It’s one thing to declare, “We care about our people.” It’s entirely different to prove it in messy, unscripted moments, especially when no one is watching.
Too often, corporate messaging about empathy and respect falters under pressure. We proclaim well-being, then demand overtime. We champion inclusion, then maintain biased systems. We insist on dignity, then terminate employees over Zoom. This disconnect, which I call corporate message incongruency, erodes trust, corrodes culture, and ultimately undermines everyone’s performance.
The Cost of Incongruency
When organizations fail to live up to their own rhetoric, employees notice, and they don’t stay quiet about it. A 2024 study found that perceiving corporate hypocrisy (characterized by gaps between stated values and actual behavior) is strongly linked to increased employee cynicism, disengagement, and a higher risk of turnover. Meanwhile, only 23% of workers worldwide are engaged in their work, according to Gallup—meaning the vast majority are either emotionally detached or actively disengaged.
Executives often overestimate their impact. In its 2024 Well-Being at Work Survey conducted in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia, Deloitte found that 90% of executives believe working for their company “has a positive effect on worker well-being, skills development, career advancement, inclusion and belonging, and [employees’] sense of purpose and meaning.” At the same time, just 60% (or fewer) of workers agree, according to the survey.
That gap isn’t just a miscommunication; it’s a structural signal. And when leaders default to convenience over care in high-stakes moments, the message reverberates far beyond a single event.
Consider the now-infamous 2021 Zoom layoffs at Better.com, where 900 employees were let go in a terse three-minute video. The backlash was swift and severe, spotlighting a painful truth: When corporate actions contradict their stated values, their reputation takes a hit.
There Doesn’t Have to Be a Disconnect
Most misalignment stems from good intentions, not malice. But business values must be lived in practice, not just in glossy branding. And regardless of your role—whether you’re a CEO, director, manager, or individual contributor—you have the power to bridge the gap.
1. Audit intent versus impact. Start with brutal honesty. Map your organization’s stated values against real moments where behaviors diverge—vacation policies that go unused, diversity statements that don’t reflect candidate slates. In my leadership sessions, consistently mapping these dissonances reveals opportunities to realign, rather than rebrand. Invite feedback from across levels and treat misalignment not as a failure, but as data.
2. Lead with ritual integrity. Values don’t stick—they ritualize. Meaningful, small-scale rituals reinforce intent: a weekly check-in circle to honor well-being, “no-meeting” afternoons to protect focus, transparent sharing of equity data even when it stings. Culture is less magic and more habit. These rituals become touchpoints for trust and vehicles for transformation.
3. Embed accountability. Accountability is the bridge from talk to trust. Expand success metrics to include psychological safety, sense of belonging, and alignment of personal narratives, a practice I call story audits. Nearly 85% of large U.S. employers offer workplace wellness programs; despite this, anticipated improvements in well-being are not being realized, indicating a mismatch between investment and outcomes. Measuring the invisible matters because it makes visible what is valued. This grassroots approach doesn’t just uncover pain points; it creates buy-in and shared ownership for change.
4. Empower action at all levels. Aligned culture isn’t a top-down decree; it’s a distributed commitment. Empower “alignment champions” across departments. At one biotech firm I advised, peer-led story circles uncovered voice imbalances more effectively than any digital survey and enabled real-time corrections.
5. Normalize vulnerability and repair. Inevitably, we slip. The question isn’t whether it happens, but what happens next. Acknowledge missteps publicly. Leaders who say “I was wrong” often deepen trust more than those who avoid the subject. Vulnerability is strength, not weakness. Repair strengthens culture when it’s visible and sincere.
Cultural congruence isn’t a quarterly campaign; it’s a daily practice. Every decision, conversation, and interaction carries a message.
When we treat values as design principles rather than billboards, we build systems that reinforce them. Words shape our intentions, but actions shape our outcomes. Try this in your next meeting: Ask, “Where are we out of sync, and what might it take to realign?” It’s a simple question, but it signals a profound commitment. When organizations align their words with their actions, they do more than retain loyalty. They earn trust.
