Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture that Outperforms the Competition

Chapter 7. ASTONISH YOUR EMPLOYEES: Inspire Culture Change from the C-Suite

Leaders are critical to the success of a culture change—just not in the way you may think. As should be apparent by now, leaders cannot build a high-performance culture through sheer force of will; neither can they just talk about their vision for change and expect it to happen; or even try to emulate companies that have successfully implemented a values culture like JetBlue, Southwest, Starbucks, and Nordstrom's, by borrowing a few good ideas and then expecting comprehensive culture change. No one should be surprised when companies fail to achieve an enviable culture when values do not permeate from top to bottom.

In contrast, a values-rich culture depends on leaders ...