The culture of your business is one of its strongest and most natural marketing tools. A business culture serves as its highest form of leadership. It dictates the quality of its products and services as well as the happiness of its employees. Everyone associated with a company, including leadership, staff, and clients. will identify with or conform to the culture in some way. Because of its strong influence on your business, it is important to know how to identify the culture of your company. This can be done in three simple steps.

Step 1: Ask Questions

The first step in assessing the culture of your company is to ask questions. Talk to loyal customers, clients, and staff members about why they like the company and how it differs from your competitors. It is important to listen to the answers objectively. The culture you intend to create may not be the same as what actually plays out. The clients, customers, and staff members are the only ones who can give you an honest opinion about how leadership decisions trickle down to the people doing a majority of the marketing and product/service fulfillment. If you feel like you won’t get honest answers by asking these questions yourself, then you can do so through anonymous surveys or secret shoppers.

Step 2: Watch Closely

It is easy to “talk the talk.” You should watch closely to learn what your company really values. For example, you may claim to value charity or support certain charitable causes. Are you actually making donations to support that claim? Watch how the leadership in your company operates and what they dedicate their time to. Those people will create the cultural norms at your company.

Step 3: Do Your Research

The culture of a company will be dictated by the culture of its leadership. This comes from the generally known concept that a group will take on the values of its leader. Look at the people who are responsible for leadership within your company, such as the CEO and board of directors. What do these people represent? Do they demonstrate certain values individually? You can count on the fact that if they stay at the leadership level long enough, then the company will eventually assume their values as well.

Your company’s culture defines how it sticks out from its competition in a free economy. To assess your company’s culture, it is important to ask questions, watch actions, and do your research. Avoid assuming that your intended culture will play out the way that you planned, and learn to look at the facts objectively to see where you need to improve.