How Subcultures Shape Your Entire Organization
Welcome to another Toolkit Tuesday! Every week, our goal is to give you a practical leadership tool to put in your toolkit.
So There I Was…
So there I was, working with a company that was struggling with an under performing department. The leader wasn’t incompetent, they were simply checked out. In the military we called this ROAD, Retired On Active Duty. They did enough to keep their job but not enough to inspire or support anyone else. The result was a subculture of abdication that spread beyond them and forced their boss into tough decisions.
The Challenge
This situation is far more common than leaders want to admit. Seniority often grants influence but when that influence slips into abdication it drags others down. New employees stop receiving mentorship, change initiatives lose support and high performers begin to disengage. Many bosses avoid the hard conversations, resigning themselves to frustration instead of leading with clarity. Left unchecked abdication becomes toxic and can undo years of positive culture-building.
The Tool: Leaders Define Culture
The Leaders Define Culture tool gives a visual way to assess culture at both the organizational and team levels. Each circle in the diagram represents a team within the organization. The shading of the circle reflects the culture the leader is creating. Green represents a liberating leader who balances high support and high challenge. Red represents domination, yellow shows protecting, and gray points to abdication. These match the Support Challenge Matrix, making it easy to connect what kind of culture exists on each team.
From each circle you will notice a cone of color radiating outward. This shows the influence of a leader. Their culture not only shapes the people they lead directly but also impacts those around them, whether up, down, or sideways in the organization. A healthy leader multiplies health, while an unhealthy leader spreads disengagement.
This tool helps you step back and look at your organization as a collection of subcultures. It reminds us that culture is not defined only by the CEO but by every leader at every level. The goal is simple but not easy: get every circle as close to green as possible so that health and performance spread through the entire organization.
Why This Matters Now
Last week we looked at the flywheel of maximizing team performance. That tool showed how the energy and momentum of a team can either drive performance forward or grind it to a halt. Leaders Define Culture connects directly to it because the leader sets the conditions that determine whether the flywheel moves or stalls.
A disengaged leader will create a disengaged team and a liberating leader will build one that multiplies health. By recognizing this dynamic leaders can stop blaming “the company” for cultural issues and start addressing the real source, the team level.
The Result
When leaders fail to confront abdication their silence becomes permission. The team drifts into mediocrity and influence spreads like rot through the organization. But when leaders define culture with intentionality they can turn the tide. Each sub-leader who embraces liberating leadership strengthens the whole system, creating alignment, energy and high performance across the organization.
Take Action
Identify the team in your organization that feels least engaged. Ask yourself: what culture is its leader actually creating and how is it spreading? Have one honest conversation this week to call that leader up.
Let’s talk about how to strengthen your leaders and align every subculture. Schedule a call with us and we will show you how to diagnose the health of your teams and build liberating leaders across the board.
Closing the Loop
The ROAD warrior mentality is not just a military problem. It shows up in businesses every day. The question is whether you as a leader will tolerate abdication or take responsibility for defining culture at every level.
Your people are waiting for the conditions that let them thrive.
Lead hard!
