What makes leadership and culture so important at work?

The “why” is straight-forward. Looking after your team means that not only are your people more fulfilled in their roles, but they are also more engaged, collaborative, productive …a perfect win/win for companies and individuals.

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2025 report indicates just how big a problem it is to get engagement wrong, with disengagement costing the world economy $438 billion in 2024 alone.

Leaders have a huge privilege to shape positive culture that leads to better economic results. So if we are looking to improve engagement and culture, the key is to be intentional about how we show up at work and to start by experimenting with making small shifts in just one aspect of our leadership to create a huge positive downstream impact on our teams.

But first, what is “culture”? Will pizza and drinks on a Friday night be enough to fix it? We start by being clear about what comprises culture to enable us to improve it.

In my recent presentations at two Practical Network sessions organised by The Law Society of NSW in February and April 2025, I broke down culture into 3 areas set out below, all aimed at building trust, and discussed in detail the many aspects and tips that relate to each area.

My final tips for improving engagement are at the end, and they build on the tips embedded in the three elements of culture set out below.

Communication

• Listen more and ask to understand (not to respond). Then ensure you follow up by actioning that feedback to make improvements.
• Open communication and transparent sharing of information – remember to communicate often even if there is no update to avoid people filling in the blanks with their mistaken assumptions, fears or frustration.
• Leverage different influencing styles dependant on the situation – when it comes to your team, look for ways to motivate from within by aligning with the team’s natural motivators.
• Have courageous conversations with clarity and kindness – don’t put off tough conversations as problems multiply and impact more people the longer they linger.

Meaningful work

• Clear strategy – align everyone towards a common goal, which also helps with prioritisation.
• Mentoring/coaching and growth opportunities – invest in developing the people on your team and they will also achieve better results for the company as a result. Also, set your team up for success by ensuring they are supported with stretch assignments.
• Deal with capacity issues – do not ignore this important issue which is a struggle on most legal teams, otherwise other efforts to improve culture will not be effective. Roll up your sleeves and explore alternative ways to understand and address capacity issues, from utilising technology, to better prioritisation and creating risk informed materiality thresholds before for any legal input.

Genuine care for the team and building collaboration

• Social and educational team activities are a great way to build team spirit in combination with other aspects of culture. These can range from team outings, lunch-and-learns, coffee roulettes, team cooking clubs or book clubs and many more. Your imagination is your limit.
• Regular one-on-ones focused on people and their development.
• Be curious and show genuine interest in people – ask questions and get to know your team.
• Reward and recognition – pause to recognise and celebrate successes publicly. If you lack budget for monetary rewards, consider alternatives – how about an early mark on Friday afternoons?
• Lead by example – demonstrate desirable behaviours yourself – actions speak louder than words.

My final tips on improving culture depending on whether you are a leader or an individual contributor are:

Leaders: Root causes of cultural issues cannot be cured by pizza and Friday night drinks without addressing other root causes. You will need good listening skills to understand what areas of culture and engagement need improvement, and you will need to action that feedback, being guided by the above points.

Team members: Be an active participants in culture. Not only will this build your ‘soft skills’ with are critical to your development but this will also enable you to meet other people in your business and improve your collaboration skills. Separately, prepare your own development plan to clarify your priorities which will in turn enable others, like your manager and other connections, to align and create opportunities for growth.