How Do You Build a Strong Leadership Culture?

It's one of manufacturing's critical differentiators, but most CEOs and senior executives don't know how to get there.

In today's complex manufacturing landscape, having a strong leadership culture isn't just important—it's essential for survival. Manufacturing executives face unprecedented challenges: workforce shortages, technological disruption and global economic volatility. The solution lies in building a community of accountable leaders who can navigate these complex waters.

In fact, recent research I did for my book, Community of Leaders: What It Takes to Drive Strategy, Culture, and Change, reveals that 83.6% of the CEOs and senior executives we surveyed believe they need to transform their leadership culture to tackle today's challenges. Yet only 49.5% feel confident in their ability to do so. This confidence gap creates significant risk as organizations face multiple transformations, supply chain disruptions, and workforce development challenges.

My research and work with companies worldwide reveal 10 critical characteristics that help foster a strong sense of community among leaders.

10 Keys to Building a Leadership Community

Companies with strong leadership cultures share a number of key characteristics:

1. Leaders are clear on the strategy
Leaders demonstrate this by holding monthly town halls to share company direction, creating visual dashboards of key metrics and regularly connecting individual team goals to company objectives. For example, a production manager might walk their team through how their line's quality metrics directly impact customer satisfaction and market share.

2. Leaders create excitement about the future
Leaders bring this to life by sharing customer success stories in team meetings, involving employees in innovation projects and creating visible progress boards for new initiatives. They might organize "future state" workshops where teams envision and plan for upcoming technological changes, or schedule regular site visits to showcase new equipment and processes.

3. Leaders aspire to be great leaders
Effective leaders block time each week for learning, actively seek feedback from peers and their reports, and share their own development journey with their teams. This might include participating in cross-functional projects to build new skills, attending industry conferences or creating learning circles where leaders share best practices.

4. Leaders bring a one-company mindset
Leaders demonstrate unity by establishing cross-functional councils, creating shared KPIs between departments, and implementing daily stand-ups where different units align on priorities. For instance, maintenance and production leaders might jointly develop preventive maintenance schedules that optimize both equipment reliability and production targets.

5. Leaders hold each other accountable
Leaders put this into practice through structured peer reviews, regular performance dialogues and transparent tracking of commitments. They might implement a system where leaders regularly assess each other's progress on key initiatives or create accountability partnerships for major projects.

6. Leaders celebrate success
Effective leaders schedule weekly recognition moments, create visual celebration boards and tell stories of team successes during meetings. They might implement a "wins wall" where teams post their achievements, or create monthly ceremonies to celebrate both major milestones and small victories.

7. Leaders collaborate and break down silos
Leaders actively break down barriers by rotating team members across departments, creating cross-functional project teams and establishing shared workspaces. They might implement "day in the life" exchanges where leaders spend time in different departments or create regular forums where teams share challenges and solutions.

8. Leaders don’t play petty politics
Leaders demonstrate this by making decisions through inclusive processes, sharing credit broadly and addressing conflicts with a focus on organizational benefit. They might use structured decision-making tools that require consideration of multiple stakeholders or implement transparent resource allocation processes.

9. Leaders have resilience and resolve
Leaders build resilience by creating detailed contingency plans, maintaining calm during crises and turning setbacks into learning opportunities. This might include conducting regular scenario planning sessions, establishing clear crisis response protocols or holding after-action reviews to capture lessons learned.

10. Leaders support each other
Leaders actively support colleagues by offering resources during challenging projects, stepping in during crises and creating mentoring relationships. They might establish regular peer coaching sessions, create leadership support circles or implement a structured buddy system for new leaders.

Taking Action in Your Company

How can a company go about building a stronger leadership culture? The first step is to evaluate where you are right now. Take a few minutes to assess your leadership culture by rating the questions below. For each question determine whether each item is a strength or weakness. If you find you have five our more weaknesses, then you need to start paying attention to strengthening your company’s leadership culture. 

Strategic clarity: Our leaders consistently communicate and connect daily work to company strategic direction.

Optimistic focus: Our leaders consistently create excitement about where the company is headed.

Leadership aspiration: Our leaders actively pursue their own development and help others grow.

One-company mindset: Our leaders work across departments with shared goals and act in the best interest of the whole organization.

Shared accountability: Our leaders hold each other to high standards and follow through on commitments.

Value-celebrating: Our leaders regularly celebrate achievements and milestones with their teams, both big and small.

Cross-functional collaboration: Our leaders actively break down silos and encourage teamwork that drives innovation.

Low politics: Our leaders make decisions based on company benefit, not personal gain.

Tough times: Our leaders demonstrate resilience and calm during challenging times.

Mutual support: Our leaders actively help each other succeed and share resources.

Based on your assessment, do you believe your organization has a strong leadership culture in place? Building a strong community of accountable leaders in an industry facing significant workforce challenges isn't just an advantage—it's a necessity for survival and growth.

Strengthening your leadership culture is a journey, not a destination. Start with small steps, measure progress, and consistently reinforce the behaviors that drive manufacturing excellence. Your leadership culture could be the difference between surviving and thriving in today's competitive manufacturing landscape.

Written by: Vince Molinaro, Founder and CEO of Leadership Contract, Inc., for IndustryWeek.