On Culture: Where Potential Lives (and Why We Miss It)

Myste Wylde
Jun 12
5 min read

Dear Culturati Insider,

There’s a temptation in leadership to default to what’s been proven. To hire the familiar résumé, preserve inherited culture, or wait for a trend to harden into consensus. I’ve made that mistake before. But the leaders creating real value now are choosing differently. They’re planning for ambiguity. They’re naming what matters early. They’re creating space for multidimensional people to flourish. These are disciplines, and they are showing up in every serious conversation we're having about growth, talent, and transformation.

More and more we're finding that the traits we used to reward (certainty, speed, polish) aren’t always the ones that lead to resilience. What if the real markers of potential are the willingness to ask better questions, to fail visibly, and to do the unglamorous work well? What if culture is more predictive of returns than product?

If we already know that the most effective executives operate beyond expertise, that they translate across functions, build trust, and protect alignment over time, then the real question becomes: how do we cultivate that capacity in ourselves and in others? It rarely comes from mastering more content. Growth at that level is not just about skill. It's about presence, pattern recognition, and the ability to create clarity when no one else can.

This week’s topics flip a lot of assumptions, asking us to reconsider what signals we’ve been taught to value. Because the hardest problems aren’t siloed. They sit at the intersection of talent and trust, culture and capital, innovation and identity. The work ahead requires us to see those connections more clearly. Not just to drive outcomes, but to build courageous organizations that people believe in and want to grow with.

Because I care,

Myste Wylde, COO

Innovating During Disruption

Harvard Business Review

By Adi Ignatius

Summary: Disrupting your own business while protecting the core is one of the hardest things a leader can do, but it's becoming non-negotiable in the age of AI. Scott Anthony, co-author of Dual Transformation, says if you're doing it right, you'll likely experience an identity crisis. Leaders need to act before the data is obvious, tuning into weak signals and asking tough questions about their strategy, investments, and the internal “ghosts” that create resistance. Ann Hiatt, who worked closely with Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt, emphasizes the same point from the boardroom: the best leaders don’t wait. They experiment, learn fast, and keep moving.

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19 Future Challenges For Leaders And How To Face Them Today

Forbes

By Expert Panel

Summary: Leaders face a cascade of emerging challenges that demand faster adaptation, deeper emotional intelligence, and sharper systemic thinking. As AI reshapes work and decentralizes authority, trust in traditional leadership is eroding, pushing leaders to earn influence through transparency and shared purpose. Meanwhile, 10,000 Baby Boomers retire daily, creating urgent succession gaps as Gen Z rises without sufficient numbers or readiness to fill them. Workplace well-being is under strain as speed outpaces capacity, and cognitive overload threatens innovation. The most forward-thinking leaders are preparing now by prioritizing meaning, designing for mental clarity, and developing playbooks for hybrid human-AI teams. Success will depend less on control and more on building resilient, purpose-anchored cultures equipped for nonlinear change.

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Why Leaders Should Embrace Multi-Dimensional Leadership

Fast Company

By Tony Martignetti

Summary: Leadership today calls for more than depth in one area. The most effective leaders are “T-shaped”—anchored in expertise but fluent across disciplines, able to connect ideas, people, and systems. This multidimensional approach matters now more than ever. As complexity rises, so does the cost of one-dimensional thinking. Innovation, resilience, and team cohesion come from leaders who bring their full selves to the table, not just their job titles. At companies like IDEO, leaders are encouraged to prototype their leadership based on what energizes them, not just their roles. The result is stronger trust, clearer purpose, and measurable gains in collaboration.

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When Building New Businesses, Culture Matters

McKinsey & Company

By Markus Berger-de León, Ralf Dreischmeier, and Paul Jenkins with Maria Ocampo

Summary: McKinsey research shows ventures with strong cultures deliver 3x the total shareholder return and 2.5x the return on invested capital. Yet 26% of corporate venture failures stem from cultural breakdown. As headcount grows, unspoken norms erode, and inherited behaviors lose their grip. Leaders who build enduring ventures treat culture as a core system, not a byproduct. They define foundational beliefs early, hire for mindset and adaptability, and select leadership teams capable of moving between enterprise scale and start-up speed. Culture is enforced through clarity, consistency, and credibility. It is the most resilient asset a venture can create.

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Look for These 5 Traits to Find Your High-Potential Employees

Inc.

By Suzanne Lucas

Summary: High-potential employees aren’t defined by pedigree or polish. They show up through behavior. Research and experience across both corporate and improv settings point to five key traits: full engagement, comfort with failure, a willingness to do foundational work, a drive for feedback, and the ability to apply lessons across contexts. These are the people who raise their hands before roles are assigned, who try and fail visibly, and who treat feedback as fuel. They don’t just contribute to cross-functional teams. They think in cross-functional ways. Leaders who look beyond résumés and identify these signals early can surface overlooked talent and accelerate their bench strength where it matters most.

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LaToya Collins-Jones suggests we don’t need more rules or another corporate playbook, but that leading with clarity and audacity is the way. In this session, LaToya is calling in leaders ready to trust their gut and create cultures that reflect who they truly are. She'll explore how to build high-performance environments without burning out or selling out—and why the boldest move you can make is to lead from alignment. This conversation assumes leaders are here to shake things up—and ready to start with one powerful, unapologetic step.