I had the pleasure last week of speaking to a large group of conference attendees on the issue of culture – company culture – and I was able to deliver it like a reverend because you have confidence in what you learn first-hand. In my case, part of that has come from being in Seth Godin’s AltMBA program.

Granted, there are countless aspects one could drill into regarding culture. In this instance, we focused on accountability. But in truth, you work on accountability and everything else improves as well (execution, trust, employee retention, etc). We went through a few slides, but after the nuts and bolts were behind us, I introduced “leveling up” and laid out something like this:

“Have you ever been part of a team where no one wanted to let the group down? Within that is an organic culture of accountability. And it does not come without leadership – leadership by EXAMPLE, more so than by title. When it happens, you sometimes see team members take the initiative to gently lead each other; they learn from each other, they grow & they over-deliver. And they continuously develop. There is some horizontal leadership in there.

But it doesn’t happen unless the boss also leads by example and the team feels it.

Deliberate daily about how you help & motivate & communicate with others; about enlisting them in what you are trying to build; and about holding your own self openly accountable — to your clients, to your community, and to your team.

Hire people who are motivated by learning, and by being their best and being part of the best team. Then coach, inspire, measure, follow-up, listen, collaborate and reward.

There’s more, and yes it sounds complicated. But you get better just by doing it, and in the long run it may be the most worthwhile part of your work.”

Not everyone in the room was ready to consider this, but some were. And some of the others are following up with intriguing questions.

Working within a remarkable culture is a rare and memorable experience. And it’s an elusive thing to create in companies, but it’s not 100% magic or chance. I bet every one of us can do something to incrementally improve upon the working culture within our own spaces.