Are you building your workplace culture intentionally, or allowing it to form by default? This question lies at the heart of effective leadership, yet few leaders truly understand how their everyday decisions silently shape what it feels like to work in their organizations.
Culture isn't the aspirational language hanging on your office walls. It's the unspoken rules that govern how decisions get made, how people treat each other, and how your team functions when no one's watching. As we explore in this episode, we get the behavior we role model, celebrate, and perhaps most critically—the behavior we tolerate. When leaders say they value transparency but withhold information, or claim to support work-life balance while sending midnight emails, they create environments of mistrust where actions and words don't align.
Margaret Graziano, bestselling author of "Ignite Culture," brings powerful insights from decades of experience in organizational leadership. Her observation that "people join companies for the mission but stay or leave based on the culture" captures why intentional culture-building matters more than ever in today's competitive landscape. We dig deep into her concept of conscious leadership—creating environments where people feel seen, safe, valued, and empowered—and why this approach transforms both individual performance and organizational outcomes.
One particularly transformative distinction we explore is building "accountability without blame." In toxic workplaces, accountability feels like punishment. In thriving cultures, it's an act of respect—a way of saying, "I believe in you, and I know you're capable of this standard." This shift from fear to empowerment fundamentally changes how people show up, speak up, and step up.
If your leadership energy became the blueprint for your culture, would you be proud of the result? Would people feel they truly matter? The culture you create is a direct reflection of the clarity, consistency, and courage you bring each day. It requires continuous attention—not a set-and-forget approach, but an ongoing commitment to embodying the values you wish to see throughout your organization. Listen now to discover how to lead culture by design rat
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insightful conversation withMargie Graziano, bestselling
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author of Ignite Culture and atrue champion of conscious
leadership and intentionalculture.
I'll share my views of what Iheard from Margie and add my own
flavor about what it takes tocreate an unstoppable culture.
Welcome back to The LeadershipProject.
I'm your host, Mick Spiers.
In today's episode, we aredigging deep into what this
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thing called culture is reallyall about.
So before we dive in, let'stake a moment to ask what is
culture?
Culture is the way things aredone around here.
It's the default mode.
It's what it's like toexperience this workplace not
when the boss is watching, butwhen no one is.
It's not your posters or yourmission statements.
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It's your lived experience.
It's not the plaque that youput on the office wall.
It's the actions and behaviorsand values of the group.
Culture is driven by thecollective values and behaviors
of the group.
It's revealed in how people actunder pressure, how they treat
each other, how decisions getmade and how people feel.
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And here's the truth we get thebehavior that we role model,
that we celebrate and reward andthat we tolerate.
So let's unpack that If youwant to lead your culture, you
first need to decide what kindof culture you want, what values
underpin that culture, whatbehaviors align with those
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values.
Then comes the hard part.
You must go first.
You need to role model thosebehaviors.
You need to role model thosebehaviors.
Your actions, your decisionsmust reflect the values you
speak about, because one of thequickest ways to lose trust is
when your actions don't matchyour stated values, and trust
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once lost is hard to earn back.
Your actions speak louder thanyour words every time,
especially in leadership.
So you can't walk around sayingthat we're a people-first
organization and then makedecisions that are completely
the contrary.
You need to make sure that yourdecisions, your actions, your
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behaviors match what you saidyou wanted to see in others.
The next step is just asimportant.
You need to celebrate andreward the behaviours you want
to see more of.
Catch people doing the rightthing.
Notice a name in it, shine alight on the values being lived.
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Recognition isn't just aboutmaking someone feel good, it
tells the entire organization.
It sends a signal this is whowe are.
This is what matters here.
So go out of your way to sayyes, thank you.
If you want to create a speakup culture, thank people every
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time that they speak up and doit in a way that everyone sees
it, so that others quickly catchon and go.
Oh, the boss likes it whenpeople speak up, so I'm going to
learn to speak up too.
It becomes infectious.
Now for the most insidious piece.
We also get the behaviour wetolerate.
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We accept what we walk past andit has a ripple effect on
everyone watching.
When we tolerate behaviorthat's out of step with our
stated values, one of threethings happen.
Some people will mimic thatbehavior.
They'll assume it's now okay todo that.
Others will become infuriatedand they'll disengage.
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They'll give less of themselvesand they'll care less.
And the most values alignedperson they might get so
infuriated they just leave.
Then you're left with the wrongpeople reinforcing the wrong
culture, and the leadersscratched their heads asking
what happened to our culture.
You lose the people that hadthe right values and you're
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stuck with the people that werecontravening those values.
Now, to be clear not toleratingmisaligned behavior doesn't
always mean immediate dismissal,but it does mean acting.
It means addressing it earlyand directly, before it spreads
and before it becomes embedded.
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As Patrick Lencioni once said,if you don't confront someone
about their behavior, you'retraining them and everyone else
that it's acceptable.
Now let's get back to Margie.
Now let's get back to Margie.
She brought immense clarity tothe inside-out approach to
leadership.
She's seen it all over 20 yearsof helping organizations hire,
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grow and retain people.
And her big takeaway Peoplejoin companies for the mission,
but they stay or leave based onthe culture.
Margie's idea of consciousleadership is all about creating
an environment where peoplefeel seen, where they feel safe,
where they feel valued, wherethey feel empowered.
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And that starts with conscioushiring, bringing in people whose
values and energy align withyour desired culture, not just
their resume.
She also discussed theimportance of neuroscience and
psychometrics understanding howour nervous system responds to
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threat and safety.
If your team don't feel safe,they won't speak up, they won't
innovate and they won't grow.
Another powerful distinctionMargie made was this great
cultures build accountabilitywithout blame.
Let those words sink in for amoment.
Accountability without blame.
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Does that sound like yourworkplace?
In unhealthy workplaces,accountability often feels like
a trap or a punishment, but inhigh performance cultures,
accountability is an act ofrespect.
It's saying I believe in you, Itrust you, I'm holding you to a
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standard because I know you'recapable of this.
I'm empowering you, I'menabling you, I'm trusting you
that you can do this.
That shift from fear toempowerment is what separates
toxic workplaces from thrivingones.
Now, if you haven't picked upMargie's book Ignite Culture, I
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highly recommend it.
It's not just theory.
It's packed with practicaltools for evaluating, designing
and sustaining cultureintentionally.
But here's the catch this isn'ta one and done strategy.
Culture is alive.
It evolves with every decisionyou make, every conversation you
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allow, every value you upholdor let slide.
So let me leave you with this.
If your leadership energybecame the blueprint for your
culture, would you be proud ofthe result?
Would people feel seen, heardand valued?
Would they feel like theymatter?
Would your actions match yourwords?
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The culture you lead is areflection of the clarity,
consistency and courage that youbring every day.
It's not set and forget.
It's ignite and keep fueling it.
That's it for today.
If this solo cast resonated withyou, I'd encourage you to
listen to the full episode withMargie and grab a copy of Ignite
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Culture.
It might just be the spark yourleadership and your team need
right now.
And, as always, if you foundthis helpful, don't forget to
like, follow or share theLeadership Project with someone
who's ready to lead culture fromthe inside out.
In the next episode, I'm goingto be joined by Israel Duran,
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who's going to talk to us aboutempowering leaders through the
art of speaking.
Thank you for listening to TheLeadership Project mickspiers.
com.
A huge call out to Faris SedekSadek for his video editing of
all of our video content, and toall of the team at TLP Joan
Gozon On, Gerald gerald CaliboCalabo and my amazing wife, Sei
Spiers Spears.
I could not do this showwithout you.
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Don't forget to subscribe toThe the Leadership Project
YouTube channel, where we bringyou interesting videos each and
every week, and you can followus on social, particularly on
LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram.
Now, in the meantime, please dotake care, look out for each
other and join us on thisjourney, as we learn together
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and lead together.