Designing Organisational Culture: Leadership's Role in Shaping Values and Behaviours

Organisational culture goes beyond just an internal ecosystem; it is the foundation shaping how employees interact, make decisions, view their roles, responsibilities and feel valued. Leadership plays a central role in this dynamic, actively influencing and curating the culture of an organisation through deliberate and strategic actions.

This article explores how leaders can effectively design and cultivate a culture that aligns with both corporate values and drives organisational success.

Purposefully cultivated cultures breed engaged employees, foster innovation, ensure retention and provide a magnet for top talent. At the centre of this dynamic ecosystem lies leadership and the choices you as a leader make every day when you turn up.

When leaders embody the right principles and inspire others to embrace them, organisations thrive. Good leaders can rewrite a company's DNA to ensure the values, behaviours and mindsets in the workforce are moving in positive forward direction.

Effective culture leaders start by setting the right tone themselves. They live and breathe the principles they wish their employees to internalise, turning espoused values into tangible realities.

Michael Dowling CEO of Northwell Health, New York States largest private employer stated "Leadership to me is about making sure that people feel that they belong to the mission of the organisation. That they just don't work for an organisation. People want to belong to something. You set in motion as a leader the culture of the organisation. You try to build culture. That's what good organisations are all about—culture. What's the culture? It should be inclusive, provide opportunity for everybody to grow and advance."

Since Dowling took over Northwell Health in 2002 he has taken their workforce from 30,000 employees with an annual operating revenue of 2.5 billion to 85,000 employees with an annual operating revenue of approximately $14.54 billion. Dowling’s approach is people centric, and places innovation and the spirit of entrepreneurship at the core of the mission to continuously improve their offering and further he credits their growth and success to his workforce.

In a global landscape which continues to rapidly evolve and be disrupted leaders must prioritise and recognise emerging trends and needs and purposefully design for the future of their business and employees.

For Australian software pioneers Atlassian, this mindset was central to the launch of their "Team Anywhere" flexible working model. It wasn't just another pandemic quick-fix, but a holistic reframing of how teams operate and stay connected, no matter their location.

"We recognised that distributed work presented a huge cultural challenge," explained Annie Dean, Head of Team Anywhere at Atlassian. "So, our strategy focused on designing digital-first experiences that preserved Atlassian's renowned team spirit." This also allowed Atlassian to tap into a broader talent pool and reduce operational costs, showcasing the strategic advantages of a flexible work policy.

Initiatives included virtual "Team Quarters" for colleagues to bond, reimagined meetings for better focus, and systematic efforts to reduce calendar bloat. The numbers spoke volumes – Atlassian achieved a 13% reduction in scheduled meetings.

"It wasn't just about checking boxes on flexibility," Dean noted. "Leaders embodied new virtual-first norms, modelling the sort of engaged, purposeful behaviours we wanted echoed across our organisation."

Attuned and successful cultural leaders recognise that workplace culture is a delicate interplay of the intangible and tangible - artefacts, rituals and processes are conduits for infusing meaning into each day's work.

Weaving purpose into the fabric of your organisation:

The most impactful leaders recognise that organisational culture must reflect an authentic ethos that moves people. When culture is both modelled and led well the benefits to your brand and operating revenue are an organic secondary outcome.

So, what are some core tenets that you as a leader can strengthen or begin concentrating on to ensure you’re designing a culture of authenticity and success?

Model the Way: Leaders must act as role models by embodying the organisation’s values. This means living out the values in their daily operations and decision-making processes. Values must be lived out not just spoken about.

Foster Open Authentic Communication: Encouraging open lines of communication and feedback helps build trust and ensure that employees feel valued and understood.

Recognise and Reward: Acknowledging and rewarding behaviours (not KPI achievements) that align with organisational values will reinforce those behaviours. This allows good examples to be highlighted and sets the tone for what is valued internally.

Promote Continuous Learning: Leaders should encourage an environment of growth and learning, where employees are motivated to gain new skills and adapt to changing circumstances, aligning personal development with organisational goals.

Innovation as an Imperative: With disruption now the norm, internal cultures that strengthen resilience, failing fast, and continual learning are fostering a workforce of growth mindsets that are more able to sit in the unknown and create new products and services that are responsive to this ongoing climate of change.

Diversity as Catalyst: Organisations who meaningfully champion diversity not only create more psychologically safe workplaces but they more authentically mirror their consumer base and the world we actually inhabit together.

Environmental Sustainability and Impact: Companies increasingly recognise their societal footprint is intrinsic to their employee value proposition. Employees want the cultural identity and values of the organisation they work for to reflect sustainability and humanitarian values.

Thriving cultures are not stagnant, they are constantly evolving and adapting to the internal barometer and external environment. Leaders play a crucial role in fostering this evolution by providing direction and context. They connect values with mission and make the ‘why’ core to every employee’s purpose and sense of self within the workplace. In turn, this fosters a culture of growth, innovation, and collective forward momentum.

Shaping workplace culture, at its core, is an exercise in synthesis – channelling individual efforts towards collective impact. The most transformative and memorable leaders fuse emotional intelligence with clear vision, and inspiration with rigour.

They recognise that cultures thrive when the intangible and tangible intertwine - artefacts, rituals, and processes becoming conduits for introducing deeper meaning into each person's daily work.

If you’re interested in finding out more and how to leverage this in your own business then reach out via info@dialecticalconsulting.com.au or contact me via LinkedIn.