The Role of Leadership in Driving Positive Culture Change

Workplace culture is often described as ‘how things are done around here.’ When that’s not working, organisations may strive to achieve change through values posters, vision statements, slogans, and other top-down initiatives, but ultimately the only time culture changes is when leaders themselves change.

How things are done is shaped, consciously or unconsciously, by how leaders behave, communicate, and make decisions. If your organisation is working towards a more positive, inclusive, and high-performing culture, the most powerful lever you have is leadership.

This article is a call to action for leaders to step into their role not just as operational managers, but as culture shapers.

This article is part of a series on leadership, particularly in workplaces with a highly technical workforce. If you would like to receive the full series of articles in a PDF, click link below.

Culture Change Is a Leadership Responsibility

Too often, culture change is treated as a project, something owned by HR, launched with a campaign, and measured by engagement surveys. But culture is not a side initiative. It’s the invisible force that shapes every interaction, decision, and outcome.

And it cannot be delegated.

Leaders at every level, especially those in senior roles, set the tone. Whether they realise it or not, they are constantly broadcasting what is valued and what is tolerated. Culture is shaped every day, in every conversation. If you want to change your organisation’s culture you have to do and be different; if leaders don’t change, the culture won’t either. Edgar Schein, a pioneer in organisational culture, supports this perspective;

“The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.”

You may think your role is to deliver strategic outcomes, and that is absolutely true, but your workplace culture will enable or limit your ability to do that more than you might think.

Leadership Truths for Culture Change

1. Culture Change Cannot Be Delegated

You can’t outsource culture work. Leaders must be visible, vocal, and personally invested in the change. This means showing up differently, not just asking others to.

2. Leaders Must Model the Desired Behaviours

People believe what they see. If you want a culture of accountability, you must hold yourself accountable. If you want collaboration, you must collaborate. Culture is caught more than it is taught.

3. Consistent and Transparent Communication Is Key

Culture thrives on clarity. Leaders must communicate not just the “what” of change, but the “why” and the “how.” And they must do it often, with honesty and humility.

The Reality of Culture Change: Slow, Incremental, and Often Unseen

One of the most frustrating, and often overlooked, truths about culture change is that it’s slow and incremental. Yes, transitions are shaped by big decisions and visible shifts, but they’re also built through a multitude of small, consistent actions over months and years. A conversation here, a decision there, a moment of courage or clarity, all of these shape the cultural landscape. The recognition isn’t always a shiny accolade or a dramatic transformation. Often, it’s quiet, relentless progress.

An observation attributed to Rosabeth Moss Kanter is that culture change takes a year for every decade the organisation has existed. This is a sobering reminder that deep-rooted behaviours and beliefs don’t shift overnight. They require sustained effort, patience, and resilience.

And it’s not the work of one heroic leader. It’s the work of every leader, at every level, enabling and supporting each other. Culture change requires collective leadership; a network of people committed to showing up differently, holding each other accountable, and modelling the values they want to see. The journey is long, but it becomes more sustainable, and more powerful, when it’s shared.

Beyond Intent: The Need for Capability

Many leaders genuinely want to create a better culture. But good intentions aren’t enough. Culture change requires capability, the ability to lead with emotional intelligence, to give and receive feedback, to navigate complexity, and to build psychological safety.

In highly technical or performance-driven organisations, leadership is often prized for its rationality, objectivity, and momentum. These qualities are important, but they’re not sufficient. Humans require something more. In her popular book, Dare to Lead, Brené Brown summarises this well:

“Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings, or squander an unreasonable amount of time trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behaviour.”

Culture change is not just about systems and strategy, it’s about people. And people need leaders who can guide them through uncertainty, resistance, and renewal. This is where leadership development becomes culture work. Leaders must be equipped not only to make decisions, but to hold space, foster trust, and lead with empathy so that people can engage with the organisational change from their individual perspective, which is, in reality, the only way change can occur.

Practical Actions for Leaders

If you’re serious about shaping culture, here’s where to start:

• Reflect on your impact. What culture are you reinforcing through your actions?
• Build emotional intelligence and relational capability. Invest in your ability to lead with empathy, self-awareness, and to create psychological safety.
• Engage your team. Co-create shared values and behaviours that guide how you work together.
• Tell stories. Use real examples to bring your culture to life.
• Align systems. Make sure your recognition, performance, and decision-making processes support the culture you want.

Lead collectively. Culture change is sustained through networks of leaders. Build alliances with peers and support each other in modelling and reinforcing the desired culture.

Culture Is a Leadership Outcome

Culture doesn’t change because of posters or slogans. It changes because leaders change - how they show up, how they listen, how they lead.

If you’re leading a team, a function, or an entire organisation, you are already shaping culture. The question is: Are you doing it by design or by default?

Have a question, feedback, or want to chat about your specific situation? Pop your details below and we’ll get back to you soon!



Jo Porter, MAPP

Jo Porter, Director of Leading Lighter, has 25 years’ experience as an Organisational & Leadership Development professional. Jo has extensive experience working within the Scientific Research and STEMM Sector, including over 13 years for CSIRO. Jo holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from University of Melbourne and leverages evidence-based tools and frameworks in her work.

With years of experience working alongside leaders in technically complex and high-performance environments, Jo has helped organisations move from disengagement and dysfunction to clarity, connection, and momentum. Her approach is grounded in evidence-based methods, practical tools, and a deep understanding of how culture shapes strategy, performance, and wellbeing. The Leading Lighter approach is not that of one-size-fits-all solutions, instead working with leaders and teams to co-create meaningful, sustainable change from the inside out.