Have you ever walked into a business and immediately felt something different – an energy that told you the staff wanted to be there? Maybe it wasn’t loud or obvious, but you could feel it. The warmth. The willingness to help. The sense that people were present and committed with genuine authenticity, not just performing tasks. As humans, we’re highly attuned to that kind of energy. And when employees genuinely want to be at work and take pride in how they show up, it creates something powerful – engagement.

But here’s the truth: engagement doesn’t happen by accident. According to Gallup’s most recent global data, less than a quarter of employees are engaged – meaning 8 out of 10 are walking into work feeling “not engaged” (emotionally detached, doing only what’s required to earn a paycheck) or “actively disengaged” (emotionally checked out and potentially looking for ways to undermine outcomes). This “disengagement gap”, as I like to call it, comes with serious consequences: decreased productivity, lower profitability, and customer experiences that fall flat, negatively impacting future business. And yet, most leaders admit they’re “too busy” or just have no idea how to address this lagging engagement.

This is where organizational culture matters – not as a buzzword, but as a living system that drives behavior and performance. Peter Drucker said it best: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” In my experience across industries from healthcare to hospitality, I’ve seen this firsthand. Organizations often have solid strategies for business outcomes, but miss the mark on building the culture required to get there.

It seems many companies rely on the idea that hiring the right people will naturally generate the right culture. But if that were true, engagement numbers would look very different. The reality is, talent alone doesn’t deliver results – leadership does. Because leadership builds culture, culture drives behavior, and behavior produces results. This is the performance pathway. It’s the physics of every high-performing team.

And the concept of leadership is timelier and more relevant than ever. After all, we don’t need leaders when things are easy – we need them when things are hard. When the pressure is on, and people are stretched thin, that’s when leadership must be most intentional. That’s what it means to build culture by design, not by default – to create an environment where people feel seen, valued, and part of something meaningful.

Culture isn’t a program. It’s not a campaign. It’s the feeling people get when they walk into work and perform the functions of their job. It’s defined by the words, mindsets, choices, actions, and interactions that happen between the people that work there. And while it belongs to everyone, culture must be consistently nourished and cultivated with intention by leadership.

I hope you’ll join me at my breakout session, Transforming Workplace Cultures, during HEC’s Talent Summit on July 11, 2025. Together, we’ll reset how we think about culture – not as a fixed initiative, but as a dynamic force that shapes trust, drives behavior, and ultimately delivers results.

Source: Gallup, “Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 79% of employees are not engaged.” 2022

Corey Campbell is an Executive Performance Coach and Organizational Leadership Consultant with over 20 years of experience helping leaders and teams transform how they think, lead, and live.

As the CEO & Founder of Akamai Training & Consulting, LLC a Honolulu-based company, Corey partners with organizations across industries – including healthcare, hospitality, banking, airlines, government, and professional services – to build high-performance cultures rooted in mindset, emotional intelligence, and authentic leadership.