with trust, all that energy gets shifted toward each other and whatever we are building together.

It is trust that makes growth and creativity possible.

People only take risks when they believe the environment is safe enough to do so.

And when we look at business, research shows that high trust organizations consistently outperform low trust organizations. With trust, engagement goes up, retention improves, productivity increases, and collaboration deepens.

Trust is the difference between compliance and commitment. You can get people to show up without trust, but you can’t get them to care. And we all know we put more of ourselves into what we truly care about.

Trust is a structure. Not a soft skill.
Think of it like the structural integrity of a building. Without that integrity, the safety of the building itself is compromised. Trust is the same. It is the structural integrity of every relationship, personal or professional, we will ever have. Or the lack of it. When disaster strikes, with a solid foundation of trust, we can withstand it. Without trust, everything crumbles.

What I am conveying here is that how our character, habits, and values in action show up will determine if people are willing to invest relationally into whatever it is we are building. From a family to a friendship to an organization.

Who do people know you to be?

How do people feel when you show up?

What do people believe will happen if a disaster strikes in your presence?

Will they run to you?

Or away from you?

My hope, and what I help people do, is to become students of our own culture so that we can transform it.

It is not too late to course correct and become a place where people want to be.

Choose to be.

Even when times are rough and rocky.

Let’s be people who are intentional about developing our personal culture into one of integrity and safety that can be trusted.

I am with you on the journey,
Brenda

P.S. If you or someone you know needs a culture shift, I am available to talk about that. Just send me a message, or forward on to whomever needs to hear this. Thanks!

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Brenda is a believer in impossible possibilities. In brokenness becoming beautiful. In justice and mercy and honor and power – with love perfecting them all. She is a wife, mom, mimi, daughter, and friend who also enjoys speaking, writing, and coaching.