The Vital Role of Leaders in Creating Organizational Culture

In the movie, “Remember the Titans”, a pivotal moment occurs when the white captain hears something that makes him realize the team’s dysfunction stems from what his leadership:

“Attitude reflects leadership”

In that one moment, the white captain understands that while he hasn’t been outwardly hateful (at least, by his own standard), he’s been allowing his white teammates to demean and hurt their new black teammates.  By extension, the culture of fighting each other instead of working together was directly caused by him.  

It’s a powerful turning point in one of my favorite movies and it hits on 2 important points: (1) team culture can make or break your results, and (2) leaders are directly responsible for it.  

The Importance of Culture

Organizational culture isn’t just theory – it’s a real phenomenon that has a massive impact on how employees live and breathe your organization. In a 2019 Quality of Life Study, researchers found that support and respect from managers and a positive environment boost employee engagement and productivity.   

Interestingly enough, a 2023 Workplace Harassment report from HR Acuity found that 52% of employees have experienced or witnessed inappropriate, unethical, or illegal behaviors at work (including bullying, sexual harassment, and/or racism).  This is reflected in the 2024 Social Impact Staff Retention Project, through a survey of nonprofit staff across the US, found that 48% of staff were looking for new work due to toxic environments.

The Role of Leaders in Shaping Culture

Dickerson Bakker found that, for fundraising staff, having a CEO or Executive Director who is fully invested in philanthropy was a major indicator of the likelihood of a fundraiser to remain in their job. 

The biggest mistake leaders often make is that they opt out of culture building.  Leaders often focus on big problems, but forget they must actively shape a positive culture, or risk a negative one.  There are 8 critical scenarios in which leaders often miss the mark and miss an opportunity to shape the culture:

1. During structural changes (i.e., layoffs, RIF’s, reorganizations, turnover in leadership, etc.) – these periods inherently come with intense unease and anxiety about the future. Lack of empathy or belittling/dismissing that anxiety can quickly erode trust.
2. Poorly handled leaves of absences – With increased leaves of absence due to mental health issues, family care issues, medical concerns, etc. (already stressful situations), making the process before, during, and after complicated can sour an employee’s experience.
3. Workplace Harassment – As noted above, vast amounts of workplace harassment go unreported, and retaliation, or the perception of it, only reduces the number of people willing to report it. 
4. Issues that don’t get resolved – For the employees and situations that are reported, slow and inefficient investigations with lack of follow up and transparency and resolution only encourages more employees to stay silent.
5. The environment has changed (i.e., budget shortfalls, funding loss, negative PR) – Change in general is hard and lack of communication further creates a mindset in employees that things are being done to them and they have no control.  Transparency is a highly valued approach by younger generations, so pretending that nothing is wrong won’t be useful.  
6. Cultural value discrepancies (i.e., a leader who is discriminatory or racist that is promoted) – Organizational values can often be a buzzword at times, but if you have them and behave in ways opposite of them, it’s deeply demoralizing.  For example, promoting someone who’s a strong performer, but frequently bullies or uses racist language is a quick way to turn your employees against you.
7. Over-prescribing policies and bureaucracy – In an effort to prevent unethical or bad behavior, many organizations resort to trying to include everything in their employee manual or enforcing overly complicated bureaucracy.  Despite positive intentions, it only serves to frustrate employees and force managers to spend more time managing processes and policies than leading.
8. Too much responsibility, not enough support – As described in the SISR report above (and echoed by nonprofit staff at every level), there’s often way too many demands and responsibility, and not enough support to help staff accomplish their tasks.  Whether it’s unrealistic fundraising goals, or incredibly complicated paperwork demands, staff are feeling overloaded, and more importantly, take them away from the reason they joined in the first place.

How leaders can create a culture of respect and belonging

Being aware of the pitfalls, leaders play a pivotal role by focusing on 2 main strategies: Processes and Culture.

Strategy 1: Process Improvements

• Simplify your policies: For those who are risk-averse, it sounds maddening to think about taking out policies aimed at preventing bad behavior.  The reality is that written policies don’t fully prevent behavior.  But it’s easier to enforce a one page dress code than it is to enforce a 13-page dress code.  Susan Urahn, President and CEO of Pew recently wrote an article about their many steps they’ve taken to improve culture, and specifically calls out how they’ve reduced bureaucracy and improved clarity of expectations.

• Provide skills development and career pathing: The research is resoundingly clear – employees today want the opportunity to grow and develop.  Providing content is not the same as a strategic talent development process, with career mapping and skills gap analysis to plan for the future.  

• Flexible work arrangements: Society is currently reckoning with whether the idea of a strict 40-hour work week is necessary for all roles.  This is a good time for organizations to take stock of the structure of how they get their work done.  Employees need to feel confident that they can manage all areas of their work and personal life without wondering if they’re risking their jobs.

• Simplify Work and technology: Having employees use 10 different systems with 10 different logins and need to have passwords updated every 3 months is asking to frustrate everyone.  As much as possible, simplify systems being used, allowing single-sign on, and reducing administrative demands while increasing support or flexibility on those can reduce the pressure for employees.

Strategy 2: Culture Interventions

• Communication: The most important task of any leader is open, honest, and ongoing communication.  Leaders should be focused on championing the vision, the mission, and the values and as one leader puts it, “showing my work”.

• Define and demonstrate the values: Leaders have to go the way and demonstrate the values first.  If that’s you, that means showing what it looks like daily.  It also means your decisions should be guided by your values, not by what’s convenient at the moment. 

• Enforce cultural norms:  Strategic initiatives, hiring decisions, promotion decisions, among others, have to be consistent with the culture you want.  If a leader is promoted because they’re a strong performer or well connected, but they’re known for bullying or racist or discriminatory remarks, it won’t matter what you SAY your values are.  It’ll be clear what’s truly important to you.

• Create a culture of recognition: Find ways for leaders to recognize employees, coworkers to recognize each other, and even customers/clients to recognize specific employees.  Some leaders often express they dislike the idea of making some people feel left out if they aren’t recognized, but those who are doing good work need to feel appreciated for that effort.

• Provide more mental health resources/benefits: Most companies have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), but it’s a vastly underutilized resource.  Even if they were to use it, EAP typically only provides 3 sessions free of charge.  Offer more counseling sessions, mental health days, or family care resources to support employees holistically

• Provide more autonomy: Micromanaging was never a good thing, but leaders more than ever need to appropriately balance the right amount of support each employee needs.  That means providing the tools and resources they actually need to complete their tasks, but also the freedom to complete them.  

Embrace Opportunity

Transforming cultures is a marathon, meant to be taken one step at a time.  

It’s not enough to focus solely on big-picture problems; leaders have the responsibility to actively and intentionally foster a positive environment through open communication, consistent demonstration of values, and a commitment to both process improvements and cultural interventions. 

By doing so, you can create a workplace where employees feel respected, supported, and motivated to contribute, ultimately leading to greater organizational success and employee well-being. Leaders who embrace this opportunity will their organization grow in ways they couldn’t have previously imagined.

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Chris Wong is a certified executive coach, licensed therapist, and seasoned leadership development professional with a proven track record in the nonprofit sector. He specializes in guiding leaders through strategic prioritization, confident navigation of difficult conversations, and fostering high-performing cultures. As a facilitator and public speaker, Chris has trained hundreds of leaders and spearheaded successful organizational projects. His extensive experience spans nonprofit, health insurance, government systems, and encompasses leadership development, strategic planning, change management, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Currently, he partners with human service nonprofit executives to fix dysfunctional cultures and systems to turn their strategic plans into strategic action.