The Culture Dividend: What I Didn't Know I Was Building

I didn’t plan to build a company culture.

I didn’t sit down with a whiteboard or hire consultants to define our values. I didn’t follow a leadership manual or business book. I just tried to treat people with kindness, compassion, and respect—like people, not numbers—no matter how big the team got. Turns out, that was the culture.

I remember being at an event with our Quikcard staff. There were 40 people in the room, and I started realizing how many of them had stuck it out with me for more than 30 years. It floored me. That’s rare. Not just in business, but in life.

I asked myself, How did this happen?

We weren’t perfect. We didn’t have ping pong tables or a culture committee. But we had something far more powerful—something I didn’t even have a name for at the time.

Now I do:Trust.And a little thing called conversation.

But not the kind of conversation you plan for. I’m talking about the kind that happens in the coffee room, not the boardroom. The kind where someone tells you their kid is struggling in school and you actually listen. The kind where you admit when you’re wrong. Where you don’t just talk—you pay attention.

We just talked to each other like people and listened to each other like people. That was the heartbeat of our company.

I learned about compassion long before I learned about business.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I grew up in a funeral home. One of the most profound acts of compassion I ever witnessed came from my mom. A woman had tragically died in a car accident, and she’d lost her hair in the crash. Her husband—who was the mayor—wanted an open casket. Quietly, without a word to anyone, my mom cut off her beautiful bright red hair so the woman could be buried with dignity. It wasn’t “policy” or “best-practice” It was just kind.

That stayed with me. And when I found myself in business years later, I didn’t just “manage people” people—

I asked questions. I listened.I noticed when someone looked off.We had open-door policies before that was a buzzword.

And over time—without knowing it—I built a culture. One where people felt safe, respected, seen. A place they didn’t want to leave.

You don’t need an MBA to build a culture. You need empathy. You need curiosity. You need consistency.

Culture is the result of a thousand small moments. It’s the way someone feels walking into your office. It’s how leaders show up when things go wrong. It’s whether people feel free to speak the truth—even when it’s inconvenient.

And when you build it well, it pays you back in ways you can’t measure on a spreadsheet:

• You see it in loyalty.

• You feel it in resilience.

• You hear it in the ideas people are willing to share—because they know they’ll be heard.
  

Culture is the dividend. It’s what gets paid out when trust, compassion, and conversation compound over time.

I didn’t always have the language for it. But I’ve learned:You don’t build culture in an offsite. You build it in the hallways, in the hard moments, in the everyday.

So if you’re leading a team—or hoping to—don’t underestimate the power of being someone others can count on.

It’s not complicated. It’s just rare. And it changes everything.

It’s why I co-founded Heroes Unleashed today — to keep creating spaces where people feel seen, respected, and inspired to do their best work.

If you’re curious about how to build a culture people want to be part of — one that grows loyalty, resilience, and innovation — reach out. Sometimes one conversation can change everything. https://www.heroesunleashed.ca/contactus