Stop Calling It a Culture Problem. It’s Usually a Leadership Problem

We love to talk about culture.  We celebrate it in slide decks, measure it in quarterly engagement surveys, and market it with filtered photos of team events and branded T-shirts.

And when things go wrong; when trust erodes, high performers leave, or a team slips into apathy, the diagnosis is almost always the same:

“We’ve got a culture problem.”

Lets think bigger than that: culture isn’t broken in isolation.  Culture breaks where leadership falters.

Despite what many well-intentioned execs believe, culture is not an aura.  It’s not a “vibe.”  And it’s definitely not HR’s job alone to fix.

Culture is the living reflection of leadership.  And when it’s sick, it’s not the environment that needs examining first, it’s the decisions, behaviours, and blind spots of those leading it.

Culture Is the Mirror. Leadership Is the Hand Holding It.

Culture doesn’t live in your company values statement.

It lives in the meeting where nobody speaks up.

It lives in the email you didn’t reply to.

It lives in the behaviour you excused because “he brings in the big accounts.”

It lives in what leaders reward, tolerate, and ignore, day after day, meeting after meeting, decision after decision.

A 2023 Deloitte study revealed a troubling truth:

94% of executives say culture is critical to business success — but only 19% believe they have the right culture.

That’s not a knowledge gap.  It’s a leadership accountability gap.

Culture Isn’t Broken By the Big Things. It’s Broken in the Small Silences.

Here’s where culture quietly erodes:

• When a toxic high performer is protected because they hit their numbers.

• When a junior staffer speaks up and hears nothing back.

• When leaders cancel 1:1s week after week, unintentionally sending the message: “You’re not a priority.”

• When people get promoted for results, not values.

These aren’t headline-grabbing moments.  They’re not dramatic.  What they are is cumulative and corrosive. And teams feel them deeply.

They begin to learn: "What we say we stand for isn’t what we do.”  And that’s when disengagement becomes systemic.  That’s when your culture isn’t misunderstood, it’s mistrusted.

Culture Isn’t HR’s Responsibility. It’s Yours.

Too often, organisations task People & Culture teams with “fixing” culture, as if it’s a separate function.  Lets be clear; it's not.

Culture is simply leadership made visible, at scale.  It’s the by-product of your operational decisions, your hiring patterns, your tolerance for ambiguity, and your appetite for truth.

When you delegate culture to HR, you outsource the very soul of your business.

And here's what follows:

• Values become marketing

• Purpose becomes optional

• Behaviour becomes unpredictable

The result? Cultural whiplash where people don’t know what’s real anymore.

The Real Culture Work Starts With You

I don't run culture workshops to make people feel good.  We work with leaders to feel responsible and empowered.  Your culture doesn’t start in a slide deck.  It starts in your shadow.

Some of the questions we explore with leaders:

• What behaviours are you tolerating that are misaligned with your stated values?

• What signals do your team rituals actually send?

• Do your people trust that honesty won’t be punished?

• Are you being liked, or being followed?

Nothing undermines trust faster than performative leadership.  People don’t need polished language, they need consistent behaviour.

Want to Fix Your Culture? Start With a Mirror.

If your culture feels off, don’t order another swag pack.  Instead, ask yourself:

• What hard truth am I avoiding?

• Who’s quietly being harmed by what I’m letting slide?

• Where am I inconsistent, and what’s the cost?

Culture isn’t created in a keynote.  It’s built (or broken) in how you show up on a Tuesday afternoon, especially when no one’s watching.

The Bottom Line: Culture Doesn’t Get Better Until Leadership Does

We don’t have a culture crisis.  We have a leadership inconsistency crisis.

So the next time someone says, “We have a culture problem,” don’t reach for a consultant, a Canva mood board, or a comms plan.

Reach for courage.

Ask, what leadership decision created this?  And what new decision is needed now?

At True North Executive Coaching & Leadership, I don’t just talk culture, we rewire leadership at the source.

Real culture change doesn’t come from murals or mission statements.  It comes from leaders willing to own the shadow they cast.