Field-tested ideas on culture, leadership, and engagement.
Brad's published writing — from Substack and LinkedIn to TD Magazine, HR Professionals Magazine, EIN News, and HR Daily Advisor.
The Architecture of Commitment: Why Engagement is a Business Survival Engine, Not an HR Program
Engagement isn't a soft HR metric — it's the operating system that determines whether strategy survives execution. A look at why commitment must be architected into the business, not bolted on through programs.
The Prince and the Prince of Darkness
Two very different princes, one shared lesson about leadership, identity, and the stories we tell ourselves. A reflection on how the personas we adopt shape the cultures we build — and the legacies we leave behind.
The Moat is Now a Grave
When the CEOs of Toyota, Honda, and Ford all sound the alarm at the same time, they are acknowledging that the 'moats' they built over the last century have dried up. Your legacy is now your greatest liability — and the world has moved from a battle of scale to a battle of speed.
The Hollow Retention Trap: Why Low Turnover Without Advocacy is a Silent Business Risk
PerformancePoint LLC's global analysis of 60,000 employees finds that retention without discretionary effort is merely overhead. Low turnover can mask deep disengagement.
CuesHub Introduces Workload Heart Rate Metric to Track Mental Strain at Work
A new app reveals the silent workload epidemic — an executive's desk heart rate rivals a gym workout. CuesHub introduces a metric to track mental effort through heart rate variability.
Employees Under 30 Are 20x More Motivated by Feedback Than Pay
The PerformancePoint study signals a massive shift in workforce psychology: in the age of AI, continuous development is the new primary driver of engagement. This generation wants to know — Am I learning and relevant?
Employees with Growth-Focused Managers Are 100x More Likely to Recommend Their Company
A new study with over 400 employees reveals a powerful link between manager behavior and employee outcomes. Growth isn't just a nice-to-have — it's a driver of culture, retention, and reputation.
Never Delegate Again: Why Traditional Delegation Fails Leaders & Teams
New book Never Delegate Again introduces The Growth Matrix — a revolutionary framework for smarter leadership in a time of record burnout and disengagement. #1 new release on Amazon in Management Skills.
You Can Turn Down the Lights
The most famous lighting experiment in history wasn't about the bulbs. Nearly a century after the Hawthorne Works studies, many leaders still miss the fundamental blueprint for the modern soul at work — the alchemy of attention and what happens when workers feel truly seen.
Is Your Benefits Package Gaslighting Your Culture?
If your benefits don't match your culture, your culture is a lie. The 2026 Aflac WorkForces Report reveals a massive ten-point gap between how satisfied employers think their staff is and reality.
PerformancePoint LLC Named to Inc. Magazine's 2025 Best Workplaces List
Inc. Magazine's annual list recognizes the businesses that set the standard for workplace success. "We believe that culture starts from within — through trust, purpose, and people who care."
235 Billion Beats: The Hidden Load on Hearts During Game Time
Super Bowl LX wasn't just a game — it was a massive collective event of Emotional Workload. Data from the CuesHub app reveals the real danger isn't the couch potato nature of watching sports, but the mental and emotional strain while the body remains stationary.
The Evolution of Workplace Psychometrics: Why Static Typing Is Failing
For decades, corporate leadership development was built on categorization — MBTI, DiSC, FIRO-B, StrengthsFinder. While these tools create playful camaraderie, their static architecture subtly sends messaging that an individual's capabilities are permanently fixed.
Exhaustion and Stress Have a Pulse — And You Can Track It
We've all felt it — the exhaustion that doesn't go away with sleep, the stress that lingers long after the meeting ends. What if your heart was already telling you the story?
The "Fierce Urgency of Now"
We often see Dr. King's legacy distilled into single sentences — beautiful, sharable quotes about dreams and darkness. But today, the focus is on the work behind the words and what it means for organizational leaders who want to create lasting change.
The Great Divergence: Why Modern "Efficiency" Is Failing the Capitalist Test
An economy that requires tax subsidies to support profitable corporations isn't capitalism — it's a distortion. We've drifted from Industrial Capitalism focused on value creation to Financialized Capitalism focused on value extraction.
The One Asset AI Can't Replace: Future-Proofing Your People
In an age of AI, automation, and constant disruption, one business asset remains irreplaceable: your people. The average skill set now becomes obsolete in 2.5 to 5 years.
Are We Failing Women When It Comes to the Workplace?
There's a massive pool of untapped talent we can no longer afford to ignore, and we should never have ignored them in the first place.
Cultivating Culture Through Interaction and Play
We've got nearly 8 billion people and over 3,800 different cultures. As the world hurtles toward interconnectedness, we're seeing that incredibly vast diversity creep into our cubicles and conference rooms.
Untapped Talent: Give Second Chance a Second Look
Where are all the candidates? The unemployment rate has hit a fifty-year low, yet the participation rate is very high. There just aren't enough people in the typical workforce pool.
Is Your Check Culture Light On?
A company's culture is the revving engine behind any successful organization. Many CEOs find themselves shocked when their car breaks down on the side of the highway. The solution? A consistent culture check.
Workplace Culture Design is an Outside-In Job
In life, we design from the outside in. Skyscrapers, films, products — all are shaped by external forces. Building culture should follow the same fundamental rule.
Don't Assume Your HR Peers Are OK
A pandemic, political debate, war, supply chain disruptions, and inflation — this has been a tumultuous time. HR professionals have been on the frontlines, and we need to check in on them.
To Zoom, or Not to Zoom? That Is the Question
There is hot debate raging in our business ethos. The 'work from home' camp fires off productivity data while 'in office' proponents swing back with cohesive culture arguments.
Want to Be Top Talent? Be a Maverick!
The best sequels avoid the pitfall of living in the past by changing the game. The same applies to careers and leadership — look to the new instead of trying to replicate what came before.
5 Culture Questions Everyone Needs to Ask
Toxic culture is the primary reason for turnover. The pandemic was a catalyst causing people to rethink what was important — meaning and purpose have moved front and center.
Fostering Ownership Through Communicating with Purpose
Ownership — the ever-elusive holy grail. While responsibility has a great deal to do with compliance, accountability has more to do with obligation. True ownership goes even deeper.
Why the Will Smith Slap Is a Sign of Diminishing EQ
Art and artists reflect the societies they come from. The 94th Oscars were historic — but a single moment revealed a deeper conversation about emotional intelligence in our culture and workplaces.
The Leadership Gap
A real executive memo giddily describes how rising gas prices will increase application flow and lower average wages. This is the leadership gap — and it's wider than ever.
Engagement as Culture — or Bust!
The U.S. spends more than $720 million annually on improving employee engagement — so why is it so low? If we were looking at machinery functioning at these levels, leadership would act. The answer lies in culture.
Why Good Employees Leave Companies — and How Managers Can Keep Them
People quit companies for a variety of reasons. Here are a few ways managers can keep the best employees and build a culture worth staying for.
Is Focusing on High Potentials a Blessing or a Blunder?
A perennial question for organizations: focus training on high potentials or offer the same training for everyone? The answer may challenge your assumptions.
Dear Managers: Bias Impacts Your Decisions — Whether You Know It or Not
Defining implicit bias, explaining the impact it has on our relationships and decisions, and outlining how organizations are overcoming it.
The Volkswagen Misalignment: Four Leadership Practices to Steer You Away From Disaster
Leadership and culture lessons organizations can learn from Volkswagen: focus on core values, recognition, customers, and balanced scorecards.
Transgender Issues Within the Workplace
Companies cannot ignore transgender issues. Here are some suggestions for creating an inclusive workplace where every employee feels valued.
Take Cover: Careers Are Under Attack
Average company lifespan has dropped from 67 years in the 1920s to 15 years today. Your career will most likely last longer than most companies you work for. What is your battle plan?
Willful Blindness Is Why Leaders and Cultures Fail
85 percent of employees globally say there are issues in the workplace that people are afraid to bring up. You can't fix what you refuse to acknowledge.
Why I Hate Mission Statements — But Love Missions
99% of mission statements are useless. But a mission has the potential to guide organizations into real action. Pepsi's two-word mission — 'Beat Coke' — changed the game.
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