Everyone has a way that they want their brand to be positioned and perceived. But is your public image the same as your company culture?

Company culture and public image often get conflated in conversations and in actions, sometimes to the detriment of both. To be successful, they each require their own goals and actions.

How do you define company culture? Public image? How do your values inform your goals and how you implement them?

Erica and India break down the confusion over culture versus image.

In this article:

• What company culture is

• Why you need to develop company values, not just brand values

• Elements of your public image that you can control

• Where company culture and public image overlap

Keep the dialogue going: Concepts are better explored in community. Actions are more lasting when taken alongside other imperfect allies. Connect with a cohort of entrepreneurs and changemakers at the intersection of values and visibility. 

Join us at pauseontheplay.com/community

Learn more about the Implicit to Explicit: Leading Through Your Values Masterclass

This article is based on a Pause On The Play podcast episode called The Intersection of Public Image and Company Culture

Defining Company Culture

Company culture, for Erica, is the way you do what you do. It’s how you operate within your team, which shows up in how you support your students, your coaches, or your clients.

Company culture is about the inner workings and values of the company. What challenges does your work address? How do you support your team members? What are your priorities? What are things that you will or will not do as a team that will set the tone for all of your work?

Company culture will inform your public facing actions. But they are not the same thing.

India adds that your company culture will be based on your company values, which are different from your brand values.

“When you have looked at company values, you're able to then decide what you will do and what you won't do about how you operate, how you address challenges when they come up, what you prioritize, what you don't prioritize, and everything else based on what matters most to you and your team.”

Company culture frequently happens by default, but it can be created with active, intentional choice based on your company values.

Your Public Image Is Your Public Reputation

India’s simple definition encompasses a number of pieces of your reputation, but can ultimately come down to “what would somebody say about you if they had to mention the name of your business, your brand, or you as an individual representative of all the above to someone else when you're not in the room to hear what they said?”

The most important thing to remember with your public image is that you don’t get to decide what it is. The public determines your image based on a number of possible elements.

What is your track record? Your track record will be determined by how people have felt about their interactions with you or other representatives of your company, whether in person, in your social media accounts’ DMs or engaging with a virtual offering.

This is an element that will often overlap with your company culture, as people are engaging with you or your team and will get a feel for the overall energy of the company.

What is your brand identity? Everything from your brand colors, typefaces and logos to how you and your employees dress as company representatives to who and what is featured on your social media, your podcast, etc. is part of your brand identity.

There are a lot of elements that go into your public image, all of them should be informed by strategic choices based on your brand values and how you want to be perceived.

Culture, Image and Overlap

There are a number of places where company culture and public image could have overlap. Erica asks India for her thoughts on three key pieces that could trip you up.

The company handbook: India says this is likely tied to the size of the company. In a small company, it’s easy to say it’s strictly company culture because it’s unlikely to be seen by anyone other than employees.

But at a larger company that has higher turnover, the handbook could be part of the public image, by virtue of the sheer volume of people who see it.

Erica adds that “too often people underestimate the power of a functioning and beneficial company handbook.” She views the handbook as something that can intentionally, or unintentionally, set the tone for so many pieces of a business, some of which will be public facing, like culture fit interviews and job postings.

Brand photography: While it may seem like brand photography would be strictly public image, India says that “if all of your brand photography, when you have a team, is only including headshots of the CEO or founder, you failed.”

She elaborates that your brand photography should provide hints of your company culture.  “You are literally showing people on your website, on your social media, on your email newsletter and anywhere else, you're going to use these pictures...what it feels like to be in a room with somebody from your brand.”

Public speaking and events: Public events have implications for both your public image and your company culture.

Erica says, “it is something that is heavily informed by your values and the impact that you hope to make as you live those values out loud in what you're saying yes to. what you say no to, [and] what you actively participate in or not.”

At the same time, India notes that “because the decision to do [events] is part of you determining how you operate as a company,” your company culture is impacted as well.

If a leader steps away to do an event and they’ve built a company culture that still thrives without them, the company culture is enhanced “because it allows a team to know that they are trusted to keep everything running when this leader's away. And it also means that they've probably invested in their team to have the tools and resources they need to be able to operate without them.”

When leadership hasn’t done that work supporting the company culture and leaves the office to do a public-facing event, “the business is in chaos.”

Priorities

Twenty years ago, it may have been possible to keep company culture and public image in their own separate spheres, but in a world where everyone is online, and everyone talks, “what happens behind the scenes eventually is known in front of the scenes.”

For a brand to have longevity and be in integrity, their company culture has to get as much support as their public image.

Prioritizing public image over what happens behind closed doors risks coming across as performative and will probably hurt team retention.

As India says, “I think sometimes that these leaders would like to think that like, oh, this is their dirty little secret, nobody's going to know, but that's not always true. We know.”

But putting all your efforts into company culture and neglecting your public image risks being unable to thrive and attract who you want because you haven’t infused your public face with all of the energy you’ve created behind the scenes.

Erica agrees, “I don't think that you can thrive in today's environment and not take both intentionally and craft them.” Company culture and public image intersect and interact so much now, “and both are necessary to create an environment internally, as well as forward facing, that you enjoy.”

Investing the time and energy into your company culture and your public image impacts your team, your clients and your potential to expand.

Keep The Dialogue Going

Concepts are better explored in community. Actions are more lasting when taken alongside other imperfect allies. Connect with a cohort of entrepreneurs and changemakers at the intersection of values and visibility.

Join us at pauseontheplay.com/community

Learn more about the Implicit to Explicit: Leading Through Your Values Masterclass

Resources:

Pause on the Play Ep 121: Psychographics Versus Demographics: Honoring Values Over Statistics

Flaunt Your Fire Ep 44: Own Your Values: Brand, Company, and Personal