How to be a cultural influencer

Who sets the tone for culture on your project? Culture may feel like something that should be handled by HR or senior leadership (or even the collaboration team) – somewhere else, by someone else. But culture is about ‘how we get work done around here’ on a daily basis – the conditions that make great work possible. It is often intensely local, and it’s always critical to success.

Everything centres on you

Your project’s culture is shaped in the day‑to‑day: how you run meetings, how you respond under pressure, how you talk about risk, etc. Whether you intend it or not, your behaviour sets the tone and your actions flow through the team, influencing trust, collaboration, pace, openness and psychological safety.

When culture goes wrong, the symptoms show up in familiar places – delays, rework, firefighting and people disengaging or leaving. Often, project managers are so busy, they don’t have time for culture. Busy dealing with crises that have emerged because people didn’t raise issues early enough. Busy dealing with operational or tactical issues that people were too afraid or disempowered to solve for themselves. Technical issues often get the airtime, but people issues shape the outcome.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: project managers are cultural leaders by default. The good news? Because culture is shaped through everyday behaviours, you can shift it through everyday behaviours too. You don’t need a grand transformation programme, just awareness, consistency and a willingness to self-reflect.

Culture isn’t what you say – it’s what you do

Most project managers don’t walk around thinking, ‘I’m shaping culture today’. We think about dependencies, approvals and the next stakeholder meeting. But teams watch what project managers do, not just what they say.

A project manager who says, ‘Raise risks early’, but reacts with irritation when someone does, teaches the team to stay quiet. A project manager who says, ‘We’re one team’, but allows side conversations and cliques to form, teaches the team that silos are acceptable. A project manager who says, ‘We value learning’, but rushes past mistakes without reflection, teaches the team that speed matters more than improvement.

Remember that:

Your micro‑behaviours speak louder than your stated values. If you want openness, you must reward it – especially when it’s inconvenient.
Your language sets the emotional temperature. Language either builds psychological safety or erodes it. Under pressure, people listen even more closely.
Be a solution enabler. Give clear instruction and outcomes, then let people find their own way. It helps them learn.
Consistency builds trust – inconsistency breaks it. Consistency isn’t about being perfect – it’s about being predictable enough that people feel safe to focus on delivery.

Four cultural traps to avoid

Even well‑meaning project managers fall into predictable traps that unintentionally damage culture:

Trap 1: The ‘helpful’ project manager who becomes a bottleneck. Trying to protect the team, they take on too much. The message becomes: ‘Only I can fix this’. People stop taking ownership.

Trap 2: The project manager who avoids conflict to keep the peace. Tensions simmer and passive-aggressive behaviours emerge. Small issues become big ones. The team stops speaking up with questions, concerns and issues.

Trap 3: The project manager who tries to be everyone’s friend. Boundaries blur. Feedback becomes inconsistent. The team becomes confused about expectations.

Trap 4: The project manager who focuses only on delivery. People feel like cogs. Engagement drops. Safety and quality suffer.

These traps are common because they come from good intentions – wanting to help, wanting to be kind, wanting to deliver. But without awareness, they slowly shape a culture that works against you.

Culture isn’t a side‑task

The most effective project managers aren’t the ones who shout the loudest or push the hardest. They’re the ones who create an environment where people can think clearly, speak honestly and do their best work without fear. They understand that culture isn’t a ‘soft’ add‑on – it’s the foundation that makes delivery possible. Small, consistent shifts in behaviour create big shifts in culture. And when culture improves, delivery follows.

Five ways to build a positive project culture

Be clear about ‘why we’re here’ and ‘how we work’, not just ‘what we deliver’. Establish the purpose, principles and structures to bind the project.
Make expectations explicit and decide them together. Agree norms for communication, decision‑making and escalation.
Surface risks early, including people risks. Ask: what could trip us up in how we work together?
Agree how you’ll handle pressure moments. Decide in advance how you’ll behave when deadlines tighten.
Build in short, regular reflection points. A timely, 10‑minute ‘darn good listening to’ saves weeks of pain later.

Lucy Harrison of Harrison Network helps project teams align, engage and deliver – especially in high‑stakes environments