NCSC Cyber Culture Principle 5: How Leaders Shape Cyber Security Culture

This is a quick deep dive into one of the NCSC cyber security culture principles, designed to help you understand what it actually means in plain English, why it matters in real organizations, and how to spot it in your own world.

If you’re looking for the bigger picture on NCSC culture and how to turn these principles into a real program, you might also like:

• Our overview of the NCSC cyber security culture principles and why they matter

• How to operationalize the NCSC culture agenda step by step

• How to build a 12-month NCSC-aligned cyber security culture roadmap

• Measuring cyber security culture with NCSC-aligned metrics that actually work

• The NCSC Cyber Culture FAQ: 21 Questions Answered

Use this post to get your head around this principle quickly, then jump into the longer guides when you’re ready to design or evolve your culture program.

5. Leadership Ownership & Example

The fifth principle is about who owns the tone. NCSC and its board-focused guidance are crystal clear that leaders must model secure behaviors and show that cyber is a shared responsibility, not something delegated and forgotten. ^NCSC

They included this because leadership hypocrisy is radioactive for culture. If board members and execs talk about security in public and bypass controls in private, everyone sees it. People copy what leaders do, not what they say. This principle exists to make it explicit that leadership behavior is itself a control: it either reinforces the culture you want, or quietly licenses the one you don’t.

What this principle really means

Leadership isn’t just about saying, “Security is important.”
NCSC’s leadership principle is about:

• owning the impact leaders have on culture and risk,

• making cyber part of normal leadership conversations,

• and modeling the behaviors they expect from others.

In short: “Walk the talk, and talk about why you’re walking it that way.”

What goes wrong if you ignore it

When leaders don’t show up on this:

• Security feels like “someone else’s job” lower down.

• Staff see leaders bypass controls “just this once” and copy them.

• Culture initiatives are seen as flavor-of-the-month.

Nothing kills a security message faster than a senior leader who breaks it.

Quick self-diagnosis

Ask:

1. Can we name 3 specific things our leaders do that visibly support secure behavior?

2. Are leaders prepared to defend secure ways of working when they slow things down?

3. Would staff say, “Our leaders follow the rules too”… or not?

If you’re reliant on posters and email, but not leadership behavior, you’ve got a gap.

Practical shifts / quick wins

• Get one or two senior leaders to record a short, honest video about a cyber mistake or tough call they’ve handled.

• Include a “cyber culture and human risk” line item in key leadership/board meetings.

• Ask execs to adopt one visible behavior (e.g., reporting phish, challenging unusual access) and talk about it.

Where Cybermaniacs fits

We help you make leadership behavior visible and human:

• Story frameworks and scripts leaders can use without sounding robotic

• Internal content where leaders appear alongside characters and staff, not above them

• Briefings that tie NCSC leadership expectations to practical, doable actions in your org