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The Misconception About HR and Company Culture
When most people think of company culture, they picture HR—diversity trainings, engagement surveys, onboarding programs, values printed on the walls. It’s easy to assume that culture is something HR defines, maintains, and owns.
But that view is both outdated and limiting.
In reality, HR doesn’t set company culture. They support it. They amplify what already exists. If the tone at the top is unclear, misaligned, or inconsistent, there’s nothing HR can do to patch over that disconnect.
That’s why when a company struggles with internal alignment or team morale, replacing the head of HR won’t solve the problem—not unless the leadership team itself is part of the change.
At Protis Global, we’ve had multiple conversations where clients want to “fix culture” by hiring a new HR executive. But before we talk search strategy, we always ask: What tone is your leadership team setting right now?
If that question stumps them, it’s a sign the issue isn’t about HR.
Company Culture Starts at the Top
Company culture is not a set of values in a handbook—it’s what people experience in the day-to-day. It’s how leaders behave when things go wrong. It’s what’s rewarded, tolerated, or ignored.
It starts at the top, and it’s defined by action.
If a CEO frequently skips one-on-ones or avoids giving feedback, that sets the tone—regardless of the values listed on the website. If a COO models transparency, accountability, and quick decision-making, those behaviors ripple across the organization.
HR amplifies leadership—not the other way around.”
HR can reinforce a culture. They can scale it. They can help codify it into programs and processes. But they cannot fix what is fractured at the leadership level.
Culture isn’t just words. It’s patterns. And people, especially top performers, can spot those patterns from a mile away.
Why This Matters for Hiring Decisions
This misunderstanding shows up most clearly during executive searches—especially when companies are hiring new HR leaders or People executives. There’s often an assumption that a great HR hire will create a strong culture.
The reality? They can only succeed if they’re plugged into a leadership team with a clear, cohesive vision.
This matters in two ways:
- It affects who you hire. If your leadership team isn’t aligned on what you want your culture to be, no HR leader can unify the organization. You’ll end up with policies that feel disconnected from reality. That leads to disengagement, miscommunication, and higher turnover.
- It affects how you assess candidates. You’re not just hiring for experience. You’re hiring for alignment. The best HR leaders are those who understand their job is to reflect and reinforce the tone set at the top.
Look for candidates who talk about enabling leaders, not replacing them. Candidates who understand how to scale behavior through systems—not create systems as a workaround for leadership dysfunction.
This same thinking applies across all senior hires. Whether it’s operations, sales, or finance—if that executive doesn’t resonate with the leadership tone, culture will crack under pressure.
Creating a United Front Across Leadership
Strong company culture doesn’t come from one person. It comes from leadership alignment.
That means the CEO, COO, and other top decision-makers are consistent in how they lead, how they communicate, and how they hold people accountable.
We worked with one beverage company where the CEO prioritized innovation while the COO emphasized structure and compliance. On paper, both sounded good. But in practice, the team felt whiplash. Depending on who was in the room, the expectations shifted.
HR tried to balance both—but couldn’t.
Eventually, leadership came together for a full-day alignment session to clarify not just their business strategy but also their leadership tone. Only then was HR able to design systems that reflected and reinforced the agreed-upon culture.
That clarity changed everything.
Now when they interview executives, they look beyond skillset and ask: Does this person match the way we lead? It’s helped them reduce executive churn and strengthen cultural continuity—even as the team grows.
Questions to Ask HR Execs in Interviews
If you’re hiring for an HR or People executive and want someone who will amplify your culture—not clash with it—ask sharper questions.
Here are a few we use with clients:
- “How do you see your role in shaping vs. supporting company culture?”
This reveals whether they view themselves as top-down enforcers or cross-functional enablers.
- “How would you amplify the tone of our current leadership team?”
This checks for listening skills, nuance, and a collaborative mindset.
- “Where do you draw the line between culture-setting and policy-setting?”
Great HR leaders know when to codify values—and when to let leadership lead.
You can also explore how they’ve handled misalignment in the past. For example:
“Tell me about a time when a company’s stated values didn’t match leadership behavior. How did you handle it?”
Answers here will separate surface-level operators from true culture stewards.
For a deeper dive into how HR and leadership can work in tandem to shape a strong internal culture, Harvard Business Review’s guide to shaping culture is a strong resource for executives looking to build intentional habits at scale.
“Culture isn’t built in the HR department—it’s built in the behaviors of leadership and echoed by HR.”
Final Thought
If your company culture feels misaligned, don’t start by rewriting the HR playbook. Start by asking: What are we modeling at the top? Because culture doesn’t trickle down from a deck. It flows out from every decision leaders make—especially the hard ones.
