Burnout. Disengagement. Quiet quitting.
Have these words become so commonplace they’ve lost all meaning?
Recent studies show that 76% of Americans say their manager sets the culture, yet 36% say their manager doesn’t know how to lead a team (SHRM).
Add to that the fact that 51% of U.S. employees are watching for or actively seeking new jobs (Paycor, 2025), and it becomes clear: culture isn’t a soft issue. It’s a retention strategy.
Culture has always been a driving force in whether people stay, grow, and perform at their best in any organization. The topics may shift with time. Remote work, AI implications, psychological safety. But the fundamental pillars of a healthy culture haven’t changed: trust, clarity, growth, and shared purpose.
At Leadership Resources, we’ve seen six hidden habits quietly drain even the strongest cultures and one core practice that stops them all.
The 6 Hidden Habits
1. Avoiding Tough Conversations
When leaders sidestep hard feedback, performance and trust both suffer. Difficult conversations delayed are culture problems multiplied. Avoiding difficult conversations can lead to a vicious circle of lack of accountability and a downward spiral of culture.
Slight Edge: Schedule “courageous conversations” weekly. Keep them short, focused, and growth oriented. They don’t have to be perfect, just consistent and timely.
For more on this, check out our Coffee with Kathy episode on handling difficult conversations
2. Rewarding Output Without Reinforcing Growth
Hitting targets is important, but if that’s all we measure, we miss the development that sustains those results. The best leaders grow people, not just performance.
At Leadership Resources, we use our Coach and Manage tool to help leaders visualize this balance. It charts employees by role accountability and core values. The goal? Develop people who perform and align with culture. Because that’s where sustainable growth happens.
Slight Edge: Recognize leaders who grow both talent and numbers. Developing others is one of the strongest forms of leadership ROI.
3. Letting Stress Become Contagious
Leaders who rush and react unknowingly create cultures of tension. Stress travels fast. It spreads through tone, timing, and body language.
Slight Edge: Model calm under pressure. Your team mirrors your actions. A five-minute pause to reset before your next meeting can shift an entire afternoon.
4. Leading Without Context
People don’t resist change. They resist confusion. When leaders skip the “why,” they leave room for assumptions that erode trust and culture.
Slight Edge: Share context early and often. Clarity shows respect and builds alignment.
5. Ignoring Your Own Development
When leaders stop growing, so do their teams. The fastest way to flatten culture is to let self-development become optional.
Slight Edge: Lead by example. When leaders make development visible and consistent, they set the tone for their teams to do the same. Growth becomes part of the culture, not a side project.
6. Mistaking Activity for Impact
Busyness can look like progress, but if leaders don’t connect daily work to purpose, teams lose sight of what truly matters. Constant motion without meaning breeds exhaustion, not excellence.
Slight Edge: Before assigning work or setting new priorities, clarify the “why.” Tie every task (yours and your teams) back to mission and company goals. When leaders connect the dots between effort and impact, teams stay engaged, aligned, and driven.
Want to learn more about the connection between company culture and leadership habits? Read our article Habits of a Successful Leader.
The One Thing That Stops Them All
We’ve seen these habits time and time again. Truthfully, most of us have experienced a few within our own organizations. No one’s immune.
Every one of these habits traces back to one root issue: a lack of intentional leadership development.
Let’s go through an example.
Leader A: John
John joined his company just a month ago as an associate director. After an unexpected leadership departure, he was promoted to director almost overnight. On paper, he was perfect: years of experience, strong recommendations, and two degrees.
Because of the quick transition, John missed the company onboarding and skipped recommended leadership courses. He had too much on his plate.
As the year progressed, morale slipped. His team appeared stressed, lacked clarity, and expressed growing distrust in leadership.
Leader B: Mike
Mike, John’s peer, started in an entry-level position six years earlier. His mentor encouraged him early on to join a professional community and invest in both technical and leadership development.
Since then, Mike has made learning a habit. He leads a small team of four, holds regular one-on-ones, and creates space for honest discussions about goals and challenges. When a direct report brings him a problem, he doesn’t jump to solve it, he guides them toward the right resources.
So, whose team is thriving?
Whose culture feels stronger?
When leaders commit to intentional leadership development and continuous growth, for themselves and for their teams, everything changes.
We’ve seen it firsthand. We’ve partnered with thousands of leaders across the country to develop impactful leadership habits, like the ones you’ve read about today.
One of our clients, Haberfeld, a financial consulting company, saw this firsthand. In our recent conversation with Sean Payant, President of Haberfeld, he shared how one of his leaders, Joe, was “absolutely transformed” through his experience in the Accelerate Leadership Program—a development journey that helped him grow from a top performer into an empowering leader.
Watch Joe’s full testimonial to see how leadership development can visibly transform company culture.
Culture Isn’t a “Nice to Have.” It’s the Bottom Line.
A recent SHRM study found that 83% of people who rate their workplace culture as “good or excellent” are motivated to produce high-quality work, compared to just 45% in poor cultures.
Imagine the impact it would have to have 38% more people at your company motivated to produce great work.
That’s the return on intentional leadership. When leaders grow, performance follows.
Culture doesn’t just “happen.” It’s shaped every day. Through habits, behaviors, and choices. When leaders become self-aware and make the shift to prioritize their own development, culture shifts with them.
When Sean at Haberfeld invested in leadership development, he didn’t just see one of his team members grow. He saw a complete transformation. That same shift can happen in your organization.
Ready to help your team build better habits and a stronger culture?
Book a free 30-minute consultation with a Leadership Resources representative to explore how leadership development can strengthen your company culture.
We’ll help you:
✅ Identify your team’s development opportunities and
✅ Take the first step toward a stronger, more aligned culture.
