A Four-Part Blog Series for CEOs and Leadership Teams
Peter Drucker said it best: “What gets measured, gets managed.” Yet, when it comes to culture, most leaders rely on gut feelings and anecdotes rather than hard data.
Leaders track revenue, customer churn, and productivity. But ask them for their culture score, and you’ll get blank stares.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If culture isn’t on the scorecard and being tracked/measured regularly, it’s not a priority.
Consider Microsoft under Satya Nadella. When Nadella became CEO, he didn’t just talk about changing the culture — he measured it. Microsoft tracks collaboration, innovation, and leadership effectiveness across the organization, making culture metrics as important as financial KPIs.
In contrast, most companies barely measure engagement, let alone deeper culture dynamics like purpose alignment or leadership trust. Engagement surveys are a good start, but they’re the bare minimum and many companies won’t take time to review and even more often, don’t take action as a result of the feedback given..
What message does this send to employees? That culture is all talk.
Want to know if your culture initiatives are working? Start by asking your leadership team: What’s our Culture SKOR?
In next week’s article, we’ll explore why traditional engagement surveys fall short and what leaders should measure instead.
👉 Challenge for the week: Add “Culture” as a standing agenda item on your leadership meetings.