The Fish Rots From the Head

How culture is driven from the very top

The proverb ‘a fish rots from the head’ has its origins shrouded in mystery. Many countries and cultures lay claim to it, including the English, the Turks and the Chinese, but the actual source is lost in antiquity.

It’s a metaphor for leadership, be it in business, religion or a country. It’s not biologically true, of course, as fish actually rot from the gut first, but it’s a good analogy and makes a lot of sense.

It means the direction, strategy, culture and behaviour of an organisation are mandated by the leadership, not the minions.

As a general rule, people follow and copy their leader. They may not agree with him or her, of course, but we humans have a natural tendency to follow.

You’ll see it in organisations with strong leaders; their team will imitate their mannerisms and personality traits. Maybe not as an exact carbon copy, but there will be similarities, just as your accent will begin to change when you move to a new area. Of course, the younger the team, the more malleable they tend to be and thus more likely to emulate the person in charge.

To an outsider, this will be obvious, to people entrenched within the culture, not so much. But if you stand back and observe, you’ll notice similarities. If a leader’s inclined to make snide, passive-aggressive remarks, other team members will do the same. If the leader has explosive, aggressive outbursts, so too will others.

If he’s racist, sexist, bigoted and so on, this gives the green light for other people to behave in the same way. We’ve seen recent examples of this with national leadership in the US and UK.

People also copy management styles. If your CEO, MD or even departmental head is a “Theory X” type, one who uses aggression, bullying and other brutal tactics, people lower down the chain will tend to do the same.

Some years ago, a company I worked for had a problem with morale. As a new staff member, it was obvious, and even customers and suppliers were aware of the issues.

I went to the bosses one day with some ideas to try to help improve things.

I got slapped down and told the culture and morale issues could never be fixed. The problems were the nature of the business, apparently. The long hours, weekend working, early starts, late finishes, blah blah.

I knew then where the problem lay. It also sealed my long term future with them.

It was complete nonsense, too: culture problems can be resolved. It takes a lot of hard work and effort and must be driven from the top down. Still, it’s definitely achievable.

I’ve seen it happen in organisations big and small, so to declare a problem unfixable simply reflects an unwillingness to face the issue.

So as a leader, if you’ve a problem with staff retention, morale, productivity, take a good, hard look at yourself.

And be honest, which I will admit is difficult; we all lie to ourselves, and few of us are willing to accept or recognise we might be the problem.

It’s a bit like being an alcoholic: admitting it is the hardest step. Until you can do this, you’ll never fix anything.

Bring in an external consultant to give you an unbiased view if you must, but the problems will most likely emanate from you.

And it’s with you that the first changes must begin. When you change, your team will change with you.