This highlight video is from October 17, 2025 session Building Capability to Support a High Performing Culture

This interactive discussion reminded us that culture doesn’t live in a handbook — it lives in how people lead, connect, and perform every day.

“Everyone is a leader—it’s not a title. It’s how we behave every day to drive performance and culture.”
— Melissa Versino, Zurich North America

Melissa and her team at Zurich reframed leadership as a shared behavior, not a role. Their Manager Essentials journey moved beyond traditional training to build a manager core that actively drives performance — blending mindset, feedback, and ownership with the practical use of AI-enabled coaching.

The message was clear: culture is everyone’s job, but managers set the tone. They are the engine of both accountability and belonging.

Michael Kester of Lead Belay added another critical layer:

“When a team has psychological safety, clear communication, and alignment, they’re going to be unstoppable.”

It’s a reminder that sustainable performance isn’t built on productivity alone — it thrives when people feel safe enough to be honest, aligned enough to move fast, and supported enough to learn through the messy parts.

And as Ana Bedard reflected,

“High-performance cultures happen when everyone takes radical ownership—no one says, ‘that’s someone else’s problem.”

That mindset of shared ownership may be the real differentiator between high-performing teams and simply busy ones.

Together, these insights challenge us to look beyond “training programs” and toward capability ecosystems that connect leadership, culture, and practice — from onboarding to executive learning.

Because when everyone leads, teams align, and ownership takes root… culture stops being a slogan and starts becoming a system.

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🔑 Key Takeaways

1. Culture must be defined—and felt.
   It’s not a value statement but an emotional experience that leaders shape daily through behavior and connection.

2. Managers are the engine of performance.
   Zurich redefined management as core work, not “extra” work — giving leaders confidence to lead people first.

3. Mindset change precedes skill change.
   Shifting from risk avoidance to results orientation requires rewiring habits, not just adding content.

4. Practice makes culture real.
   AI feedback role-play and peer circles help translate leadership concepts into daily behaviors.

5. Shared ownership drives scale.
   Culture grows when leaders, managers, and employees each take responsibility for driving performance.

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🧩 Practical Actions for Talent Development Leaders

1. Redefine leadership as a shared responsibility.
   Embed “everyone is a leader” expectations into hiring, onboarding, and performance systems.

2. Equip managers to act as capability builders.
   Blend human coaching with AI-enabled practice for feedback, prioritization, and decision-making.

3. Localize learning without losing alignment.
   Partner with business units to tailor examples and scenarios that reflect their real-world challenges.

4. Close the knowing–doing gap.
   Move beyond theory by building practice loops into your leadership programs.

5. Measure what matters.
   Track not only participation and NPS but also behavioral shifts that indicate cultural traction.

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💬 Continue the Conversation

High performance isn’t built in classrooms — it’s cultivated in community.
Start the discussion in the ELE Idea Exchange to continue the conversation explore how organizations are reshaping leadership capability, culture, and performance together.