288 | 10 Culture Builders Every Leader Needs to Know

Last week, we talked about Culture Busters—those subtle cracks that can quietly corrode a healthy team.
This week, we’re flipping the script.

In this episode of the Lead Culture Podcast, Jenni Catron unpacks 10 Culture Builders—everyday leadership behaviors that may seem simple, but when practiced with intention, have the power to transform your team culture.

From celebrating the people who embody your values, to training managers who understand the sacred work of leadership, to cultivating clarity at every level—these are the habits that shape high-performing, people-centered teams.

Whether you’re an executive, team lead, or emerging manager, this episode will help you recognize what’s working, realign what’s not, and re-engage your team with purpose.

You’ll learn how to:

• Recognize and reinforce values in action
• Encourage candid and respectful communication
• Create clarity around roles, expectations, and decisions
• Host purposeful meetings with clear mandates
• Equip your managers to lead people well
• Build rhythms of connection, celebration, and feedback
• Make leadership development a priority—for everyone

Sound bites to remember:
🗣 “Celebrate team members who model your values.”
📣 “Clear communication is an act of respect.”
🧭 “Clarity of roles boosts engagement and ownership.”
📅 “Purposeful meetings should have a clear mandate.”

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Transcript

Jenni Catron (00:10.104)
Hey, leaders, welcome to the Lead Culture Podcast, part of the Art of Leadership Network. I'm your host, Jenny Catron, CEO of the Forsight Group, a company dedicated to helping leaders develop thriving teams. Each week, I'll be your guide as we explore practical strategies to equip you with the tools you need to lead with clarity, confidence, and build unstoppable momentum

in your organization. My mission is to be your trusted coach, empowering you to master the art of self-leadership so you'll learn to lead yourself well so you can lead others better. Each week, we take a deep dive on a leadership or a culture topic. You'll hear stories from amazing guests and leaders like you who are committed to leading well.

So let's dive in and keep learning on this leadership journey together. All right, gang, well today we are doing a part two of a little mini series I started last week. I kind of accidentally started a mini series. I was gonna do an episode last week that was both culture busters and culture builders. And then as I got into it, I realized, you know what, this is really two parts, like, because it's gonna be a little overwhelming if we try to do both of those things in the same episode. So last week we talked about 10 culture busters, the things that can disrupt your culture, that can be eroding or causing your culture to at least adrift. And so I asked you to listen to those 10, take inventory on your current culture. Which of those 10 might actually apply to your current culture and what we do about it. So I hope you listened to that episode. If not, you can go back and you can check that out, give it a listen.

do some evaluation. It won't hurt if you listen to these in reverse order. But today we're gonna cover 10 culture builders. So what are the things that actually build a healthy culture? What are kind of the ordinary everyday behaviors of a team that help build a healthy culture? So that's what I'm looking at today. Now, like I told you last week, there are not just 10.

Jenni Catron (02:32.664)
but I just happened to create a list of 10 each, 10 culture busters, 10 culture builders that we're gonna talk about this week. I'm sure you could add another 10, 20, 30 more to the equation, but I want you just to get you thinking because what I see over and over is that there are often just the simple everyday behaviors that happen in organizational life that actually exponentially build culture.

And so that's what we're going to look at today is just 10 of them that I listed that I wanted you to be thinking about and say, oh, wow, we do that naturally. And that actually is healthy for our culture or wow. I kind of take that for granted. And I just wasn't thinking about how that could impact my culture in a much more meaningful way. wherever you land on these 10, I hope that they get you thinking they spark a good conversation with you and the rest of your team.

and most importantly, just help you keep building a healthy, thriving team so that you can achieve that mission that is in front of you. All right, let's look at these 10. Culture builders. The first one, celebrating team members who model your values. Celebrate the team members who model your values. That is a culture builder. It feels a little obvious. However, the first question is, do you have a set of values? If you don't, I want you to do some deep dive work on this.

We have a values course that you can use to kind of walk you through creating a set of values. We'll link to that in the show notes because if you've not done the work on building values, you want to go get that course and check that out. You need a set of values that guide how your team works together. So with that in place, you want to celebrate team members who model the values. Like when you see them in action, you want to find ways to celebrate that.

whether it be acknowledgments in staff meeting, whether it be part of your performance review process, the lead culture process helps you figure out how to infuse these in all different parts of your organizational life. But I want you to make sure that you are celebrating team members who model the values. It's that old adage that what gets rewarded gets repeated. So if your values are the behaviors that define how you work together, you wanna make sure that you are really celebrating when team members model them.

Jenni Catron (04:50.894)
What's kind of a bonus on this first one is when peers recognize and celebrate one another living the values. So in one of the teams that I led at the beginning of our staff meeting, we would just do shout outs about each other. Like if somebody lived a value this week, we would just say, hey, where have we seen values in action this week? And any person could shout out and celebrate somebody that they saw living the values. And it became much more meaningful for your peers to celebrate it than just for the senior leaders.

Both are important, but this first one, Culture Builder, is celebrating team members who model your values. Number two, candid and respectful conversation at all levels of the organization. Again, we kind of feel like this should be the norm, right? But in a lot of organizations, this is not true. You will often find places where there's the difficulty of candor. Team members don't know how to have good, honest,

candid conversations with one another. I will often be doing some culture work with teams and everybody's being super polite. Now it might be because I'm in the room, right? So I kind of create a little bit of an unusual dynamic if I'm a guest, you know, with your team. But what I find is that, especially in a lot of faith-based organizations, we will become polite and we will not be candid when candor is appropriate.

So notice that when I said this, when I said candid and respectful conversations at all levels of the organization, because sometimes we'll have really bluntly honest teams, but they're not respectful. So we kind of end up on this extreme spectrum. So candid and respectful conversations is what I'm looking for. And I stay at all levels of the organization because particularly if you're in senior leadership, you might get respectful conversation from your team.

You might even have created a little bit of a culture where they're candid with you, but they might not be candid and respectful to one another. So you're really looking for it across all levels of the organization. Number three, clear communication. The candid and respectful conversations and clear communication could overlap, but clear communication also shows up in our processes for communication. So last week, if you listen to the Culture Busters, we talked about how

Jenni Catron (07:14.862)
Poor communication is such a culture buster. So this is the flip side of that. Making sure you have good processes for communication and you have very clear communication throughout your organization. So again, the larger your organization gets, the more critical it is that you have the right processes, you're using the right tools for clear and effective communication. That is absolutely a culture builder. In fact, I would say,

Organizations that have good communication practices very naturally have stronger and healthier cultures because clear communication is an act of respect. Like if I'm getting the information I need and the right timing so I'm able to do my job effectively, I feel respected. I feel valued. So clear communication communicates respect and value to your team members. And so it automatically kind of raises that.

culture, that environment for your team. Number four, clarity of roles, responsibilities, and expectations for all team members. So you guys know I am a big advocate of the importance of organizational clarity, having a good organizational structure where everybody knows their place, everyone knows their seat, they know what they should be doing. This builds culture because when people know their role,

they know their responsibilities and they know what's expected of them, they more confidently contribute. Right? They're not playing a guessing game. They're saying, this is how I succeed. This is how I win. This is how I contribute to this organization. And so you get a higher level of engagement. You get a higher level of ownership and buy-in because they know what's expected. They know their role. They know what they're responsible for. They know what's expected of them. And so they contribute at a much higher level. Number five.

regular feedback throughout the organization. Now we talked about respectful conversations, we talked about good communication. Feedback is another component of that, but feedback is really letting others know how we're doing, how we're doing individually, how we're doing corporately, like regular feedback throughout the organization in all directions, right? Sometimes feedback is just coming top down.

Jenni Catron (09:32.696)
Well, that gets really tiring really quickly, right? It's important. We need good feedback. We all need coaching. We need direction. We need course correction, all of that. But we also want feedback peer to peer. We want feedback up, right? Like as a leader, you should want to hear what your team members are thinking and feeling and experiencing. You need feedback for what they see from their seat in the organization. They will see things that you don't see and you need their feedback. Now, again, if we're being candid and respectful and we have

good, clear pathways for communication, then feedback also happens in a much more healthy way, in much more natural way. So regular feedback throughout the organization, organizations that get good input from all employees see better cultures. They just do. When we have regular feedback throughout the organization where we're getting the right information to the right people, whether it is positive or it's negative or it's neutral, that feedback

empowers us to operate better as a team and us be more effective in our mission as an organization. Number six, purposeful meetings. Now, we could spend a whole bunch of time on this and I actually think I probably got an episode about meetings somewhere back in the archives because meetings should be very purposeful conversations, right? Meetings need a purpose. They don't need to just be on the calendar because they've always been on the calendar. They don't need to be

scheduled just because we think, you know, this group of people should be meeting together. Why are we meeting? What's the purpose? What are we trying to accomplish? Every meeting should have a purpose. Every meeting should have a mandate. This is why we get together. I was recently working with a team where we had reorganized their staff structure. So then we were looking at their meeting structure to say what meetings are needed now. And we really looked at it said, what's the purpose of that meeting? Is that meeting essential?

Why did we still do that meeting? And those questions caused us to determine which meetings do we just need to cut? Which meetings do we need to change the purpose of? Which meetings do we need to have different people in the room for? So know the purpose of your meetings. What's the purpose of the meeting? What are we trying to accomplish? And who needs to be there for that purpose? Number seven, managers who have been well-trained and value the sacred work of leadership.

Jenni Catron (11:59.456)
Now I'm smiling because this one is such a passion point for me. We have put a lot of people in management responsibility that we have not equipped for that responsibility. Let me say that again. We have put a lot of people into management responsibility, and I mean managing other people, like people management responsibility, and we have not equipped them for that responsibility. It is a much different skill set to manage other people.

than to be an individual contributor just for your role or your responsibilities. But we also know that leadership is sacred work because leaders by definition are changing or affecting the lives of others. Like we are changing or affecting the lives of others and the data supports it. That people don't leave jobs, they leave bosses, they leave their manager. Managers have...

disproportionate pressure on them because of the responsibility they carry in leading and managing others and the expectations people have of their managers. In fact, that has grown significantly in the last decade that people place a lot of expectation on their direct manager, even more so than executive leaders. And so there is a lot of responsibility on managers, especially kind of mid-level in the organization. So this is one of the biggest contributors to healthy culture is good.

leaders, good managers. So that's number seven, managers who have been well-trained. We're training, we're investing, we're helping develop them so they are leading people well. And it's because they value that sacred work of leadership. They understand it's not just another part of their job function. Like they're actually changing or affecting the lives of people. They are helping steward the talent of some of your team. And that is a massive responsibility. leaders who get that and organizations that equip their people managers well.

see stronger and healthier cultures. Number eight, regular times for connection and celebration and fun as a team. So a lot of times when people hear culture and I think they were getting better at this, but for a long time we just thought it was perks and fun stuff, right? We would hear the stories of the big companies who would do all the flashy stuff and have all the bells and whistles that they use for recruiting. And we would think that's what culture is. And then we would get discouraged because maybe we didn't have the budget for that.

Jenni Catron (14:18.554)
And so then we kind of gave up on the whole culture idea. Well, you just heard me say seven other things that had nothing to do with just perks and fun stuff. But those regular times for connection, celebration and fun as a team, those are relationship building moments and those are really essential for good culture. So we want all the other things and we want to make sure that we're helping people relationally connect. Right. So those regular times for connection, fun, fun days, outings,

Even just like simple celebrations, birthdays and anniversaries and the fun ways different teams just celebrate one another is really powerful. Number nine, clear onboarding processes for new employees. New employees have fresh eyes, fresh insight, and they are eager to be a part of your organization. But if you are not onboarding them to who you are and how you work together,

as a team, if you're not onboarding them to your culture and equipping them with all the tools that they need to succeed, then they have the potential to help derail your culture because they may unintentionally value something that is not a value of your organization, or they may unintentionally take action or not take action, just operate out of alignment because they were not onboarded well to know how to succeed here.

So you wanna make sure that you do have a really thoughtful and thorough process for new employees, helping catch them up to your culture and connecting them in a way that really helps set them up for success. And then number 10, leadership development for all employees. So we talked earlier about your middle managers, your people managers and making sure that they're well-trained and they really understand that sacred work of leadership. We also wanna make sure that we are developing all of our employees

that we're looking at, what are the skills that they need? So it might be leadership development, might even just be skills development, but looking for what are we doing to help develop and invest in all of our employees doesn't have to be complicated. fact, it can be pretty simple. Just looking for, what are four things that we wanna grow in as a whole staff this year? And you schedule four quarterly trainings and you can go find some resources for that. The Foresight Leadership Institute is a fabulous resource for ongoing

Jenni Catron (16:45.72)
training and development for your team. it's kind of turnkey. Like literally you guys, you could sign your team members up for the Leadership Institute. And then that is, we're kind of your built in leadership development staff. Like we're your built in leadership development department. But whatever you use, be intentional to say, what do we need? Like what does our team need? Where do they need development? Everybody needs development. So it's not a question of if, it's a what? What do we need development in? And how can we do that?

doesn't have to be complicated. It can be really simple, but that a simple commitment to ongoing development for your team means volumes, just has huge impact for them, and it's a huge culture builder. So those are our 10 culture builders for today. I'm sure you thought of some others and I'd actually love to hear them. Just email me jenny at getforsight.com. It's J-E-N-N-I at getforsight.com.

Shoot me an email and let me know what are some things that are culture builders in your organization. But to recap us today, here's our 10 culture builders. Number one, celebrating team members who model the values. Number two, candid and respectful conversation at all levels of the organization. Number three, clear communication. Number four, clarity of roles, responsibilities, and expectations for all team members. Number five, regular feedback.

throughout the organization. Number six, purposeful meetings. Number seven, managers who have been well-trained and value the sacred work of leadership. Number eight, regular times for connection and celebration and fun as a team. Number nine, clear onboarding processes for new employees. And number 10, leadership or skills development for all employees.

All right, friends, I hope that got you thinking. I hope you saw a few, like some low hanging fruit that you're like, you know what, we could do a little bit better on that. And I think it would improve our culture. I hope a couple of things kind of got your attention. So here's your action plan for today. In the show notes, we've listed all of these culture builders. So I know I rattled them off and you're probably trying to scribble like crazy. They're in the show notes. So just go check those out. And I want you to take inventory of your culture today. What are the top three

Jenni Catron (19:06.926)
culture builders in your organization. So as you heard that list of 10, what are the three that you're actually doing really well? You're like, I'm really proud of us. We're doing well at these three. And you might even rate all of them. Last week on the 10 culture busters, had you, I said, you know, pick the three that are the biggest challenge and give some time and attention there. But you could also just rank them from, in this case on the culture builders, you're the best to the worst.

Like what are the ones that you're killing it at, like you're doing really well with, and then kind of rank them in order from the ones you're best at, the ones you're worst at. Whatever's most helpful to you. I don't have to overprescribe that, but I really do want you to say, what are the top three? What are the ones we're doing well? And then begin to evaluate, how do we keep growing and improving upon them? And then I wanna invite you to schedule a free 30 minute call with one of our Lead Culture Certified Coaches,

to help you assess your culture and coach you on how to take action to make it even better, right? There's no perfect culture, there's no perfect team, but we can lead our cultures to be stronger and healthier. And so we would love to help you do that. No obligation, just a free 30 minute call because we love this work. This is super fun for us. So one of our certified lead culture coaches can help you assess your culture and coach you on how to take action to make it even better.

So you'll find the link to schedule your call in the show notes or just drop me an email at jenny at getforsight.com. It's j-e-n-n-i at get-g-e-t the number four s-i-g-h-t.com. Friends, I absolutely believe that healthy teams are the differentiator in the best organizations. Guys, this is the game changer. And I think leaning in and investing in the health of your team is incredibly important right now. Again, I said there's no perfect culture.

But there are definitely extraordinary cultures. So let's help you develop a thriving team so you can accelerate growth and build unstoppable momentum. Well, let me know what you thought of this episode. What was helpful? Tell me your culture builders, what's working well for you. Connect with us on Instagram and Facebook at GetForesight or on LinkedIn at the Foresight group. And I'm at Jenny Catrin on all of those channels. So just shoot me a DM. Let me know what you thought.

Jenni Catron (21:30.917)
I'd love it if you would share the episode, share it with your leadership team, share it with your whole staff, and then talk about it and say, what could we do to lean into even more of these culture builders so that we're really living into the type of team we want to be? And then if you haven't done it yet, would you leave that five-star review? I know you get asked about this from every podcast host, but it actually matters. It really helps support us and give us...

the exposure that we need to make it valuable for us to continue to do the podcast. takes time and resources, you guys. Like my team spends several hours a week putting the podcast together every week. And we're a pretty simple podcast. Like we're not super complicated. So it really is an investment of time and resources. So when you just let us know how we're doing, you give us that five star review. You leave us like actually a few words about the podcast.

So incredibly helpful. Besides, I'm an Enneagram number three. I need a little affirmation from time to time. So we would love to hear from you on that. All right, friends, thanks for listening today. Keep leading well this week and we will see you next time.