One mistake cost a company 40% of its margin.

It wasn't a technical failure. It was a manager who wouldn't say out loud that he was out of his depth, at a company whose stated values were communication and accountability.

He wasn't a bad employee. He was one of the most valuable people they had, and that was the whole problem.

That story opened the third panel at our 11th annual Big CHRO Event on September 11 in the Dallas, TX area. The panel was called "Use engagement or culture work to improve execution," and it was the hour where culture stopped being a soft topic.

Names, companies, industries, and job titles are left out below. These leaders were specific on stage because the room was safe.

Does culture actually drive business results, or is it a soft metric?

It's a business driver, and the reason it doesn't get treated like one is that most of us measure what HR does instead of what culture enables.

That's how one panelist put it, and she's been on a long personal mission t...

Has the BIG QUIT got you worried about business growth?  Is increasing compensation really the answer long-term?

When people leave it’s not always because they have a bad boss but more often for the promise of more career opportunities.

Being part of a winning team means an abundance of career paths, high-caliber peers, and feeling of making and impact…

Fast growth organizations are like magnets to talented employees. 

Nothing provides better opportunities than a company that is growing rapidly. 

And when HR leaders switch their mindset that “HR is a cost center'' to “HR is a business driver”, employees, shareholders and customers benefit.

What are the behaviors of companies that have rapid growth?

Check out this weeks Vlog* post when Pramukh Jeyathilak, Head of Human Resources at LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) and prior head of HR for Fidelity Investments share his personal observations of the behaviors and mindset of rapid growth companies.

 His observations were from his...

Cindy Lu

P.s. CHROs/CPOs: Feeling disconnected?  HR Inner Circles peer groups puts you in an private HR community that says...So, you’ve got access to plenty of ideas and information and that's awesome but when are you going to show up? When are you going to take that seat at the table? When are you going to face the possibilities within you? When are you going to face those fears and next level challenges?  The group says: I'm not going to let you hide. 

You've got to show up and that's the hardest part of it.  It sounds very simple but it's the number one reason why we don't ask tell senior execs what we really think or ask for the resources we know we need to better serve those we serve, it's the number one reason we don't push for a position that drives strategy. It's ...