We’ve all worked in organizations where you could feel the atmosphere the moment you walked through the door.
Some workplaces feel calm, collaborative, and energized. People ask questions, share ideas freely, and genuinely enjoy working together. Other workplaces feel tense. Conversations stop when certain people walk by. Team members hesitate before speaking up. Everyone seems to be bracing for the next crisis.
When we think about organizational culture, we often think about strategic plans, employee handbooks, mission statements, or workplace policies. Those things certainly matter. But culture is shaped just as much — if not more — by something less tangible: the emotional cues that leaders send every single day.
Leaders set the emotional temperature and influence the organizational weather.
Your Team Is Always Watching
In a recent blog post, I wrote about how leaders unintentionally shape workplace culture by the behaviors they model. If you tell your staff not to answer emails on weekends, but you’re consistently sending emails on Saturday nights, your team notices. Whether you intend it or not, you’ve taught them something about what’s really expected.
The same principle applies to emotions.
Your team notices how you respond when a grant proposal isn’t funded. They notice how you react when someone makes a mistake. They notice whether every challenge is treated as a five-alarm fire or whether you help people focus on solutions. They notice whether you welcome questions or become frustrated when someone doesn’t already know the answer.
People don’t simply listen to leaders. They study them. Every interaction teaches your team something about what is safe, what is risky, and what is valued.
Urgency Isn’t the Same Thing as Chaos
Deadlines matter. Clients depend on us. Fundraising campaigns have real financial consequences. Emergencies happen.
Healthy organizations absolutely experience urgency. But urgency doesn’t have to become chaos.
One of the most valuable leadership skills is helping people distinguish between the two. A leader who remains calm during difficult moments doesn’t minimize the seriousness of a situation. Rather, they help people prioritize, think clearly, and move forward together.
When every email is marked “urgent,” every deadline becomes a crisis, and every unexpected challenge is treated like a catastrophe, people eventually stop knowing what truly requires immediate attention. Ironically, when everything feels urgent, nothing does.
What Are You Teaching People to Fear?
One of the most powerful ways leaders influence culture is by teaching people — often unintentionally — what feels safe and what feels dangerous.
- Can someone admit they made a mistake?
- Can they bring you bad news before it becomes a bigger problem?
- Can they ask a question without worrying they’ll look incompetent?
- Can they respectfully disagree with you?
- Can they try something new without fearing they’ll be criticized if it isn’t perfect?
The answers to those questions shape workplace culture far more than any values statement hanging on the wall.
If mistakes are punished, people hide them. If difficult conversations are met with defensiveness, people stop bringing concerns forward. If vulnerability feels risky, everyone spends more energy protecting themselves than solving problems.
How Do You Know What Kind of Climate You’re Creating?
Leadership isn’t just about how you see yourself. It’s about how your leadership is experienced by everyone around you.
If you’re wondering whether your leadership style is creating a healthy workplace culture, don’t just ask yourself whether you’re a good leader. Look at the behaviors your team is exhibiting.
In organizations where fear or distrust has taken root, you may notice that team members wait to be told what to do rather than taking initiative. Leaders find themselves constantly reminding, nudging, or nagging people to complete tasks. Bad news travels slowly. Problems stay hidden until they’re impossible to ignore. Meetings are quiet because people don’t want to disagree or take a risk by offering an unpopular opinion.
In healthier workplace cultures, different patterns emerge. People ask thoughtful questions. They willingly share both positive news and difficult news. They admit mistakes early, before they become larger problems. They respectfully disagree. They offer ideas before being asked. They take ownership of projects because they know they’ll be supported, not second-guessed, when they exercise good judgment.
That’s what trust looks like in action.
Leaders Regulate the Emotional Temperature
Leaders don’t have to pretend everything is fine. In fact, false optimism can erode trust just as quickly as panic can. Effective leaders acknowledge challenges honestly while creating confidence that the team can navigate them together.
That means being transparent without creating panic.
Calm without minimizing.
Honest without catastrophizing.
Your own steadiness gives everyone else permission to stay steady, too.
The Weather You’re Creating
As leaders, we spend a great deal of time thinking about strategic plans, fundraising goals, budgets, board engagement, and organizational growth. All of those things matter. But years from now, your staff probably won’t remember the wording of your strategic plan. They will remember how it felt to work with you.
- Did they feel trusted?
- Did they feel comfortable asking questions?
- Did they feel safe bringing you difficult news?
- Did they feel encouraged to contribute ideas and take thoughtful risks?
Every interaction nudges the emotional temperature of your organization a little warmer or a little colder. The question isn’t whether you’re influencing the climate. The question is: What kind of weather are you creating?
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