Culture is not a people profession side issue. It shapes retention, productivity, innovation and commercial performance every day. Sandi Wassmer asserts that leaders must treat culture as a strategic priority, role-model the right behaviours and create psychologically safe workplaces where people can contribute fully, learn openly and perform sustainably together.
When leaders treat culture as an afterthought, rather than a core business imperative, they don’t just put the well-being of their people at risk, they put commercial performance on the line. Poor culture quietly drives attrition, disengagement and reduced productivity, eroding margins in ways that rarely show up in performance metrics until it’s too late.
…Fewer bottlenecks, fewer repeated mistakes, and far less time lost to managing fear
In a strong culture, people understand why their work matters, how it connects to the whole, and the part they play in making their organisation great. This results in fewer bottlenecks, fewer repeated mistakes, and far less time lost to managing fear, navigating politics, firefighting, or self-protection.
The cost of losing talent
People seldom leave jobs purely because of remuneration. They leave because they feel unseen, unheard, undervalued, disrespected or culturally misaligned. The cost of replacing them, in recruitment, onboarding, lost knowledge, slowed momentum and delayed delivery, is a direct commercial hit.
In unhealthy cultures, people stop giving their best. They do the minimum, avoid risk, and focus on survival over contribution. This impairs performance, quality, innovation, and customer experience.
In a poor culture, people focus on managing politics, avoiding conflict, correcting preventable errors, self-protecting and chasing clarity. That’s time not spent doing anything productive.
By contrast, in a strong culture, work is delivered more consistently, efficiently, and effectively. Ambitious targets become achievable without burning people out, because energy is going into the work itself.
Psychological safety is the foundation of a great culture
At the heart of a healthy culture is psychological safety, the shared belief that it is safe to ask questions, raise concerns, share ideas and admit mistakes without fear of humiliation or retribution. When people feel safe to take interpersonal risks, they identify problems early, as they’re able to voice concerns before they become crises, they are more collaborative and open to sharing emerging ideas, making it easier and faster to find solutions. They are also more comfortable owning their mistakes and learning from them, with a focus on continuous improvement and growth.
An absence of trust, transparency and accountability results in a culture of silence, compliance and hyper-vigilance, where minor unresolved issues become serious problems, innovation and creativity are stifled, and individuals spend time looking after themselves, rather than the success of the team.
A psychologically safe environment enables teams to use their full collective talents, leading directly to better decisions, solutions and performance.
Impact of leadership behaviour
How leaders lead is the clearest expression of culture that employees experience day-to-day. People might join because of the brand, but they stay or leave because of the behaviour of their leaders.
In poor cultures, leaders micromanage, removing autonomy and signalling mistrust; avoid difficult conversations, allowing underperformance and unacceptable behaviours to flourish; model perfectionism, and punish others for imperfection, and are hypocritical, saying one thing and doing another.
In great cultures, leaders own their mistakes, say “I don’t know”, ask for help, role-model vulnerability as strength, invite diverse views, hold high standards with humanity, and align decisions with purpose and values.
When people see their leaders exemplifying the culture, they feel safe, engaged, and motivated. When they see leaders not living into the values, they take that as the real cultural signal and act accordingly.
What leaders can do to create a great culture
Building and maintaining a great culture is not “one and done”, it lives and dies by the everyday behaviours that everyone in the organisation upholds and the leaders role model.
It’s essential to have:
- Clear vision, the “where”
- Clear purpose, the “why”
- A co-created set of organisational values and associated behaviours, “the how”
Values and behaviours provide the foundation and clarity for how “things get done around here”, and the consistency and cohesion for everyone to stay true to your purpose and work harmoniously together towards achieving your long-term vision.
Leaders must role model vulnerability by speaking frequently and openly about what they’re learning, when they’ve made mistakes, what they’ve learned from them, and what they’re still figuring out. They must ask for support when they need help and actively solicit people’s views.
When someone admits a mistake, thank them and ask what they’ve learned, rather than trying to find who to blame. It’s essential to find the sweet spot between balancing care and accountability, making it clear that it is not about lowering standards, but about enabling people to meet high standards confidently.
Treat culture as a commercial necessity
If culture doesn’t feature in your strategy, then it will never come alive. Leaders must ensure that there are clear outcomes, measurable targets, and ownership in place to rack measurable culture indicators, such as attrition, absence levels, engagement, progression patterns, and employee relations issues and discuss these at senior level as seriously as financial results.
It’s equally important to ensure you have the right infrastructure in place, so HR and L&D must be partners in building culture, not a policing or parenting function that reacts when things go wrong.
Culture is the lived experience of people from the moment they hear about you, until long after they leave. Leaders should ensure that recruitment and onboarding experiences match the cultural promise you make externally. From here, it’s vital that you ensure development and progression are transparent, fair and equitable. The most overlooked part of how culture shows up in the employee experience is offboarding, a cultural moment that includes dignified departures, honest exit interviews, and a genuinely open door for strong people to return.
Simple rituals, such as check-ins at the start of meetings, closing with rounds of learning or appreciation and structured learning sessions after projects, all serve to embed and reinforce culture. Rituals that celebrate behaviours aligned to values, not just hitting targets, are equally impactful, as are rituals that celebrate failure.
Lead with a learning mindset
To instil a learning mindset, learning must be genuinely valued, and the everyday environment be one where curiosity is rewarded, mistakes are treated as opportunities to improve and grow, and development is part of the way things get done.
Leaders must actively encourage intelligent risk-taking, making it clear that well-considered experiments that don’t succeed are equally valued for what they teach the organisation.
Culture is the engine of sustainable performance
When culture is healthy and role-modelled by leaders, what’s good for people and what’s good for the organisation become aligned. People are able to thrive, and that shows up in productivity, innovation, customer loyalty, and commercial performance.
Teams in such cultures move with speed but without frenzy, collaborate across boundaries, make better decisions, and recover quickly from setbacks. Customers feel the difference in the quality of service and care they receive.
When leaders take responsibility for culture as seriously as they do for strategy and revenue, they unlock the single biggest lever they have for long‑term performance.
Sandi Wassmer is CEO at Onvero
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