RSS 32: Your Company Culture Is a Reflection of Your Worst Habits

Dec 20, 2025

Explore the true essence of company culture, which isn’t defined by slogans but by daily practices. Discover how leadership habits shape team norms and the toxic effects of avoiding difficult conversations. Dive into actionable strategies for building better leadership muscle memory. Ross emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, encouraging leaders to confront their weaknesses to foster a healthy culture. Ultimately, anyone can lead and influence culture, regardless of their title.

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INSIGHT

Culture Is Practiced Not Published

Culture is what an organization practices daily, not what it prints on walls or slides.
Ross Simmonds says actions, not words, determine whether stated values truly exist.

INSIGHT

Leaders' Worst Habits Define Culture

The habits leaders tolerate become the team's operating norms and shape culture.
Ross argues your culture mirrors your worst leadership habits and fears you avoid.

ANECDOTE

A Decade Observing Diverse Company Cultures

Ross recounts a decade of running businesses and observing toxic, great, and thriving cultures.
He links fear-based and happiness-over-confrontation cultures to leadership patterns he has seen.

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In this episode of The Ross Simmonds Show, Ross gets real about what culture truly is inside an organization. Spoiler alert: it’s not your values deck, your company retreats, or the catchphrases painted on your office walls. Culture is what your team experiences—and that starts with leadership.

Ross unpacks how the most problematic leadership habits quietly become the blueprint of a company’s culture. Through personal insights and actionable advice, this episode challenges leaders to reflect on their behaviors, confront their blind spots, and align their habits with the culture they aspire to create.

Key Takeaways and Insights:

1. Culture Is Practiced, Not Preached

- Culture isn’t your onboarding slide deck or a nicely printed poster—it's what your company does every single day.

- If you claim a value (e.g. empathy, growth, candor), but your actions contradict it, then it’s not part of your real culture.

2. Leadership Habits Define Team Norms

- “Your culture is a reflection of your worst leadership habits.”

- Leaders unintentionally shape culture through the behaviors and patterns they tolerate or exhibit.

3. The Toxic Impact of Avoidance

- Avoiding hard conversations or decision-making can silently simmer into dysfunction.

- Leaders need to have the courage to confront their personal weaknesses to positively affect culture.

4. Build Muscle Memory for Better Leadership

- If giving feedback or staying focused is hard, start building systems and routines that reinforce those behaviors.

- Example: “Pursue the awkward” moments to grow stronger in them.

5. Self-Awareness Is Crucial

- Ask critical questions as a leader: Am I consistent? Do I finish what I start? Am I a source of clarity or chaos?

- Teams watch leaders’ actions more than they listen to their words. Walk matters more than talk.

6. Cultivate Culture by Fixing Yourself First

- Introspective leadership is the foundation of thriving workplace culture.

- Practical step: Make a list of personal habits that are out of alignment with your company’s stated values and strategize ways to improve.

7. Leadership Isn’t About Titles

- You don’t need to be a CEO or founder to lead with intentionality.

- Cultural influence can come from any level within an organization—or your life.

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