The Mindset Debrief | You Don't Fix The Culture By Complaining About It
- Paul Pantani
- Jun 4
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 11
The standard you walk past is the standard you accept. Lieutenant General David Morrison. We live and work in a world that loves to point fingers. Everyone's a critic, especially when it comes to the system, the leadership, the culture, you name it, but the truth. No one wants to admit you don't fix the culture by complaining about it.
You change it by changing yourself first. Now I've been part of close-knit teams and large organizations. I've seen good culture and I've also seen it rot from the inside. Not because of one big thing, but because of a million little things that people walk past. Accountability isn't something you demand from others.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
It's something that you model. These episodes are meant to be a few minutes where we hit pause, take stock, and sharpen our focus. Too many good people are getting buried under the weight of things around them. The culture, the leadership, the broken systems. Sure these are all real and they can be problems, but if you want things to be different, if you wanna stand out, you start by fixing the one thing fully under your control. You,
How many times have you looked around and thought, man, this place is broken, this system is screwed up. These people don't care. What did you do about it? Did you speak up? Did you take action or did you just complain? You walk past laziness. You accept it. You tolerate mediocrity in yourself or others, then that's the new standard.
You can't yell at the storm and expect the sun change begins in the mirror. Now I get it. Sometimes the system does suck. It's slow, it's political, it's resistant, but I've also seen people thrive in the same broken systems. Others drown in. The difference is mindset. One chooses ownership, the other chooses excuses.
You want change, be the spark, not the echo chamber.
WATCH THE EPISODE
If you're listening to this and thinking, yeah, but my situation is different. I hear you. We all have battles no one sees, but that doesn't mean we get a pass on responsibility. You don't need permission to lead. You don't need a title to influence culture. What you need is the courage to act when it's easier to stay quiet.
And this part leadership, real leadership often looks boring. It's consistency, it's discipline. It's doing the right thing when no one's watching. The most powerful leaders I've known didn't bark orders. They modeled standards. They led with integrity every day. And people followed, not because they had to, but because they respected what they saw.
So ask yourself, what standard are you walking past right now? Where are you letting things slide? Where are you waiting for someone else to take the lead? Because if you wanna fix the culture, whether that's in your department, your company, or even your family, you fix you first. You raise your bar, you stop tolerating your own half efforts.
You speak up with purpose, not complaints. This isn't about perfection, it's about pursuit. It's about being the kind of person who makes those around them better, not by force, but by example. If we want things to change, we have to start owning our own part. And if we can do that even quietly, consistently, we will shift the culture.
Until next time, stay focused, stay accountable. And remember, leadership starts in the mirror.
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