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This year, I’ve found myself called back into several organisations where we had previously done strong transformation work. The feedback was always the same: “We don’t know what happened. The culture has changed.”
When I re-entered these environments, the patterns behind the cultural decline quickly became clear. What follows are the most common reasons a once-strong Care & Growth foundation begins to fail — and what leaders can do to prevent that decline.
1. Assuming the Care & Growth Foundation Will Hold Without the CEO’s Presence
In every organisation, the leader — particularly the CEO — is the driver of the culture. Their presence, message, and intent set the emotional tone for the entire business. When that presence becomes inconsistent or absent, especially during periods of pressure, teams feel it immediately. Unless the team is exceptionally strong, insecurity creeps in. People begin to feel directionless and abandoned.
What leaders must do
In challenging times, leaders often withdraw to focus on strategic fires, but this is exactly when the team needs them the most. The solution is not more time, but more meaningful time:
- Make every interaction count.
- Reinforce your intent clearly and consistently.
- Demonstrate through small, daily actions that you have not left the team behind.
To the team, absence feels like abandonment. Presence, even brief but heartfelt, restores security.
2. Fear of Being Perceived as Politically Incorrect
In South Africa, diversity and inclusion efforts are crucial — and most organisations handle them with sincerity. But I have repeatedly observed a troubling pattern:
White managers hesitating to address poor performance from black team members due to fear of being labelled racist.
In one case, a low-performing employee even pre-emptively accused her manager of racism. Add anonymous reporting lines into the mix, and fear multiplies. Leaders start avoiding necessary conversations, and this silence slowly poisons the team.
What leaders must do
Avoiding performance conversations is not inclusion — it’s neglect.
Leaders need to trust their own intent and act with fairness:
- Address issues directly and respectfully.
- Hold everyone to the same standard.
- Show the team that accountability is not selective.
When leaders avoid the tough conversations, it is other team members who carry the load, and over time they lose respect for both their colleague and their leader.
3. Letting Good Results Distract From Poor Culture
When the scoreboard looks good, leaders often stop asking deeper questions. But results can mask underlying cultural cracks — cracks that only become visible once it’s too late. Recently, an HR manager alerted me to unusually high turnover in a specific team. Exit interviews pointed clearly to the team leader as the root of the problem.
The senior leader, comfortable because performance metrics looked fine, had stopped actively engaging with that leader or the broader team. The consequence? A culture misfit grew unchecked until it became a crisis.
What leaders must do
Care & Growth leadership requires continuous engagement, not conditional attention when things go wrong:
- Conduct regular one-on-ones.
- Spend time observing (“watching the game”).
- Connect with the team, not just the performance data.
Had the senior leader stayed connected, the cultural issues would have been spotted months earlier — not after employees had already walked out the door.
4. Partnership Conflict in Private Companies
Partnership tension is impossible to hide. Even when owners say nothing, staff immediately sense when something is wrong. Energy shifts. Decision-making slows. Uncertainty spreads. And once people feel insecure, self-preservation becomes the default response.
The first casualty is teamwork.
The second is customer service.
I’ve experienced this firsthand — as a customer.
What leaders must do
Silence is not protection. It is an invitation for people to fill in the blanks with worst-case scenarios.
Even when there is little concrete to share, leaders should:
- Acknowledge that tension exists.
- Offer what clarity they can.
- Reassure the team of their commitment to stability.
When leaders communicate honestly during difficult periods, trust is preserved. And trust is often the factor that determines whether a team weathers the storm or collapses under it.
The Danger of “Behavioural Drift”
McKinsey described this phenomenon, back in 2010, as behavioural drift:
The illusion that culture will sustain itself while leaders temporarily redirect their attention to urgent pressures — market shifts, board demands, pricing challenges, internal issues, and more.
But culture does not drift upward.
It drifts downward — slowly, quietly, and often unnoticed.
One day the CEO looks up and wonders:
- Where did the openness go?
- Why don’t people speak to me like they used to?
- When did the team become guarded and distant?
The answer is almost always the same:
Culture was taken for granted.
The 12 Non-Negotiables of Strong Leadership Culture
I recently read George Dupont’s “12 Non-Negotiables of Leadership Culture,” and his insight struck a deep chord. As a former US pro-athlete turned organisational coach, he observed that every failed transformation shared one common cause:
“It was not the strategy that collapsed; it was the culture.”
His twelve non-negotiables resonate deeply with what I’ve seen in the field:
- Truth over Harmony
- Standards before Goals
- No Passengers
- Conflict is a Resource
- Feedback in Real Time
- Culture Costs Something
- Rituals Anchor Pressure
- Transparency is Speed
- Adversity is the Audit
- Celebrate Behaviours, Not Just Wins
- Leaders Eat Last, Speak Last
- Culture Delivers Strategy
These are not slogans. They are daily disciplines — and when they slip, culture slips with them.
Culture Isn’t Declared. It’s Defended.
Leadership is the engine of culture. The same leader who launches a transformation must also defend it — especially under pressure. Culture cannot be assumed. It must be protected, reinforced, and lived.
For those familiar with the Schuitema Intent and Care & Growth models, each example above reflects a fundamental truth:
Culture rests on what leaders give — their presence, honesty, accountability, generosity, and courage.
Strong culture is not built by leaders who ask, “What can my people do for me?”
It is built by leaders who ask, “What can I give my people so they can thrive?”
People are not the means to an end.
People are the end.
And when leaders forget this, culture is always the first thing to break.
Article by Pam Pretorius