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The Overlooked Productivity Killer in the Office: Noise

July 27, 2026 by Ananth

July 27, 2026

The Overlooked Productivity Killer in the Office: Noise

By Todd Marshall, CEO, Versare

As organizations continue to refine their workplace strategies, conversations about productivity often center on technology, leadership, employee engagement, and flexible work policies. While these factors certainly influence performance, one workplace issue is frequently underestimated despite affecting employees every day: noise.

The modern office is expected to support many different types of work at once, often within the same shared environment. While open layouts encourage communication and teamwork, they also create a level of background noise that can make sustained concentration increasingly difficult, especially during video calls and focused work.

For HR professionals, workplace noise is more than a facilities concern. It directly influences employee productivity, cognitive performance, workplace satisfaction, and even overall well-being. As organizations look for ways to create healthier and more effective work environments, acoustic comfort deserves a place in the conversation.

Not all workplace distractions are created equal. Interruptions such as emails or instant messages are visible and easy to recognize, while background conversations are often treated as simply part of office life. Yet surrounding speech is especially difficult to ignore. Even when employees are not actively listening, the brain continues processing nearby voices, making it harder to concentrate on mentally demanding tasks.

Knowledge workers spend much of their day solving problems, analyzing information, writing reports, developing strategies, or making decisions. These activities require sustained attention. Each nearby conversation or loud meeting across the room creates another interruption, pulling employees away from deep work.

The challenge isn’t simply the brief moment lost to a distraction. Regaining focus can take much longer, creating a cumulative effect throughout the workday. Multiple small interruptions can leave employees feeling mentally exhausted while accomplishing less than they intended.

Over time, excessive workplace noise contributes to frustration, increased stress, lower engagement, and reduced team efficiency.

Hybrid work has changed the rhythm of the office. Rather than rows of employees quietly working at individual desks, today’s workplace often functions as a hub for collaboration. Employees come into the office specifically to attend meetings, brainstorm with teammates, and connect with colleagues. At the same time, many meetings now include remote participants.

It’s now common to see several employees participating in video calls from the same open workspace. Nearby teams may be holding impromptu discussions while others conduct client presentations or training sessions. The result is an environment where multiple conversations overlap throughout the day.

Ironically, efforts to encourage collaboration can also create distractions and undermine productivity for everyone sharing the space. This doesn’t mean collaboration is the problem. Rather, it highlights the importance of designing workplaces that support different types of work instead of expecting one environment to serve every purpose equally well.

One of the biggest misconceptions about office design is the assumption all employees work under the same conditions. In reality, employees shift between different modes of work throughout the day.

They may spend one hour collaborating on a project, another preparing financial analyses, followed by a performance review with a direct report or a virtual presentation with clients. Each activity requires a different level of privacy, concentration, and interaction.

A workplace optimized exclusively for collaboration can make focused work difficult. Likewise, an office designed only for quiet individual work may discourage teamwork and spontaneous problem-solving.

Instead of viewing workplace design as an either-or decision, organizations should consider how different environments support different activities. Quiet areas for focused work, collaborative spaces for team discussions, and semi-private areas for virtual meetings can coexist within the same office. Providing employees with choices allows them to select the environment best suited to the task at hand.

The conversation around workplace noise often focuses on productivity, but employee well-being is equally important. Constant background noise contributes to cognitive fatigue because employees must continuously filter out competing sounds while trying to focus. By the end of the day, this ongoing mental effort can leave employees feeling drained, even if they haven’t completed physically demanding work.

Persistent distractions may also increase stress levels. Employees who struggle to find quiet places for concentrated work often compensate by arriving early, staying late, or taking work home to complete tasks requiring uninterrupted attention. Over time, these patterns can contribute to fatigue and disengagement.

Creating work environments that support concentration demonstrates respect for employees’ time and mental energy. It signals that organizations recognize productivity is not just about asking people to work harder, but about creating the conditions people need to perform at their best.

Improving workplace acoustics doesn’t always require major renovations or expensive redesigns. Many organizations can make meaningful improvements by evaluating how existing spaces are used and making thoughtful adjustments.

For example, creating designated quiet zones allows employees to complete focused work without constant interruptions. Reserving certain spaces for phone calls and virtual meetings helps reduce overlapping conversations in shared work areas. Adding sound-absorbing materials—such as acoustic ceiling panels, wall treatments, rugs, upholstered furniture, or other finishes—can reduce echoes and improve overall sound quality throughout the office.

Flexible dividers and movable partitions can also help separate collaborative spaces from quieter work areas without permanently changing the office layout. These solutions can create acoustic zones, giving employees clearer choices about where to take calls, collaborate, or focus. Because workplace needs continue to evolve, adaptable solutions often provide greater long-term flexibility than fixed construction.

Before making changes, organizations should first identify where noise is creating the greatest disruption. Look for areas where noise levels fluctuate throughout the day or where team movement and conversations frequently overlap. This assessment can help determine whether the best response is a change in space usage, furnishings, or physical separation.

Although workplace design is often associated with facilities or real estate teams, HR leaders have valuable insight into how office environments affect employees. HR professionals regularly gather employee feedback, monitor engagement, oversee workplace policies, and help shape organizational culture. This broader perspective makes HR well-positioned to identify when physical workspace challenges are affecting morale or productivity.

Employee surveys and workplace observations can reveal recurring concerns about ongoing distractions or difficulty concentrating in open workspaces. Including questions about the physical work environment alongside engagement initiatives provides organizations with a more complete understanding of the employee experience.

Cross-functional collaboration between HR, facilities, and leadership teams can help ensure workplace decisions reflect both operational goals and employee needs.

The future of work isn’t about choosing between open offices and private offices. It’s about creating workplaces designed to support the different kinds of work employees move through each day.

Collaboration remains essential for innovation, relationship building, and organizational culture. Equally important, however, is providing opportunities for uninterrupted focus when employees need to think deeply, solve complex problems, or complete important projects. Organizations that intentionally balance these needs create environments where employees can do both effectively.

As companies continue investing in employee experience, acoustic comfort should be viewed as part of a broader workplace strategy rather than an afterthought. A thoughtfully designed office makes room for communication, concentration, and teamwork without allowing one to undermine the others.

Noise is not just a background issue. It shapes how employees focus, collaborate, and experience the workplace each day. For organizations focused on productivity and well-being, acoustic comfort is a practical investment in people. When the office supports both connection and concentration, productivity becomes less about pushing through distractions and more about giving employees the environment they need to succeed.

About the Author

Todd Marshall is the CEO of Versare, where he leads the company’s growth in flexible, design-forward space solutions for workplaces, schools, commercial environments, and more. With a background spanning McKinsey & Company, Target, Patterson Companies, and Shutterfly’s Lifetouch division, he brings deep expertise in scaling operations and translating customer needs into practical, high-impact design solutions. At Versare, Todd focuses on helping organizations adapt spaces quickly without costly renovations by using flexible walls, room dividers, and other reconfigurable solutions. He is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Reimagining Talent: Transforming Workforces for a Dynamic World

July 24, 2026 by HRSAdmin

July 24, 2026

Reimagining Talent: Transforming Workforces for a Dynamic World

How shifting to skills-based models and fluid structures enables organizations to thrive amid uncertainty and a shrinking talent pool.

By Joe Sagrilla

For decades, large organizations have been trapped in a destructive antipattern: swelling staff during economic upswings only to resort to mass layoffs—sometimes in the thousands—when downturns hit. This boom-and-bust cycle is not merely a symptom of economic volatility but a consequence of outdated organizational design. Static roles, rigid hierarchies, and a lack of visibility into workforce capacity create inefficiencies that harm companies, shareholders, and employees alike. As technological and geopolitical disruptions reshape the global business landscape and a new generation of talent faces unique challenges, organizations must act decisively to break this cycle. By transitioning to skills-based models, rethinking organizational structures, and fostering outcome-driven cultures, companies can build resilient, agile workforces capable of thriving in an era of constant change

Traditional organizational models, defined by fixed roles and rigid hierarchies, are ill-suited for today’s dynamic business environment. Employees are hired to fill specific roles, often sized for peak workloads—such as during annual budgeting cycles, when resource demands spike across departments. Yet, these peaks are temporary, and average workloads are often significantly lower. This mismatch leads to overstaffing, with some estimates suggesting that administrative roles in US companies are overstaffed by as much as 30%. During lulls, employees may engage in “make-work” projects to maintain the appearance of busyness, obscuring excess capacity from executive leadership. The result is a toxic cycle: overstaffing during good times, followed by abrupt, large-scale layoffs when economic pressures mount. This approach erodes trust, disrupts continuity, and undermines long-term performance.

Two converging forces amplify the urgency to rethink workforce strategies: a shrinking, less experienced talent pool and accelerating disruption.

NextGen Talent Challenges

The incoming generation of workers is smaller than its predecessors, with fewer individuals available to replace retiring baby boomers, who are exiting the workforce with decades of critical experience. Compounding this, the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted educational and early-career opportunities for younger workers. Many were unable to gain critical experience as baby boomers delayed retirement to rebuild depleted savings. Additionally, the rise of hybrid work environments has hindered the development of essential soft skills—collaboration, communication, and relationship-building—further limiting the readiness of emerging talent.

Disruptive Forces

Technological advancements, particularly in artificial intelligence (AI), are fundamentally reshaping the skills organizations require. AI is not only transforming how work is executed but also redefining the organizational capabilities needed to remain competitive. Simultaneously, geopolitical instability—evidenced by tariffs, supply chain challenges, and currency fluctuations—signals the start of a decades-long cycle of disruption. Organizations need agile, skilled employees capable of navigating these complexities with precision and foresight.

To break the boom-and-bust cycle and prepare for an era of disruption, organizations must adopt a forward-looking approach to talent and structure. Three imperatives stand out.

1. Transition to a Skills-Based Talent Model

The traditional role-based model locks employees into rigid job descriptions, limiting adaptability. A skills-based approach, by contrast, focuses on the competencies needed to address a spectrum of business challenges. Research indicates that 55% of organizations worldwide have already begun transitioning to skills-based talent models, with an additional 23% planning to start in 2025. Moreover, 81% of leaders agree that this shift drives economic growth by enhancing productivity, innovation, and agility. As of 2023, 70% of companies have adopted skills-based hiring methods, signaling a broader trend toward flexibility.

To operationalize this shift, organizations must invest in robust management systems for skill development. Self-service training platforms, flexible budgets for employee-driven learning, and results-focused mentorship programs can empower workers to acquire and refine skills as needs evolve. By prioritizing skills over roles, companies can better align talent with strategic priorities, reducing the risk of overstaffing and enabling rapid redeployment when disruption inevitably occurs.

2. Rethink the Organizational Chart

Static organizational charts, with their fixed roles and reporting lines, are relics of a less dynamic era. Organizations must reimagine their structures as fluid ecosystems of projects, where resources are allocated dynamically based on issues or opportunities. This requires identifying the skillsets needed for each initiative and establishing governance processes to reconfigure resources efficiently. To signal a commitment to leveraging breakthrough technologies, AI should be explicitly integrated into the resource pool or organizational chart—not as a peripheral tool but as a core enabler of operations.

Additionally, organizations must mature their approaches to sourcing external talent. Stronger partnerships with large consulting firms for major projects, combined with the ability to integrate solo advisors or specialized consultants into project teams, can address hard-to-fill skill gaps effectively without permanent headcount increases. Leading firms will configure teams to ensure internal employees learn directly from outside advisors, unlocking talent development value alongside expert advice and execution support.

3. Underpin with a Results-Driven Culture

A skills-based model and dynamic organizational chart will require a profound cultural shift in many organizations. Too often, managers prioritize inputs or the appearance of “busyness” over measurable outcomes. Leaders must refocus on business results, dismantling fiefdoms and territorial behaviors that hoard resources. A culture of collaboration, where skillsets are fluidly reconfigured to meet project needs, is essential. A shared foundation of beliefs and values enables employees to rapidly coalesce into new teams and collaborate effectively, delivering results through membership in multiple teams throughout the year. This cultural transformation is perhaps the most challenging imperative. It requires leaders to model accountability, reward outcomes over activity, and foster an environment where adaptability and collaboration are non-negotiable. Only then can organizations fully realize the benefits of a skills-based, project-driven model.

Organizations face a critical juncture: they must rethink talent strategies to navigate a one-two punch of retiring baby boomers and a smaller, less skilled younger workforce unprepared to fill the gap under outdated organizational models. The boom-and-bust cycle of hiring and layoffs is merely a symptom of organizational designs that have not evolved to match the dynamism of today’s business environment. By shifting to skills-based models, companies gain the flexibility to build evergreen skills that remain relevant amid severe, discontinuous disruptions, unlike role-specific skills that are vulnerable to rapid obsolescence. Streamlined talent models that leverage outside advisors not only enable dynamic project execution but also upskill internal resources through collaborative learning, maximizing long-term value. This transformation positions organizations to turn talent scarcity and disruption into opportunities for innovation and sustained competitive advantage.

About the Author

Joe Sagrilla is an independent management consultant and business advisor, top business school faculty, board member, writer, and speaker. His specialties include business strategy, transformation, technology, process improvement, and organizational performance. He currently lives in Austin, TX.

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4 Leadership Lessons From Unexpected Industries That HR Teams Can Apply Today

May 13, 2026 by HRSAdmin

May 13, 2026

4 Leadership Lessons From Unexpected Industries That HR Teams Can Apply Today

Strong people management is not limited to one sector. In fact, some of the best hiring, retention, and leadership lessons come from industries that operate under completely different pressures. Whether it’s staffing private family offices, navigating volatile energy markets, managing wellness brands, or helping families make life-changing housing decisions, every business faces the same challenge: building trust with people.

For HR professionals, there’s value in looking outside the traditional corporate playbook. The following insights from leaders across four very different industries reveal practical lessons that apply to hiring, culture, communication, and long-term employee engagement.

Stéphanie Benouari, Founder of Heritage Staffing, says many companies underestimate how much emotional intelligence matters during hiring.

“In family office recruitment, technical ability only gets someone through the first conversation. What determines long-term success is discretion, adaptability, and trustworthiness. Families are inviting someone into highly personal environments, so chemistry and judgment matter just as much as experience on paper.

I think HR teams across every industry can learn from that. Too many organizations still hire primarily based on résumés and keywords. The problem is that skills can often be taught, while attitude and emotional maturity are much harder to develop later.

The strongest hires are usually the people who can navigate ambiguity, communicate calmly under pressure, and make others feel comfortable. Those qualities improve collaboration, reduce turnover, and strengthen culture over time. Companies that prioritize human compatibility during recruitment tend to build far more resilient teams.”

Her perspective reflects a growing shift in HR toward values-based hiring, particularly as businesses place greater emphasis on culture fit and retention.

Adam Cain, VP of Marketing at ElectricityRates.com, believes one of the most overlooked leadership skills is communication during unpredictable periods.

“The energy industry changes constantly. Prices fluctuate, regulations shift, and consumer behavior evolves quickly. During uncertain periods, employees don’t expect leaders to have every answer immediately. What they do expect is transparency.

One mistake companies make is waiting until they have a perfect solution before communicating with their teams. In reality, silence creates anxiety. Employees fill information gaps with assumptions, and morale starts to decline.

The leaders who earn trust are the ones who communicate early and consistently, even if the message is simply, ‘Here’s what we know right now.’ HR departments play a major role in creating that stability because they help shape how information flows throughout the organization.

When employees feel informed, they stay more engaged and adaptable, even during challenging business conditions.”

For HR professionals managing hybrid teams, restructuring, or rapid growth, clear communication remains one of the most effective tools for maintaining trust.

Paul DiBrito, CEO of Kats Botanicals, says many businesses misunderstand what actually creates a strong workplace culture.

“A lot of companies focus on surface-level perks because they’re visible and easy to market. Free lunches, office events, and casual Fridays are fine, but they don’t create loyalty on their own.

Employees pay closer attention to consistency. They notice whether leadership follows through on promises, whether managers treat people fairly, and whether expectations stay consistent across the company.

In wellness-focused businesses especially, people can tell when a company’s internal culture doesn’t match its external messaging. That disconnect hurts trust very quickly.

The organizations that retain great employees usually have cultures built on reliability.

Employees want to know where they stand, what success looks like, and whether leadership genuinely supports them during stressful periods. Small daily behaviors from management matter far more than occasional perks.”

His insight highlights a growing trend in HR toward authenticity and operational consistency as core drivers of retention.

Wendy Porter, CEO of New Home Atlanta, says empathy has become one of the most important leadership qualities in today’s workforce.

“Buying a home is one of the most emotional decisions people make. Our team works with clients who are excited, overwhelmed, stressed, and hopeful, sometimes all within the same conversation. That environment teaches you very quickly that listening matters more than talking.

The same principle applies internally with employees. People want to feel understood before they’re expected to perform at their best. Managers who listen carefully tend to build stronger, more motivated teams because employees feel respected rather than managed.

Empathy also improves retention because people are more likely to stay in workplaces where they feel psychologically safe. Employees remember how leaders respond during difficult moments, not just when things are going smoothly.

HR teams that encourage empathetic leadership often create cultures where communication improves naturally and workplace conflict decreases over time.”

Across industries, one lesson becomes clear: effective leadership always comes back to people. Regardless of the business model, organizations that prioritize trust, communication, consistency, and empathy are far more likely to build teams that thrive long term.

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How to Avoid the Most Preventable Form of Employee Turnover

May 6, 2026 by HRSAdmin

May 06, 2026

How to Avoid the Most Preventable Form of Employee Turnover

Clark A. Ingram, Founder and President, People Profits, LLC

Finding the right people committed to staying with your organization starts with making sure that you and the job applicant are on the same page.

Many times, while working with an organization, I see employees who should never have been hired. Often it’s due to either the organization not identifying in detail their target candidate criteria or making unwise exceptions to their criteria. The excuse is always the same: “We need bodies — now.”

Job candidates make it even worse when they don’t have their own criteria for what they’re looking for in an employer. They say: “I need a job — now.”

It’s only a matter of time before the employee decides to move on or the organization decides they “don’t fit in.”

This is amazing to me. They decide six months later that the employee doesn’t fit in? The organization should have known back when they reviewed the candidate’s application or during the interview that the person didn’t meet their criteria. Both the organization and the employee are hurt for the same reason — trading a short-term problem for a long-term one — and they’ve wasted a lot of each other’s time.

In these cases, the organization has done a disservice to the employee by hiring them with a very real chance they won’t fit in. They’ve also damaged their organization by setting up a future problem that will need to be resolved.

Here are the real questions organizations need to address: What do our ideal candidates look like and how can we find them? Think of that old cliché that you can’t hit a target you can’t see.

Finding quality people becomes a lot easier once you’ve identified your candidate criteria in detail. Then it’s a matter of finding the appropriate sources and determining how to get their attention.

One company I knew of hired every Machinist Mate out of the Navy they could get their hands on. The reason was simple: given the skills those employees had obtained in the Navy, they already had most of the capabilities needed for the job when they started. They also had a work ethic and were revenue positive much quicker than other candidates.

On the flip side, what about the candidates’ criteria? What are they looking for? Not knowing is a related root cause to employee turnover.

Many candidates are looking for a “good job.” What does that mean? For that individual, it can mean many different things. The more information you can provide about your organization, the more the candidate can reflect. “Is what you’re hearing sound like something you want to do?” “Does the culture and environment feel comfortable?” Clarifying these aspects up front will help them think through what they’re looking for.

You should also look hard at their resumes and their answers to your questions. They may be giving you indirect clues as to what they’re after. If you get the feeling the candidate is just after a job, move on.

It’s much more prevalent now for people to try a job and then decide whether to jump. This means you must get them to see why they should stay.

On the other hand, the better candidates are looking at how they’ll fit in, grow, and be challenged in the future. They’re looking for a “value path” showing them how they can bring value to the organization and how their increased value is rewarded. Good employees expect the organization to articulate and then provide this path.

Many companies struggle with establishing how employees will be challenged beyond what they were hired for originally. Employees want a clearly defined, well-thought-out path, in writing — including the training, experience, and accomplishment standards for success. When your organization has this as a recruiting tool, you’re able to recruit, hire, and retain the type of employees you want and need.

This fundamental truth regarding good and unsuitable employees affects your employee turnover in so many ways. So how do you maximize the good and minimize the bad?

Be able to spot the differences before the time of hire.

Fully understand the multilevel cost of bad employees.

Know your organizational opportunities and sell them to candidates.

Recognize that hiring just to provide warm bodies is always detrimental in the long run.

Prevent employee turnover and gain control of your hiring process by clearly showing who you are. Be able to read between the lines of a resume and discover who candidates really are. Develop value paths to instantly show your candidates the opportunities available. Employing these strategies, you’ll begin to pull in who you need and fend off who you don’t.

About the Author

Clark A. Ingram is the Founder and President of People Profits, LLC, which focuses on the three greatest human capital problems affecting organizations: employee turnover, chronically open positions, and skills gap. He consults with a spectrum of companies and has consistently reduced turnover by more than 40 percent in the first year and achieved staffing at more than 90 percent. His new book is Churn: Proven Strategies to Overcome Failing Conventional Talent Management and Achieve Zero Turnover (People Profits, March 26, 2026). Learn more at peopleprofits.com.

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3 Myths That Will Derail Your Change Initiative

May 4, 2026 by HRSAdmin

May 04, 2026

3 Myths That Will Derail Your Change Initiative

Josh Cardoz, Chief Creative & Learning Officer, Sponge

In Formula 1, a pit crew can replace four tires in under two seconds. It’s a notorious example of precision, speed, and coordination.

But that level of performance doesn’t happen because someone simply tells the team to move faster. It works because every role is clear, every movement is rehearsed, and every person understands exactly how they contribute to the outcome.

Businesses are always looking to enhance their competitive advantage with that same level of speed and efficiency. With the rise of AI, constant digital transformation and pressure to do more means organizations expect employees to adapt as soon as possible.

But today’s workforce is navigating more change than ever before. Economic uncertainty, technology shifts, digital overload, and constant transformation have created what we call Generation Numb — a workforce that has become desensitized to constant disruption.

The success of any large transformation hinges on whether your workforce chooses to get on board or not. In this environment, what follows isn’t always resistance. Instead, it is something worse: apathy. People won’t push back. They’ll nod, attend the meetings, and continue delivering, but without real belief or energy behind the change.

In today’s Generation Numb workplace, which is shaped by constant change and unclear priorities, employees have seen too many initiatives come and go. Unless something feels meaningfully different, they default to going through the motions rather than engaging.

That’s why the first 90 days matter the most when introducing change or new initiatives. This is the window where leaders need to create clarity, relevance, and belief. If they don’t, the initiative won’t fail with fanfare. It will quietly stall, with teams appearing aligned but not truly changing how they work. Employees are 3.5 times more likely to be engaged when they understand how their work contributes to company goals.

#1 — KPIs Create Alignment

No doubt, metrics are important to every business. And most transformation efforts begin with defining the KPIs leaders want teams to hit. The assumption is this: if everyone understands the numbers, the actions they need to take to reach them will follow.

Wrong! The establishment of metrics alone rarely changes behavior. Rather, it ends up raising questions like: “What does success look like in my role?” and “What should I actually do differently tomorrow?”

Leaders need to shift from KPI metrics to behavioral clarity. Instead of solely defining outcomes, leaders need to define the lead indicators — the specific actions and behaviors that produce those outcomes. Leaders often default to announcing the destination but don’t provide a map on how to get there.

Alignment happens when strategy is translated into clear expectations employees can practice in real moments at work. When people understand what success looks like in their every day, momentum can start to build. But there’s more that comes along with it.

#2 — Resistance is the Risk

Resistance is not ideal during a time of transformation, but it’s also not the worst outcome you can get. In many ways, resistance is healthy. It shows your team is motivated enough to take a stance on something and have a conversation. Resistance allows you to be aware of where your people stand on certain issues – and it shows that they care.

What’s more dangerous than resistance is apathy. With apathy, you don’t get questions or resistance. There is no warning sign. Your people are quietly disengaging and disinterested in what’s going on around them. From a leadership perspective, this is much harder to detect and even harder to reverse.

The workers who are a part of Generation Numb report that they’re just surviving. Innovation, creativity, and customer experience require energy. And energy is the opposite of apathy. Leaders must consider whether teams actually have the capacity to deliver the transformation they’re asking for, because even the best strategy in the world won’t gain traction if their people are in survival mode.

#3 — Productivity Equals Performance

When transformation efforts start to ramp up, organizations start to push harder. More meetings, more reporting, more activity.

But activity doesn’t always equal performance.

Ever had a meeting about a meeting and nothing came from either conversation? In fact, employees spend nearly 60% of their time on “work about work” like meetings, emails, and status updates.

Think back to the Formula 1 pit crews or even Michelin-star kitchens. In both cases, teams perform under incredible pressure and speed. Every second counts. That speed is possible because the conditions are right. Roles are clearly defined. Teams move in sync. Everyone understands their part in delivering the outcome.

Leaders in those environments don’t simply demand results. They design systems that make high performance possible. As leaders, your job is to create the conditions for high performance, not simply demand higher productivity.

When those conditions exist, teams can naturally move forward and faster.

Clarity (The Me stage)– Employees need to understand their role and what success looks like in the new environment.

Connection (The Us stage) – Build true community, where people work collaboratively and teams are invested in each other as well as the task.
Conditions for performance (The It stage) – Once clarity and connection exist, teams can focus on the challenge itself.

Organizations often chase pace during transformation. But the most effective leaders do something different: they create the conditions that allow teams to move together. With clarity, connection and conditions in place, the pace sets itself – and productivity, outcomes and impact follow.

About the Author

Josh Cardoz is Chief Creative & Learning Officer at Sponge Group, where he leads The Practice consultancy and The Studio. A recognised authority in learning and development, he has partnered with a wide portfolio of Fortune 500 and Interbrand organisations – with roles
in digital learning strategy, solutions design, business development, and creative leadership. Josh blends a strong strategic lens for connecting L&D to performance, while championing
moments of human resonance in the workplace

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Why I Wrote a Book About Confidence (And Why It Matters More Than Ever)

April 29, 2026 by HRSAdmin

April 29, 2026

Why I Wrote a Book About Confidence

And Why It Matters More Than Ever

By Advita Patel

CEO, Communications and Confidence Strategist, CIPR 2025 President

I never set out to write a book about confidence, and honestly, for a long time, I wasn’t sure I was the right person to write it.

But after years of coaching leaders and watching brilliant, capable people hold themselves back, I kept seeing the same pattern. It wasn’t a skills gap or an experience gap people struggled with, but a confidence gap. It was costing people, teams, and organisations far more than anyone was willing to name out loud and that’s what led me to write Decoding Confidence: The 7 Habits of Confident Leaders.

If you work in HR, people development, or organisational leadership, I think it might be one of the most practically useful books you’ll read this year.

What the book is actually about

This isn’t a self-help book that tells you to believe in yourself, and everything will work out. I have very little patience for that kind of advice, and I suspect you do too.

Decoding Confidence is grounded in research, including a survey of 507 professionals, and built from over a decade of coaching more than 150 leaders across sectors. What I consistently found is that confidence is not a personality trait you either have or don’t. It is a learnable skill, built through deliberate, repeatable habits.

Those habits form the BELIEVE framework: Boldness, Empathy, Learning, Integrity, Empowerment, Vulnerability, and Energy. Each gets its own chapter with real stories, honest reflection, and practical tools you can actually use and there is no jargon and definitely no fluff.

What makes it different

The book doesn’t prescribe a type of leader you should become but rather meets you where you are. Whether you’re a first-time manager wrestling with imposter syndrome, a senior leader who’s stopped taking risks, or an HR professional trying to build a more psychologically safe culture, there’s something in this book that will speak directly to your situation.

It also takes the structural and systemic dimensions of confidence seriously. There’s a reason some people have to work harder to be seen, heard, and believed in the workplace, and the book doesn’t shy away from that. McKinsey’s research tells us that employees who don’t see leaders like themselves are more likely to doubt their own capabilities, regardless of how qualified they are. Confidence doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The environment shapes it, and leaders have a responsibility to shape the environment.

Who it's for

Primarily, this book is for leaders at any level who want to lead more authentically and effectively. That said, I’d argue that this is essential reading for anyone in HR designing leadership development programmes, building culture, or trying to understand why certain people keep getting passed over despite being clearly capable.

The foreword is written by Juergen Maier CBE, Great British Energy Chair and former CEO of Siemens UK, who describes it as “a fabulous way to help us reflect on our own leadership styles.”

A personal note

Writing this book was its own exercise in confidence.

There were moments when I questioned whether my voice, my story, and my research deserved a place in the leadership conversation.

As we get closer to launch day, I can say I’m so glad I pushed through the doubt because one thing I know for certain, after everything I’ve researched and everyone I’ve coached, is that the world doesn’t need more leaders who perform with confidence, it needs more leaders who’ve actually built it.

That’s what this book is for.

Decoding Confidence: The 7 Habits of Confident Leaders by Advita Patel

Available from 5th May on Amazon and all major book sellers.

https://decodingconfidence.com

About the Author

Advita Patel is an award winning business communications consultant and professional confidence expert. She is the founder of CommsRebel, a consultancy supporting organisations to build inclusive, high performing workplace cultures, and the co-founder of A Leader Like Me, an international agency focused on inclusive leadership and employee experience. Advita is the host of the Decoding Confidence podcast, which explores confidence at work through honest conversation and practical insight. Her forthcoming book, Decoding Confidence, will be published in May 2026. An international speaker and award winning podcaster, Advita regularly speaks on confidence, leadership, inclusion, and communications. In 2025, she was the President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in 2025.

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