The Leadership in Action Series: On Strategic Leadership

Inside Out: Transforming Your Leadership Culture

John B. McGuire, Gary Rhodes, and Charles J. Palus

Any organizational culture holds tremendous power. Culture is a system of closely held beliefs that require certain behaviors and exclude other behaviors. It sets norms on everything in the organization. To change the organizational culture, senior leaders must begin by acknowledging their place in the culture, engaging fully in the work of advancing the leadership culture, and standing up first so that others can follow.

Belief systems, explicit or not, drive behavior. When executives embark on an organizational change initiative—whether tied to new systems, products, markets, or approaches—they are asking people to alter their beliefs in some ...