Growth is often treated as the ultimate marker of success. Revenue increases. Market share expands. New initiatives launch. On paper, everything looks healthy.
And yet, many organisations grow while slowly undermining the very foundations that made growth possible in the first place.
The missing piece is often culture.
Culture is not a “soft” topic
Culture is frequently framed as something nice to have — a set of values on a wall, an engagement survey, a series of internal initiatives running alongside “real work.”
In reality, culture shapes how work gets done every day.
It influences:
- How decisions are made under pressure
- Whether people speak up or stay silent
- How teams respond to change
- What behavior is rewarded — and what is tolerated
When culture is weak or misaligned, growth becomes fragile.
The illusion of sustainable growth
I’ve seen organisations deliver strong short-term results while long-term cracks were already forming beneath the surface.
The signs are subtle at first:
- Pace increases, but clarity decreases
- Results are achieved, but at a growing personal cost
- Teams deliver, but energy quietly drains
From the outside, the organisation appears successful. Internally, people are stretched, priorities blur, and trust starts to erode.
This is not sustainable growth. It’s momentum borrowed from the future.
Culture and performance are inseparable
High-performing organisations don’t choose between culture and results. They understand that the two are deeply connected.
Strong cultures:
- Enable faster execution
- Support accountability without fear
- Attract and retain strong talent
- Make change easier to absorb
Weak cultures, on the other hand, create friction. Every initiative requires more effort. Alignment takes longer. Leadership spends energy managing consequences instead of building direction.
Performance eventually follows culture — in one direction or the other.
Leadership sets the cultural standard
Culture is not created by initiatives alone. It is shaped, every day, by leadership behaviour.
What leaders:
- Pay attention to
- Challenge or ignore
- Reward or overlook
…quickly becomes the organisation’s unwritten rulebook.
When leaders consistently act in line with stated values, culture strengthens. When there’s a gap between words and actions, culture erodes — even if performance targets are met.
People watch behaviour far more closely than presentations.
Growth that lasts requires restraint
One of the hardest leadership disciplines is knowing what not to push.
Sustainable growth requires:
- Clear priorities
- Explicit trade-offs
- Respect for capacity and focus
- Space for learning, not just execution
Restraint is not a lack of ambition. It is a commitment to long-term impact.
A final reflection
Growth without culture may look successful in the short term, but it carries hidden costs that surface over time — through disengagement, burnout, or stalled progress.
The most resilient organisations I’ve seen are those that treat culture as a strategic asset, not a side project.
Because in the end, growth that cannot be sustained is not growth at all.
gulshanoy 