Author Andy LaCivita of milewalk On Why Corporate Culture Matters in Business
An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
Customer Satisfaction: Our internal culture reflects externally as I mentioned earlier. A happy, engaged team enhances customer interactions and satisfaction. This has led to higher customer retention rates and more referrals, which are crucial for sustained business growth.
Every company has a corporate culture. This culture can foster innovation and a fresh exchange of ideas or it can promote selfishness and backbiting which will damage the bottom line of any business. Sensitivity to the culture of a business goes beyond mere awareness; it’s about actively adapting and responding to create the culture that you want to represent your brand. This is crucial for building successful, respectful, and inclusive working environments and for creating products and services that resonate with a diverse customer base. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew LaCivita.
Andrew LaCivita, a globally-renowned career and leadership coach, is the founder of the milewalk Academy®. During the course of his distinguished career, he has impacted over 350 companies, more than 100,000 individuals, and spanned nearly 200 countries, helping them unlock their full potential. He is an award-winning author who gained international recognition with his groundbreaking books, Interview Intervention: Communication That Gets You Hired and The Hiring Prophecies: Psychology behind Recruiting Successful Employees. Both of these seminal works, along with his celebrated vlog, Tips for Work and Life®, consistently earn top spots on reputable, worldwide lists which rank the best career advice books and blogs. Andrew remains actively engaged across various social media platforms and shares his expertise through his weekly Live Office Hours on YouTube every Thursday.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about Why Corporate Culture Matters in Business, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
My journey into career coaching and leadership development wasn’t a straight path but more like a series of pivotal realizations and shifts. I spent the first half of my career, 17 years or so, as a management and information technology consultant, where I built consulting organizations and counseled more than 150 different companies across a wide range of industries. This phase of my career was incredibly fulfilling as it involved solving complex business problems and enhancing organizational efficiencies.
Over time, I realized while I was good at what I did, my true passion lied not just in solving business problems but in helping people grow and achieve their potential. I often say, “Don’t let what you can do prevent you from doing what you were meant to do.” For me, it wasn’t just about being capable in a role; it was about fulfillment and how I could make a significant impact on individuals’ lives.
I also knew, at this stage, I wanted to establish a business of my own. So, in 2004, I blended what I could do (helping employers improve their business) with what I wanted to do (helping employees thrive in their careers) to create milewalk®, Inc., my executive recruitment firm.
In 2015, I took another step closer to focusing on helping individuals by adding a career and leadership coaching arm to milewalk®. I called it the milewalk Academy®. I leveraged my extensive experience in business consulting and recruitment to directly support individuals in navigating their career paths and leadership challenges. It was at this point I arrived at my true calling — supporting others in their professional journeys.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
There was this time in the early stage of building the milewalk Academy® where I was focusing on two vital success steps — building a network and a community. At this point in my career, I had a large professional network, but the people in it weren’t ones who could help me establish my online training business.
I looked for individuals who could educate me on my new business venture. One of those people mentioned that online e-zines welcomed articles from contributors. If you were successful in submitting yours, it could open a path to helping more people and becoming known to a larger audience. He indicated The Huffington Post, now HuffPost, was one of those sites. Before I submitted any articles, I added Arianna Huffington to my “network map.”
I asked my team member, Rhonda, to enter one of my articles into the HuffPost online submission form every morning for the next thirty days or until we got a hit. The month went by with zero responses.
At this point, I decided to email Arianna directly. I did that on a Thursday evening, and Friday morning she responded!
I shared with her who I was and why I wanted to contribute to her magazine along with a few remarks about my 30 unsuccessful attempts. In her response, she indicated, “We would love to feature your voice on HuffPost.” She copied her blog editor who got right back to me with my log in credentials and I started by entering my first article.
The next morning, Saturday, I was running errands and pulled into the grocery store parking lot. I wanted to call my wife to see if there were any additions to the shopping list. As I looked at my phone, I noticed we received 9,786 downloads of one of our free templates. At first, I’m wondering, What the heck? Then, I realized what happened.
In the span of one day, nearly 10,000 more people would benefit from something I created simply because I was unafraid to hit the “send” button on my email to someone who could help me. I wrote about this exact story in my book The Zebra Code: A Step-By-Step Guide to Mastering Career Skills That Make You a Standout Professional to encourage people not to hesitate to reach out to someone they want to meet.
You are a successful individual. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
In my lifetime — I’m not kidding — during my stretch as an executive recruiter, I’ve personally interviewed (that’s actually spoken directly with) 15,000 professionals who were open to or actively pursuing new employment. I’ve interacted with countless more as a consultant and career coach. That’s a lot of evaluation and data.
During my assessments of these individuals, I noticed the most successful had three traits in common — passion, vision, and commitment. To me, these qualities are part of who they are, not how they became the way they are. All of these traits enable them to take on the challenges required to master and become the best at whatever they do.
Passion is not something you’re born with. It’s something you develop. It’s a love for something you were exposed to from the time you were born until now. You fell in love with it. You became interested in it and then passionate about it. You genuinely love it.
Vision is about your ability to see where you want to take your passion. How will you grow it? How will you nurture it? Where will it take you?
Commitment is your dedication to and discipline in fulfilling your vision. This commitment is what ensures you get past the bumps and “failures” along the way.
Much like the people I evaluated, I think these three are what made me most successful.
The story around this is probably best encapsulated in what I do now as a career coach. My passion is to help people become the best they can be. That is not only my passion, but also my mission.
The issue with anyone fulfilling their mission and passion is not being able to see how to do it. Then, add the fact there will be many challenges standing in the way of them fulfilling that mission.
For example, for a very long time I’ve been equipped to help people find jobs and thrive in them. Early on, I would do that over the phone or face-to-face. If I wanted to achieve my mission of helping many more people, however, I’d need to be committed to learning processes and tools I wasn’t yet familiar with.
Recognizing there are people on the other side of the world I could help is one thing. Knowing how to reach them or attract them is another. The bigger your aspiration, the larger the challenges. I needed to learn how to market my services in a different format. I needed to learn how to use a camera and create videos and a podcast and use modalities I’ve never experienced.
This is just an example of commitment and discipline that coincides with learning whatever you need to learn and sacrificing whatever you need to sacrifice to achieve your mission.
How do you define corporate culture in the context of your business, and why is it important for your company’s success?
I wrote extensively about corporate culture in my book The Hiring Prophecies: Psychology behind Recruiting Successful Employees because, based on the predictive analytics recruitment model I built and my practical experience as an executive recruiter, cultural fit is the single greatest indicator of recruitment and retention success.
Cultural Fit, as I define it, is the collective behavior of the organization including the values, language, and beliefs melded together to define the corporate personality. The more in-line an employee’s natural state is to the culture, the greater the likelihood of success.
If you can hire the right employees who fit and stay, not only will your employees be happier, but they also perform better and provide better customer service ultimately leading to a more profitable business.
Can you share an experience where corporate culture impacted a business decision or client relationship (positive or negative)?
There was this long-time recruitment client I’d been working with for a handful of years. She was the CEO of a technology consultancy and her company, among other services, provided technical outsourcing support to organizations to manage their high-speed infrastructure networks.
Somewhere along the way, her business model and culture shifted a bit. Her organization originally focused on strategy and architectural “design” type work which needed “thinkers.”
She shifted the company to an outsourcing “manage-the-network and customer-service type work,” and realigned her existing employees. This new model required “do-ers.”
As part of this service, she needed technologists to answer telephone calls and emails for customer issues. The technologists she hired, were just that — technologists. She hired people who knew the network hardware and software.
One day, I was meeting with her and she asked, “Andy, could you help me hire the support staff (technologists) for the NOC (Network Operations Center)?”
She continued, “The staff I hire always looks good ‘on paper’ but have a lot of trouble with the customer service part of the job.”
I asked, “How’s their empathy?”
She asked, “Their what?” She obviously knows what empathy is.
I continued, “When you assess their empathy levels, how do they score? You do evaluate this in the interviews, don’t you?”
The transformation on her face was priceless. The lightbulb went on full power.
I said, “No one calls the NOC to tell you how happy they are. They call because something is broken. The first skills I’d evaluate when I hire people for those jobs are not their technical skills. It’s their empathy, customer service, and communication skills. The technical stuff is easy to learn. The absence of the other stuff will put you out of business.”
At this point, she understood the difference and was able to make the necessary cultural adjustments in hiring and deploying her employees.
What strategies do you employ to monitor and enhance corporate culture within your team or organization?
First, you need to identify the culture you want. That means clearly stating the capabilities and characteristics of the employees that align to the personality of the organization.
If a company’s culture is not clearly outlined, defined, publicized, communicated, and clearly evaluated on an ongoing basis, it is nearly impossible to behave in a manner which aligns to it. It’s even more difficult when it comes to evaluating prospective employees’ alignment to it or rewarding existing employees for their adherence to it.
We start with questions such as “What do we want to be?” and “How do we want to be?” and “Who are our best performing employees and what cultural traits do they have?”
Then, we make it visible so it’s easier to promote within and attract the right employees. And, we recruit people who already align to our cultural traits. It’s easier to teach the trade than the traits.
We also make sure to incent for culture. If you want to truly promote your culture, it’s a great idea to incent for it with your current employees. Most employers attempt to pay for hard skills and results, but completely neglect compensating for cultural behavior. Compensation, at its core, should be used to entice the behavior and performance you want from your employees.
We monitor for culture on an ongoing basis using core value checkups and surveys to gauge whether what we’re doing as it relates to culture building is working. We also use metrics such as the employee satisfaction survey, employee retention rate, and employee referral rate (for new employees) to make sure we’re on track.
How do you handle situations where the executives may not be aware of corporate culture in mid-management?
Handling situations where executives may not be fully aware of the corporate culture in mid-management requires a strategic and empathetic approach.
First, I want to have data and examples that illustrate the impact of the current culture on performance and employee satisfaction. This might include employee turnover rates, feedback from satisfaction surveys, and performance metrics like I previously mentioned. Knowing this data enables me to show how critical great culture is to business success.
Depending on the number of executives and managers, I’ll facilitate open discussions between them. These sessions are designed to bridge the gap in understanding and perceptions about the existing culture. It’s about creating a dialogue where mid-managers can express their challenges and needs, and executives can provide their strategic vision.
Based on your experience and research, can you please share “5 Ways Corporate Culture Boosts a Business’s Bottom Line?”
Corporate culture is not just about creating a pleasant workplace environment. It genuinely influences a business’s financial performance. Five ways I think culture improves the bottom line are:
1. Increased Employee Retention: A strong corporate culture reduces turnover, which can be costly for businesses. For instance, at milewalk®, we found that when employees felt aligned with the company’s culture, they were significantly less likely to leave. This alignment saved on recruitment costs and lost productivity, directly enhancing our bottom line.
2. Enhanced Brand Reputation: Companies known for a positive corporate culture attract customers and clients who appreciate and support their values. A great example is a technology company I recruited for. They were renowned for their innovative and employee-centric culture. They were voted “best-company to work for” on a number of those types of lists. Their reputation made it easier for us (and in turn them) to not only attract employees, but also customers. Easier sales and high customer loyalty contributes to greater profits.
3. Improved Employee Productivity: When employees are engaged and motivated, they perform better. One of our clients implemented regular feedback sessions and recognition programs as part of their culture, which led to a measurable increase in productivity. This boost in productivity directly translated to increased profitability through faster project completions and higher-quality outputs.
4. Innovation and Growth: A culture that encourages innovation can lead to the development of new products, services, and processes that drive business growth. For example, a startup I worked with fostered a culture of continuous improvement and experimentation, which led to the development of a groundbreaking new product that captured a new market segment, significantly impacting their revenue.
5. Attracting Top Talent: A strong culture makes a company more attractive to potential employees. In one notable case, a client was struggling to attract software engineers in a competitive market. By highlighting their collaborative and supportive work environment in their employer branding, they were able to attract and hire top talent that was crucial for their expansion plans, thereby increasing their operational capacity and revenue potential.
In what ways has focusing on Corporate Culture given your business a competitive edge?
Corporate culture to me is the key to everything. It truly does permeate through all aspects and functions within any corporation. When I think about the milewalk Academy® specifically, our culture gives us several advantages. Here are a few, most of which I’ve heard our customers attest to:
1. Talent Attraction and Retention: By cultivating a strong, positive corporate culture, we’ve been able to attract and retain top talent. Kara, my star employee who’s very visible to our clients and community, has been with me for more than 15 years. People want to work for companies where they feel valued and aligned with the values and mission.
2. Enhanced Brand Image: Our commitment to a strong corporate culture has bolstered our brand image, making us more attractive not only to potential employees but also to clients and partners. A strong, positive culture fosters goodwill and trust, which are invaluable in today’s market.
3. Increased Productivity: Employees who feel supported by their workplace culture are more engaged and productive. This increase in productivity translates into better service for our clients and more innovative solutions to the problems we tackle, driving our business success further.
4. Innovation and Adaptability: A vibrant culture encourages innovation. When employees feel they are in a supportive environment, they are more likely to take creative risks, leading to breakthrough ideas and solutions that keep us ahead of the competition.
5. Customer Satisfaction: Our internal culture reflects externally as I mentioned earlier. A happy, engaged team enhances customer interactions and satisfaction. This has led to higher customer retention rates and more referrals, which are crucial for sustained business growth.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
It would be a movement where everyone who wants to work hard would have a great job to go to every day. It is my mission. One of my social media headlines is “I make this world a better place one career at a time.” I wish I could do it faster. Creating a movement would help!
How can our readers further follow you online?
Anyone interested in following me, can head to the main website at www.milewalkacademy.com.
I’m also on all social media channels at YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter (X), Threads.
My book The Zebra Code: A Step-By-Step Guide to Mastering Career Skills That Makes You a Standout Professional is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is a mom, entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion allowed her to be one of the most acclaimed Latina CEO’s in the last 30 years. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Broadcom to bring innovative solutions to travelers and hotels around the world. Vanessa is the lead inventor on 120+ U.S. Patents. Accolades include: FAST 100, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies, Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year among others. Vanessa now spends her time sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles, speaking engagements and music. In her spare time she writes and plays music in the Amazon best selling new band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, trains dogs, and cheers on her children.
Please connect with Vanessa here on linkedin and subscribe to her newsletter Unplugged as well as follow her on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and X and of course on her website VanessaOgle.
