Examine your own behaviour as a source of culture.
<p>The leadership team examines its own behaviour as a source of culture, with five questions drawn from the Netflix candour playbook and structured peer feedback. The day's most consequential session.</p>
The Leadership Mirror is the day's most consequential session. The leadership team examines its own behaviour as a source of culture, with honest self-examination and structured peer feedback.
The module uses five questions drawn from the Netflix candour playbook in No Rules Rules. The Keeper Test (which direct reports would I fight to keep, which am I quietly tolerating). The Candour Question (who do I owe feedback to that I have not given). The Disagreement Question (when did I last publicly disagree with this leadership team in the room). The Modelling Question (does my behaviour match what I expect from others). The Exemption Question (where am I exempting myself from the standards I expect others to meet).
The session has three movements. Private reflection: each team member answers the five questions individually, silently, in writing. Peer feedback: each team member receives feedback from at least two peers on the same five questions, focused on observed behaviour. Collective examination: the room reconvenes, each person names one pattern they have heard about themselves that they want to change, and the team examines the collective patterns it is producing.
The session is high-stakes facilitation. It works in leadership teams that have worked together long enough to give each other honest feedback, or where a trusted facilitator is in the room. It does not work in groups still establishing trust.
The canvas is a personal reflection card. Three columns (Question, My Answer, Peer Feedback) and five rows (one per question). Each team member completes their own card. The structure foregrounds individual reflection while making peer input visible alongside it.
The module's outputs feed directly into the Operating Practice Commitments. Each leader has surfaced something specific they want to change. The closing module turns that into a named commitment.
Each leadership team member has heard specific peer feedback on their own behaviour as a source of culture. Each has identified one pattern they want to change. The team has named its collective contribution to the cultural reality the morning surfaced. This becomes the input for the Operating Practice Commitments.
This session works only in leadership teams mature enough to give each other honest feedback, or where a genuinely trusted facilitator is in the room, so check the team's readiness before you book it. Each person reflects privately on five candour questions, receives specific peer feedback, then the room examines the patterns it is producing together.
Each person answers the five candour questions individually and in writing: the Keeper Test, the Candour Question, the Disagreement Question, the Modelling Question, and the Exemption Question. Some leaders find the Keeper Test difficult or distasteful; make clear that Netflix's specific application is not what is being asked. The question is whether each leader has direct reports they would not actively hire today, and what they are doing about it, and you want honest answers here.
Each person receives feedback from at least two peers on the same five questions, focused on specific observed behaviour. Push peers past speculation to what they have actually seen. I think you struggle with disagreement is speculation. In our last three leadership meetings you closed down two debates before they were finished is observed behaviour, and specific behaviour is harder to dismiss and easier to change. The receiver listens and writes, and holds back from explaining, justifying, or defending; they can acknowledge what has been said and ask for clarification, and that discipline of pure reception is part of the work.
Reconvene, and ask each person to name one pattern they want to change while the team examines the collective patterns it is producing. Watch for performative humility, where a leader agrees fluently with all the feedback as a way of looking humble while nothing actually changes; name it gently if you see it. This feeds the commitments work that follows, where each person turns what they heard into a specific change with an owner, a practice, a standard, and a date.
Use The Leadership Mirror when a leadership team is ready to examine its own behaviour as a source of the culture around it. Five candour questions and structured peer feedback give each leader specific, observed input and one pattern to change.
Using this tool with a skilled facilitator means that discussions are focused, time is used efficiently, and the group moves toward consensus, making the session productive and impactful.
