Trust, responsibility, openness – these are words that are used in all cases in technology companies. They appear on onboarding slides, in internal communications, in presentations to vendors and in job advertisements. But if you ask employees whether they actually see them on a daily basis, the answer is sometimes different.
In many partner organisations, organisational culture remains a statement. Meanwhile, in practice, something completely different matters: the decisions that leaders make. And not the ones written down in strategy, but the everyday, often unnoticed ones. It is these that build trust or undermine it without saying a word.
What culture isn’t – and why this can be seen in IT channels
In partner channel companies – integrators, MSPs, VARs or distributors – the pace of business is high, the complexity of projects is high and teams are often dispersed. This is an environment where organisational culture cannot be something declarative.
She needs to operate operationally. When this is missing, there is decision-making chaos, inconsistent communication and the phenomenon of ‘formal rules and informal practices’, which begins to break down the team from the inside.
Leaders often believe that culture is something that needs to be described and communicated – preferably once, properly, in a joint meeting. But the organisation does not remember the presentation.
The organisation observes everyday life. If the values announced on Monday diverge from the decisions made on Wednesday, the team instantly draws conclusions. Often other than the expected ones.
How culture is really shaped – in the leader’s decision-making practice
In reality, culture is not created top-down. It is shaped from the bottom up – through repetition. When an employee sees that an initiative ends in a reprimand, he does not come up with a proposal again. When he observes that mistakes are hidden or punished, he stops admitting failure. And if he sees that promotion depends not on competence but on loyalty, he begins to adapt his behaviour not to expectations but to policy.
Trust and responsibility – the most frequently repeated buzzwords in IT company culture – are not the result of training. They come from the daily experience of working in a given environment. When a leader says he cares about the team’s autonomy, but approves decisions at every stage of the project, the team learns that autonomy is a fiction.
When it talks about transparency and then key changes are announced by surprise, it is difficult to expect openness in the other direction.
Trust is not an emotion. It is the result of consistency
In partner organisations, trust is not only relational, but also very practical. Sales teams need to trust marketing and presales, and delivery needs to trust project teams and the client. If this doesn’t work, everything goes awry.
Communication becomes defensive, delegation of responsibility occurs and decisions are delayed for fear of error.
Trust does not arise because someone has announced it. It arises when people see that an organisation operates according to predictable rules. That mistakes can be reported without fear of consequences. That decisions are made on the basis of facts, not emotions. That a leader sticks to what he or she declares – even when it is difficult.
In companies where trust is high, teams act faster and take more initiative. Where it is lacking, everything needs to be clarified, consulted, approved and – often – confirmed by email “just in case”.
Culture is built through decisions, not narratives
Some partner organisations build a consistent culture not through big programmes, but through very concrete actions. An MSP company that holds a joint problem analysis meeting after every major incident shows that failure is part of the process, not a reason to avoid responsibility.
An integrator who allows junior staff to lead a pilot project themselves not only builds commitment but also teaches confidence in their own decisions.
A distributor whose management publicly asks for feedback on the changes made is not only listening, but modelling the behaviour that is then evident in the sales teams.
These are not employer branding campaigns. These are not organisational culture certificates. These are actions that show people that values are not just words on the wall, but something that realistically affects their daily work.
The leader as owner of cultural micro-decisions
Organisational culture is not created in the communication layer. It is created at the operational layer – where decisions are made about promotions, reactions to mistakes, the distribution of responsibility or how meetings are conducted.
It is the leader – regardless of the level in the structure – who owns this daily life. He can shape it coherently or disperse it haphazardly. He or she can build a climate in which people know what to expect, or an environment in which everyone acts ‘by feel’.
