Insights

Company culture has always been the heartbeat of an organization: the shared values, behaviors, and sense of purpose that define how people work together. But as hybrid work becomes the new standard, maintaining a strong and connected culture has never been more challenging. Leaders can no longer rely on office energy or in-person connection to build engagement . Instead, they must learn how to improve company culture intentionally, in a world where employees collaborate acro

When I was a kid, my father liked to fix things instead of replacing them. A broken radio, a flickering lamp, a door that wouldn’t shut - he would pull out his toolkit, sit cross-legged on the floor, and quietly figure it out.   “Everything can work again,” he used to say, “if you understand how it’s built.”   That mindset stuck with me. In many ways, every organization is like that. It is built to work, until the environment around it changes . Then, suddenly, what once ran

When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he inherited a company known for its brilliant products but criticized for a rigid, “know-it-all” workplace culture. Early in his tenure, Nadella shared a personal story about a project where two teams with similar skills and objectives produced wildly different results. The difference wasn’t in talent or resources—it was culture. One team thrived because it embraced collaboration, curiosity, and learning from failure. The o

By Lana Bader-Kodsi As John Donne noted in a 17th-century sermon: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Loosely translated into modern-day corporate-speak, the organization transcends the individual; we are all connected. Either we rise or fall together – the individual is an integral part of the whole. Applying this broadly to the ever-increasing volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment confr

The landscape of work has undergone a profound transformation, with the rise of remote and hybrid work models. In today's dynamic work environment, the concept of a hybrid team — where some members work from the office while others work remotely — has become rapidly prevalent. As organizations adapt to this paradigm shift, managers find themselves at the forefront of a new era, charged with the responsibility of leading teams that span physical and virtual spaces. Managing a

Frank Blake, the beloved former CEO of Home Depot, credits the company’s core value of “Entrepreneurial Spirit” as the secret behind its success year after year, even during tough economic times. According to Blake, Home Depot's founders wanted their team members to think and behave like their name was on the front of the building. When employees aren't afraid to take risks, they grow. Many successful organizations, from Home Depot to Amazon to Starbucks have fueled their gro

The phrase "culture eats strategy for breakfast" is often attributed to the management guru Peter Drucker, and it suggests that an organization's culture is more powerful than its strategy in determining its success or failure. However, the idea can also be applied to organizational structure. An organization's culture can have a greater influence on how the organization operates than its formal structure. This means that, even if an organization has a well-designed structure

Salima Hemani, PCC, SHRM-SCP President, SZH Consulting LLC Accountability and responsibility are two wheels of the same cart. You need both in place, working together, to move forward. Yet, many leaders and organizations tend to use these interchangeably. Or worse, they often assume that just delegating the responsibilities without setting up clear accountability measures will lead to success. Unfortunately, lacking a culture of accountability in the workplace can spell doom