Culture that Wins: How Intentional Leadership Creates Success feat. Heather Haas

In this episode of Taking Back Monday, Alyssa sits down with Heather Haas, CEO of Advisa, to dig into what it really takes to create a winning culture at work. Heather breaks down why culture isn’t just an HR project—it’s a competitive advantage that starts with intentional leadership. They explore the step-by-step process Heather uses to help leaders build trust, clarify core values, and drive a more connected, purpose-driven workplace. Whether you’re a CEO or a team lead, this conversation will challenge you to rethink how you lead and how culture can drive real success. Don’t miss this deep dive into the strategies that create workplaces people want to be part of, not just work at.

Key Takeaways:

• Culture Starts at the Top: Heather emphasizes that culture isn’t HR’s job—it’s the CEO’s. Leadership must be actively involved in defining and driving an intentional culture that aligns with the company’s core values.
• Trust and Connection are Non-Negotiable: Successful cultures are built on trust and shared purpose. Leaders need to foster genuine relationships with their teams, making personal connection a priority before diving into work.
• Clarity Creates Change: It’s not enough to set values; they must be clearly defined in behavioral terms. Leaders should know exactly how to act on these values to create a consistent, aligned culture that drives performance and growth.

It's time to say "goodbye" to the Sunday Scaries.

Connect with Alyssa
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte/
Subscribe to the Taking Back Monday Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7158635254474272768/
Follow the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TakingBackMondayPod
Follow the show on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@takingbackmondaypod

Transcript

Alyssa Nolte: 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to taking back Monday I am so excited that you decided to say goodbye to the Sunday scaries and hello to a future of more meaningful work And I'm even more excited to introduce you to my new friend Heather Heather. Welcome to the show

Heather Haas: 0:13

Thank you. Glad to be here.

Alyssa Nolte: 0:15

So one of the things that I was, as I was preparing for this conversation, I saw that you really believe that your culture can be a competitive advantage. What do you mean by that? What does that even mean?

Heather Haas: 0:28

Well, we've been in this space working with leaders and helping them create more effective teams for a really long time, um, nearly 40 years. And I think it's been recently, probably the last 10 years, That we've seen a real shift in the world of work, such that employees really have different expectations about what it means to come to work. We've got a distributed workforce. We've got all the forces of technology and all the other disruptors coming into play. Um, and so, Work culture has changed a great deal in terms of what does it mean to be connected to an organization and what does it feel like to work there? So the idea of creating competitive advantage really comes from the problems that we solve as a company that's focused on helping leaders be more effective. And the challenges that we've been seeing, it's a lot of companies didn't rebound from COVID well, and they really lost that culture that they had, and it was difficult to rebuild it. We've also seen that leaders are really struggling. They don't have the tools or the skills or the support. To build relationships with people and their emotional intelligence has been tested. Um, and you know, the mental health challenges, you know, for the first time, the surgeon surgeon general declared an epidemic of loneliness, right? So this idea of creating cultural competitive advantage brings in the idea of intention. Your culture as if you're a CEO, um, if, if you're an HR professional listening, if you're an individual contributor listening, your culture is something we create and that we can create with intention. And if we're doing the right things to help people understand the core values of the organization, If we're living those out in terms of behaviors and mindsets, and if we're equipping leaders with the right tools and skills to build trust with people, we should be able to create work environments where people can be the best version of themselves and where people choose to show up and give discretionary effort. That's the competitive advantage piece because organizations that can figure that out. They can be intentional about creating a magnetic work environment where the best and brightest talent want to be. That's not easily copied. That's not like stealing your code, you know, to come out with great software that's just like yours. That's not stealing. Stealing a product or copying your customer service model. That's not AI, you know, hopping on to answer a question the way everybody else would answer a question. Your work culture is experienced and when leaders know how to carry the culture with intention, um, that experience, like I said, is something that, um, is super valuable and it creates an environment where people can really thrive and where the company can achieve its goals.

Alyssa Nolte: 3:39

Uh, longtime listeners of the podcast will know that I don't believe in setting goals. I believe in setting intentions. And it's so funny that you use that word. Cause I'm sitting here going like, this is the universe, like putting us in the

Heather Haas: 3:50

Yes, I love that.

Alyssa Nolte: 3:52

So, you know, we talk about this all the time that happy customers, And happy employees is a symbiotic relationship. And if you have happy employees, you will have happy customers. If you have happy customers, you'll have a great brand perception. If you have a great brand perception, you'll have a great bottom line. It's all goes back to exactly what you said is that that culture drives things forward. And, you know, it's my belief that leaders have to have the courage to do what it takes. To build that culture intentionally and to drive it forward. And it's not easy, right? Like I can't just snap my fingers and be like, I want a great culture. So therefore I have it. Like, how do you actually get people to do this with intention?

Heather Haas: 4:32

That is the million dollar question. And that's what we've worked really hard to kind of solve for that. Is there a process? Is there an experience that you can create for leaders? So that they can come to understand first. What is the importance of culture? And what's my role in carrying it? That's what we call we say leaders are culture carriers But you know, I'll kind of lay out the process here in a moment But I want to touch on something that you said You know, most leaders want to create a healthy work environment for their employees. The issue typically isn't a lack of intention or even a lack of desire. The issue is that they don't know how. It's a lack of clarity. What kind of culture do we need around here to achieve our business aims? Or our business intentions, what kind of work environment that they don't, most organizations haven't taken the time to actually diagnose what's going on now and then define what is the intentional culture we need and want for the future. So that's, that's really. So your question was, how do we do this? That's the first piece. You have to get executive teams in the room and take them through an experience of defining or refreshing core values because a lot of organizations have core values. They hang on the wall or they're in the handbook, but most organizations don't know how to bring those to life. And the reason the values piece is where we start is because your values are the pillars of your intentional culture. When those values are when the Executive team has wrestled with and debated and aligned around that corporate character, the precious few values that define who we want to be and how we will treat each other and how we will treat our customers and who we will be in the market when those values are there and when they're understood in behavioral terms, that's the other piece of this that's really key, what teamwork means to you and what teamwork means to me is colored by our past experiences. So the executive team has to come together and if they say teamwork is a core value, we help them say, well, what does that mean? What does teamwork look like, sound like, feel like, so that we can spell that out in very behavioral terms. So that definition of core values, These are the pillars of the intentional culture. And there are behavior, there's behavioral evidence we can point to to say, yes, we're living this out. That's the first piece. Once you've defined the culture that is important to achieving your intentions as a business. Now you can answer the most elusive question that leaders are asking, which is, Okay, that's really cool. But what do I need to say and do to activate that culture? What does effective leadership look like here? So the second piece of the defining is creating a shortlist three to five, what we call leader capabilities. So again, we take executive teams through a similar process. We've got to help you answer the question. What does effective leadership look like if these are your values? How will leaders bring those to life and coach to them and hold people accountable, recruit and hire to those values? So the definition piece is really huge. Once that is all clear, that cultural clarity, if you will, Oh, okay. I know who we aspire to be and why I know now what leaders need to say and do to activate it. Then we believe the other really important part of change is designing customized learning experiences for leaders because there's great learning out there. If you want your leaders to know how to give feedback or manage change or set expectations, just put it in a. or hop on a master class. The key to cultural change is that leaders are learning those skills, but they're learning those things infused with the very specific this organization's values and norms. this organization's expectation for what effective leadership looks like. And those kinds of learning experiences is how that's how you actually propagate an intentional culture across a distributed workforce because all of your leaders then, because remember, we started at the top, that definition work happened, happened with the executive team. When all of your leaders throughout the organization, whether you're in person or distributed. Know what they're supposed to be coaching and how they're supposed to be showing up. Now we have a very consistent employee experience.

Alyssa Nolte: 9:39

I think there's, there's so many things in what you just said. One of the things I think that a lot of teams miss out on is, is that infusion. Of what we're learning and what we're actually doing because I'm sitting here thinking of all the different books that I have on my bookshelves that I've never really had time to read and the TED talks and the webinars and the all the courses I can take. And I'm just overwhelmed by the amount of information that I'm taking in. But it doesn't matter how much information I consume if I don't know how to actually put it into practice and start doing it.

Heather Haas: 10:09

That's right. We say at Advisa that you haven't learned if you haven't changed.

Alyssa Nolte: 10:16

so powerful.

Heather Haas: 10:17

And, and so

Alyssa Nolte: 10:17

that's the key.

Heather Haas: 10:18

yeah, to your point, I mean, we're all getting all kinds of inputs and information all the time, but it's. What do I need to do with that? What's the most important information? And especially like, like I said, you know, we believe leaders are really the tip of this spear. You know, if you talk about taking back Monday, your leaders hold the key to being able to create a Monday that helps me want to show up as my best self, as my true self, that create a Monday that makes me want to collaborate with my teammates and, you know, work hard to solve a tough challenge. So when leaders have. the clarity about of all the things I could be doing. What is it that will make me most effective here so that then they can collaborate with their peers and we can create the space for them to truly change their mindsets and behaviors starts there. Leaders become more self aware. I understand what's expected and why I work on myself. And that's where then it starts to touch other people. When I know how to self manage, Now I can engage others most effectively, which is going to touch customers because the way our employees feel at work, as you just said, is going to impact how customers experience our brand. And that of course flows through to business outcomes.

Alyssa Nolte: 11:40

One of the things that we talk about on the show quite often is kind of the changing attitudes around work. So we see our, I'm on Tik TOK and I see these Gen Z ers and I'm going to generalize here. So I apologize in advance, but I see a Gen Z er who's just like, I'm just here to get my paycheck. I'm just here to only do what I'm here to do from nine to five. And I'm not going to do anything more. And then I look at some of my. Coworkers that have been successful and I'm in that millennial generation and they've, you know, really killed themselves to make something great and that they're really proud of what's the balance right between giving everything and making work the center of your life and then burning out or saying work isn't my life. I it's just something that I do for money.

Heather Haas: 12:25

Well, I think, um, balance is a bit of an illusion, you know, for many years, it was all about work life balance. And I like to say there is only life. So you can call it balance, but there is only life. And the key I think to, am I going to, you know, work really hard? Am I just there for a paycheck and, or anything in between it's to what extent are the choices that you're making, bringing you value, helping you create meaning and purpose. In this one life that you have, and that's why this challenge and opportunity for leaders is so tricky because anymore, it's not just appealing to people's intellect and helping them see a business case and help helping them see, you know, the line from what you do to look. We all make more money. That isn't what many people care about anymore, especially at these generational differences that you're alluding to. People want to do meaningful work that aligns with their personal values and people want to grow and be poured into and have the opportunity to, to grow. And people want flexibility and freedom to fit in. Their life, you know, the priorities in their life in, around and with work. And that's why we have got to come alongside leaders because they are struggling. They were managed a certain way and came up through a certain way. And we have not helped them retool and recast this vision for what it means to really work in partnership. With your employees to achieve a shared vision, because it's, it's quite possible to cast a vision for an organization that very much overlaps with what individual people want for their lives, but as leaders, if you don't care, first of all, Who anybody is and what they want for their life, it stops there, but assuming that most leaders come and they do care, then it becomes an exercise. And we have to talk to each other and we have to get beyond just surface level business conversations. We have to, we like to say in our leadership programming connection before content. When we can connect as human beings first. It's easier than to tackle the content or the business things. So a lot of our work, honestly, it's sometimes it's the simplest things that are most profound. We're teaching leaders how to access their humanity in an appropriate way and bring that to light in the context of these values that have been defined and then teaching them to build trust and shared purpose with other people.

Alyssa Nolte: 15:25

I love what you're saying here, and especially about that connection before content. One of the things as a fully remote worker who hasn't fully been fully remote my entire career, we, we went remote after COVID and then we never went back. And one thing I realized is. As we brought in new team members. I have people that I work with every single day that I've never physically met in person and I realized I didn't know anything about them outside of the project work that they were doing. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's had that, like, realization of I used to know my My coworker's dog's names and their kids activities and what they were doing on the weekend and whether or not they won their sand volleyball tournament over the weekend and then I realized I don't know anything about these people. I don't even know that they're getting married or having babies or doing any of those things that I used to know everything about. How can we overcome that in a remote work environment? Or is that just the price we pay? So

Heather Haas: 16:20

well, we have to overcome it because, like I said, the disconnection that people are feeling at work is not only, um, costly to these organizations, but it's there is a very personal toll and people are going to find connection and if they're not finding it in your organization, they're going to find it somewhere else. Um, so overcoming it very practically, it starts with the executive team who understands the importance of it. Because the next piece is leaders then need to be empowered to create space for connection. I mean, if your meetings are stacked up and there's no buffer and there's no time, you can't do a 20 minute go around at the beginning of a, of a team meeting and do something like, Hey, you know, what's, what's a rose for everybody in the past week. What's been a thorn. Let's go around it. I mean, it sounds silly. But when you build that muscle, that every time we gather, because it's, it's the art of gathering. When you bring human beings together, even if it's virtually, there has to be some value in our being together. So the, we teach leaders that, you know, that connection, that time for checking in, asking some questions and getting into people's lives a little bit is what builds the relationship bank up so that when we have to have a hard conversation or we have to solve a problem, we've got. Some strong footing, um, to, to stand on. And we've, we've soldered that connection, the human connection, um, which is what really powers us through the day to day work of work.

Alyssa Nolte: 18:03

I want to pivot a little bit to, um, actually to share something with you that as I was, as you were talking, I just remembered. So I actually had a chance to talk to some of the team that reports to you and works with you at your organization before we got on this call. And one thing that, um, one of your team members said, and I won't, I won't call him out live on the air here, but one of the things that he said to me is that he's worked at a lot of places. And this is the first place where he truly felt like. It was he was a part of the team on the team valued and cared for he said I would I worked a lot of places, but this is where I want to be because this is where I feel like I belong and I just want to like give you that that like moment because I talked to all kinds of leaders. I've done over 50 interviews at this point and it's really the first time that I've had. An employee of the person who I'm speaking to reach out and tell me ahead of time how much they enjoy working for you and how much of an inspirational leader that you are. Um, so first of all, kudos to you.

Heather Haas: 19:02

you very much for sharing that. That's means a lot. Yeah.

Alyssa Nolte: 19:05

And second, um, he mentioned this, you know, you guys have been doing this for 40 years and he mentioned this concept of Atlas. Can you take us through what that is and, and how you've really managed to not only help other companies do this, but Obviously truly do it in your own organization like you're really walking the walk when someone reaches out to sing your praises behind your back.

Heather Haas: 19:26

Yeah, well thanks. Yeah. So Atlas A-T-L-A-S. It's an acronym, so it's just a shorthand way to capture and remember our point of view about creating cultural competitive advantage and um. I've been alluding to bits and pieces of it, but I want to share it because I do think regardless of whether you're leading an organization or you're in the middle or even if you're on the front lines, understanding this framework really puts into words and gives some shape. To this really elusive fuzzy thing that we call culture that every, like I said, it enables you that if you choose to bring some intention to creating a desired culture, this is a framework that helps you. So the A is for activation from above and what we believe about that is that the executive team at the highest level of an organization. Those people have to own and relentlessly pursue the creation of an intentional culture. So it can't be, culture can't be delegated down to HR or over to those people or over there. The executive team has to truly believe that it's important and they need to deeply understand that culture is never finished. It, if you look at the research, it takes three to five years to change a culture. So this is a long game. And so we have to start at the top with this work and for organizations who say, Oh yeah, the executive team's too busy to get in the room with you all to define core values and define leader capabilities. We say we totally get it. We can do a little thing, few things here and there, but we're probably not the best partner. Because what we know from 40 years of doing this is when you skip that activation from above. The efficacy of all the other interventions and investments you make is compromised. So that's where it starts. You have to start at the top. The T is trust and shared purpose. People in the organization have to trust that senior leadership has a plan. They have a vision and they have to trust the character of those people and trust that leaders in the organizations have their back. So you can't underestimate the power of trust. There's books that have been written about it. Trust is a real thing. And then that shared purpose is the extension of trust. If I show up as an employee, I'm like, okay, yes, they have a game plan. I understand how I fit. We're, you know, I understand I have the resources to do, but the shared purpose is that magic that happens between the leader and her team. And that's where that leader says, Yes, this is the vision. This is the bright future. We all have the opportunity to create together. And this is how our team supports that. This is where you in your role fit into that and talking about and continuing to come back to. We have shared purpose is so very important. And the values in particular, when we talk about creating those core values, that That's really the crux of that shared purpose because we can tap into that corporate identity. And for an individual, that shared purposes, the organization's values line up with my values, and that is a strong connection. Then the L, so A T, we're ready for L, that's leader effectiveness. In order to create cultural competitive advantage, leaders need to know what to say and do to activate those values and to connect with their people in meaningful ways. And so they need the customized training. They need the support. Um, they need the time. To build self awareness and wrestle with how to do the job. Well, we all deserve leaders deserve better than what they've been getting in the way of development. And, um, you know, I just said it takes 3 to 5 years to change a culture. It takes time for leaders to grow. You can't send them to a workshop. They need they need learning experiences in very high trust cohort based environments over many months, sometimes years. to build the alignment and build the skills and confidence. So we leaders need that confidence to be effective. The next a is actionable people data. There are all kinds of incredible ways to keep a pulse on employee engagement. There are great tools like the predictive index for understanding people's innate behavioral drives and needs. Leaders need to be able to get their hands on that information because data is a catalyst for change. It's a catalyst for conversation. It's a way to understand how we're doing. So a lot of organizations, they have all kinds of financial data, but I'm talking about people data and they need it at their fingertips so that they can use that information real time to inform conversations and one on ones and giving feedback. Then the S in Atlas is systems that support leaders and managers in doing this work and. Systems are so important because, um, I think it was Deming who said that a bad system will beat a good person every time. So you can do the A, T, L, and A perfectly, but if when leaders come back on the job, if when they try to carve out time to do connection before content at the beginning of a meeting, And an executive walks in and says, why are we wasting time on this? Now we have a competing value there. And we have a system that isn't supporting the new behaviors that we've just trained leaders to carry out into the work environment. Um, systems are also very, the technical systems, you know, what are the systems we use for keeping in touch? What are the systems we use for, uh, performance management? We're coaching. Um, those systems need to be aligned with our values, our leader capabilities and the things we are expecting leaders to do to be effective. So that's Atlas. Those are the things, the five things that really drive creating cultural competitive advantage. And the good news is you can start anywhere. You can start at the top. You know, you can do what you can to tag into that. Um, but ultimately all five of those drivers need to be in place to create change.

Alyssa Nolte: 25:52

I love that. And I love how accessible you've made that in terms of like, none of those things seem like I'm going to have to do something incredibly difficult. I just have to do small actions that build up to something much bigger. That seems much more achievable than spending the next three to five years shifting my entire company culture. Right.

Heather Haas: 26:11

Exactly. It's really about the process that we take our clients through is really, I like to say it's about getting to the simplicity on the other side of the complexity. It is kind of, you're kind of staring uphill initially, but once we help you get things clarified, these are your values. These are your leader capabilities. Then we move right into, okay, then what kinds of learning experiences do we need to design? And then it's deploying, um, facilitators to deliver those learning experiences so that those, um, leaders have the opportunity to grow and change.

Alyssa Nolte: 26:47

I love that. Um, you know, thinking about all of the incredible people that you've had the chance to meet over your career or, or thought leaders that you follow along with, who is, who is really taking back Monday? Who else should we be talking to?

Heather Haas: 27:01

Well, my answer might be a little different. Um, my background, I was a teacher and an educator and I taught English and I love reading and writing. Um, My answer would be that I think the poets and the artists are taking back Monday. I think that, you know, a poem a day, or even for people who aren't into poetry, the poets and the artists are the ones who are helping us access our shared humanity without the political baggage. And, you know, I mean, to be able to cut through all that noise and really tap into the deepest and most tender parts of ourselves. Um, is so powerful to being able to show up on Monday as our authentic selves and with an awareness of how does this place fit into my life? Or does it? Um, I, I love what, um, Alice Osborne says about poetry. She says that it sheds sideways light. on our lives and, and gives us this truth in very accessible way, as opposed to like direct light, you know, someone beating you over the head with something or giving you feedback or, you know, poetry gives you that sideways light, just sort of inviting you to glance over and see what truth may be revealed to you. So whatever, you know, singer, songwriter, music, poetry, fiction, even things that help you get outside yourself. Um, And see yourself in a new way, I think is really critical to unpacking the connection we have to our work.

Alyssa Nolte: 28:41

I love that. That's beautiful. I love the idea of looking to the side and seeing some diffused, some diffused truth to your left. I think that's really important. If someone is really connecting with you, Heather, they want to learn more about your company and what you guys do, or more about Atlas or just about you. Where can they find you online?

Heather Haas: 29:00

So our company website, advisa. com is a great place. Uh, all of our point of view that I just shared about Atlas, as well as our blog, where I do a lot of writing is there that's a D V I S a. com. And of course on LinkedIn. I do a lot of writing and posting on LinkedIn. And so if you just search me up, Heather Haas, I'd love to connect with any of your listeners and I'd love to trade ideas and perspective.

Alyssa Nolte: 29:29

Awesome. Thank you so much for taking back Monday with me.

Heather Haas: 29:32

It's been awesome. Thank you.