Culture Eats Everything
On this episode of the HeadSmack Podcast, host Paul Povolni sits down with Thomas Willis—CEO, culture consultant, former teacher, and author of The Great Engagement. With a background that spans Intel, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Cornerstone, Thomas brings a rare blend of leadership insight, lifelong learning, and faith-based perspective to the conversation about how culture shapes everything inside an organization.
From the Wheelbarrow to the Boardroom
Thomas’s story starts with resilience—breaking his leg at two years old and being pushed around in a wheelbarrow by his brothers. Growing up middle class in Michigan with entrepreneurial parents, he learned early lessons in grit, support, and gratitude. His father’s unseen supporters—like an aunt who secretly backed a loan—instilled in him the importance of “invisible forces” helping us grow.
Today, Thomas uses these lessons to help leaders create cultures where everyone can uncover their potential.
Why Culture Isn’t Just Important—It’s Everything
Borrowing from Peter Drucker’s famous quote—Culture eats strategy for breakfast—Thomas takes it further: Culture eats everything for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
He stresses that most businesses don’t intentionally design their culture—they simply allow one to form. Often, that leads to disengagement: 70% of employees, according to Gallup, are checked out at work.
If you want performance, loyalty, and innovation, Thomas argues, focus on culture first—before strategy, technology, or even operations.
Seeing the Invisible: How to Diagnose a Culture
Thomas describes culture as largely invisible—like an iceberg where most of the mass lies below the surface. Leaders must tune into this “invisible classroom” by practicing radical awareness.
When entering a company or school, he says he can “almost taste the culture” within seconds. Signs of an unhealthy culture include:
- Fear of leadership
- Gossip and drama
- Lack of clear communication
- Disengagement and “quiet quitting”
In contrast, healthy cultures feel open, collaborative, and mission-driven.
Leadership, Management, and Coaching: Different Tools, Different Jobs
Thomas breaks down the roles leaders must understand:
- Leadership: Painting a compelling future others want to follow (like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”).
- Management: Making clear, mutual agreements and maintaining accountability (focused on managing agreements, not people).
- Coaching: Helping people bridge the gap between where they are and where they need to be—but only when coaching is invited, not imposed.
Using the wrong tool—like trying to manage when you should be coaching—leads to frustration and failure.
Common Cultural Mindsets That Sabotage Success
Through his proprietary Elevate Coaching System, Thomas identifies 12 “cultural mindsets” that either nurture or destroy organizational health. One major culprit? Avoidance.
Avoiding hard conversations leads to gossip, resentment, and a toxic spiral. Leaders must surface uncomfortable truths and build relationships founded on trust and transparency.
How COVID Changed Culture Forever
Remote work has made culture harder—but not impossible—to nurture. Thomas emphasizes that the key is intentional leadership: daily reminders of mission, radical transparency, and fostering deep, authentic human connection across distance.
Radical Acceptance and Resilience
Toward the end of the conversation, Thomas shares the idea of radical acceptance as a personal leadership tool: accepting life’s challenges not with resignation, but with belief that every setback can lead to unexpected growth.
His own example—losing a publishing partner days before launching his book—turned into a blessing when greater opportunities emerged.
Final Takeaway: Culture Starts With You
Thomas’s message is clear: you can’t enforce a healthy culture—you have to be the healthy culture.
If you’re a leader who wants to climb higher—not just in profits but in purpose—this episode and Thomas’s book, The Great Engagement, offer a roadmap for transforming your organization from the inside out.
Your culture already exists. The question is: are you cultivating weeds or fruit?
