The culture you establish at the moment of welcome

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The Culture You Establish at the Moment of Welcome

My friend,

Culture does not begin with values statements, strategy decks, or executive decisions.

It begins much earlier: at the moment someone enters a room and senses whether they are truly welcome to contribute.

Where leaders tend to focus

At the start of a new year, you are likely in a familiar rhythm.

You:

• Review strategy.

• Assess what worked and what did not.

• Look closely at execution, alignment, and momentum.

In annual strategic reviews and execution retrospectives, you revisit initiatives that made sense on paper but never fully took hold. You examine where progress slowed, where accountability blurred, and where momentum faded.

Those conversations are thoughtful, well-intentioned, and necessary.

They are also often incomplete.

In many of those rooms, some leaders speak easily and often. Others contribute less. Not because they lack insight or commitment, but because something in the environment signals restraint. The conversation remains polite and productive on the surface, while certain perspectives never fully enter the discussion.

What happens before strategy

To understand why this happens, it helps to look one step earlier than strategy or execution.

I spent most of this past December in Uganda and Rwanda. One thing stood out immediately. Wherever you go, you are greeted with the same phrase: “You are welcome.”

It is offered before any transaction. Before many conversations.

I reflected on this as I visited multiple regions of Uganda and spent time in Rwanda’s capital.

That greeting does more than acknowledge presence. It establishes a mindset.

For the person offering the welcome, it requires openness. A willingness to receive another person without defensiveness or judgment.

For the person being welcomed, it lowers threat. It creates permission to enter fully, not cautiously.

This is not about politeness. It is about orientation. And it offers a powerful lens for leadership.

So, before you:

• Ask for ideas

• Invite debate

• Or expect alignment, consider the following:

How do people experience their entry into the space you hold?

The signal leaders send

Ultimately, culture is shaped long before decisions are made. It is shaped by the signals leaders send, often unconsciously, about who belongs, whose voice matters, and what happens when someone speaks up.

This is where self-leadership quietly does its work.

Your internal posture as a leader, whether open or guarded, curious or certain, welcoming or evaluative, sets the tone before you say a word. People feel that posture immediately.

When leaders lead from a mindset of welcome, contribution expands.

When they do not, participation narrows.

Not because people disengage entirely, but because they edit themselves. They hold back. They wait.

Over time, those small moments accumulate into culture.

Not the culture you intend, but the culture people experience.

What begins to change

When you begin to notice culture at the point of entry, something shifts.

You start paying attention to who speaks first and who never does. You notice how questions are received. You sense when silence reflects thought and when it reflects self-protection.

Meetings feel different. Not louder. Not longer. More honest.

This is not about forcing participation or changing personalities. It is about recognizing that leadership presence shapes the conditions for contribution.

When people feel genuinely welcome, ideas surface earlier. Concerns are voiced sooner. Conversations that once felt circular begin to move.

Nothing about the strategy has changed.

But the way people enter the work has.

A final thought to carry with you

If this resonates, you may already be noticing moments where contribution feels constrained, not because of capability or effort, but because of how the space itself is experienced.

Many leaders sense this dynamic before they have language for it.

For now, simply notice who seems fully welcomed into your conversations, and who might not be. That awareness alone can begin to shift how you lead and the culture that follows.

Until Next Sunday,

Shawnette Rochelle, MBA, PCC
Executive Coach & Executive Team Facilitator
Working with executive teams to strengthen alignment, clarity, and trust

If you’re curious to learn more about my work with executive teams, you can find it here.