How to make workplace culture immune to personalities of Business or Team Leaders, ETHRWorld
Highlights
- Vinay Dhingra of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India says that a strong, cohesive culture should transcend individual leadership styles. To foster this, strong cultural values should be embedded into structured policies, training and communication practices.
- Vikram Chopra of CARS24 says that true leaders focus on collective success rather than individual recognition. This might mean stepping in to support another team, taking on a new role without fanfare, or quietly helping others succeed.
- Tarun N P Varma of Tata Consumer Products says that strong leadership personalities foster a culture that carries their unique signature, but this may also lead to catastrophic failure for those who seek to step out of the shadows of such leaders when they move on and find themselves ill-equipped to take on the challenges in front of them.
- Sunjoy Dhaawan of DHL Express India says that the C-suite roles play an integral role in the success of an organisation; business leaders and team managers often play a more pivotal role in uniting the organisation and assisting each contributor and employee in working towards a common goal.
It would be understating the obvious if it’s said that more than the role of a Business Leader, it’s the person entrusted with the leadership responsibility makes the difference, says Tarun N P Varma, Global Chief Human Resources & Sustainability Officer, Tata Consumer Products (TCP).
George Bernard Shaw once said in his famous 1905 play Man and Superman, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
This formula, if applied to leaders and the workplace, reflects and portrays the impact of one unreasonable leader who persists in trying to adapt the world to oneself or not.
“The voices and choices of that one person makes all the difference in weaving together or tearing apart the cultural fabric of an organisation, and in so speaking, the very structure of the organisation itself,” says Varma.
This is even more true in today’s hybrid workplace settings, where the workforce has a highly distributed architecture, cutting across time zones, geographies and cross-cultural boundaries.
Vikram Chopra, Founder & CEO, CARS24, opines that true leadership isn’t just about overseeing — it’s about inspiring, setting higher standards and leading by action.
“At every level, leaders who see challenges take them head-on, cultivating potential and relentlessly pushing for excellence. They know that if you’re not constantly striving for better, you’re just standing still— and that’s not an option. Thus, a leader can set standards and lead from the front by driving purpose and passion,” says Chopra.
How important is the role of Business Heads and Team Managers in influencing workplace culture?
Vinay Dhingra, Senior Director – Human Resources & Administration, Information Technology, Corporate Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), is of the view that business leaders and team managers play a crucial role in cultivating a positive culture centred around innovation, respect and continuous learning.
“Their influence goes beyond daily tasks, helping to establish a shared vision that aligns the employees with the company’s broader goals,” Dhingra says.
He further says that through leaders’ actions, decisions and communication styles, they promote accountability, inclusivity and collaboration throughout the organisation.
“This cultural foundation empowers employees, boosts their morale and enhances performance, with managers serving as both role models and mentors,” Dhingra adds.
According to Dhingra, HMSI leaders foster open communication, empathy and mutual respect to create an environment where employees feel valued and are motivated to contribute their best.
Chopra of CARS24 shares that every team leader at the company is motivated and trained to be future ready, creating workplaces that every employee wants to exist.
Chopra highlights major characteristics of leaders and managers about how they create organisation culture:
1. Constructive, open feedback as a tool for growth
Chopra says, “Feedback isn’t a mere formality; it’s a powerful tool for continuous improvement.”
Leaders who foster an open environment where feedback flows in all directions, encourage an inclusive and well-rounded approach to growth.
“This isn’t about checking a box but about creating a culture where everyone can improve together,” he adds.
2. Driving passion and purpose
Chopra opines that great leaders bring energy and passion to everything they do.
“It’s not just about management; it’s about genuine love for the work and vision. An enthusiasm, as this is contagious, igniting a sense of purpose that drives throughout the organisation,” he says.
3. Humility over ego: Putting the team above all
“The type of leadership grounded in humility leaves ego at the door,” says Chopra.
He says that true leaders focus on collective success rather than individual recognition. This might mean stepping in to support another team, taking on a new role without fanfare, or quietly helping others succeed.
“When leaders model this, it becomes embedded in the company’s culture; when the team rises, everyone rises,” he opines.
How to minimise the role of business leaders and team managers in setting a workplace culture
Sunjoy Dhaawan, Vice President – Human Resources, DHL Express India, says that the company encourages a culture of two-way feedback.
“While most organisations provide one-way feedback (manager to employee), at DHL Express, we know the importance of feedback from each and every employee, across the system, to ensure that our respect and results culture continues to thrive,” he says.
DHL conducts the annual Employee Opinion Survey, an anonymous survey where employees are encouraged to share unfiltered feedback about the organisation and management.
“Every year, over 98 percent of our employees participate in this survey and help us improve our organisational culture creating opportunities where all members of the team feel appreciated and connected with each other, as well as building a system of two-way feedback,” Dhaawan says.
Dhingra of HMSI says that a strong, cohesive culture should transcend individual leadership styles.
“To foster this, we embed strong cultural values into structured policies, training and communication practices that shape our workplace environment at every level,” he says.
Regular sessions, development programmes and initiatives reinforce HMSI values across departments. A robust feedback system also ensures alignment with organisational goals, regardless of changes in management.
“This structured approach enables employees to adopt HMSI’s values and behaviours, ensuring that cultural continuity is a shared responsibility rather than reliant on any one leader,” Dhingra says.
Varma of Tata Consumer Products says, “It depends upon the impact being felt by people in an organisation. If the person in the leadership role radiates joy, energy and vibrancy, one would encourage more of the same. But if the person leaks toxicity, the intervention needs to be surgical.”
Varma goes on to explain how this holds true especially of the micro-behaviours demonstrated in online and offline settings, given that the seat is always under a microscope as part of the undocumented job description.
“The taller the tree, the wider the shadow it casts. And so it is with leaders and culture,” Varma says.
He says that strong leadership personalities foster a culture that carries their unique signature, where people feel their leader leads from the front and has their back at all times.
But this, he adds, may also lead to catastrophic failure for those who seek to step out of the shadows of such leaders when they move on and find themselves ill-equipped to take on the challenges in front of them.
With about two and a half decades of experience, Varma shares, “Having worked with a variety of multicultural and cross-functional leadership teams, I have seen leadership changes having a direct impact on workplace culture.”
“At Tata Consumer Products, ‘Leadership & Culture’ is at Number 1 among our 11 People priorities. Every senior leader transition requires a 30-60-100-day plan that ensures a thorough and deep cultural immersion, rather than just a broad induction and handover,” Varma says.
He further says that on an ongoing basis, leaders are strongly encouraged to create the right conditions for their team members to thrive, within the two key guard rails of the ‘TCP Growth Mindset & Behaviours’ on one hand and the ‘Tata Code of Conduct’ on the other.
Towards this end, each of the Top 150 leaders at TCP undertake a self-evaluation as well as 360-degree feedback around the micro-level demonstration of the growth mindset and behaviours.
“Equally important is the annual InterAction survey that provides all employees a forum to share their voices & choices at a macro level,” says Varma.
These provide the Executive Committee a clear anchor to determine the actions needed, even as the organisation accelerates its growth and transformation where people can be their full self in delivering economic value whilst living and following the TCP values.
“The truth is, no one leader or team manager should define a workplace culture on their own; the real strength lies in embedding the right values across the organisation,” says Chopra of CARS24.
CARS24 has made it a point to build a culture where values do the heavy lifting.
“Our values—raise standards, take action, be ambitious, remain passionate and practice humility—are not just words we repeat at onboarding, but they are living, breathing standards that we hold ourselves to, every single day,” says Chopra.
Building a workplace culture that thrives beyond individual leaders
“While leaders are instrumental in nurturing culture, we’ve designed CARS24’s culture to be resilient, extending beyond any one person’s influence,” emphasises Chopra.
CARS24 values are embedded into its operational systems and employee experiences to ensure consistency, even when leaders, managers and team dynamics change, he says.
“Our initiatives such as the CRUISE Framework for customer interactions and cross-functional teams reinforce the CARS24 culture through uniform processes and diverse perspectives,” says Chopra.
“Moreover, regular culture assessments provide ongoing feedback, allowing us to stay dynamic and adaptive,” he adds.
He further says that by creating clear role definitions, incentivizing performance and encouraging an environment of collaboration, the company has established a culture that thrives on collective accountability.
“When each team member feels ownership over the culture, changes in leadership are less disruptive—they’re simply another chance to reinforce our shared vision of excellence,” Chopra adds.
A workplace culture that outlasts individuals
According to Chopra, CARS24’s culture is built to be durable.
He says, “Leaders might light the spark, but each Autonaut keeps it burning. This shared responsibility and commitment to our values allow CARS24 to maintain a vibrant workplace culture—one that’s both self-sustaining and ready to evolve with us with changing times and individual leaders.”
Emphasising the importance of business and team leaders in setting a workplace culture, Dhaawan shares a quote by Titus Winters, a senior software engineer, who once said, “A boat without a captain is nothing more than a floating waiting room: unless someone grabs the rudder and starts the engine, it’s just going to drift along aimlessly with the current.”
Although Winters’ quote tilts towards software engineering, its wisdom extends to leadership.
Dhaawan says that leadership holds immense significance within an organisation as it steers the ‘boat’ towards success.
While the C-suite roles play an integral role in the success of an organisation, business leaders and team managers often play a more pivotal role in uniting the organisation and assisting each contributor and employee in working towards a common goal.
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