How can leaders shift their behaviours? And why should they?

by Lotte Adams, Senior Consultant – WhartonBC

The way in which leaders show up, how they behave, and their habits and routines are critical to shaping and sustaining organisational culture [1].

Definition of culture: Organisational culture is often cited as the way in which people behave and interact, and the beliefs that inform those behaviours.

Culture should never be deemed a ‘HR issue’ but something that is front and centre of the agenda for all leadership teams. Leaders must visibly demonstrate the behaviours they espouse in their verbal and written communication.

In our efforts to shift or embed culture, we must look at how leaders behave, and how they can engage others to help hold them to account. Leaders should take accountability for role modelling behaviours, whether in the context of a significant change programme or as part of continuous improvement activities.

Here we share three steps for leaders to start role modelling behaviours that reinforce the desired organisational culture:

1. Clearly define the behaviours and habits

• Brainstorm the behaviours that will enable the delivery of performance outcomes. Leaders should focus in on the behaviours that will enable the achievement of outcomes associated with their organisation’s strategic objectives and organisational purpose. Leaders are likely to have some existing data and insights which they can use to inform their desired behaviours – for example: organisational values, data and insights from employee and customer surveys, and criteria from recruitment assessments and interviews.
• Capture behaviours as a set of principles. Leaders should look for ways to bring the behaviours to life through their daily habits, interactions, rituals and routines. Testing these with trusted colleagues and capturing them as 3-5 ‘do’s and don’ts’ to illustrate both the desired and shadow sides will help create a simple blueprint to inform day-to-day interactions.

Example behaviours and habit:

Behaviours: Actively seek out and take the time to listen to alternative perspectives and challenge from others

– Do …always give direct honest feedback and ask others to do the same

– Don’t …avoid difficult conversations

Habit: Add a recurring agenda item into your individual meetings with your direct reports to obtain verbal feedback on yourself and the team’s ways of working.

2. Share the behaviours to create accountability and get live feedback

• Share the desired behaviours with others. Involve peers, direct reports, and teams by sharing the desired behaviours that leaders are wanting to role model and create supportive feedback loops. To obtain direct feedback, leaders will need to create a psychologically safe environment for colleagues to hold them to account around those behaviours ‘in the moment’. ‘Accountability partners’ provide an effective way of formalising this so it stays on the radar of leaders when they have competing priorities. An accountability partner is a trusted colleague who can be honest and non-judgmental and with whom you are comfortable to have open conversations with. A study by the Association for Talent Development[2] found that the probability of completing a goal rises 10% to 65% by committing to someone that you will do it, or up to 95% when you have a specific accountability appointment within them.
• Build behaviours into day-to-day interactions and experiences. Consistent repetition is essential to help behaviours become habits, to the point of becoming automatic, freeing up capacity to allocate attention to other tasks[3]. Often this is most easily done by finding key ‘moments that matter’ in existing processes, practices or routines. These ‘moments’ are when an employee’s experience is most significantly impacted throughout their day and over the year. Turning behaviours into habits requires persistence and patience, as the benefits aren’t always immediately obvious, especially when the behaviour changes are small, irregular and/or feedback from others is low. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, explains that consistent habit building efforts are never wasted but being stored until a tipping point (known as the ‘Plateau of Latent Potential’[4], where the full value of previous efforts will be revealed.

Example of ‘moments that matter’:

Organisation X was looking to make quality career conversations part of their culture. This would support their HR strategy of building greater breadth of capabilities and internal role movement, as well as improve employee engagement. This involved them working on the behavioural shifts required to achieve this, and the specific actions the leadership team needed to be taking through their annual talent and performance cycle.

3. Collectively share benefits of working in the ‘new way’

• Encourage behaviours across leadership groups. Whilst the previous steps can be done on an individual basis, greater benefit will be felt if leaders can collectively think about and challenge their behaviours across their peer group. This demonstrates to employees and teams that behaviours are a priority for all leaders and that it is not just about ‘what you deliver’ but ‘how you do it’. Role modelling across leadership teams increases the weight placed on behaviours and the likelihood of their adoption across the organisation.
• Share experiences of benefits felt. Leaders can encourage behaviour shifts in others by sharing the benefits they’ve personally experienced. They can also look at more formal communication and engagement channels such as all-hands calls, townhalls and forums to talk about behaviour shifts and their personal experiences on a wider scale.

Leaders don’t need a detailed culture assessment or to be in the process of delivering a culture change programme to shift their organisation’s culture. They can start defining and role modelling the behaviours required of them to create and embed the desired culture into the organisation at any point. Why not start now?

For more on how to understand and shift culture in your organisation, take a look at our blog on the 5 common pitfalls of cultural measurement.

[1] Leaders Can Shape Company Culture Through Their Behaviors (hbr.org)

[2] The Power of Accountability – AFCPE

[3] Habits reduce cognitive load: John R. Anderson “Acquisition of cognitive skill,” Psychological Review 89, no. 4 (1982)

[4] Atomic Habits, James Clear, February 2022