A company’s culture is its DNA – it shapes attitudes, behaviors, and mindsets throughout the organization. While culture emerges organically from employees at all levels, it is critically influenced by leadership at the top. Executives and senior managers have an outsized impact in cultivating and reinforcing a healthy, high-performance culture. Here’s why building a winning culture starts with leadership.
Lead by Example
Actions speak louder than words. Employees notice what leadership prioritizes and emulate those behaviors. If executives obsess over quarterly earnings at all costs or engage in unethical practices, employees will follow suit. But if leaders make values like integrity, customer service, and teamwork central to their own actions, the organization will reflect those values. Executives must embody the mindsets and behaviors essential to the desired culture.
Role-model Learning and Innovation
In dynamic, rapidly changing business environments, a culture of learning, flexibility, and innovation is critical. Employees must constantly acquire new skills and feel comfortable experimenting and challenging the status quo. Leadership should demonstrate curiosity, openness to new ideas from below, and willingness to question outdated assumptions. When executives model learning and innovation, they give employees permission to do the same.
Champion Diversity and Inclusion
Today’s workforce is demographically diverse, and organizations must tap into the rich array of experiences and perspectives of their employees. Executives play a key role in cultivating diversity and inclusion by valuing unique backgrounds and viewpoints. When leadership actively engages with and listens to marginalized groups, it signals to the entire company that diverse voices matter.
Communicate Your Vision
Culture doesn’t emerge accidentally – it requires clarity of purpose. Executives must regularly communicate a compelling vision that gives employees a sense of meaning and strategic direction. When leadership paints a vivid picture of the destination, employees can align behaviors and decisions accordingly. Clear and consistent messaging about values, goals, and strategy from the top shapes organizational culture.
Be Visible and Approachable
Employees want access to executives to convey concerns, ideas, and input. When leadership is isolated in the C-suite, a “toxic distance” emerges between layers in the company. Being visible and approachable – through town halls, office walkabouts, and skipping unnecessary hierarchy in communications – shortens this distance. Employees feel valued, and culture becomes more participative.
Invest in Employee Growth
A company’s long-term capabilities are shaped by its people. To build a high-performing culture, executives must actively invest in attracting and developing talent. This means putting time and resources into hiring, training, mentoring, and retaining star players. When employees feel challenged and supported, they become more motivated and engaged – strengthening culture.
Role of Executive Coaching
Given their wide-ranging cultural influence, leaders need support in developing the mindsets, skills, and behaviors to actively shape company culture. This is where executive coaching comes in – it is a powerful methodology to help leaders become more purposeful and effective culture champions. Coaches from companies like Hoola Hoop work one-on-one with executives to build critical competencies like emotional intelligence, communication, and motivation. Partnership with an experienced coach gives leaders an objective sounding board to become their best selves and leave their unique imprint on company culture.
The Bottom Line
Culture provides the soft infrastructure that can accelerate or undermine strategy execution. While every employee contributes to culture, it is largely directed from the top. Executives and senior management must fully embrace their role as leading by example across multiple dimensions – from communication to role-modeling desired mindsets and behaviors. With commitment and consistency, leadership can build a high-performing culture that propels the organization to new heights.
