Leanne Hamley - The Golden Thread: How consistent culture creates purposeful people and high performance

If youre considering whether cultural development needs to be part of your business strategy you need this book. Not only will it give you compelling reasons why culture matters, it will ask you the deeper questions about the actions you take and how you want to be known as an employer. This practical toolkit will help you build a better future for your business and your employees.

Lucy Adams, CEO Disruptive HR

Culture is the golden thread that weaves customer expectations into employee actions. Leanne offers thoughtful insights and relevant tools to create the right culture so that employees can better fulfil their potential. Any leader embarking on a culture journey can use the ideas in this book as a blueprint for action.

Dave Ulrich Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business,
University of Michigan Partner, The RBL Group

The Golden Thread challenges the reader to think carefully about how to create the target culture for their organization and provides practical steps on creating and embedding culture to build solid business success. A light-hearted, quick read on a topic highly relevant to business today.

Lara Spencer Formerly at DHL VP Human Resources

Packed with both theory and practical insight, there are so many thought starters in this book that no matter where you stand on your company culture, there will be relevant areas that youll want to take action on and your head will be buzzing with the potential for more! Be prepared for a whole raft of questions that will help you uncover and creatively develop the culture in your business right from the very first chapter.

Nikki Gatenby Founder, NED; Coach Author of the bestseller Superengaged

Culture and the principles shared within this book resonate across all industries including the sporting world. Time and effort spent shaping the culture of teams can be the difference between winning and losing. Leanne captures a full range of considerations and tools that can be put into action to support the development and ambition of any team.

Paul Telfer Ex Premier League footballer Coventry City, Southampton and Celtic

A thought-provoking journey that challenges the reader to think again about what they know and understand about culture development. Whether public or private sector, there is a vast amount to learn from the golden thread that runs through this book.

On a personal note, when leading large teams through complex, protracted, often traumatic investigations into serious crime, the approach I have learnt from The Golden Thread will pay dividends for my teams. It provides subtle yet vitally important considerations that underpin any teams objectives.

Steve Taylor Detective Chief Superintendent (retired)

The right culture in your business is key to meeting customer expectations and also helping employees achieve their full potential. The Golden Thread gives practical examples of how to best assess your culture and also how to improve it to better achieve your goals. Extremely well written, and having worked with Leanne for a number of years, I can verify that The Golden Thread encompasses her own beliefs and culture philosophy completely.

Mike Dunn Retired Vice President logistics industry

Building an effective culture is a leaders most critical and challenging task. The Golden Thread de-bunks the myths and provides a clear roadmap for how you can build and sustain a culture that will ensure your teams stay ahead of the competition.

Chris Hirst Global CEO, Creative Havas

There are a lot of business growth and leadership books in the marketplace that cover a wide range of subjects. The Golden Thread focuses in on what is for me the most crucial area of business and leadership, culture! Leanne not only gives you a forensic-like analysis of the key areas of success and failure; she also provides the knowledge, behaviours and tools to move you forward in your pursuit of developing a high-performance culture within your organization. Not only will this book support the growth of your business; it will allow you to give it a heartbeat.

Luke Hall Managing Director, PTI Worldwide Limited

Culture is a topic that is often talked about but poorly defined and executed. The Golden Thread helps demystify organizational culture and provides some simple, practical but highly effective examples of how to identify, assess and develop your desired culture. The book walks you through the steps to take in a way that enables you to take action immediately and start your journey to the culture you desire. A great guide to help you achieve your goals, how you want to achieve them.

Andrew Gibb, COO Healthcare

First published in Great Britain by Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2021

Leanne Hamley, 2021

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

ISBN 9781788602662 (print)

9781788602655 (epub)

9781788602648 (mobi)

All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

Contents

Foreword

Business leaders have a responsibility to purposefully design and consistently live their culture fact! It cannot be left to chance: the repercussions of a toxic and damaging culture are catastrophic to employees, customer experience, public perception and quite frankly bottom-line profitability.

The Golden Thread unpacks the science behind great organizational cultures; it shuns theory in favour of real, evidence-based tools, practices and metrics that once implemented will deliver results. Leannes career working for organizations of varying industries and size allow her to highlight the key challenges and opportunities as seen with her own eyes, from the front line to the board room. Her knowledge of the elements that organizations who get it right live and breathe every day shine through this book on each and every page.

Depending on where you are at currently with your organizational culture, it can feel an insurmountable task to take on. Fear not! Leanne expertly holds your hand while navigating every twist and turn of your cultural strategy. Breaking it down into bite-size manageable actions, Leanne provides a practical blueprint for you to follow. Her passion for great organizational culture is palpable and its her pull-no-punches style of writing that is refreshingly challenging and thought provoking. While written with a huge dose of humour, the message is not lost; this is a real problem for many organizations and Leanne does not sugar coat any of it.