Your workplace culture is more than just your perks, posters, and policies—it’s a direct reflection of the people leading the business. And whether you’re aware of it or not, your leadership team is always influencing company culture through their values, behaviours, blind spots, and expectations.
In our experience supporting financial services employers with executive recruitment and team development, the best leaders are the ones who build a healthy culture at work without needing to say they do. They’re consistent. They listen. And most importantly, they lead by example.
Let’s take a closer look at what your company culture says about your leadership team, and how to start improving workplace culture from the top.
What is Workplace Culture, Really?
Workplace culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, behaviours, and attitudes that shape how your employees experience work each day. It includes everything from leadership style to communication habits, team dynamics, accountability, and decision-making. A strong company culture promotes alignment, diversity, and a sense of belonging. Weak or toxic culture often results in confusion, disengagement, and high turnover.
According to a recent Gartner survey, only 26.2% of Australian employees rated their organisation’s workplace culture positively at the end of 2024—the lowest figure recorded in the past three years. That’s a serious signal to employers: there may be a gap between your intended culture and your employees’ lived experience.
Leadership Behaviours That Shape Company Culture
Culture starts at the top. Whether consciously or not, leaders set the tone for what is acceptable, encouraged, rewarded, or ignored. In our work with financial services employers, we’ve seen how subtle patterns in leadership behaviour can ripple out across entire teams. For example:
- Leaders who avoid conflict tend to create cultures of silence or passive resistance.
- Micromanagers foster fear and over-correction, rather than initiative and innovation.
- Inclusive and transparent leaders typically attract loyal, high-performing teams who feel empowered to speak up and solve problems.
We also see this reflected in behavioural science: people tend to internalise what they believe is expected of them. This is known as the Pygmalion and Golem effects, where high expectations often lead to improved performance (Pygmalion effect), while low expectations can lead to disengagement and underperformance, even among otherwise capable individuals (Golem effect).
Other unconscious cues can shape culture too: tone of voice, availability, body language, who gets praised or promoted, or who gets listened to in meetings. These seemingly small signals add up to create the ‘unwritten rules’ of your company culture, and changing culture in the workplace begins with recognising those patterns within your leadership team.
How to Start Improving Workplace Culture From the Top
The best way to improve culture at work is by aligning leadership behaviours with the values you want to see throughout the business. That often requires:
- Self-awareness:Encourage regular leadership feedback loops, not just from peers, but also from direct reports. 360-degree reviews and leadership coaching can uncover blind spots and encourage personal accountability.
- Clarity:Make sure your leaders can clearly articulate your company’s values and model them in decision-making, communication, and team interactions.
- Consistency: Culture can’t just be a slogan on a wall. If you say you value collaboration but reward individual performance at the expense of teamwork, the culture won’t stick.
- Recognition and reinforcement:Don’t just fix bad behaviour, celebrate the good! Culture grows stronger when people see what’s working.
Creating a Positive Work Environment Takes Ongoing Commitment
A strong workplace culture takes time, trust, and consistency from every level of the business, especially your leadership team. The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) notes that workplace culture has become a growing area of focus for boards and directors, especially after high-profile corporate misconduct cases have shown what happens when culture is left unchecked.
Culture is no longer seen as a soft issue; it’s now widely recognised as a governance and performance priority. In our work, we’ve seen businesses transform their culture by shifting how their leadership teams operate day-to-day. That might mean refining how performance is measured, offering more flexibility, adjusting hiring and onboarding practices, or upskilling managers in coaching, delegation, and communication.
Building Culture at Work Through Expert Recruitment
Recruitment plays a critical role in building culture at work, but only when it’s aligned with the company’s values and goals. That’s why we work closely with clients to understand their current culture, their ideal future culture, and where the gaps are.
Sometimes, that means hiring for specific qualities, like collaboration or strategic thinking. Other times, it means equipping hiring managers with better interview frameworks to evaluate cultural fit more objectively. Whatever the approach, improving workplace culture through recruitment starts with clarity, which is exactly where Godfrey Group can help.
Create a Workplace Culture That Reflects Your Values
If your workplace culture isn’t reflecting the values or direction you’re aiming for, it could be time to take a closer look at your leadership team. At Godfrey Group, we work with financial services employers to strengthen culture at work through executive recruitment, strategic hiring, and team development.
To explore how we can support you in changing culture in the workplace or creating a positive work environment that your team will thrive in, connect with us today on 02 8004 9350.
