Leaders Worth Following: How Values and Ethics Shape Organisational Culture

The way leaders behave has a powerful effect on how people act across an organisation. Leadership sets the tone. More than any policy or mission statement, it is behaviour that shows what’s acceptable - actions speak louder than words, and demonstrated behaviour carries more weight than rules.

Leadership That Starts With People

Dominic (Dom) Quin, Group General Manager of Marketing and Customer Experience at Foodstuffs, was recently recognised by the Southern Cross Wayfinders 'True North' leadership award. His focus as a leader has been on building workplace culture and team wellbeing. He says this results in team members who commit to the workplace, are willing team members, and want to stay in their job.

One of the values Dom and his team commit to is “leaders worth following”, a Foodstuffs principle he uses and one that he says is rooted in a simple idea he learned from his family: Treat others with the respect with which you would like to be treated. That value underpins how he leads.

Dom Quin accepts the True North leadership award for his work on team wellbeing at Foodstuffs. [1]

Courageous Conversations and a Culture of Feedback

According to his nomination, Dom encourages courageous conversations, a core ingredient of an ethical culture where wellbeing is more likely to thrive.

When people feel safe to challenge ideas, raise concerns, or admit mistakes, trust deepens and teams grow stronger. Instead of avoiding difficult discussions, Dom’s team is encouraged to embrace them. Dom models this by a willingness to declare his own mistakes and uncertainty. Project reviews or errors are not blame sessions, but are treated as opportunities to build confidence, share learning, and help the team collectively succeed and shine.

Research consistently shows that if people don’t feel easy speaking up with ethical concerns or challenging their leaders with alternative views, unethical behaviour and covering up mistakes can become the norm.[2] Silence erodes team wellbeing and can allow wrongdoing to embed itself into the culture. That’s why creating space for honest dialogue is so crucial.

When Ethics Are Just Words on Paper

Policies and values statements are essential, but they mean little without leader behaviour that aligns with them. Around the world, high-profile scandals like Enron and Wells Fargo Bank show what can happen when there’s a disconnect between what an organisation says it values, and what it actually rewards.

At Wells Fargo Bank, narrow performance measures led staff to create fraudulent customer accounts in efforts to avoid a quarterly ritual where the bottom 5% of junior bankers would be fired, and the top 5% rewarded. Staff knew it was wrong, but it was quietly accepted, and even rewarded. Whistle-blowers were silenced. The company faced over USD $3.5 billion in fines and legal settlements, the CEO resigned and over 5000 jobs were lost, alongside irreparable damage to its reputation.

Enron, too, had polished values on paper. But behind the scenes, unethical behaviour was normalised and rewarded, until the entire company collapsed.

While these are extreme cases, they highlight an important point: Culture doesn’t come from posters or policy documents. It comes from what leaders say, what they do, and what they tolerate. When the gap between words and actions grows, so does risk. A strong, ethical culture starts with leaders who live the values they expect of others.

Culture Is Your Best Risk Strategy

A low-risk culture is one that promotes behaviour that enhances positive business values, the wellbeing of staff and open communication. Ethical cultures do more than avoid scandal, they promote wellbeing, innovation, and sustainable performance. When people feel psychologically safe and respected, they are more likely to speak up, share ideas, and support one another. It’s not just the right thing to do; it’s smart business. As Dom puts it:

There’s a human behind the output, and that human needs nurturing

That mindset shapes how he leads. By focusing on individual wellbeing, the whole organisation benefits.

Navigating the Grey Areas: Where Ethics Live 

Laws, rules and policies tell us what we can do, and show what some can get away with. But it is values that help us decide what we should do. Ethics and lived values are a guide for the many grey areas that occur in business, so are essential in complex situations where the answer is not black and white.

An ethical organisation empowers its people to reflect, ask questions, and consider the wider impact of decisions on colleagues, customers, and the community. In Dom’s team, they feel empowered to openly discuss “grey area” decisions about the right thing to do.

Checklist: Signs of a Values-Driven Organisation

Is your workplace walking the talk? Use this checklist to reflect:

• Leaders aren't perfect but try to model the values they promote

• Feedback is welcomed, even when it challenges the status quo

• Mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning

• Ethical concerns can be raised safely and are taken seriously

• Policies align with the real, lived experience of staff

• Wellbeing is considered as important as performance

• Success includes long-term impact, not just short-term wins

• Diverse perspectives are welcomed and respected

• Leaders are open about uncertainty and own their decisions

• Integrity is celebrated, not just output

Why It Matters

Values-based leadership and ethical organisational culture is more than a feel-good strategy. It drives long-term success, and the positive impact on the bottom line is clear. Organisations that foster ethical, human-centred cultures enjoy higher retention, fewer complaints, and better performance. When people feel free to speak up, organisations become self-correcting, innovative environments with lower error and accident rates. And perhaps most importantly, it creates workplaces where people want to be and to stay.

Written by Dr Tim Williams. Tim is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at MindMatters Clinic specialising in ethical leadership, organisational ethics, and trauma-informed leadership.

MindMatters Clinic are a team of New Zealand leading clinical experts supporting organisations in the areas of workplace wellbeing, mental health, and neurodiversity. MindMatters offer training workshops, speaking events, resources, and consulting services. MindMatters can assist leaders to assess and strengthen their organisational culture and lived values.

[1] Image Credit: White Door Event Photography

[2] https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-055217