A Leadership Communication Skill Every Leader Needs
By Stephanie Bickel
You’ve inherited a new team or you sense something is off in your current team culture. People are going through the motions, but engagement feels low. You notice a lack of energy, and apathy is starting to creep in. Your instinct tells you it’s time to shake things up, but how?
The answer lies in co-creating your team’s culture. Leaders often think they need to set the tone and dictate the culture from the top down. While it's true that leadership sets the direction, the most lasting and effective cultural transformations happen when the team actively participates in creating the values and standards they live by.
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Many leaders believe that culture is a fixed entity, that it's "baked into" an organization or team and cannot be easily changed. This is a myth. Culture is constantly evolving, shaped by the daily interactions and behaviors of your team members. As a leader, your role is to guide the team in owning this evolution, empowering them to create a culture they can be proud of and committed to.
Co-creating culture isn't just a one-time process—it's an ongoing practice that helps align the team's values with their actions. When done well, it not only boosts morale but also deepens accountability, fosters collaboration, and increases ownership across the board. The team no longer waits for leadership to make improvements; they feel empowered to be the change.
Co-creating culture doesn't happen overnight, either. It requires time, intentional effort, and buy-in from every member of the team. Expect some resistance. People may cling to old habits, and some may even be reluctant to engage. You will also need to make tough decisions about team members who do not align with the newly co-created culture.
A Harvard Business Review study found that companies that actively work to co-create their culture see a 15% increase in engagement and a 10% boost in productivity. Furthermore, organizations that empower their teams to co-create culture report significantly lower turnover rates, with employees feeling a greater sense of ownership and belonging.
We recently worked with an advisory firm that wanted to transform the culture of their executive assistants across multiple offices. Morale was low, and the team was disconnected. Instead of dictating a new set of values, we started with reflective questions: What experience do you want to give your clients when they meet you? The assistants came together and brainstormed practical actions: showing more enthusiasm, offering more energy in handshakes, using more stillness when listening, and improving eye contact. They even proposed elevating the way they dressed to reflect the professional brand they wanted to project. At the end of the session, they had come up with 3 values and a mission statement for their team. They did it together.
The result? The team became the change they wanted to see. The company noticed an immediate improvement in how clients were welcomed, and the executive assistants felt a renewed sense of pride in their roles. The best part? This wasn’t a top-down directive—it was the team’s co-created culture.
Imagine a future where your team is no longer waiting for leadership to fix things. They own the culture they’ve helped create. In meetings, everyone is aligned on the team’s values, and they hold each other accountable with respect and care. Conflicts are navigated smoothly because the team uses their shared values as a guide, rather than relying on directives from leadership. This is not just a dream—it’s the reality that co-creating culture can bring.
As a leader, you have the opportunity to empower your team to create the culture they need to succeed. People assume leaders have to always have the answer, but sometimes the real communication skill needed is asking the right questions of your team. AND, letting them answer.
This is a leader's facilitation tool to exercise whenever you're forming a new team or when you notice that something isn't working. The process takes time, but the results are worth it—your team will be more engaged, more collaborative, and ultimately, more effective. That’s the kind of culture every leader wants.
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