Your Leadership is your Culture, and it’s more important than you think
The connection between leadership and organizational culture is undeniable. It is within leadership that a company’s values, behaviours, and work environment are created, embodied, and continuously reinforced. Simply put, if you have a company, your leadership is your culture, and everyone is taking note.
Culture matters deeply to business success. Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report shows that companies with strong cultures and highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147% in earnings per share, emphasizing that leadership behaviour is the most important factor driving engagement and directly impacting the bottom line. Research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reinforces this, highlighting that leaders set the tone by modelling behaviours, establishing priorities, and communicating transparently, creating a culture of trust, inclusiveness, and accountability. McKinsey & Company’s 2023 Organizational Health Index further confirms that organizations where leadership actively supports alignment, motivation, and capability development achieve up to 3 times higher shareholder returns over 10 years.
What Companies Can Do to Strengthen Leadership and Culture
Invest in Leadership Development: Implement targeted programs that enhance emotional intelligence, communication skills, and cultural awareness. As Harvard Business Review notes, leadership development programs focused on emotional intelligence and cultural competence (such as those supported by frameworks like EOS, MBTI, and Six Working Genius) are vital to cultivating leaders who can navigate complexity while reinforcing a positive culture.
Leverage Personality and Strengths Frameworks: Utilizing tools such as MBTI and Six Working Genius allows organizations to uncover the natural strengths and developmental areas of leaders and teams. This deeper insight promotes more effective collaboration and communication by aligning roles with individual talents. When leaders understand diverse working styles and motivations, they can foster a more inclusive culture that values each person’s unique contributions.
Create Feedback Loops: Establishing regular, transparent channels for upward, peer, and 360-degree feedback encourages open communication and continuous improvement. These feedback mechanisms provide leaders with real-time insights into how their actions impact culture and engagement, enabling timely adjustments. A culture where feedback is normalized and welcomed strengthens psychological safety and accountability at all levels.
Align Recognition Systems: Designing rewards and incentives that clearly reinforce cultural values ensures that desired behaviours are consistently encouraged and celebrated. Culture-aligned recognition motivates employees and accelerates positive behaviour by signalling what the organization truly values.
Prioritize Psychological Safety: Training leaders to create environments where employees feel safe to express ideas, take risks, and collaborate without fear of negative consequences is critical to innovation and continuous improvement. Psychological safety fosters open dialogue and learning, which strengthens culture by empowering employees to contribute authentically and creatively.
Make the Hard Calls to Protect Culture: Leaders must be willing to address and, when necessary, remove individuals who consistently undermine cultural values, no matter how skilled they may be. Tolerating toxic behaviour sends a powerful message to everyone that misalignment is acceptable, which can erode morale, drive out high performers, and ultimately reshape the culture in unintended ways. Protecting culture sometimes means choosing long-term integrity over short-term comfort.
Take Action with Move HR
Sustainable growth depends on leaders who embrace their role as carriers of culture.
At Move HR, we believe that leadership is culture and that investing in strong, adaptive leadership is the key to unlocking your organization’s full potential. Our team partners with companies to develop leadership capabilities, implement tailored culture strategies, and harness powerful frameworks like EOS, MBTI and Six Working Genius to drive lasting impact.
If you are ready to transform your leadership and culture to fuel business success, contact Move HR today to learn how we can help you cultivate leadership that truly shapes your culture and your future.
References
Gallup. (2024). State of the Global Workplace Report. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). (2022). The Role of Leadership in Shaping Organizational Culture. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/organizational-and-employee-development/pages/leadership-and-culture.aspx
McKinsey & Company. (2023). Organizational Health Index: The Culture Factor. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/organizational-health-index-the-culture-factor
Harvard Business Review. (2021). Why Leadership Development Programs Fail. https://hbr.org/2021/05/why-leadership-development-programs-fail
Six Working Genius. (2023). Discover Your Working Genius. https://www.workinggenius.com/
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. CPP, Inc.
