The importance of workplace culture

As someone who has greatly benefited from a positive work environment with extraordinary mentors and leadership throughout my career, listening to renowned Alabama football coach Nick Saban speak at Modex 2024 in Atlanta was a full-circle moment. In front of a packed audience, Saban took the opportunity to stress just how important culture can be to an organization. 

“People ask me all the time, ‘What does it take to win?’” he said. “I think they’re expecting me to say, ‘Have a good game plan, adjust and adapt during the game, do a good job at the preparation, and have a good system and staff in place.’ All of those things are really important, but probably the most important thing is the kind of culture you build in your organization.” 

Those words resonated with me. You can have the best talent, a strong business foundation, and all the puzzle pieces in place, but if your organization doesn’t have a culture that seamlessly weaves those parts together, you won’t be able to keep that talent long term and your business will never achieve its full potential.

In the late ’90s, I joined a large publishing company, where I worked for two business magazines that covered logistics and supply chain management. While I had held all types of part-time jobs in the past, this was my first full-time job, so I really had no clue what to expect.

Little did I know that I had hit the jackpot: The team I was hired to work on turned out to be an extraordinary team of world-class writers and editors. As a new editorial assistant, I did a little bit of everything during my first year on the job. But what was most life-changing for me was the culture I stepped into from day one. The managing editor took me under her wing and provided the guidance I needed to figure out my strengths and weaknesses. She gave me her blessing to fail and have bad days and celebrated my successes with me on the good days, when I did well.

As a self-professed Type-A perfectionist, I arrived for my first day on the job armed with a positive attitude but also a fear of failure. I was terrified of letting my co-workers down, and while having a positive attitude, a good work ethic, and the drive to learn is good, perfectionism has its downsides.

During his Q&A at Modex, Saban stressed that expecting every day to be perfect only sets you up for disappointment. No one can maintain a positive attitude if you expect everyone, including yourself, to be perfect day in and day out. It’s best to remember that “life is difficult, things will be difficult, somebody will probably disappoint you, and you’re probably gonna have some issue or problem that you have to solve,” he said. 

Luckily for me, those co-workers at my first job understood this, were patient with me, and helped me understand that no job is perfect. The culture they created all those years ago has made a profound impact on my career and my life, both inside and outside the office.

Now 30 years later, I work as an associate editor on this publication and serve as managing editor of our sister publication, Supply Chain Xchange. And surprisingly, today, I’m still working with many of my colleagues from my very first job! We now work at a different publishing company and have welcomed new members to our team over the years, but the one constant has been the outstanding culture that has marked our organization from the start. Recently, I was speaking with a fellow journalist who remarked, “No one ever leaves your company unless they retire!” It’s the truth and for all the right reasons.

I encourage you, as business leaders, to take the time and energy to create that type of positive culture for yourself and your co-workers. Don’t be afraid, as Saban said, “to get the right people on the bus, remove the wrong people from the bus, and get everybody in the right seat.” You’ll thank yourself later for doing the right thing now … and maybe you’ll make the life of someone else in the organization a whole lot better.