Corporate Culture Changes

The most expensive mistake in business isn't financial - it's cultural. Here's the data... Last month, I watched a "successful" company implode. - Revenue was up 40% - Profits were soaring - Growth was explosive But something was rotting from within. The numbers told one story. The empty desks told another. Get Real-time Interview Assistance Here- https://bit.ly/4h3iGd7 Create Free Cover letter Here- https://bit.ly/406H1rK Get Jobs & Internship Updates Join Below:- . WhatsApp👉 https://lnkd.in/ghPTzV6m . Telegram👉 https://lnkd.in/ePxtYkFH . Here's what the research reveals about culture's true cost: 1. The Hidden Multiplier: • Companies with strong cultures see 72% higher employee engagement • Engaged teams are 21% more profitable • Positive workplace cultures boost productivity by 30% 2. The Expensive Exodus: • Poor culture doubles employee turnover • Each lost employee costs 1.5-2x their salary • High performers flee toxic cultures first But here's what fascinated me most: Louis Gerstner (Former IBM CEO) said it perfectly: "Culture isn't just one aspect of the game - it is the game" The science backs him up: 3 Critical Culture Metrics: • Employee engagement • Customer satisfaction • Cash flow When one falls, the others follow. I learned this lesson the hard way: Skills? Outstanding. Results? Exceptional. Culture? Toxic. Within 6 months: - 4 top performers quit - Client satisfaction plummeted - Innovation stopped Then everything changed. We rebuilt around 3 culture principles: 1. Trust Over Control (Give people autonomy to make decisions) 2. Growth Over Performance (Invest in development, not just results) 3. Purpose Over Profit (Connect work to meaningful impact) The results? • Employee turnover dropped 50% • Productivity jumped 40% • Innovation flourished The Oxford research is clear: A positive culture doesn't just feel better. It performs better. Your culture is your company's immune system. Strong? It fights off problems. Weak? Everything becomes a crisis. Is your culture multiplying your success? Or dividing your potential? The answer might be worth millions. What's one thing you're doing to build a stronger culture?

When employees are overworked, stressed, and expected to be available 24/7, their needs extend far beyond yoga sessions, fruit baskets, or occasional wellbeing workshops. People don't want more of these token gestures. What they genuinely desire is for their fundamental needs to be met. Employees want to be part of a culture where their wellbeing is a priority, not an afterthought. They want to work in an environment that acknowledges the importance of their physical and mental health and actively supports them in maintaining it. They want to be part of a workplace where wellbeing is not just an add-on but integrated into the very core of organisational culture. BelievePerform

Dear Business Leaders, The recent tragic death of a 26-year-old employee in Pune highlights a systemic issue that demands our attention. It compels us to consider our role as leaders in preventing such avoidable outcomes. We must urgently address two critical issues: 1. Exploitation of Young Employees - Across industries, young employees are overworked under the guise of "training" or "preparation for the real world." Although hard work is essential, extreme hours should not become standard. The World Health Organization links long working hours to a 35% increased risk of stroke and a 17% higher risk of heart disease. This prevalent pattern sees young professionals working tirelessly for weeks or months without a break, fostering a toxic culture where exhaustion is celebrated and well-being is ignored. Immediate action is required. We must audit work environments to identify and rectify these harmful practices. When long hours are necessary, companies must provide support such as rest areas, meals, mental health resources, and mandatory time off. A 2019 Gallup study shows that burnout not only diminishes employee well-being but also reduces productivity by 63%. We must prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term gains. 2. The Role of HR in Employee Well-Being - HR is pivotal to an organization’s culture. Yet often, HR departments are either unaware or unresponsive to burnout signs. A study by the American Psychological Association indicates that 75% of employees experience significant workplace stress, with nearly half requiring help managing it. HR must be empowered to intervene early when employee well-being is at risk. Why This Matters for Business Leaders? Gallup reports that 85% of employees globally are disengaged at work. These figures reflect a deep-seated issue in organizational treatment of personnel. If we fail to address these issues, we contribute to declining performance and perpetuate a harmful system. The future of any successful company hinges on its treatment of people. We need to start asking ourselves: Are we willing to measure success not just by financial performance but by the health and happiness of the employees driving that performance? The data is clear: when employee well-being improves, so does organizational success. If we don’t act now, when will we? Sad yet hopeful, Vineet

🗣️“You must be more assertive.” Last year, those five words burned into Amy’s memory. She’d walked out of her 2023 review at XYZ Global determined to “step up.” Speak more in meetings. Push harder on decisions. Stop softening her tone so she wouldn’t intimidate anyone. She did exactly that. Fast forward 12 months. Same conference room. Same 2 VPs across the table. 🔇“You’ve become too intense, need to work on softening your approach.” 😑 Amy stared at them, speechless. Wasn’t that what you asked for last year? Which version of me do you actually want? She thought about the past year: 🤔 The time she challenged a flawed budget forecast in front of the CFO, saving the company $3 million, but earning whispers that she was “abrasive.” 🤔 The time she stepped in to rescue a failing project, praised for her “grit” publicly, yet privately told she “dominated the room.” 🤔 The time she finally got invited to an executive offsite, only to overhear a VP say, “She’s great, but can be… a lot.” This is the tightrope trap senior women walk daily: • Be assertive, but not too assertive. • Be collaborative, but don’t fade into the background. • Be visible, but not “hungry.”    The same behavior praised in men (decisive, strong leader) gets women penalized as abrasive or too much. Until you set the narrative yourself, you’re trapped performing for a moving target. If you’re exhausted from balancing on a wire men don’t even see, here’s how to step off it and still rise. 1. Audit the pattern, not just the feedback • Track every piece of feedback, especially contradiction. Patterns reveal bias. If the goal keeps moving, it's not you! • Phrase to use in review: “Last year I was encouraged to increase my presence; this year I’m told to soften it. Can we clarify what success really looks like?”    2. Control the frame before the room does • Pre‑set the narrative in 1:1s and emails leading up to reviews. I.e., “This year I focused on driving results while bringing the team with me, you’ll see that reflected in project X and Y.” • This primes leadership to view your assertiveness as an intentional strategy, not a personality flaw.    3. Build echo chambers, not just results • Secure 2–3 allies who reinforce your strengths in rooms you’re not in. • Promotions happen in the absence, you need people echoing your narrative, not someone else’s. • Phrase to brief an ally: “If my leadership style comes up in review, can you speak to how I challenge decisions but still align the team?”    Women aren’t just asked to deliver results. They’re asked to perform, decode, and reframe, all while walking a wire men don’t even see. If you’re exhausted from balancing between “too soft” and “too aggressive,” stop walking the wire and start controlling the narrative. Join the waitlist of our next cohort of ⭐ From Hidden Talent to Visible Leaders ⭐ https://lnkd.in/gx7CpGGR 👊 Because leadership shouldn’t feel like an impossible balancing act.

Self regulation as a concept has largely failed in the Indian insurance market. For any regulatory effort to be more effective, there has to be a certain amount of self regulation by the regulated entities. Otherwise that regulator is reduced to a school master with a stick trying to enforce discipline amongst pupils. The regulator won’t be able to focus on the principle based approach which he is supposed to. In the Indian market, the entities like General Insurance Council, Life Insurance Council, Insurance Brokers Association etc., are supposed to be self regulatory organisations (SRO’s), but they face serious handicaps when it comes to enforcing self regulation. When I was in underwriting, in 2014 or so, the new coinsurance agreement was executed by GI Council. The new coinsurance clause was introduced in the market. There was a major client whose renewal came up. I issued the policy as lead insurer, with the new coinsurance clause. Someone poisoned the mind of the client, that the new coinsurance clause was less favourable to him as an insured, than the old clause. He wanted me to change the coinsurance clause to the old one. I refused. Then he told me that all the coinsurers had no objection to my switching to the old clause. He even told me that the CEO of one of the coinsurers, also consented to the change. When a CEO of a company, who was one of the signatories to the coinsurance agreement executed by the Council, was shortchanging the adoption of the clause saying the new coinsurance clause was non mandatory, I had no leg to stand on and concede to the request. The problem of lack of self regulation has many reasons. Indians as such culturally are not predisposed to self regulation. In the Insurance market, there is also top management hubris in organisations. The top honchos find it masculine or macho to compete in the market by breaching self discipline, rather than on product or service parameters. This sets a poor example to others in the organisation who adopt a “let’s break a few things and see what happens” attitude. “Dekha Jayega” is the mantra. The inability of the insurers to control excessive payouts to motor dealers is an example of this behaviour. Now the insurers are ganging up to fix minimum premium rates for property insurance. This is motivated not by self discipline considerations but existential reason, as there seems to be a threat issued by reinsurers that they will withdraw proportional treaty capacity effective next April 1 onwards, if something is not done to improve rates. I wouldn’t wager on the durability of this arrangement.

Leadership fails when people are treated like machines instead of human beings. Yesterday, one of my team members called me and said he was not feeling well. On top of that, he was fasting too. I did not ask about pending tasks first. I simply told him: “Take rest and stay at home.” And honestly, I think more companies need to understand something important. People join for salaries. They stay and give their best where they feel respected. Today, we have a team of 20+ people. Some work remotely, some on-site. But I have never wanted them to feel like “employees.” I’ve always tried to build an environment where people feel trusted, valued, and comfortable communicating honestly during difficult moments. Because exhausted people may stay online longer, but they usually don’t perform better. In fast-moving work environments, mental clarity, emotional stability, and physical health directly affect decision-making, communication quality, creativity, and consistency. And something interesting happened today. The same team member came early, completed the work responsibly, and all client deliverables went on time without any issue. That reinforced something I’ve believed for a long time: When people feel trusted during difficult moments, they often return that trust through ownership and accountability. I think many organizations still underestimate how deeply workplace culture affects long-term performance. Pressure may increase short-term output temporarily, but healthy environments usually create stronger loyalty, better thinking, and more sustainable execution. Sometimes one day of rest protects weeks of productivity. A healthy team is not built only through targets and systems. It is built through trust, empathy, flexibility, and mutual respect. Because behind every role, deadline, and project is still a human being carrying responsibilities, stress, emotions, and invisible battles. Trust and empathy are not soft skills. They are performance multipliers. If you had to choose one workplace value to protect above all others, what would it be? LinkedIn LinkedIn News LinkedIn News India #Leadership #WorkCulture #MentalHealth

Lily Zheng's new FAIR framework: Fairness, Access, Inclusion, and Representation, doesn't replace DEI; it helps us evolve the work. Lily challenges the industry’s reliance on "one-and-done" training and advocates for a 90/10 split—prioritizing system-level changes over individual interventions. This conversation is for leaders who want to move beyond performative buzzwords to create workplaces that truly work for everyone. My Key Takeaways Evolving DEI to FAIR: Lily proposes replacing the broad, often misunderstood terms of DEI with the FAIR framework. This model focuses on whether everyone is set up for success, free from discrimination (Fairness), whether environments allow full participation (Access), if people feel respected and safe (Inclusion), and if employees truly trust their leaders (Representation). The 90/10 Systems: First Approach: Real change happens when organizations spend 90% of their effort on changing systems (incentives, hiring processes, and transparency) and only 10% on individual training. Training alone rarely solves systemic issues and can often lead to the "Cobra Effect," where poorly designed incentives actually make problems worse. Representation is About Trust, Not Tokens: True representation isn't just a "check-the-box" exercise of hiring diverse faces. It is achieved only when people from all social groups My Favorite Quotes "Rebranding DEI as FAIR will not save us. But reimagining how we conceptualize and execute what we used to call DEI just might." "If you had $10,000 to invest... I'd invest maybe $100 into training. But everything else is going into creating that system, to creating the incentives, to creating the culture." "We have to stop [teaching people how to jump over gaps]... we got to point at the missing stair and go, 'Why is there no stair there? We have to put a stair there.'" Follow Lily Zheng at lilyzheng.co and get their book at https://lnkd.in/grPwHZMf Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gQqnFa26 #DEI #FAIR #culture

As I've been training practitioners and internal inclusion teams to use the FAIR Framework over the past year, I've started seeing some interesting patterns. The elephant in the room is that in the US, the status quo of early 2020s workplace inclusion is now nowhere to be found. The language has shifted: one bit of research found that DEI-related language was down by 72% from 2023, and the term "DEI" down an eye-watering 98%. The external-facing messaging, marketing, and events have become scarce. Internal-facing employee resource group activities and programming feels hushed. But perhaps even more interesting is the identity crisis this work has found itself in as a result. For years, companies used a programmatic strategy — centered on constant communication and an overstuffed events calendar — as "evidence" of their DEI work. Now, as their programs evaporate, leaders and everyday workers alike are left wondering: "what even is DEI if not the sixty-minute training or celebratory event?" "What is DEI when you take away the performative fluff?" Many companies, particularly those having laid off their inclusion teams, might never find the answer. But others are still searching, and finding that the answer lies in the day-to-day work of building a people-first workplace in a world (and at a time) where people too often come last. The work of upholding fair hiring and promotion processes resistant against discrimination, favoritism, and bias. The work of designing products and services to be broadly accessible to all. The work of maintaining shared norms and practices that make respectful collaboration and communication easy, and exclusionary behavior or abuse hard. The work of building trust between leaders, workers, consumers, and communities by way of mutual benefit and close collaboration. Most teams I've worked with have needed some support as they've moved away from performance and toward this kind of deep work. We've worked together to upskill inclusion practitioners on coalition-building, data analysis, and communication and built unique value propositions connecting people-first approaches to senior leadership's existing goals and strategies. They've tended to ask similar questions and voice similar concerns — and so I've decided to bundle up my answers into a new resource, tentatively called "Fixing Fairness In Your Organization." It's still a work in progress, but I'm announcing it now because I'd love to hear what you'd like to see from it. What challenges have you been having as legacy DEI has evolved? What questions have you been mulling over as you've been shifting toward FAIR or other frameworks? Post below: I'll read every comment, and include as much guidance as I can in this new (FREE*) resource when it drops in just a week or two! *😉 (you'll just have to find out)

A paralegal recently came to me with a horrifying story from a big law firm. She was working in a corporate practice group, billing 2200 hours a year. Her partner at home scarcely saw her since she was practically sleeping at her office to help close deals. The stress was crushing. Her work was constantly criticized. And the attorneys she worked with couldn't take the stress either. Her practice group of 10 attorneys cycled through 3 different managing partners in a single year.   Her office lost 3 associates in a single 8-week span. The latest managing partner to inherit the practice group thought everyone needed to 'toughen up'. He called the Gen-Z and Millennial staff and Jr. associates 'lazy' when they quit. One day, after being screamed at for submitting a draft with a single footer typo, the paralegal quit on the spot. We often lament the treatment of lawyers in Big Law, but seldom do we acknowledge the plight of the staff. Paralegals and administrative staff at these firms often work similar hours with even less recognition. Stories like this one are far too common. The harsh truth is that Big Law burns everyone.

Earlier in my career, I faced blatant harassment and discrimination. When it became unbearable, I sought advice from two mentors. One urged me to document everything for potential legal action. The other advised me to quit quietly to avoid harming my career. I took the latter’s advice. Looking back, I regret it. At the time, I had options. The risk of “blowing up my career” wasn’t as dire as I believed. But my silence cost me - both my self-respect and my sense of agency. Worse, it left others without an advocate. And as Audre Lorde warned, silence didn’t protect me; I faced discrimination again. Years later, I was about to repeat that advice - until Sarah Kunst stopped me. She reminded me that telling people speaking out will ruin their careers makes them stay silent, and nothing changes. I had to ask myself: Was my fear greater than my actual risk? As a white woman, speaking up would have been far safer for me than for Kunst, a Black woman who had already overcome greater barriers. Yet she took the risk, challenging a powerful predator - and not only did she survive, she thrived. It made me realize how important it is to recognize when I have the privilege to act and to use it in a way that creates change. This isn’t to say speaking up is always safe. Many have suffered career consequences for confronting harassment. But looking back, I see the power I had and wish I had used it. If you’re in this situation, here are seven steps that can help: 1️⃣ Document what happened 2️⃣ Build solidarity by finding allies 3️⃣ Locate the exit nearest you 4️⃣ Have a direct conversation 5️⃣ Report the issue to HR 6️⃣ Take legal action 7️⃣ Tell your story publicly If you have privilege, use it to amplify voices that might otherwise be ignored. The reality is that not all stories get the same attention. Being aware of that allows us to create real solidarity and drive meaningful change. You are not alone. If you’ve spoken up - or chosen not to - what helped you decide? Read the full blog in the comments. #SpeakingUp #WorkplaceJustice #CareerGrowth #RadicalCandor