High Impact Leadership: How you can be a Culture Shaper

I was having a conversation with a friend about leadership and some of its impacts. The topic steered towards company culture and how a strong culture is built. My friend then said "But I don't think I can influence the culture in my organisation, can I? I thought people higher up need to worry about that!" My friend had just started out in a leadership role, and was just finding his feet as a leader.

What he said is echoed by many people in lower to middle level management roles. When it comes to shaping culture, people see that as a key responsibility of senior leadership and People and Culture Managers alone. The buck seems to stop with them. The thing is, culture in an organisation is everyone's responsibility, not just that of a select few. Everyone, regardless of their roles and responsibilities have the ability to influence culture in some way or the other. In other words, everyone can be a culture shaper. From team members to leaders across multiple levels. Understanding this can help in a couple of ways: Firstly, It helps people appreciate the impact they can have on their organisation and feel more fulfilled in their role. Secondly, it helps the process of building a strong culture more seamless.

So how can you become a culture shaper? Here are some insights that can help. This is very much relevant for people who are emerging leaders as well as in middle management roles.

Create an inclusive environment: A great first place to start with is your team environment. How inclusive is it? Does everyone have an opportunity to contribute towards the team? Do you stand up for people who are somehow left out? Creating an inclusive environment promotes belonging. People look forward to be associated with the team, and connect and collaborate with others freely.

Share knowledge: How well do you share your knowledge and enable others? By being generous with your knowledge, you inspire others to do the same. People feel as though it's ok to share your knowledge with others. As a next step, you can also think about how you can create knowledge artefacts (Process documents, guides, reports etc) that people can access and share with others.

Communicate freely: How seamless is the communication within your team? Do people feel the need to hold back for fear of being discriminated. Are you and others in the team approachable for questions and feedback? How are conflicts handled in your team? If you notice a pattern of people not opening up, it could be a sign that something's wrong. And it's worth looking into it.

Support people in a crisis: When things get tough, how well are people supported? Also, when people make mistakes, do they open up or try to cover up? A lot can be said about that, as it indicates that people may not be feeling safe. As a leader, you can reach out to people and understand what's happening. That way, you can find out how best you can support them.

Understand people's aspirations and work-life choices: It becomes important as a leader to know your people. What their aspirations are, what motivates them, what's happening outside work. There is a growing emphasis on being a human centred leader to create a strong, high performing culture. Taking the time to connect with your team members creates a healthy rapport and importantly, trust.

Organisations often talk about their focus on building a strong culture. All of that could amount to nothing if people across the organisation don't resonate with it. Culture truly becomes strong when people see themselves as a part of it and take active part in making the culture just a bit better. So everyone can be a culture shaper.

What opportunities do you find to influence culture in your organisation? Do you resonate with some of the insights shared above?