Leadership programs fail when culture is broken — and it happens far more often than leaders realise. Across Australia and New Zealand, organisations invest millions each year in leadership development, coaching, and capability building, only to watch the behaviours fade as soon as people return to the workplace. Not because the program was flawed, but because the cultural environment made it impossible for new leadership behaviours to survive.
From the outside, it can look like the leadership program failed. Maybe the content wasn’t engaging enough. Maybe the facilitator didn’t “get” the business. Maybe the managers “weren’t ready.”
But after three decades of working with leaders across the public sector, private sector, not-for-profit organisations, and global teams… I can tell you the truth most executives already suspect:
Your leadership program isn’t broken. Your culture is.
And until you face that, nothing you invest in will stick.
This isn’t about blame. This is about understanding the system. Because leadership behaviour is not just the product of individual willpower. It’s a product of context. If the environment punishes new skills, the old behaviour always wins.
Let’s talk about why.
The Core Problem: Training Leaders in a System That Makes Good Leadership Impossible
Leadership development often assumes a simple equation:
Teach skills → Leaders apply skills → Culture improves.
It’s a comforting idea. Linear. Predictable. Manageable.
But human systems don’t work that way.
Real behaviour change requires three things:
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Capability – knowing how.
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Opportunity – being allowed to.
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Motivation – being rewarded for doing it.
Most leadership programs focus only on the first.
Culture determines the other two.
Imagine you send managers to a coaching program:
They learn how to listen deeply.
They learn to empower their teams.
They learn to ask powerful questions instead of giving orders.
They return motivated, hopeful, and ready.
Then they try it…
…and get punished for it.
Deadlines tighten. Senior leaders micromanage. Teams lack psychological safety. Performance frameworks reward speed, not collaboration. Executives say “be empowered” but still centralise decision-making.
What do leaders do?
They revert to whatever the culture rewards.
This isn’t a leadership problem.
It’s a cultural operating system problem.
What Culture Really Is — and Why Leaders Misunderstand It
Culture is not posters on the wall.
It’s not your values statement.
And it’s definitely not your engagement survey results.
Culture is the unspoken rulebook for how things get done.
It’s the pattern of behaviour your organisation tolerates, rewards, normalises, or avoids.
Culture is:
How decisions really get made.
How conflict is avoided – or weaponised.
How risk is treated.
How power works.
How safe it is to speak up.
How people behave when no one is watching.
How leaders role-model. Or don’t.
In Australia and New Zealand, culture is also shaped by specific regional dynamics:
• Egalitarian expectations – leaders must prove credibility, not assume it.
• “Fair go” mentality – hypocrisy is punished hard.
• Tall poppy syndrome – excellence can be quietly resented.
• Public sector influence – risk aversion, political complexity, scrutiny.
• Hybrid work – leaders navigating new norms and new visibility challenges.
These cultural conditions influence everything from collaboration to psychological safety.
When culture is strong, leadership programs succeed because leaders have a stable foundation.
When culture is broken, training becomes theatre.
The Four Cultural Conditions That Destroy Leadership Programs
These are the exact cultural dynamics that make leadership programs fail when culture is broken.
1. Misaligned Behaviour at the Top
If senior leaders say one thing and do another, the entire system collapses.
People don’t follow mission statements. They follow behaviour.
A CEO who preaches empowerment but micromanages?
Culture killer.
Executives who say inclusion matters but tolerate bullying in high performers?
Culture killer.
Senior leaders who skip training but expect others to attend?
Culture killer.
The shadow of the executive team is long.
It tells people:
“These are the real rules. This is what’s actually valued here.”
No leadership program can compete with that.
2. Low Psychological Safety and High Threat Response
Neuroscience is unequivocal:
People cannot operate with empathy, curiosity, creativity, or collaboration when their nervous system is in a threat state.
In broken cultures, people are constantly navigating micro-threats:
• Leaders who snap under pressure
• Teams who fear being blamed
• Silos, politics, and turf wars
• Withholding of information
• Decision-making bottlenecks
• “Don’t bring me problems” cultures
• Fear of criticism
• Fear of being wrong
In these environments, leadership skills don’t just fail; they become dangerous.
A leader trying to coach a burnt-out team gets pushback.
A manager asking for collaboration hits defensiveness.
A supervisor trying to give feedback triggers anxiety or retaliation.
When safety is low, leadership training becomes a threat, not a growth tool.
3. Unclear Strategy and Constant Priority Whiplash
When priorities change weekly, leaders stop trying to lead; they start trying to survive.
In organisations where strategy is unclear or constantly shifting:
• Leaders don’t know what “good” looks like
• Teams suffer from decision paralysis
• Projects stall
• Meetings multiply
• Everyone becomes reactive
• Leadership development becomes flavour-of-the-month
If the organisational direction is unstable, leadership development becomes noise in a sea of uncertainty.
4. Systems That Punish the Very Behaviour You’re Trying to Teach
This is where culture and structure collide.
You send leaders to training on collaboration, but reward individual performance.
You teach empowerment, but centralise authority.
You teach coaching, but measure output instead of capability.
You teach psychological safety, but ignore bad behaviour.
You teach innovation, but punish mistakes.
You teach wellbeing, but overload teams.
The system always wins.
No matter how much money is spent.
Why Organisations Keep Doing Training Anyway
If leadership programs constantly fail in broken cultures… why do organisations keep running them?
1. The Tick-the-Box Illusion
It’s easier to run a training course than face cultural dysfunction.
2. Executives Want Quick Wins
Training looks like action. Culture change is slow and political.
3. HR and OD Teams Are Under Pressure
They are often expected to fix systemic issues with tactical interventions.
4. Leaders Want to Believe Change Is Simple
It’s comforting to believe a program can “fix” things.
5. Vendors Sell Hope
The industry is full of programs that promise everything and deliver little because they ignore culture.
This cycle repeats in every organisation where leadership programs fail when culture is broken, no matter how well-designed the training is.
But hope doesn’t make systems change.
Courage does.
The Leadership Behaviour Gap: When You Teach One Thing but Reward Another
This is the real failure point.
A leader attends a coaching workshop and returns inspired, but:
• Their boss demands immediate results
• Their KPIs measure speed, not development
• Their peers gossip about “soft leadership”
• Their team pushes back because they’ve never been empowered before
• Their workload leaves no time for coaching conversations
So what happens?
They stop.
Not because they’re weak.
Not because they don’t care.
Because they’re intelligent humans responding to the environment they’re in.
This behaviour gap is the core reason leadership programs fail when culture is broken. The environment punishes what the training encourages.
Psychological Safety Is the Non-Negotiable Foundation
Without psychological safety, even the best leadership development efforts collapse. It’s another way leadership programs fail when culture is broken.
You cannot teach leadership until you fix safety.
In low-safety cultures, behaviour sits in one of four states:
Fight
Leaders become defensive, aggressive, territorial.
Flight
Leaders avoid tough conversations, conflict, decisions.
Freeze
Leaders are paralysed, burnt out, overwhelmed, and disengaged.
Fawn
Leaders turn into people pleasers.
This isn’t personality.
It’s physiology.
Leadership skills can’t express themselves in a threat state.
Safety is the soil. Leadership is the plant.
If the soil is toxic, no amount of sunlight will help.
Case Study Examples
The Elite Leadership Program That Backfired
A government department invested heavily in “high potential” leaders. But the senior executive team operated in silos, competed for influence, and role-modelled territorial behaviour.
Outcome: Participants returned to the same environment and adopted the same behaviours. The program reinforced the dysfunction.
The Coaching Culture Initiative That Turned into Policing
A private organisation wanted “coaching conversations” but maintained punitive performance systems. Managers used coaching to extract more work, not to empower.
Outcome: Trust plummeted.
The Change Leadership Program That Collapsed Under Politics
Middle managers learned brilliant change frameworks but lacked authority to implement.
Outcome: Cynicism, high turnover, and disengagement.
These aren’t rare. They’re typical.
The Deep Mechanics of Culture Change
Culture doesn’t shift through workshops.
It shifts through ecosystem design.
That includes:
• Behaviours leaders model
• What is rewarded, tolerated, or punished
• Communication patterns
• Decision-making norms
• Meeting culture
• Power structures
• Workload and capacity
• Accountability systems
• Psychological safety
• Rituals, rhythms, and routines
Culture is built through what leaders do repeatedly—not what they teach.
When Leadership Programs Do Work
When culture, strategy, and capability are aligned, leadership development becomes a catalyst.
Programs succeed when:
1. Behaviour Is Measured, Not Just Taught
Leaders are evaluated on behaviour, not rhetoric.
2. The System Reinforces the Learning
Performance frameworks, HR processes, and decision-making structures support the new behaviours.
3. Executives Model the Change
When the senior team lives the behaviours, the organisation adapts.
4. Leaders Practise in Real Context
Not role-plays—real problems, real projects, real stakes.
5. Feedback Loops Exist
Leaders receive coaching, mentoring, support, and accountability.
In these conditions, leadership programs don’t just work—they accelerate culture change.
A Practical Blueprint for Organisations
Here’s how leaders can shift the culture so leadership programs actually stick:
1. Conduct a Cultural Diagnostic First
Before investing in leadership capability, assess cultural maturity, safety, behaviour norms, and political dynamics.
2. Fix Structural Misalignment
Update systems that reward old behaviours before teaching new ones.
3. Build Psychological Safety
Train leaders in safe communication, emotional intelligence, and trauma-informed leadership.
4. Create Leadership Rituals
Daily and weekly habits that reinforce behaviour:
• After-action reviews
• Coaching check-ins
• Feedback rituals
• Team clarity huddles
5. Train the Senior Team First
Nothing changes unless the top changes.
6. Embed Leadership into Real Work
Leadership development should be lived, not learned.
The Cost of Getting Culture Wrong
Broken culture costs more than money.
It costs:
• Engagement
• Productivity
• Innovation
• Psychological safety
• Talent retention
• Reputation
• Customer experience
• Leadership credibility
The Australian Human Resources Institute and others estimate that replacing an employee can cost anywhere from 16% to 200% of their annual salary, once you factor in lost productivity, recruitment, training, and disruption. With average turnover sitting around 16%, the financial impact on organisations quickly moves into the billions.
Leadership failure is one of the biggest contributors.
The Opportunity: Leadership Development as a Cultural Accelerator
When culture is aligned, leadership development becomes the rocket fuel of transformation.
It builds:
• Accountability
• Courage
• Collaboration
• Innovation
• Psychological safety
• Cross-functional effectiveness
People feel proud to work in these organisations.
Leaders grow.
Teams thrive.
Performance improves.
The Call to Courage
Here’s what leaders need to hear:
You cannot train your way out of a culture problem.
You have to lead your way out of it.
Culture change requires truth-telling, alignment, and consistency.
It requires senior leaders to hold themselves to the same standards they set for others.
It requires bravery to name what hasn’t been working – and commitment to build something stronger.
Because leadership programs don’t fail.
Cultures do.
Fix the culture, and leadership development becomes unstoppable.
About the Author
Rosalind Cardinal is a leadership strategist, author, and founder of Shaping Change, an award-winning consultancy helping leaders and organisations build cultures where people and performance thrive. With a background in organisational development and neuroscience-based coaching, Ros works with boards, executives, and teams to create lasting change through clarity, courage, and connection.
Book a chat with Ros.