As a former Chief People Officer, I learned how to align strategy and metrics in a fast-moving, results-driven environment. Now, I’m bringing that experience into a “do-it-with-you” format—designed to help HR leaders sharpen their strategy, elevate their expertise, and build a people foundation that’s measurable and truly business-critical.

I was never a yes-person. During my annual review, my boss once shared: “You need to work on your suck-up skills.”

Truth is a critical core value for me, though earlier in my career, my delivery could have used a lot of polish.

For example, I shouldn't have told the CFO that he was the captain of THIS ship of fools while he protected a mediocre leader who had hired her brother into her chain of command and lied to us both for months.

Short words make meaning.
Small moments with big impact
Shape our cultures too.

Haiku forces you to choose what matters and demands clarity. Simple, efficient, to the point. This same approach is a powerful way to shape culture. Most companies think culture is built through strategy, systems, leaders, incentives, decisions, you know… all the visible, expensive solutions people and businesses choose every day.

Building your culture is like building your reputation, it’s created slowly through many big and small acts. And it’s fragile, can be broken in a second, especially by the CEO.

Recently, a CEO was displayed for a few seconds on a concert kiss cam, holding and hugging his Head of HR. Within days, he resigned as the video went viral. It was a scandal and a collapse of trust at the highest level.

When the CEO and Head of HR, the very people entrusted to uphold the culture, ignore the expectations they’ve set for everyone else, it can create confusion, fear, and silence.

The latest workplace trend? Juggling. Not priorities. Not meetings. Jobs.

Welcome to the world of polywork. A trend accelerating right alongside AI. Polywork, or overemployment, happens when professionals secretly hold down multiple remote roles at the same time. It's a workplace circus act, and unless your culture is rock solid, your business might be just another gig that they juggle on their calendar.

Leaders, you've been through a lot, and I see you! You implemented WFH and are now facing RTO.... you've witnessed quiet quitting, loud quitting—all the quitting... and have navigated hiring sprees followed by sudden layoffs. 

This rollercoaster of leadership whiplash probably isn’t ending anytime soon, and now we’re faced with the Great Detachment. What does this have to do with leadership? My answer: EVERYTHING.

Leadership might come with a title. But credibility? That has to be earned… every single day. Executive teams are losing confidence across the board - including where it matters most: inside their own organizations.

While many leaders focus on investor sentiment or customer loyalty, the real credibility crisis is also happening in Slack threads, quiet one-on-ones, and disengaged all-hands meetings.

Today’s workplace is full of noise—Slack pings, Zoom dings, and the constant hum of productivity (or fauxductivity).

Have you noticed that: Your employees wear earbuds all day while tuning out those around them. People are locked into Zoom meetings and disconnected from the coworkers sitting right next to them. That’s the silence you hear (or see). :)

But what about the silence you can’t?

Culture isn’t a mission statement or a motivational poster. It’s what happens in the moments between the meetings, in the choices you make, and in what gets recognized…or ignored. Whether you realize it or not, you are your culture and you’re always communicating. The question is: Does it show you care, or that you’re careless?

What creates a Super Bowl champion? The plays they make or the mistakes they avoid? Both. A single missed tackle, dropped pass, or hesitation from the quarterback can shift momentum and decide the game.

The same holds true in your business. Culture isn’t just shaped by what leaders do… it’s also shaped by what they don’t do.