This information came from a session during the 2025 ELEVATE conference and expo. Don’t miss ELEVATE in Tampa, Florida, on Nov. 8-11, 2026.
Company culture isn’t an optional aspect of your business. It already exists whether you put effort into shaping it or not. The question is, do you have work culture that complements your personal values?
As a leader, it is on you to build the culture you want to see in your organization because how you define your culture also impacts you and your team’s decision making.
The Business Case for Culture
Culture isn’t just a vague concept. It can result in tangible change. For instance, Paul Fraynd, CEO of Sun Valley Landscaping, based in Omaha, Nebraska, and Ashly Paladino, COO of Sun Valley Landscaping, based in Omaha, Nebraska, shared during ELEVATE that creating their intentional culture required establishing their ‘Core,’ which includes their purpose, vision, mission and values.
Their purpose serves as their why, and their vision sets where they are going, while the mission is what they do, and the values outline how they do it.
The cost of turnover is extremely costly, and since creating this intentional culture, Sun Valley has shifted their turnover from 140% to < 45%.
Culture can also serve as a recruiting advantage as your current employees are more likely to talk positively about your organization and make others curious about applying. Sun Valley now offers a living wage for 93% of their team and their recruiting expenses are down by 75%. They’ve also gone from having 15 safety incidents per year to 0.
5 Habits to Build an Intentional Culture
If you want to be more intentional about the culture at your business, you need to be disciplined and follow five main habits.
The first habit is to believe it. You need to have a why that goes beyond profits as your leadership philosophy permeates every part of the business. Your culture is shaped by what leaders decide matters the most.
If you’re uncertain what you want that to be, ask yourself what you want your culture to say about your legacy as a leader and what you’d want your team to say about your current company culture.
Once you know what you want your culture to look like, you have to get in the habit of modeling it as what you do means far more to your team than what you say. Your culture is directly shaped by what behaviors you tolerate, celebrate and correct.
You must stick to your values even in periods of crisis or high stress if you want your culture to last.
The third habit is to communicate it. A strong culture requires language, mantras, rituals and repetition in order to be accepted. Over-communicate and bake your culture into everything you do from onboarding to promotions and recognition.
This leads to the fourth habit of reinforcing your culture. Your culture becomes real when it is integrated into your systems and processes. Who you hire, fire, promote and discipline should all be based on your company culture. The best way to reinforce your culture is to celebrate employees when they are doing things the right way.
Lastly, you have to live out your culture every day in the small moments. How you dress, drive, park, speak, and greet clients and teammates all serve as indicators of your company culture. While as a leader you determine what you want your culture to be, every member of the team’s decisions either reinforce or degrade it.
As you reflect on your culture, consider what company values aren’t showing up enough in daily actions and where you need to strengthen your culture.
For more content like this, be sure to register for next year’s ELEVATE in Tampa, Florida, on Nov. 8-11.
