The latest 100 CEOs newsletter landed yesterday from Steven Bartlett. I have liked the concept and the content from day one. Well done Steven Bartlett and team. This edition was about organisational culture.

A founder recently told me about the pride he took in his firm’s culture, while on the same day, I was informed about a maverick WhatsApp group started by his team to help mitigate the fallout from his leadership style. You can guess who wasn’t part of that group.

We have all had opportunities to see culture done well and not so well. Yesterday, I was informed about a message being sent to a small team asking them to work from home. Heavy weather was rolling in, and it wouldn’t be safe to travel. Simple, authentic and caring. That’s doing it well.

Another organisation I was told about routinely asks the team to do excessively long travel days to avoid the cost of accommodation. Where does the culture sit in an organisation that knowingly puts its people at risk?

Culture isn’t something you fix with chicken tacos over lunch once a year. It’s not something you work on, it’s something you build in. Leaders and their teams have equal responsibilities in fostering culture, but the tone flows directly from the leaders – whether they like it or not. Poor leadership necessitates the creation of those maverick WhatsApp groups.