I recently got to take a trip to Japan for two weeks, and there was a stark difference between the Japanese culture I experienced and what I am used to every day in the US. The experience got me to thinking about what makes up culture. Certainly there are many things, and at least one of those things is a common adherence to certain behaviors as normal.

In Japan, one of the most noticeable differences is the quiet. In Chicago, I’ve experienced a “quiet car” when riding down into the city on a commuter rail. The designated cars mean “no talking loudly to each other or on your phone.” In Japan, every subway or train I was on was like a “quiet car.” The overhead announcement asked you to put your phone on silent, and I never once heard a phone ring on a train in the two weeks I was there. Even the city streets are remarkably quiet as you walk along.

I recall in a previous organization and the culture it had of starting meetings late. No meeting started before ten minutes after it was scheduled. People showed up late. In particular, key people. Someone might be on-time, but there was no way the meeting would start until everyone rolled in. It was a part of the culture, because it was a part of the behavior that was tolerated and repeated over and over.

As a leader in your organization, the culture you want is the culture reinforced by your own actions. Your culture is composed of meetings starting late because you arrive late and start late. Your culture is composed of unfocused meetings because you don’t set objectives for meetings and keep the discussion focused on accomplishing those goals. Your culture is composed of “too many emails” because you send emails much more often than you pick up the phone and talk to someone live.

I recall a time when I was a new executive and I believed that I could outline a culture that I wanted my team to adhere to, and then ignore it myself. I was working on performance reviews, and the guidelines were that reviews were all to be delivered during a certain week. I had made it clear to my team that we needed to treat reviews seriously. At the same time, I believed there was no negative consequence for me extending my review delivery into the next few weeks. I rationalized that I was far busier than anyone else so it was justified. Someone on my staff who was bold enough to be honest said “you know, when you do that it tells all of us that you don’t care about our reviews.” I was shocked to realize how much my actions implied the opposite of the culture I desired.

You set the culture in your organization by behaving as you want others to behave. You set culture by giving feedback to your staff when they act in a way that doesn’t fit the culture you expect. Culture is created only in the consistent modeling of those behaviors, and holding your team accountable.

My trip to Japan exposed me to wonderful differences in their culture from ours. Each of these differences was manifested by behaviors repeated over and over. How are you modeling the behavior that will create culture you want in your organization?