Culture drifts when expectations go unspoken

Meetings feel less disciplined. Decisions are slower or avoided. Standards that once felt obvious now seem negotiable. Behaviour that would not have passed six or twelve months ago is quietly tolerated.

This rarely happens because people suddenly stop caring. It happens because expectations fade when they are not actively held.

What’s really happening

Culture does not usually break in a dramatic moment. It drifts.

As organisations grow, priorities shift, workloads increase, and leaders absorb more complexity. In that environment, expectations are often assumed rather than reinforced. Leaders tell themselves they will address issues later, when things are calmer or when performance formally dips.

But culture is shaped in the meantime.

When expectations are unclear or inconsistently applied, people fill in the gaps themselves. They infer what matters from what is tolerated, what is ignored, and what leaders choose not to name.

Over time, those inferences become norms.

The leadership tension underneath

Most leaders hesitate to reset expectations for understandable reasons.

They want to avoid conflict.

They worry about damaging relationships.

They assume clarity already exists.

They fear appearing inconsistent or unfair.

What is often missed is that not resetting expectations is itself a decision, and one with consequences.

When leaders do not actively hold standards, they transfer the burden of interpretation to their teams. That creates uncertainty, frustration, and eventually disengagement, not trust.

What expectation drift looks like in practice

In organisations where expectations have slipped, patterns tend to show up in familiar ways.

Meetings become less purposeful, with uneven preparation and unclear outcomes.

Accountability softens, with follow-through depending on who is involved.

Performance conversations are delayed or avoided.

Decision rights blur, leading to rework or quiet conflict.

Individually, these feel minor. Collectively, they shape culture.

People learn how much rigour is required, how much effort is noticed, and where the real boundaries sit.

Resetting expectations is a leadership act, not a disciplinary one

Resetting expectations does not require a crisis or a formal process. It requires leadership clarity.

A reset is simply a deliberate moment where leaders make the implicit explicit again. What good looks like. What matters now. What has changed. What has not.

Crucially, it is not just about telling people what is expected of them. It is also about inviting clarity in return.

What do people need from leadership to meet those expectations?

Where has ambiguity crept in?

What trade-offs are people currently making that leaders may not see?

Handled well, a reset strengthens trust because it reduces guesswork.

Why writing it down matters

Verbal resets help. Written expectations sustain.

When expectations are documented, whether through role clarity, operating principles, or updated policies, they become part of the system rather than reliant on memory or goodwill. This protects both leaders and teams.

It also allows leaders to address future issues without personalising them. Conversations move from opinion to reference. From “this feels off” to “this is what we agreed matters”.

That shift reduces defensiveness and increases fairness.

The cultural payoff

Organisations with clear, consistently held expectations experience fewer surprises. Performance conversations are easier. Trust is stronger because people know where they stand.

Most importantly, culture becomes less dependent on individual leaders’ tolerance levels and more anchored in shared standards.

A useful reflection

As the year closes, a better question than “How is our culture?” is:

Where have our expectations softened without us noticing?

The answer usually points to exactly where a reset will matter most.

Culture does not need grand gestures.

It needs clarity, held with care, and reinforced over time.