5 Pattern 4: Leadership behaviour will make it or break it

Culture is set by leadership, and specifically by how leaders behave rather than what they say. This applies to leaders at all levels – teams, departments or the whole organisation. When leaders model improved ways of working, demonstrating curiosity and experimentation and learning, it sends a powerful signal to everybody else. Examples of positive leadership behaviour include:

• focusing on outcomes,

• using visualisation walls that are available to everyone in the organisation,

• fostering psychological safety and

• providing clarity of mission together with autonomy for teams to determine how to achieve their mission.

The antipattern would be ‘Do as I say, not as a I do’ – a lack of role modelling, a continued focus on output rather than outcomes, a command-and-control behaviour set.