The 3 Levers That Will Instantly Change Your Leadership & Culture
The 3 Daily Decisions That Quietly Define Every Culture You Lead
A Gallup study found that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined by the manager. Not the mission or vision statements. Not the benefits package. Not the Friday lunch spread. The leader.
That number should stop every leader in their tracks. Because it means the culture your team operates in has less to do with what’s printed on your website and more to do with what you model on a Tuesday afternoon when nobody is watching.
And here’s what most leaders miss: you’re already building a culture. The question is whether you’re building it on purpose.
Jesus understood this before anyone wrote a leadership book about it. Before He ever sent His disciples to preach, He built a culture. He defined the tone, the values, and the expectations of His team before they carried the mission to the world. He corrected Peter when Peter resisted the cross. He celebrated the widow who gave two coins when everyone else overlooked her. He confronted the Pharisees when they allowed religion to replace relationship.
Every move Jesus made was a culture decision.
The Blueprint Paul Gave Us
Paul captures this beautifully in his letter to the church at Colossae. Let’s dive into it.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
— Colossians 3:12-17 NIV
Paul is writing to a church, but make no mistake, this is a leadership letter. He’s telling a community: here is what healthy culture looks like. You clothe yourselves with specific virtues. You teach and correct one another. And you do everything with intention and gratitude.
That passage gives us a lens every leader can apply starting today. Three clear certainties that shape every culture:
What you allow becomes normal.
What you correct defines your values.
What you celebrate multiplies everywhere.
Let me break each one down.
1. What You Allow Becomes Normal
This next statement can change everything. Silence is a strategy. And if you’re not careful, it becomes your loudest statement.
When you tolerate gossip, you’re training your team that gossip is an accepted form of communication. When you ignore mediocre work because the person is “nice” or “trying their best,” you’re signaling that excellence is optional. When you let a meeting get hijacked by the loudest voice in the room, you just told every quiet contributor that their perspective doesn’t matter.
I’ve watched leaders lose their strongest team members because they refused to address the behavior of their weakest ones.
The high performers notice first. They start pulling back. Then they leave. And the people who caused the problem? They stay. Because no one ever told them there was a problem.
You set the standard by what you’re willing to overlook.
Paul understood this. He not only addressed this to the Colossian church, but to the Corinthian church as well in 1 Corinthians 5.
“Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?”
— 1 Corinthians 5:6 NIV
Here’s what that illustration means. One unchecked issue will spread. It will infect your team, your family, your organization faster than any corrective memo can fix it.
And going back to our Colossians passage, Paul tells the Colossians to “clothe yourselves” with specific qualities. That language is intentional. Clothing is a choice. You decide what you put on every morning. In the same way, leaders decide what values they wear into their organization. When you allow behavior that contradicts those values, you’re telling your team the clothing is optional.
Here’s a question worth sitting with this week: What am I currently tolerating that I know is hurting us?
Be honest with yourself. Because the answer to that question reveals where your culture is already headed.
And once you’ve identified what needs to change, the next lever determines whether you actually have the courage to change it.
2. What You Correct Defines Your Values
Correction is not punishment. It’s vision.
When you pull someone aside and say, “That behavior doesn’t reflect who we are,” you’re drawing a line. You’re teaching your team what this organization stands for. You’re protecting the mission by protecting the culture.
Jesus corrected constantly. He corrected Peter in Matthew 16:23 when Peter tried to block Him from the cross. He corrected James and John in Luke 9 when they wanted to call fire down on a village. He corrected the Pharisees throughout His ministry for prioritizing regulations over relationships.
And every correction carried the same thread: I love you too much to let you stay off course, and this mission is too important for misalignment.
That’s the heart behind godly correction. You correct because you care about the person and you care about the purpose.
But here’s where most leaders fall short. They avoid the conversations that are needed most. They let issues slide because they don’t want tension or the conflict. They hope the problem resolves on its own. And by the time they finally address it, the damage has already spread.
That delay costs the leadership credibility the organization it’s values.
Your team is watching to see if you’ll back up the values you say you believe. If you won’t, they’ll assume those values were never real in the first place.
I love this nugget we learn from Pau in Colossians 3:15 when he says “teach and admonish one another with all wisdom.”
That word “admonish” means to warn, to redirect, to call someone toward something better. Paul didn’t treat correction as optional for the church. He treated it as proof of spiritual maturity.
When you correct well, three things need to be present:
Be specific about what needs to change.
A genuine care for the person.
Apply the same standard to everyone.
That kind of correction doesn’t tear trust apart. It builds it.
When you correct with consistency, people know what you stand for. But culture doesn’t only need boundaries. It needs fuel. And that’s where the third lever becomes the most overlooked tool in a leader’s hands.
3. What You Celebrate Multiplies Everywhere
People move toward what gets recognized.
If you celebrate revenue or metrics above everything else, your team will chase revenue and metrics at any cost. If you celebrate collaboration, your team will look for ways to work together. If you celebrate character alongside performance, you’ll build a culture where integrity doesn’t get sacrificed for short-term results.
I’ve watched churches transform when they started telling stories of life change to their team instead of just reporting attendance figures. I’ve watched businesses shift when they started recognizing the person who mentored a struggling new hire with the same energy they gave to the person who closed a big deal.
Celebration sends a signal to everyone watching that says “this is what winning looks like here”.
God understood this principle long before any leadership consultant put it in a slide deck.
He established feasts and festivals throughout the Old Testament to remind His people of His faithfulness. Passover. The Feast of Tabernacles. The Year of Jubilee. He knew that what gets celebrated gets remembered. And what gets remembered shapes identity.
Build celebration into your weekly rhythm. Don’t wait for the year-end banquet. Recognize people in real time when they live out your values. Tell stories that reflect the culture you’re building. And be intentional about what you spotlight. If you only recognize outcomes, you’ll build a culture obsessed with results. If you recognize the process, the character, and the growth behind those results, you’ll build something that lasts.
The Real Work Happens in the Hard Conversations
Culture shifts don’t happen in staff retreats or planning sessions. They happen in the conversations that make your palms sweat.
The conversation where you tell a longtime team member that their attitude is affecting the group. The conversation where you address a pattern of inconsistency. The conversation where you sit across from someone and say, “I believe in you, and I need more from you.”
These conversations take courage. But they’re where real leadership lives.
Every time I step into one of these moments, I remind myself of something: I’m fighting for the highest possible good of this person and this team. This isn’t control, it’s true stewardship.
You’ve been given people, a mission, and influence. The way you steward that trust is by protecting the environment where everyone can grow.
Proverbs 27:6 puts it plainly.
“Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”
—Proverbs 27:6
The people who care about you will tell you what you need to hear. The people who care about themselves will tell you what you want to hear.
Be the kind of leader who does both: supports the person while challenging the behavior.
4 Moves to Start Shaping Culture on Purpose
1. Audit What You’re Allowing
Take 15 minutes this week and write down the behaviors, attitudes, or patterns you’ve been tolerating. Then ask yourself honestly: is this helping or hurting our mission? Pick one thing to address. Don’t try to overhaul everything at once.
Start with the issue causing the most damage.
2. Name Your Non-Negotiables
What are the values you will not bend on? Write them down. Share them with your team. And when you correct someone, tie it back to the value.
Say something like: “We’ve committed to treating one another with respect. That comment didn’t reflect that commitment. Here’s what I need to see instead.”
3. Create a Weekly Celebration Rhythm
Schedule time every week to recognize someone who lived out your values.
It could be in a team meeting, a group chat, or a private conversation. Make celebration a habit, not an afterthought.
4. Have the Hard Conversation
Identify the conversation you’ve been putting off. Schedule it. Prepare for it. Then have it with honesty and genuine care.
Remember: you’re not attacking the person. You’re addressing the behavior. You’re fighting for their growth and for the health of the team.
Culture Is a Daily Decision
You don’t build culture in a single moment. You build it in the daily choices you make about what you tolerate, what you address, and what you spotlight.
Jesus lived this.
He corrected Peter when the mission was at stake. He celebrated the faith of a Roman centurion in front of His own disciples. He refused to let the religious elite stay comfortable in their hypocrisy. And over time, that small group of imperfect, unqualified people became a movement that reshaped the world.
That’s the power of culture built with intention.
Colossians 3:17 one more time: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Whatever you do. Every meeting. Every correction. Every celebration. Every hard conversation.
Do it with purpose. Because the culture you build today determines the impact you carry tomorrow.
Lead well leader,
— Jared