No organization has just one culture. Every enterprise culture is comprised of any number of smaller individual subcultures. Each team, department and division has a distinct subculture that exists as a smaller reflection of the way the associates in the enterprise at large work together, communicate, plan, solve problems, make products and provide services, form friendships, measure progress and reward success. In fact, inside each subculture are usually more informal groups or cliques of employees who share common interests. These groups can become very influential in the absence of strong, positive leadership from the formal leaders of the organization. These internal influences can account for significant differences in performance between subcultures within the same enterprise. Depending on the strength of the workplace culture, the informal leaders can either positively or negatively impact the attitudes of other members of the subculture, dramatically affecting performance. As an example, one sales team may outperform all the other teams, even when those teams sell the same products at the same prices to the same types of customers.

The differences in performance can be credited in many cases to cultural leadership. Yet, too often the evolution of culture is left up to chance—or, more likely, to neglect. Managers are seldom given the knowledge to consciously build effective cultures. By training managers to become cultural leaders, you enable them to become more effective and accountable. Indeed, to sustain a successful workplace culture it is crucial to hold every one of the leaders in the enterprise accountable for building his or her own subculture. Each separate department and branch, of course, has different people, different personalities and different goals, but with one common purpose.

So a savvy CEO will institute a model for the overarching culture that, while being sensitive to the differing personalities and functions of each subculture, provides consistency across the organization.