5 minutes
While HR can provide important structure, expertise, and guidance, culture is ultimately shaped through the everyday behaviors of leaders.
A few years ago, I was working with a leadership team that had recently defined their core values. They had put a lot of thought into the process. They brought in a consultant, aligned on four values that reflected the kind of culture they wanted to create, and took the right steps to communicate them. The values were displayed on the walls, included in their handbook, and shared across the organization.
On the surface, everything looked right. But as we started to have deeper conversations, a different picture began to emerge. One of their stated values was collaboration. It was something they said was critical to their success as an organization. But in practice, there were clear gaps.
There was a long-tenured employee—someone who had been with the organization for over 20 years—who consistently created friction between departments. Instead of collaborating, he operated in silos, pushed back on others, and made cross-functional work more difficult.
When I asked about it, the response reflected something I’ve heard in many organizations.
“Well, he’s been here a long time…that’s just how he is.”
They went on to describe how this manager’s technical skills were excellent, and how much they valued his experience and institutional knowledge. He understood the business, knew the history of the organization, and was viewed as someone with strong operational expertise. But while his technical contributions were valued, his leadership behavior was having a negative impact on the culture. The friction between departments, resistance to collaboration, and ongoing tension were shaping how people worked together and experienced the organization every day.
This is where many organizations get stuck. They treat culture like an initiative—something you define, communicate, and roll out. But culture is really the result of everyday leadership behavior. It’s shaped through what leaders model, what they tolerate, how they communicate, and how consistently they reinforce expectations.
The values said collaboration mattered, but the behavior being tolerated said something different. And over time, employees learn to trust behavior more than messaging.
This is why culture cannot be treated as something that lives primarily within HR, workshops, or organizational messaging. Those efforts can provide important structure, clarity, and support, but they are only effective when leadership behaviors consistently reinforce them. HR can be an integral part of building a strong culture by bringing experience, expertise, frameworks, and guidance to the organization. A best practice is to view HR as a strategic consultant and partner to leadership—helping equip leaders with the tools, direction, and consistency needed to support a healthy culture.
But HR cannot carry the culture of an organization on their own.
Culture ultimately comes to life through the everyday actions of leaders—through how they communicate, what they reinforce, how they handle challenges, and the standards they model for others.
Culture must be a strategic priority at the senior leadership level, and a responsibility carried by every leader in the organization. Employees experience culture through the day-to-day behaviors of leaders far more than through messaging or initiatives.
One reason culture work often becomes disconnected from leadership is because many leaders are overwhelmed and operating reactively. They’re focused on immediate demands, solving problems, putting out fires, and managing day-to-day pressures. As a result, culture starts to feel like something separate from leadership rather than something being shaped through every interaction, conversation, and decision.
Research consistently shows that direct managers have the greatest impact on the employee experience and overall culture. If you are a manager or leader, you are not just responsible for your team or department—you are influencing the culture of the organization through how you show up every day. It’s reflected in how clearly expectations are communicated, how accountability is modeled, how constructively issues are addressed, and whether leaders create an environment where people can do their best work.
People don’t follow what you say—they follow what you do. Employees are constantly observing how leaders respond in real situations. They notice how mistakes are handled, whether difficult conversations are avoided or addressed, and how consistently leaders model accountability and respect. Those moments shape culture far more than any formal messaging ever will.
Culture also becomes most visible under pressure. It’s easy to talk about values when things are going well, but moments of challenge, tension, and uncertainty reveal what actually matters inside an organization. When something goes wrong, do leaders create clarity or confusion? Do they address issues directly or avoid them? Do they uphold the values, or make exceptions when behaviors become uncomfortable to address? These everyday decisions shape the experience people have at work.
Culture is not formed through one major moment. It’s built through small, repeated behaviors over time. How leaders respond in meetings. Whether they follow through on commitments. How they handle stress. Whether they listen, acknowledge contributions, and create clarity. The small things matter because they become patterns, and patterns become culture.
Healthy cultures are not just better for people; they also lead to better organizational outcomes. Teams with strong leadership, clarity, accountability, and trust tend to be more engaged, collaborative, adaptable, and productive. Culture impacts retention, communication, innovation, and overall performance more than many organizations realize.
As leaders, we often think about culture as something organizational, but employees experience culture most directly through their manager. Culture is not built through intention alone—it’s shaped through the behaviors leaders consistently model, reinforce, and tolerate every day.
Laurie Maddalena, MBA, CSP, CPCC, is a professional speaker, leadership consultant and founder of CUES Supplier member Envision Excellence LLC in the Washington, D.C., area. She is the bestselling author of the book, The Elevated Leader. Her mission is to rid the world of bad management practices and help organizations create cultures where people love to come to work. Maddalena facilitates management and executive training programs and team-building sessions and speaks at leadership events. Prior to starting her business, she was a human resources and organizational development executive at a credit union in Maryland. Contact her at 240.605.7940 or laurie@lauriemaddalena.com.
