In the manager's everyday life – June 2026

Jun 25
4 min read

You set the direction. Yet something doesn't quite land. What determines whether people actually want to be engaged?

The goals are set. The direction is clear. Yet something happens along the way.

The pace takes over. Other issues push in. And what creates engagement doesn't really take hold.

In this month's Boss's Everyday Life, Maritha Holmberg reflects on what really makes people want to contribute.

What makes some organizations succeed in creating genuine engagement, while others get stuck in structure and follow-up?

The management team as a role model

In my two previous columns, I have written about why decisions do not always have an impact in everyday life and why follow-up is fundamentally a leadership issue. This time I want to focus on something that is often more crucial than we might like to admit. The management team as a behavioral role model.

Because in the end, it's not just what the management team decides, communicates or follows up that shapes the organization. What matters is how the management team acts when the pace increases, when multiple goals compete for the same space and when difficult priorities need to be made. It's in these situations that the strategy either begins to take hold or gradually loses power.

What I'm seeing right now – and why it affects more than we think

In meetings with management teams, I often encounter a clear ambition. The desire to create direction, strengthen implementation and get better effects from decisions already made is strong. At the same time, a pattern recurs that is difficult to ignore.

The management team is often clear about the behaviors expected in the organization, but less attentive to the signals their own actions actually send. The difference does not arise in what is said, but in what happens over time.

It is evident in how people collaborate when perspectives clash, in how priorities are consistently maintained when pressure increases, and in how decisions are made when conditions are unclear. It is also evident in what happens to previous decisions when new issues take over.

What shapes everyday life in the organization is rarely the individual messages, but rather what is repeated. What recurs in meetings, what gets space and what leads to consequences. That is where the norm for what actually applies is set.

I feel that many organizations underestimate how closely the management team is observed. Not necessarily consciously, but consistently. Managers and employees listen to what is said, but interpret the direction based on what is prioritized, what is followed up and what has an impact in practice.

This means that the management team always acts as a role model. The question is not whether it influences the culture, but what behavior it helps to reinforce.

What research and the outside world show

Research and business analysis confirm this pattern. In a time where organizations are working with transformation, digitalization and new ways of working, leadership behaviors are becoming increasingly crucial to results.

McKinsey shows that organizations are significantly more successful in change efforts when leaders themselves demonstrate the behaviors that are required. In practice, this means that the focus shifts from communication to actual action.

The same perspective recurs in research on change, where lasting change requires that several parts are interconnected. It is not enough for people to understand why something should be done. They also need to see how it should be done in practice, and this happens primarily through leaders.

Analyses from Harvard also indicate that organizations that succeed over time are those that develop leaders who themselves show how the work should be conducted.

This picture is reinforced by research on social learning, where people shape their behavior by observing others. In an organization, this means that leaders, consciously or unconsciously, set the norm for what is acceptable and desirable behavior.

This means that culture is not primarily shaped by what is said, but by what is seen. When there is a difference between words and actions, it is the actions that have an impact.

What it means for you as a manager

For you as a manager, this means that your everyday life is influenced by more than the goals and decisions communicated by management. It is influenced by how the management team actually acts. At the same time, you yourself are part of the same chain.

What happens in the management team trickles down to managers and further into the organization. In the same way, your own behaviors also spread to your employees. You don't just interpret the direction, you put it into practice.

That's where many of the crucial leadership choices are made. Not in the wording, but in what you return to, what you prioritize, and what you let pass.

Many managers I meet have a clear ambition to lead in line with both strategy and values. At the same time, uncertainty often arises when the signals from above do not fully align with what is expected further down the organization.

Here, an important part of leadership is to make patterns visible. Not as criticism, but as clarity. What is said to be important and what in practice governs behavior. What recurs in the dialogue and what has consequences.

When these parts don't connect, uncertainty is created. And in uncertainty, people tend to return to what feels most familiar.

That's why behaviors need to be consistent throughout. The leadership team needs to show what it wants to see. Managers need to reinforce it in their daily lives. Employees need to understand what it means in practice. Only then will the direction begin to be felt.

Where leadership truly shines

In my first column I wrote that implementation requires follow-up. In the second, follow-up is leadership.

This time I want to add another dimension.

Leadership is shaped by what happens, even when nothing is specifically stated. It is evident in how priorities are set, how decisions are made, and how consistently one sticks to what is important.

This is where the management team becomes a role model. Not through their words, but through their actions.

When direction and behavior are not connected, a gap arises that is quickly noticeable in the organization. When they reinforce each other, however, something completely different is created. In many organizations, it is easy to formulate direction. It is much more difficult to act consistently enough to make it credible.

That's where leadership is decided.

All good

Maritha Holmberg

Head of Learning & Development