From Core Values to Daily Actions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBm1WeNe1K0

Culture Is Shaped by What You Build—Not Just What You Say

In this episode of Culture Conversations, Megan Robinson sits down with fellow leader and former CEO Meighan Newhouse for a conversation that moves beyond theory and into something far more tangible:

How the spaces we create, physically and virtually, shape the cultures we experience every day.

Because culture isn’t just a set of values or leadership intentions.

It’s the feeling people have when they interact with your organization and that feeling is influenced by everything from environment to behavior to design.

Tease Key Insights

Culture Is a Feeling—And That Matters More Than You Think: Meighan describes culture not as a checklist, but as a feeling. It’s what comes to mind when you think of a brand, a company, or even a team interaction. That emotional response, positive or negative, is the real indicator of what culture actually is.

Physical and Virtual Spaces Shape Behavior: From cities like Chicago to workplace environments, culture is deeply tied to space. As organizations shift toward remote and hybrid work, leaders can’t ignore how digital environments now play a critical role in shaping connection, communication, and engagement.

Every Interaction Reinforces Culture: Whether it’s jumping straight into business or taking time to connect personally, how people show up in conversations defines the experience others have. Culture is revealed in tone, pace, and priorities not just policies.

Why This Matters

Leaders often try to define culture in a way that’s neat, measurable, and easy to communicate.

But the reality is that it’s not.

Culture is experienced, not declared.

And in a world where work is increasingly virtual, fast-paced, and transactional, that experience can easily become disconnected or diluted if it’s not intentionally designed.

When leaders start thinking about:

• how spaces (physical and digital) influence behavior

• how interactions create emotional responses

• and how consistency builds trust

  
  

They begin to shape cultures that people don’t just work in but actually feel part of.

Listen Now

This conversation is a thoughtful exploration of something many leaders struggle to define.

Take a listen to the full episode and reflect on this:

What does your culture actually feel like to the people inside it?

Meighan Newhouse

Meighan Newhouse is a serial entrepreneur who most recently co-founded and was CEO of Inspirant Group, a disruptive management consulting firm that she led to a strategic acquisition by global digital partner 10Pearls. Meg just finished her exit and is currently advising leadership teams, mentoring women leaders, writing a book, and teaching yoga. Most importantly, Meg is spending quality time with her family, including her high school sweetheart and their two teenage children. She enjoys traveling any chance she gets and lives for hosting a good sobremesa.

Full Episode

Megan:

Hello and welcome to Culture Conversations, the podcast where we explore the people side of work. I'm your host, Megan Robinson. For years, I've found myself deep in discussions about workplace engagement with industry experts. Now I get to share this wisdom with all leaders, new and experienced, on their journeys to build cultures that maximize potential. We spend so much of our lives at work. Let's make it a place where our teams can grow and succeed. Hello and welcome to Culture Conversations. My name is Megan Robinson and I have another Megan as my guest today. I am thrilled to have the conversation with her. It's going to be a very special conversation. Megan is a CEO. She's just exited an organization and she is really passionate and excited to talk about really how culture is formed inside our physical spaces and the intentional decisions that start with that CEO space. Welcome, Megan.

Meighan:

Thank you, Megan. So we're saying, right? Megan show. Yeah. And we're recording right after St. Patrick's Day. I don't know if that influences you at all. But you have, I think, a much more Irish spelling of Megan, perhaps.

Megan:

You're like, yes, yes, it is. Especially Chicago and St. Patrick's Day is way intense. Did you see the the river?

Meighan:

No, we've done that enough. We've passed it on to the next generation. Our teenage children went to see the dying of the river. You know, it's pretty wild that day and, you know, I've been there, done that. I decided to stay home on my couch.

Megan:

I met someone else who is an admin. Every year they go, like, she has a costume. She is like decked out.

Meighan:

Oh, I love that. Yes.

Megan:

Yeah. Very passionate about it.

Meighan:

Yeah, been there. Been there. But we just moved on to the next phase.

Megan:

Nice of you to pass on the baton.

Meighan:

Thank you.

Megan:

But yes, right after St. Patrick's Day. Well, speaking of culture, I'm going to say this culture, there's definitely an Irish culture. There is definitely a Chicagoland culture around St. Patrick's Day.

Meighan:

Absolutely. Yes, for sure. Yeah, it's a big deal. And yeah, if folks listening or watching are not from the Chicago area, just give it a little Google or go on your favorite social media and take a look at what it looked like on Saturday in the city.

Megan:

It was a mess. It's always an adventure, we'll say. Well, I love, especially when you think of cities, there's definitely a physical space for culture and we're moving further and further away from the physical locations of culture and into more of a virtual culture and organizational cultures. I always find it so hard to pin down or how do you define culture of an organization?

Meighan:

Yeah, I think that's a really good question. I've always thought of it as a feeling, which I know is really hard for people to like grasp onto, especially you're more logistical thinkers or data oriented people. But there's something to it. It's just the feeling you have, like when you, I mean, think about like major brands, right, that you're familiar with when you talk about like, Nike or Amazon or Apple, right? Like there's just like kind of a feeling when you think about that, positive, negative, otherwise. So I think you would think about that when you talk about any sort of company as well, whether it's a well-known name or not. I think, you know, there's also a feeling when you meet the people from that company, you know, are people, Do they get just right down to business, right to the point? Or is there more chitchat about the weekend and the celebrations? So yeah, I think the best way I can describe it is a feeling. And I think there's also, you need to consider, depending how large the company is, I think of these ideas of macro culture and micro culture. So right, you might talk about a brand or a company and you have this kind of feeling or idea of what that means or what that stands for. But then within that company, each team can also, depending on the leader of the team, have its own culture within the company. Ideally, they align so there isn't a bunch of friction, but there's these microcultures that are kind of determined by the leaders of those individual teams as well.

Megan:

I love that perspective because I think when people are looking at organizations or companies, they're always talking about the culture from the big picture and what is set by the CEO. And I'll just say, what is set by the leader? And when you have smaller departments and teams and organizations or offices, those cultures vary so widely and you cannot compare it oftentimes to what the corporate culture is versus what the team culture is. How do you work on creating that alignment or tension or what can you do?

Meighan:

I mean, that's an excellent point, Megan, like you're thinking and I thank you so much for bringing that up. It's not only those individual teams, but then you think about location. You know, you could you could be self-contained within the United States or North America or the Americas, or you could be a global organization and things are just going to change. I mean, you're in different time zones. You have different cultures based on where you're located in the world. What what determines, in my opinion, a company's culture is a core set of values that you agree to live by, basically. And I think when you say core values or values, a lot of people get a bad taste in their mouth because values, I think, have been misconstrued maybe over the years. It definitely brings to mind back when we were all in office, a poster in the break room. Yeah, right. Or something on the website, a lot of companies, like nine values. And I'm like, no one's going to remember that. And it's so funny. When I used to do some manager training back in the day, I'd be like, who can name your core values? Nobody, it was so rare that anyone in the room, you know, I'm looking at like a hundred managers and I'm like, what are the company's core values? And they're like, oh, honesty is honesty what you know. And it's just like, I mean, it doesn't mean anything, right? If no one even knows what they are, let alone what it means to exhibit those values. So how do you create a culture? It's intentional. Culture is gonna create itself, you know, whether or not you have any sort of say in it. It starts at the top, and we'll get into that, right? I believe it starts with the CEO. And then, ideally, they get their direct reports on board with it, and then it kind of just rolls down to the leaders of those individual teams. But to me, the guardrails are those core values. I don't think you need more than five. You know, you have phrases or words, but really the key piece of it are what the behaviors are that exhibit those core values. So, you know, that's your basic operating within the organization. At Inspiron Group, the company I co-founded and led, we had three core values. We had have integrity, care about the greater good, and get it done. And then beneath each of those core values, we had very specific behaviors that we expected our team of unconsultants, which is what we called them, to exhibit, not only in interacting with the clients, but in interacting with our team members. And that was super important because we were a remote-first company when we started in 2017, before it was cool, right? Before it was necessary. Before it was, yes, necessary. Yeah, exactly. But we had to create this understanding of what it meant to work for Inspirant Group and what it meant to be an unconsultant when you were interacting with your clients, when you were getting on team calls. And then our team was a pretty healthy mix of full timers and contractors. And instead of having, you know, 1099s join and be like, I don't know, like they were part of this onboarding as well. They understood what it meant to be an unconsultant and represent our company as a client. That worked for us. We were all contained within the US, but everyone was either at their desk or at the client site. So what did it mean to be an unconsultant? You have integrity, you care about the greater good, and then these are the behaviors expected of you.

Megan:

I love that you lined it to behaviors, where we've done a lot of work. We do a lot of manager development, manager training. And part of that manager versus leader conversations we have is we bring in those core values. We talk about them. I'm fortunate I haven't had the 9 or 10 from an organization. So I think they're skinny at 10. Yeah, no one is doing it. I kind of am always hesitant. Are we still? Hold on. I'm on number four. Hang on. Let's go through those again. But the activity that we always go through is, okay, what does it mean? What are you doing to live out this value? What does this value mean in your role specifically? And having someone actually take the time to think about how do they show up with integrity? What does that look like? How do they hold someone accountable in their role? Who are they doing? And that work, because that's that connection piece. And I love that an organization is doing it from their perspective of what those behaviors, because you're able to really align the behaviors. But I also always want to see that personal connection to it as well.

Meighan:

Yeah.

Megan:

And I'll say, like most things, I'll do 80-20 principle with it, right? 80%, 20% results. I find with something like vision or with culture, it's almost that 80% is set by senior leadership, right? You can't get 100% of it. You need that 20% from the people that are living it and breathing it and doing it and buying that connection between the two. has to be there. It's not a 50-50 split. There is a larger portion of it, but that engagement with it is so critical because that's what happens with the values on the wall. There's no engagement. There's no connection.

Meighan:

Totally. And, you know, we took it even a step further at Inspirant Group. Not only, like, we talked about it pretty regularly, it was part of the onboarding, but then we created a mailbox, right? I think, oh, we called it LOCV, Living Our Core Values, at inspirantgroup.com. And we encouraged team members to nominate their peers or people they were working with, hey, you know, I saw Megan was exhibiting care about the greater good in this way, very specific. detail. That email went to the leadership and then we also forwarded it to the person who was nominated. And then we collected all those nominations and at the end of the year we had a Q4, you know, end of year celebration. We awarded like a nice trophy with a person's name engraved and they won the value of the year, right? They exhibited the values at the year and there's a cash reward with that as well. So it was a big deal like and how nice was and we would then you know at that end of the year we'd pull up like oh Megan Robbins and here are all of the things people said about Megan living our values isn't that amazing right um we made it we made a really big deal about it and it and that to me it really ingrained it in the culture and then honestly we would encourage people like if you're having to make a decision run it through our values. Then it makes it easy, right? Gosh, this is going to be so hard. But if I don't do it, am I really caring about the greater good, right? Or, oh, if I do this, am I having integrity? To me, then it was just like, OK, I run it through this. It makes the decision making easier.

Megan:

And I think even with, and I'm aligning this not very much with vision and values, where I think both of those are so in alignment of where you're going and what that future state looks like, but getting people those clear filters and that permission to use it. I find so much with the leadership development work that we do is, is helping people utilize these tools that they have. Because that's almost that myth of you may talk about it, you may share them, how you show up with it and how you actually coach someone into using them is where I see a lot of those gaps happen. Where it's not just saying it, it's saying it and doing it and celebrating it. And now you've added all of these layers and that really helps someone adopt it.

Meighan:

Yeah, and it was just, a given, you know, and I think a lot of people came in and they're like, oh, I've never seen this before. Okay, I get it. And yeah, it was just, and it helped with everything, honestly, Megan, like, even with the recruiting and interviewing and hiring process, because it was like, oh, we can interview based around these values, right? We can have these conversations with folks before we even bring them on and ask for specific instances of how they exhibit these values at other organizations. And then that helped determine if they were going to be a good cultural fit.

Megan:

It's almost, I'm going to say, you've taken it to this level where I think of a competency framework, where you have a technical competency, where a lot of organizations start on here's the expectations for the roles and what you need to be able to do technically. And then we always talk about a leadership competency or a professional skills competency, which are all the soft, squishy stuff that's hard to talk about and hard, frankly, to give feedback for without having that structure of what are the behaviors, what are the expectations, how do we articulate it? And now we have a cultural competency of here what the cultures are, here's what the behaviors and the expectations around with it, and you're able to deliver feedback, you're able to evaluate, you're able to coach to all of these outlets.

Meighan:

Yeah, I mean I think it really simplifies what it means to be part of that company. I do think it's been overcomplicated, and I do think the bigger the company gets, there's different layers and levels, and then people start doing things their own way, and like, well, that's the way we're supposed to do it, but this is the way we do it. But again, I think it doesn't matter the size of the company if that vision and direction is super clear from the top, and then it's consistently and repeatedly communicated, rewarded, you know, embedded in literally everything. I mean, imagine, like, I think we had in some of our, like, our internal decks, like, the values were just, like, part of the footer, right? Like, it was just, like, this is just who we are as unconsultants, and you can do that, but it takes intent. You have to be intentional about it.

Megan:

So all this seems so easy. You make it sound like, oh, of course, we just put the, not, but I'll say, like, the duh moment, like, of course. What's getting in the way? Why is this not happening more often? Why are you kind of the example of what should be happening and no one else is adopting it?

Meighan:

No, well, it was... I said that, not you. I said everyone should be doing it. Don't worry, you didn't say that. That was my words. Well, thank you. It does seem, as with so many things, as humans, I do think we tend to overcomplicate. I'm gonna take a little side note, but one of my own core values, again, I think a lot of people don't know their own individual core values, let alone what an organization's core values are, but my number one core value is health, to me, mental, physical, and emotional health. If you don't have that, you don't have anything, right? So you have to, in my opinion, prioritize taking care of yourself. And to me, it's pretty simple. I tell my children those, right? I'm like, you know, nutritious fuel for your body, hydrate your body, get enough sleep and move your body. You know, but we overcomplicate it, right? We tend to overcomplicate things that can be simple. So not only in that, but at organizations, you know, I think we think we're supposed to do things a certain way, or maybe we were taught to do things a certain way. I do think, you know, the structure of the workplace obviously has changed incredibly in the last six years, which we are literally at the six-year anniversary, I think, of when everything was shutting down, right? Which is wild to think of, because I think COVID has made time, like, was it a week or was it five years? What is going on? But that transition was happening prior to COVID of the way management used to be and the way management should be. I want to go back to when you were talking about those competencies, you were talking about technical competencies for a role, like what does it mean to be the widget maker? Like what do you need to know how to do in order to be a successful associate widget maker, right? And then you talked about the soft, squishy skills. And I have been at this for two decades. And I have to tell you, this is nothing on you, but like, People calling those soft skills, even when I was in my early 20s, I'm like, really? I was always like, why are these soft skills? Like these are, in my opinion, even more important than the widget making because you can teach anyone how to make a widget. But you can't, not everyone is inherently empathetic. Not everyone is inherently good at giving feedback or holding someone accountable or creating a high functioning team. That stuff that people, they're the best widget maker and now they're the widget maker manager and they were never taught how to do that stuff and they don't necessarily do it well. And then you start talking about those microcultures that now people don't wanna, give their best because the person leading a team doesn't bring it out in them and actually they're kind of making it hard to show up every day and you know Sunday scaries and like um and then gosh it just trickles down like oh work sucks I'm here 40 to 50 hours a week and then I go home and it's like sorry guys like work sucks so I'm not gonna be the best version of myself for you you know it just there's this ripple effect um Well, so, I mean, sorry. I was like, no. On a tangent, Megan, where were we?

Megan:

No, I just connected it all together. I'm sorry. Okay, please go. So we always call it professional skills. I say, I hate this phrase soft skills. I'm like, there's nothing soft. It's the professionalism. It's the professional skills. But I almost see that being the gap that's really trickling on both sides of this because it's easy to identify the technical and it's easy to put together some core values on a wall somewhere. No one's doing the work to really articulate what those mean, what those look like, and how to embody them. But where they start to bridge that gap is in that middle place. where they're not identifying what those leadership behaviors are, what the professionalism, because without that, that's what's connecting both sides of the equation, is the professional decisions that you're making, is how you're showing up as a person, how you are operating within the team context with clients, with other people. And that's where you're not able to get one side to translate to the other, is without that.

Meighan:

That's it. And look, I have been in tech most of my career since my early 20s. And I have been on the user adoption side of it. But what I've always seen is New tech comes out and everyone wants it, right? It's a shiny new toy. We have to stay ahead of the competitors. We have to get this in without any sort of plan. Not only like why, like how will this benefit our organization, but how will it benefit our team and how are they going to use it? And I think, you know, talking to those professional skills, I believe in the advent of AI, in the future of whatever the next shiny technology is going to be, because AI is going to now become as ubiquitous as the internet or our smartphones, right? It's just going to be what it is, and there's going to be something else that comes down the line. I don't know. I'm not a futurist. More than ever, I believe human relations is going to be the skill set that can't be solved by technology. And I think a lot of technology is driving disconnection. I mean, I value it. I can see the benefits. But I'd say in the last 10, 20 years, probably since the first smartphone came out, Yeah, it's driving a lot of disconnection in humanity. And so I think what I do differently is I always center the human because even with the acceleration of technology, who's on either side of it? There are people creating it and there are people consuming it. So what are we doing? What are we creating the technology for if not for the humans, right?

Megan:

I'm 100% with you. There is a human element that has gotten lost. And it makes me laugh because it makes me think of technology is now trying to be the Band-Aid for us for a human connection or trying to manufacture that in a way that we have realized either the technology is not there to be able to do that or is never supposed to be there. And we're kind of at that precipice right now. I think where AI is going to be that tester of, can this really be a faux human and create that connection that we're wanting? I don't think so. Who knows? I'm also not a futurist with that. Or are we going to need to pull back and really value that human component where we need to place it? So I always define leadership and management as you manage process and you lead people.

Meighan:

Yeah, I love that.

Megan:

Great definition between the simple, you can understand do you have a process issue or do you have a people issue?

Meighan:

Yeah, great.

Megan:

Sometimes it's both and you have to understand which pieces you're really addressing so that you can properly solve it. However, I always find it funny when you have that differentiation and you're in a leadership conversation and people want to use process to solve it. They're like, well, we need to have a better one-on-one process. Like, well, And then what? It's a people issue, not a process issue. We define it. But there's just that over-leniency on the process. And I think the same thing with technology. Technology is a process issue. It is not a people issue. And so you can manage the shit out of it. But you have to be able to have the people component. And if you use that tool to solve the wrong problem, you're never going to solve it.

Meighan:

Yes. I couldn't agree with you more. people piece is the hardest part which is why people don't want to do it right because you're it's messy you know we're all a bunch of like you know recovering people from trauma like we all have our trauma we're all carrying around this baggage and like it's hard like you know and then you've got people who haven't done the work and you know, they're emotionally dysregulated and they're making it all worse, right? Like they're just showing up with whatever's going on. And whether you're that leader and like you haven't done the work to know that you're even like not self-aware or, you know, reactionary or whatever it is that you show up, this is just how you are, or inconsistent or whatever, any number of things, whether that's you or whether that's someone on your team, it's hard. It's really hard. And not everyone's meant to lead other people.

Megan:

Very, very true. Understanding what work you're willing to do. And I will say, even going back to our earlier conversation, when you're making those transitions from great technical expert into people leader, and especially in the technology space, it's a very blurred line. And the more that we're able to define what leadership looks like, or what our expectations are, or what you need to do to be successful in this role, because it's not defined, the more we see that failure happen. And I love that, even I will say, putting together that process versus people aspect, having a little bit of those process pieces to hold onto to make that people component more clear. So when you talk about having, going back to the beginning, those cultural core elements and the behaviors around it, you've given some process pieces, you've given the scaffolding for people to have real people conversations. Yeah, absolutely.

Meighan:

And I mean, I'm like a data driven leader for sure. I'm a systems design leader. I love a good process. I love a data informed process. I love data about people, right? Like this is why you, you know, you do performance reviews regularly, you have conversations regularly, you know your team well, and like their care abouts is what we would call them at Inspiron Group. Like what's important to them and how as their leader can I make sure that I'm providing that so I'm getting, I'm providing the environment where they can do their best work, right? It's so funny, I like realized my life's potential when I was the CEO of Inspiron Group. And it's to help others reach their full potential, whatever that means to them. So the work you do should be like a conduit to your life's potential, right? Like I should be able to create this environment where you can show up, I'm hiring really talented people. do your thing right i'm going to get out of the way i'm going to create this environment where you're happy and cared for and well compensated and we know what fuels you at work but also outside of work so we're giving you opportunities to do those things we're supporting that if you want your family to be involved we're going to involve you know let's have some family outings and um and it just It was just like a natural part of their life instead of like work and home, right? Like, you know, I'm going to go do the thing and grind and make the donuts or whatever. And then I'm done and I don't want to think about it. I want to set it aside. And I think, gosh, like it kind of rolled right into it. Like I became CEO in 2020. So like it rolled right into now we're zooming into people's bedrooms and there's your cat and oh, I can hear your kid in the hall. And it was just kind of a natural progression. But like embracing the whole human that's showing up to do the work you need them to do. It's beautiful. And just like gathering that data and knowing, making decisions based on that data. Think about that, not only from the processes or the tech that you think the organization needs in order to be successful, but I think especially the humans.

Megan:

What advice or next steps would you give leaders that are looking to be intentional about their cultures? Because Right, everyone already has something. Most people are not jumping into a new situation. Even if you are jumping into a new situation, there's something already established. So what are some great next steps to help someone really shape what they think should be there?

Meighan:

It depends on the company, right? How established they are, how big they are, where they are in their growth. But I mean, I would say it starts with a cultural assessment. What does culture mean here? Have we defined what our culture is? Have we identified those core values, the behaviors associated with it? you know, have we done an employee survey and ask what they think the culture is here and, you know, what motivates them to show up and what would make them wanna leave, right? I mean, those are important questions to know. If you're not ready for the answers, don't do it because you gotta take action. But, you know, ask your employees if you don't know. And then I would, you know, I think the word is like kind of codify, right? Like, okay, now we know what it means. So what does that mean then? Do we have, an interviewing process that interviews, that attracts and retains and interviews the right talent for this company? Do we have an onboarding process that gets people excited to work here and brings them in to whatever that is? Do they get swag because people love swag, people love free stuff, right? Like, do we have, you know, mentoring and coaching opportunities where Once they're here and in their first 90 days, they really have someone who knows the culture well and can get them functioning in a way, right? Because then you get everyone rowing in the same direction, right? There isn't that friction. If everyone understands what it means to show up at your organization, how it means to behave and interact with each other and do the work that's expected of you, what the promotion path looks like, what the learning and development path looks like, You know, you have vacation time, but is it okay to take it? Yes. Right. But like what, you know, like just all those kinds of norms that need to be probably more formalized and communicated regularly. And that takes work and that takes time and everyone's busy doing the work, but leaders, especially CEOs and their direct reports really need to think about the future of the organization and how they can stay a step ahead. And I think really like making your place a great place to work is a huge differentiator, honestly. And it's so sad to say that, but creating a place where people are excited to get up and do their best work every day, if you've hired the right people, you're gonna rocket ship against your competitors.

Megan:

Beautifully put. For me, that really boils down to asking the right questions and listening to the answers. And at any level of the organization, definitely focusing on that C-suite, you should be answering, asking these questions. But even if you're a first-time manager, if you're not asking these questions, if you're not listening to what the answers are, you're not intentionally wrapping the culture around either what the organization is doing to align that and or what you want your team to do, you're missing it. And I think that intentionality with that coupling with listening is so critical.

Meighan:

Absolutely. Yeah, and it seems so easy, right? I don't want to oversimplify it, but gosh, I think, you know, I was talking about technology driving disconnection. So much of it is the distractions. I mean, before we got on today, my phone's on DND, my computer's on DND, you know, I have a gate blocking the dog. Like, I wanted to be fully locked in. And I think as a leader, that takes discipline, right? When you are having a one-on-one, as you were talking about, when you're connecting with your team or when you are trying to codify your culture or figure out what's next for your organization. If you're not locked in, don't have a conversation until you're ready to do that. Like you need to hear what's coming back to you and be able to like take it in and process it. So that's a whole other podcast is how to make sure you're not distracted when you're having important conversations.

Megan:

I've literally had people I've coached, and I think we're talking about executive presence, and they will complain about their CEO and how they get their attention. Because in meetings, in whatever conversations, they are actively not paying attention to the situation. And it's noticeable, and people know, and they feel it, and they're frustrated. It creates a whole other ripple effect. But I love what you said is ask the questions, but be prepared to listen to the answers. Absolutely. And I think that's the preparation that really starts to separate it, because you can ask the questions, and you can be distracted. You can do nothing with the information. You can blow it off. You can dismiss it. You can get defensive with it. But when you're really ready to listen to the answers, it changes.

Meighan:

And to the action, and make change if needed, right? And all of that is really challenging. But that's, I think, what the best organizations do. They're adaptable. They can make change. And they take the feedback from their employees. And the employees see their suggestions being implemented. And they're like, oh, cool. OK, yeah. Here's what else I think. And why would you not? If you're hiring the right people, they're not replaceable. They're giving you good ideas and feedback for your organization. You want that. tell me what we could be doing better and how we can improve and then that's going to take you to the next level.

Megan:

Well, it's so funny because I've actually had conversations with CEOs who, one, have publicly dismissed feedback in all hands meetings where they have, you know, anonymous suggestions and they're like, well, this was a bad, this wasn't thought through. Critical to it. I've seen people do employee engagement surveys without taking any action on the last one I know we shake our heads like of course you would never do that But they're just checking a box They are checking a box and I think at least I hope that the people that are listening to this are Doing more and wanting more than checking boxes because it sounds so easy, but that is truly such a low barrier to greatness now our expectations are so much lower and that taking a couple of these key steps, listening with a curiosity, is a big one. Thank you for sharing your journey, Megan. Thank you so much for sharing those insights. I know I've learned a lot. I'm sure everyone else has. If you do want to connect with Megan later, you can go ahead. Her LinkedIn information is in the notes. And you can go ahead and connect through her there. She's, as you can tell, brilliant, wonderful executive leader. And it was such a pleasure to talk with you. Thank you.

Meighan:

Thanks for having me on, Meg. This is a great conversation. It went so fast. I appreciate your time. And yeah, find me on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect.

Megan:

Perfect. Well, thank you so much.

Meighan:

Thanks.

Megan:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Culture Conversations. I'm your host, Megan Robinson, founder of eLeader Experience, a professional leadership development company. Today, we shared actionable ideas to navigate the evolving workplace landscape, compete for talent, and build cultures that maximize potential. If you're looking to learn more about how to support your organization's leaders, you can learn more about our work at eLeaderExperience.com. Now get out there and contribute positively to your organization's culture with your own conversations.