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The Leader’s Role in Organizational Culture: Why Some Get It Right and Some Don’t

Laura Hamill, PhD.

The role of organizational leadership is crucial in shaping its culture.

Leaders need to think of themselves as culture architects, taking accountability for the values and norms of the organization and being intentional about how their actions and communications align with the culture they aspire to have.

An organization’s leaders should be role models for its culture, setting an example for others to follow.

Leaders also need to understand their power and how it impacts culture.

Leaders should be intentional about the messages (explicit and implicit) they are sending to others about what’s important.

One of my observations after working with many different leaders is that leaders are often not aware of their power.

This lack of awareness happens on two levels.

First, leaders fail to understand what kind of power they have and how they might use it – a real missed opportunity.

For example, imagine a leader at an all-hands meeting who doesn’t step in to help clarify when someone asks a question about the culture and instead just leaves the question hanging. This could have been a great opportunity for the leader to embrace their power and help create clarity.

Second, leaders might also fail to understand how their actions might be misinterpreted. They often don’t understand that all their actions, no matter how small, send a loud message about what’s valued and what’s not valued in the organization.

Leaders hold culture megaphones. And the more power they have, the louder it is.

Employees are looking for cues from leaders (as the people who many view as the ones who have “made it”) about what matters.

For example, when a leader decides to leave early from a meeting where people are sharing their perspectives on an important issue. Or the leader repeatedly checks their phone during a highly anticipated meeting.

What did they smile or frown about? Did they interrupt someone? What joke did they tell? Was that ambiguous sentence a message about the future of that team?

People can make mistaken assumptions about the meaning behind even the most innocent actions.

To give a real-life example, in one organization a leader was frustrated about an outcome that wasn’t achieved and ended up yelling at a couple of people in a larger group.

From his perspective, the message needed to be delivered, and he thought he needed to demonstrate a sense of urgency.

But this lack of awareness of his power was glaring. The message he was sending wasn’t about accountability or urgency, but instead was that if you make a mistake you will get in big trouble, publicly.

And the impact was real; not only were the recipients of his all too explicit message embarrassed, but they were also scared.

Unfortunately, this leader’s behavior was also directly in conflict with the organization’s aspirational values.

In one interaction, big messages were sent from the leader’s actions to the organization about what really mattered.

From my perspective, I completely understand why leaders want to take these kinds of actions.

It’s a hard and often frustrating job to lead an organization.

But that’s why leaders get paid a lot of money – to handle that pressure, not to haphazardly push that pressure on to other people.

Instead, this leader could have asked questions and determined what needed to change in the organization to get the results he was looking for and/or to make sure this same mistake didn’t happen again.

Changing culture requires power.

The culture cycle (either virtuous or vicious) has the inertia to continue without significant intentional intervention.

And significant intentional intervention is enabled when those with more power are driving the change.

Often times, though, it is challenging for leaders to understand the need for culture change.

Many leaders are long-term members of their organizational system and no longer see the culture for what it is. Often, these leaders were recruited and promoted for demonstrating the very behaviors that are part of the current culture.

Not only is it hard for leaders to see their own behavior but it’s also extremely difficult for them to be motivated to change a system that has reinforced them psychologically and financially.

And that doesn’t even include those leaders who lack self-awareness about their power or those who choose to use their power for their own interests.

A colleague gave the example of the CEO of her company saying, during an executive staff meeting, that the employees should be 110% committed to the company.

Someone mentioned that quite a few employees had second jobs or side hustles to help pay their bills, so it was hard to be that committed.

He replied that nobody should be moonlighting.

The room went quiet.

My colleague and her colleagues left that session feeling like the CEO was completely out of touch with what people were experiencing and that he was coming from a place of economic privilege.

The one person who gave a different perspective was quickly shot down by the person with the most power in the room.

The CEO left that conversation with his original misinformed perspective not only still in place but also reinforced: that he was primarily concerned with employee commitment to the company, not in understanding or empathizing with what employees were going through (and which also was in direct contrast to one of their company values).

It’s only when leaders separate their own egos and interests and embrace the opportunity to use their power for good that they can create intentional cultures.

Many books about culture are focused on leadership for these reasons.

Some leaders can step outside themselves and realize that change is needed. But others will continue to struggle with culture until they can understand their role in it.

For those leaders, here are my recommendations:

– Embrace their roles as culture architects. Be the voice of the aspirational culture and work to design an intentional culture.

– Understand their own power and how their behaviors impact others.

– Study the current culture from the perspective of employees, understanding that their experience of the culture is likely to be different.

– Hire other leaders who represent other perspectives than their own.

– Learn about culture and specifically learn about how other types of culture like professional, national/ geographical and social identity cultures intersect with the organization’s culture.

– Develop skillsets related to creating psychological safety.

– Ensure the aspirational culture has human elements that include belonging, inclusion, and caring about employees as human beings.

Leaders who embrace their roles as culture architects and understand their own power are the ones who will be differentiating their organizations from others—not only as organizations that are more likely to be aligned and achieve their goals, but also organizations where employees will thrive.

About the Author

Laura Hamill, Ph.D. is an organizational psychologist, ex-Microsoft director, and Limeade cofounder, an employee experience software company.

Through her firm Paris Phoenix Group, she advises companies on how to transform their cultures. She is also a host at the Happy at Work podcast.

Her new book is, The Power of Culture: An Economist Edge Book (The Economist Books, Nov. 12, 2024).

Learn more: parisphoenixgroup.com

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