3 Top CEOs Share The Culture Formula For High Performance

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3 Top CEOs Share The Culture Formula For High Performance

Peter Drucker’s famous adage, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” is a critical reminder for CEOs balancing the dual goals of fostering employee well-being and driving profitability. In today’s competitive landscape, building a culture that supports both aspects is a key to long-term success.

To help understand the secrets of building an exceptional culture, I spoke with three visionary leaders—Heather Lavallee, CEO of Voya Financial; Jessica Skon, Group CEO of BTS; and Steve Bandrowczak, CEO of Xerox—who shared specifics of merging high performance with human-centricity; these two clearly correlate to long-term superior shareholder returns.

1. Engage the entire organization in the strategy and the purpose

The days of a small group of top leaders announcing the strategy and expecting everyone to change their behavior on cue are over. Results come from drawing in thinking and input from all levels, all types of roles and backgrounds. Leaders gain critical access to data, ideas, and knowledge about the business, and the reality of change. Employees gain enthusiasm, insight, and skin in the game from co-creating the future.

At Xerox, Steve Bandrowczak highlighted the role of the Young Professionals group, . an Employee Resource Group of over 850 professionals that provides valuable input on major initiatives. This group brings fresh perspectives, anticipating challenges and suggesting improvements from the client’s viewpoint. By engaging directly with this group, the organization’s senior leaders gain critical insights that drive better decisions. “They offer a different perspective, including how they want to consume data, integrate processes, and receive information.” Steve himself sponsors and meets with the group quarterly to mentor and learn from them.

Heather Lavallee of Voya Financial emphasized the importance of moving from a company purpose to integrating individual purpose. At Voya, employees participate in workshops that help them connect their personal goals with the company’s purpose, “Together we fight for everyone’s opportunity for a better financial future.” This alignment not only motivates employees but also creates a unified sense of purpose across the organization.

Jessica Skon shared how Microsoft, under Satya Nadella’s leadership, shifted its approach by engaging people closest to the problem. As one senior leader described it, his job changed from being the expert telling teams what to do, to seeking constant input on the company’s priorities based on what they are seeing. This change allowed the company to innovate faster and respond more effectively to customer needs. “He realized that he could let go of the fact that he needs to be the smartest person in the room. His job is to create the environment for his teams to make it happen.”

2. Make it safe to fail—and fail fast

Failures are a critical element of success. They lead to innovation, improvement, and optimization of how we operate the business. The worst thing leaders can do is to allow the company to repeat the same mistakes over and over again and never shift their thinking or approach.

At Voya Financial, Heather Lavallee spoke about cultivating an environment of continuous improvement, where employees are encouraged to experiment, fail fast, and pivot as needed. “This requires evolving from risk averse to risk aware.” This approach not only builds trust but also fosters a growth mindset.

Jessica Skon from BTS shared the importance of transparency around failures. She introduced monthly meetings where teams discuss setbacks openly, transforming failures into valuable learning experiences, and opportunities for collective problem solving. This practice encourages a responsible mindset and fosters a culture of rapid learning and adaptation. “I found that people quickly get to saying, ‘this was my part in that failure,’ and then we can productively talk about ways forward.”

Steve Bandrowczak emphasized the importance of embracing disruption, stating, “We will all be disrupted if we don’t disrupt ourselves.” At Xerox, failures are seen as opportunities to learn and improve. The focus is on celebrating these learning moments and swiftly moving forward.

3. Embed a culture of continuous learning

A learning mindset powers innovation, growth and opportunity for the organization and for individuals, and enables more rapid pivots. Tapping technology and evolving collaborative ways of working provide the foundation for continuous learning and faster action.

Jessica Skon emphasized the value of business simulations in fostering a learning culture. These simulations allow leaders to experiment with new roles, test new business strategies, and examine impacts of solutions in a low-risk environment, preparing them to handle real-world challenges more effectively. “Learning and testing become the way of working.”

Steve Bandrowczak pointed out that the pace of change today is the slowest it will ever be, emphasizing the need for organizations to adapt quickly. He highlighted the potential of tools like ChatGPT in transforming work processes and driving innovation. He emphasized the role of a learning culture to make it possible to build on a company’s legacy culture and make room for what’s required to succeed in the future.

At Voya Financial, Heather Lavallee discussed the benefits of a reverse mentorship program, where younger employees mentor senior executives. This program not only facilitates knowledge exchange but also ensures that the company stays attuned to the latest trends and ideas. “Today learning is a two-way street. We are learning from our teams and less experienced workers in the same way they are learning from us.”

In closing, all three leaders agreed that building a high-performing and people-centric culture takes hard work, active listening and a willingness to set the vision and show up authentically to model the change. And most importantly, leaders need to help their teams make the change. As Jess Skon observed, “I’ve learned that if you’re trying to get your people to let go of core legacy beliefs, you need to honor those beliefs as opposed to ignoring them and focusing only on the new ones. If you give your teams the space to say, ‘this is what helped us get to where we are,’ they can release it and let it go.” As CEOs, when we all build workplaces where high performance and human-centered work thrive together, we elevate business, the economy and society.

To hear interviews with these CEOs go to The CEO Forum Group

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