There is a lot of talk these days about culture creation in today’s workplaces. For some, creating culture revolves around office perks. Every movie featuring a ‘culture-forward’ workplace has a ping pong table somewhere inside, and it seems that every other job listing on any site is asking for some kind of ninja or rock-star in hopes that the titles will reveal something of the culture on the other side of the posting.

There is certainly nothing wrong with a ping pong table or calling your support staff wizards. A light-hearted work environment can certainly drive productivity and increase team members affinity for their workplaces, but there is another side to culture. One that arguably delivers higher dividends for a longer, more sustainable period. It has everything to do with where you fall on the support/challenge matrix.

Support and challenge are relatively self explanatory concepts, but to those who’d like a refresher - the basic idea is that any person performing a role needs a balance of support and challenge in order to maximize their growth and efficiency. A popular metaphor for the support/challenge matrix is a child tying a shoe. A kid with no support given a pair of shoes to tie for the first time will likely grow frustrated and give up, but hand that same kid a pair of shoes already tied and he’ll have no idea how to do it himself. He needs to be supported in learning to tie the shoes, and challenged to do it himself.

Some leaders are high in support, but low on challenge. Members of these teams feel supported, but won’t have the opportunities to learn and grow that those on high-challenge teams will. This can lead to complacency and ultimately attrition. It is incredibly difficult to retain high-achieving team members with little to no challenge, because they will see no clear way to adapt and advance in their careers.

The same can be true on the opposite side of the spectrum. A leader who is high challenge but low support will not inspire his team to greatness, rather he could be seen as attempting to bully his team into submission. There aren’t many people to whom this brand of leadership is inspiring, and talent turnover will certainly be high.

So as we grow into our leadership roles, we should take time to ensure that we meet challenge with support. If we can create a culture that assures our teams that we will push them to greater heights, but also be there to boost them toward their goals, it will do more to influence our cultures than any bean bag chairs or refrigerators stocked with energy drinks ever will.

Maybe still measure for that ping pong table, though.