It's the leader's job to influence team culture and structure. Culture often arrives and departs with leaders based on their values. While listening would have

It's the leader's job to influence team culture and structure. Culture often arrives and departs with leaders based on their values. While listening would have given you good intel, the director probably felt team members would have experienced a leadership void for 3 months. Depending on the level of morale at that time, that may have been unacceptable. Instead you could have said how you'd work to create a culture based on your values of x, y and z. Ideally your values would align with the corporate culture and would motivate and inspire team members. You could have even told the director you'd have held meetings telling your team that you wanted to find out what their problems were. Tell them that on your watch things will get better, etc. Reassure them and provide a vision. You don't only need to observe to discover problems, if you only ask people are likely to tell you, especially if there's new blood that might be able to create changes.