A recent dinner outing reminded me how closely connected Culture and Personal Branding are. 

Case in point, a friend and I recently had dinner at a spot in mid-town Manhattan that several people recommended for its delicious food with a French flair. To avoid making a short story long, the food was good from what I remember, but the service was dreadful. A surly waiter—hold your French clichés—an ignorant hostess, and an overall sense of “we don’t care”. 

Since most of our face-time was with the waiter, I’ll single him out for a moment. He came across as arrogant, unwilling and generally bothered to have to work. And yet, as miserable as he was, it wouldn’t be fair to blame him for his attitude and behavior. 

I blame the person that hired him. The person that trained him. The person that manages him, coaches him and enables him with a culture of tolerance in a business category that is straight-up customer service. 

The term “culture” loosely interpreted means “how we do things around here”. And the stakeholders, the bosses, the managers, the investors, the influencers are the ones that have the responsibility of shaping the culture of their place of business. Ideally in favor of both employee and customer. 

This means they have to be hands-on, ear-to-the-ground, 360-degree aware, socially intelligent and intolerant of behavior that violates the culture that creates a thriving, productive and welcoming environment. Of course, this applies to any business, not just restaurants.

And yes, like all of us at one point or another, the waiter could have just had a bad day.  You’ll just have to figure out if you want to pay the cost to have him as an ambassador for your personal brand. 

How committed are you to shaping your culture?