Aligning Career With Values

Building a strong company culture is a continuous process. It requires more than just defining values and hanging posters on the wall. It demands active participation and a genuine commitment to two-way communication. Too often, organizations fall into the trap of "top-down" culture building. Leaders dictate the values, but employees are left feeling unheard and disconnected. True culture change happens from the bottom up. Think of it like this: you can say you value transparency, but if you look down on people who speak up, your culture will be anything but transparent. Actions speak louder than words. So, how do we build cultures that truly resonate? • Involve employees in the process from the start. • Create safe spaces for open and honest feedback. • Empower individuals to contribute to shaping the culture. • Be consistent in your actions, demonstrating the values you preach. The result? A workplace where people are engaged and genuinely invested in the company's success. Yes, building a culture of trust and transparency takes time and effort. But the payoff is immense.

As a lawyer, it is essential to surround yourself with the following people: 1. Senior Lawyers with Integrity (Mentors) These are not just experienced lawyers—but principled ones. They teach you how to win with ethics, not shortcuts. They refine your courtroom strategy and judgment, and they open doors you cannot open alone. Avoid brilliant lawyers who lack integrity—they damage your name faster than they build your skill. 2. Peers Who Challenge You (Not Just Agree With You) You need colleagues who question your arguments, push you to research deeper, and compete with you in a healthy way. A circle of “yes people” will make you comfortable—but comfort kills excellence. 3. Clients Who Value Professionalism Not all clients are worth keeping. Surround yourself with clients who respect your advice, pay fairly and on time, and understand legal processes. Clients who want shortcuts, manipulation, or illegal tactics will eventually pull you into trouble. 4. Professionals Outside Law (Strategic Network) Law does not operate in isolation. Build relationships with business leaders, entrepreneurs, accountants, auditors, HR professionals, and policy makers. These connections bring you high-value work, expand your perspective beyond litigation, and position you as a solution provider—not just a lawyer. 5. People with Strong Moral Character Law is not just technical—it is deeply ethical. Keep around people who hold you accountable, live disciplined lives, and value truth and fairness. When pressure comes (and it will), your environment will determine your decisions. 6. Younger Lawyers You Mentor Mentoring others sharpens you. It forces you to think clearly, builds leadership, and strengthens your legacy. A good lawyer doesn’t just rise—they lift others while rising. 7. A Personal Support System (Family & Trusted Friends) Law can be intense. You need people who keep you grounded, remind you who you are beyond the profession, and support you during losses and pressure. Your network is your silent CV. Judges, clients, and institutions may not know everything about you—but they will judge you by who stands with you. #LegalProfession #Lawyers #Leadership #ProfessionalGrowth #LegalPractice #Ethics #Mentorship #Networking #CareerDevelopment #LawFirm #Advocacy

You don’t lose good talent to competitors - you lose them to bad culture. You can have the best talent, cutting-edge technology, and flawless strategies, but if your culture is off, everything crumbles. In fact, WTW found that culturally aligned organizations deliver 286% more value to stakeholders. Look at the stories from the top. Alex Stamos left Facebook because he couldn’t align with the company’s stance on transparency. Stefan Larsson exited Ralph Lauren after clashes with the founder stifled his modern vision. These aren’t isolated events - they are proof that cultural discord erodes trust, momentum, and results. Harvard Business Review reports that culture drives up to 50% of competitive advantage. Misalignment, on the other hand, accounts for 40% of the gap in revenue, profits, and engagement. The math is simple: if culture and strategy don’t walk hand in hand, both fall. As leaders, our responsibility is to ensure alignment - not just on paper but in practice. Here’s how we can course-correct: ✅ Audit and adapt: Continuously assess if your culture reflects the evolving goals and values. ✅ Lead with transparency: Decisions should align with the mission - and everyone needs to see that. ✅ Empower diversity: Aligning culture doesn’t mean uniformity - it’s about embracing different voices for shared goals. Misaligned culture isn’t a small misstep; it’s a ticking time bomb. It’s time we build workplaces where values guide actions, and alignment leads to sustainable success. Vivek Nath, Sambhav Rakyan and Rajul Mathur #Leadership #CultureAlignment #HRInsights #FutureOfWork #OrganizationalSuccess

How Power Actually Works in Organizations Most mid-career leaders don’t stall because they lack capability. They stall because they misread how power actually moves inside their company. For years, I watched brilliant professionals assume promotions were a reward for consistent performance. But performance isn’t the only currency that buys senior leadership roles. I’ve seen leaders who delivered flawlessly for a decade… Yet their influence inside the company barely moved an inch. Meanwhile, someone with half their experience walked into meetings they were never invited to. Why? Because performance isn’t the game. Power is. And power doesn’t flow the way HR slides claim it does in the organization charts. Here’s the truth nobody prints in the employee handbook: Careers don’t accelerate because you do more. They accelerate because more people cannot move forward without you. Because the thing that holds most mid-career leaders back isn’t performance. It’s playing the wrong game. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Here’s how power actually moves. The version people learn the hard way Power flows through three channels - simple, subtle, and brutally effective: 1️⃣ Access: Being in the room before decisions get made Early visibility into problems, priorities, and politics. You know you have access when leaders ask, “Can I get your view on this?” Access gives you influence before anything becomes official. 2️⃣ Alignment: Linking your work to what the business truly cares about Power pools around revenue, risk, cost, and talent. When your work advances those priorities, you shift from “reliable performer” to “strategic asset.” Alignment makes you indispensable to the people who steer the company. 3️⃣ Advocacy: Having someone senior bet their reputation on you This is sponsorship in its purest form. It’s a leader saying your name in rooms you’re not in, and pushing for your advancement. Advocacy turns silent supporters into career accelerators. Mid-career leaders plateau when they play the visible game of delivery and ignore the invisible game of influence. But once you understand how decisions actually get shaped… your career lifts off. Not because you changed jobs. Because you changed orbit. If you’re stuck despite strong performance, this is your turning point: Stop chasing tasks. Start channeling power. Follow me for practical strategies to become undeniable in an AI-shaped corporate world. So decision-makers can’t move forward without you.

𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐦𝐨𝐫 AI may be reshaping the architecture of work. But when disruption accelerates, the real shield isn’t technology. It’s culture. The WEF Chief People Officers Outlook (Sept 2025) points to this unmistakably: after revising structures and job design, the second most prioritized action for CPOs worldwide is strengthening workplace culture and articulating purpose. More than half of the surveyed leaders put it in their top three. Why? Because in fragmented, digitally mediated workplaces, culture and purpose are not nice to have. They are armor. Think about what’s happening in the workforce today. Employees — especially younger generations — are unapologetically selective. They are not shy about walking away from what doesn’t serve them. Rising mental health concerns, polarization of values, and digital overload have made belonging fragile. In that context, culture is no longer “the vibe” of the workplace. It’s the glue that holds performance, engagement, and resilience together. And history has already proven the point. In the darkest days of WWII, Britain’s “Keep Calm and Carry On” campaign was designed to boost morale — but it wasn’t the posters that built resilience. It was the lived culture of solidarity, rationing, and collective sacrifice that carried people through. In the 2008 recession, companies that kept purpose alive and invested in people — even modestly — bounced back stronger, with higher loyalty and faster growth. Those who only focused on cost-cutting eroded trust that still hasn’t fully recovered. Fast forward to the pandemic: we all saw which organizations had cultures of care, empathy, and adaptability — and which ones just had glossy values statements. So here’s the question for us as leaders: 👉 Is your culture a poster… or is it a practice? 👉 Does your purpose show up in how you make decisions under pressure, or just in your annual report? 👉 If employees had to define your culture in five words, would they match what’s written on the wall? Because culture isn’t tested on “values day.” It’s tested when layoffs are announced, when AI tools are rolled out, when the business is under siege. The WEF report reminds us that empowering the next generation of leaders is one of the key ways to evolve culture — because culture isn’t inherited, it’s reinterpreted every day by the people who lead. Posters on walls don’t build culture. They just decorate silence. If your culture is soft, you’re naked in the storm. #KavitaWrites #FutureFelt #FutureOfWork #CPOPerspective #PeopleStrategy #CultureAsArmor #PurposeDrivenWork #OrganizationalResilience

💡 What makes an organisation's values real? Not just the words written on a page, but the ones that guide decisions, actions, and interactions every day. Values aren’t destinations (that’s what goals are for). They’re guideposts and a shared direction. But here’s the challenge: If your values aren’t reinforced through consistent actions, they’re easy to lose sight of - and when that happens, people notice. As many of us shift into planning mode for 2025, it’s the perfect time to ask: 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴? Here’s how to bring them to life in real, tangible ways: 1️⃣ Define the behaviours. Values like collaboration sound great, but what do they actually mean? What do they look like in action? • Asking for input. • Sharing knowledge. • Working through conflict constructively. By mapping values to specific behaviours, you make them practical and actionable. 2️⃣ Build the skills. Once you’ve defined the behaviours, ask: What skills do we need to support these? For example: • Collaboration might rely on active listening, trust-building, or communication. • Innovation could need critical thinking, problem-solving, or resilience. When your team has the skills to act on your values, they’ll show up in the day-to-day. 3️⃣ Reinforce every day. Values come to life in daily work moments - in meetings, feedback, and decisions. By intentionally supporting the skills and behaviours tied to your values, you make them part of how work gets done. 👉 Values are directions, not destinations. They guide how we work and how we grow. As you set goals and priorities for 2025, how are you planning to reinforce your values? I’d love to hear some ideas. #BusinessValues #TeamDevelopment #WorkplaceLearning #PeopleAndCulture

🌱 A high performer in my team was expected to become a manager. They were technically excellent. Trusted by stakeholders. Consistently delivering impact. The obvious next step seemed to be leading people. But management is a completely different skill set from being a great specialist. Promoting top performers into management often creates unintended consequences... 🌟 You lose a brilliant expert. 👥 You gain a manager who may not actually want the role. ⚡ The team might not get the leadership it needs. 🏗️ Over time, the organisation builds the wrong capability mix. So it raises an important question... Are we promoting people into the roles they actually want, or the ones we assume they should take? Sometimes what you really need is more deep expertise, not more managers. So instead of assuming a next step, I asked them... “What does success look like for you?” The answer wasn’t management. They wanted to deepen their expertise, mentor others and lead complex initiatives without formally managing people. That conversation changed how we approached their development. As leaders, our job is to help people grow in the direction where they can create the most value and achieve the development goals that matter to them. Sometimes that’s leadership. Sometimes it’s deeper expertise. Sometimes it’s broadening experience across different challenges. All of them matter. Aligning individual growth with organisational priorities ensures people and the organisation thrive together. #Leadership #CareerDevelopment #PeopleLeadership #DataLeadership #LinkedInNewsAustralia

Authenticity is not about sharing everything. It is about choosing what matters in which environments. In high stakes legal environments, establishing a focused professional persona is an invisible skill that protects your energy and your values. Compartmentalization can actually be an empowering tool. It allows you to deliver exceptional work while keeping your personal commitments beautifully intact. Growing up, many of us are taught not to talk about certain things at work: religion, politics, money. Yet, these are often the deeper beliefs that influence how we show up in our careers. To explore this, I am launching a new series on Studying Law Around the World, featuring conversations with lawyers who bring their faith and personal convictions into their legal work. Some of the lawyers in this series work directly in areas like religious freedom and human rights. Others practice in very different fields, but are still deeply shaped by their beliefs in how they think, make decisions, and serve their clients every day. The goal of this series is simple. To create space for honest conversations about how faith, values, and law come together in real life. Not just in theory, but in the choices we make and the way we understand justice. To kick off this series, I had the absolute honor of sitting down with Professor Brett Scharffs He is a leading global scholar and the Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University. His career trajectory is nothing short of brilliant, spanning from a demanding corporate practice on Wall Street to shaping international human rights discussions at the United Nations. His wisdom on navigating the legal profession is profound. He shared how he successfully maintained his personal boundaries and faith commitments early in his career. Not by being loud about them, but by delivering exceptional work and letting his quiet authenticity set the standard for what colleagues could expect from him. He makes it beautifully clear that this quiet approach was his personal way to reconcile faith and practice. He also honored that each person must make these choices according to their own worldview. We also explored how the virtue of humility is the essential ingredient required to balance the competing legal claims of justice and mercy. Hearing a legal mind of his caliber speak so eloquently about human dignity, empathy, and quiet authenticity is a true masterclass for any lawyer trying to navigate their values in the workplace. Listen to the entire episode, "Faith on Wall Street, Compartmentalization, and Authentic Legal Practice with Brett Scharffs," wherever you get your podcasts. Please take a moment to follow or subscribe to the show on your platform of choice. Leaving a rating and review is the best way to support the podcast, helping us continue to grow and bring these invisible rules of the legal profession to more junior lawyers around the world.

New Blog Post: Ever faced a dilemma at work between sticking to your principles and being liked? In the fast-evolving fields of security, privacy, and IT, this is an everyday challenge. Inspired by the book The Courage to Be Disliked, my latest blog post delves into why making ethical decisions matters more than being popular. Key Takeaways: 1) Saying "no" can be essential to protect sensitive data and maintain efficiency. 2) Build relationships, not based on popularity, but on professional respect and integrity. 3) Balance positive interactions with a steadfast commitment to ethical standards. Staying true to your professional integrity not only safeguards your organization's interests but also earns respect and trust over time. Whether you're in a leadership position or aspiring to influence through your role, nurturing the courage to stand by your values makes all the difference. 📖 Read the full article to explore how you can apply these insights! https://lnkd.in/eAs2jvi3 Remember: True respect is built on consistent ethical choices, not fleeting popularity. Stay principled and lead with courage! #EthicalLeadership #Security #Privacy #ProfessionalIntegrity #CourageToBeDisliked

Career transitions are often talked about as a moment in time: 👉 Find the next role 👉 Start the next chapter 👉 Move on quickly But in a recent conversation with James Mcilvena on our Career Strategy Series, we unpacked something I see every day in my work; career transition is not an event, it’s a strategic process. What struck me most was our discussion around expectations. Many highly capable, experienced professionals enter transition assuming momentum should come quickly. When it doesn’t, frustration and self‑doubt can creep in, even when the strategy is sound. James made a powerful distinction between being active and being effective. Activity can look impressive: • Applying widely • Taking every meeting • Rushing decisions to regain certainty Effectiveness, on the other hand, often requires: • Pausing to properly assess options • Understanding where true value sits • Being intentional rather than reactive This is especially relevant in today’s market, where we’re seeing a clear shift away from traditional “placement‑led” thinking toward branding, positioning, and alignment. We also explored how this shift shows up in interviews. Rather than defaulting to a hard “sales” approach, the most impactful conversations feel more like alignment discussions, where context, impact, and change leadership matter as much as technical capability. Decision‑makers listen closely for: • How someone has navigated change • The impact they created, not just what they delivered • Whether they bring clarity and steadiness during uncertainty One simple but often overlooked differentiator? Follow‑up. Tracking commitments, closing loops, and following up thoughtfully builds trust and trust is a critical currency in uncertain times. We finished the conversation by zooming back out and looking at the bigger picture. Career transitions look different for everyone. Timelines and pressures vary. But the constants remain the same: ✅ Clarity about value ✅ Consistency in action ✅ Connection with people and purpose Whether you’re supporting people through transition, leading teams through change, or navigating one yourself, this conversation is a reminder that the most sustainable career moves are rarely rushed. They’re considered. 🎧 The full episode of the Career Strategy Series is now LIVE and the link is in the comments below 👇👇👇 It's our hope that this conversation sparks some thoughtful reflection, wherever you are in your career journey ✨ #CorporateMatchmaker #CareerMobility