How do we build leadership and a culture where people stay — and perform at their best?
People don't leave bad jobs — they leave bad bosses.
Leaders who see their direct line to performance — engagement, retention and discretionary effort that show up in the numbers (inclusive cultures see up to 33% higher revenue per employee).
Leadership away-day · Conference keynote · All-hands
About this keynote
Your leaders have more impact on your culture than any policy, perk or poster. Get leadership right and people feel they belong — they thrive and perform at their best. Get it wrong and, as the old cliché goes, people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses. It happens all the time; and where organisations don’t invest in developing leadership at every level, poor cultures quietly take hold.
So this is a practical, performance-focused look at the culture your leaders create — because employee experience and engagement are directly linked to it. And the link shows up in the numbers: organisations with inclusive cultures see, by one study, up to 33% higher revenue per employee, alongside lower turnover, higher morale, and people who are more resilient and well.
What we explore
Is your culture really in order? We start with the honest question. Engagement, retention and discretionary effort are all downstream of the culture leaders set — deliberately, or by default.
Hygiene before motivation. Drawing on Herzberg: you can’t motivate your way out of unmet basics. Fix the hygiene factors first, and then purpose, motivation and belonging have somewhere to land.
EQ and CQ as the foundations. Emotional Intelligence and Cultural Intelligence are what let leaders read the room, communicate across difference, and build the trust that motivation depends on.
Intent vs impact. Well-meaning leaders still get it wrong — clumsy words, missed signals, stereotypes and microaggressions that compound. We focus on impact: how things land, and how to build a culture where people feel safe to step up, step in, and challenge behaviour well.
The traits of an inclusive leader. The habits and behaviours that bring people together — and how to recognise and nurture them at every level, not just at the top.
Think, feel and act differently
Think differently — culture isn’t the HR department’s job; it’s the sum of what leaders do every day, and it shows up in performance.
Feel differently — equipped rather than blamed: inclusive leadership is a set of habits you can build, not a personality you either have or you don’t.
Act differently — choose one thing: fix a hygiene factor, sharpen how you listen, or open a real channel for people to contribute and challenge.
Who this is for
Leadership and executive teams, managers at every level, and the HR, People, OD and L&D leaders who develop them — anyone serious about the culture their leaders create and the performance it drives.
Go deeper
Bespoke to your audience — but well-trodden. Delivered for LEGO · NHS England · Unilever · John Lewis · lululemon.
“Joanne conducted two highly successful workshops for our team at Plantlife. Many of our team members have described these workshops as the best training they've ever received. As a result of Joanne's training, we have made a significant stride forward in understanding and achieving our inclusion ambitions. I wholeheartedly recommend her training for its effectiveness in advancing organisational goals related to diversity and inclusion.”