Not all culture change requires a transformation initiative.

Some of it happens in the way you open a meeting. In what you do when someone brings you a problem. In how you respond when something goes wrong. In the small, daily choices that either reinforce the culture you're trying to build or quietly undermine it.

I've been teaching leadership at Michigan Ross and working with senior leaders for over two decades. One thing I'm more convinced of now than when I started: The most durable culture change is made not in big announcements but in the accumulation of ordinary moments. The leader who shows up consistently in a particular way shapes culture far more profoundly than the one who makes a compelling speech twice a year.

Here are three habits that I've seen make a meaningful difference — not because they're complicated, but because they're consistently hard to maintain.

Habit 1: Begin With Genuine Curiosity

Most leaders think they're being curious. Many of them are not.

There's a difference between asking a question to understand and asking a question to confirm your point of view. The former requires tolerating ambiguity — inviting an answer that complicates your picture rather than completing it. The latter may appear curious, but it misses the mark.

The habit I recommend before your first solution-oriented statement in any meeting or conversation is: Ask one more question. Not a rhetorical one, a real one, asked because you genuinely don't know the answer. The culture signal this sends — that the leader believes in the group, respects them, and is primarily interested in understanding, not just deciding — is more powerful than most leaders realize.

Habit 2: Make Accountability Visible

Leaders talk a great deal about accountability. Fewer of them model it publicly.

What I mean by this: When you make a commitment and don't meet it, acknowledge it explicitly. When you make a decision that turns out to be wrong, say so directly. When your behavior falls short of the standard you're asking others to meet, name it.

This is harder than it sounds, because it runs counter to the performance instinct most leaders have developed over long careers. But it does something nothing else does: It makes accountability real rather than rhetorical. And it gives people around you permission to hold themselves to the same standard, visibly and, without fear.

Habit 3: End Interactions By Asking What You Missed

The most common thing missing from most leadership conversations is the information the other person didn't think was safe to share.

One small habit that changes this: Aat the end of a meaningful conversation — a one-on-one, a difficult discussion, a feedback session — ask one question: 'Is there anything you didn't say that would have been useful for me to hear?' Then wait. Really wait.

Most of the time, the answer will be no. Occasionally, something will surface that changes everything. And over time, the consistent asking builds a signal that honest input is not just tolerated but genuinely sought.

These three habits — genuine curiosity, visible accountability, and deliberate invitation of honest input — don't require a culture initiative. They require a daily decision.

The culture your organization has is built, one day at a time, by the habits of its leaders. Including yours.

Which of these three is the hardest for you to practice consistently — and what gets in the way?