Leading with Strategy

11North Star in Action: How Leadership Behavior Builds Culture

Ask most people what culture is, and they'll say, “Our values.” Some will go further and say, “Our values in action.” It's that last phrase that matters most.

It matters most because strategy is not just a matter of what we plan; it's a matter of what we practice. Yet in many organizations, action and behavior are seen as the domain of operations, while strategy is seen as thinking. Vision lives in the head of the CEO. Execution is pushed down the line.

But the truth is, strategy lives or dies in behavior, especially at the leadership level.

If vision is what we want to become, then culture practices are how we begin to live into that vision every day. They are the hidden engine behind strategic execution. And yet very few leaders know how to define them, let alone use them.

Being Strategic Means Thinking and Doing

We often talk about strategy as if it exists above the surface: a vision, a deck, a statement of goals. But if you zoom in on the actual practice of strategy, you'll find something else. It is not abstract. It is deeply behavioral.

It lives in what leaders say in meetings, what questions they ask, what they tolerate, what they reward. And perhaps most important, in what they do consistently, visibly, and together.

This is where culture practices come in.

Culture practices are not slogans or values posters. They are the repeatable rituals, habits, and routines that take values and turn them into lived ...