Kiss-Cam Culture: What Scandals Reveal About Silent Cracks in Your Culture S1E5

It wasn't just an embrace.

It was a cultural breakdown on full display.

The CEO of Astronomer recently resigned after being caught on the kiss cam at a Coldplay concert while in an intimate embrace with the company's head of hr.

Most headlines focused on the affair, but as someone who coaches executives and facilitates organizational assessments,

I saw something different.

Cascading leadership failures that had been quietly unfolding long before the lights and cameras.

Welcome to My Manager, Coach, the podcast to help you fix what's not working at work. I'm Jodi Bagno-Dill, your executive coach and growth strategist.

Each episode you'll learn strategies to mobilize.

Your team, build great vibe quick grow your organization, and love coming to work again.

Scandals don't start at concerts. They start in culture.

In the aftermath of any leadership scandal, it's tempting to focus on personal behavior.

And there's something that so many people enjoyed about poking some fun about what happened.

But in my experience,

public moments like this are rarely isolated incidents. They're actually tipping points.

They expose fractures that have been weakening the foundation for months and sometimes years.

On sites like Glassdoor and Reddit,

there were current former employees of Astronomer, and they painted a picture of deeper dysfunction. There was a senior engineer that described a disaster leadership.

He cited there was rapid growth, shifting priorities, and there was poor communication.

Another bluntly stated that the entire leadership team was full of people without ethics.

Now, I know that when you go on these sites, it's usually disgruntled employees that post these kinds of things. And so I take it with a grain of salt, you know, one person's bad day doesn't define an entire company.

But there were trends in the commentary and on videos afterwards,

and they are worth noting, especially when those trends point to a pattern of fear or favoritism and blurred boundaries at the top.

This wasn't a lapse in judgment. It was a signal of poor boundaries, some power imbalances,

and a lack of accountability that probably affected the entire organization.

You know, those cultural fractures, they start quietly until they are no longer quiet. I remember I worked with a client that was in the hospitality industry.

Wonderful group of people, wonderful place.

They had an employee who was harassing a young woman on the staff and she filed a complaint.

They weren't really sure how to handle the situation,

so I recommended a full investigation.

We interviewed several of the employees that also worked with both individuals. We saw some real commonalities and what everybody shared.

The person who was being accused was also a personal friend.

And so it was kind of a sticky situation for the owners. They asked what I recommended in response, and my recommendation was harsh.

It was strong.

These owners really struggled with.

Was it too harsh?

Of course. I told them, first, you have to do right by the employee who is being harassed.

You owe it to her to protect her.

But secondly, you have to send a strong message that this type of behavior is not tolerated.

Other employees could actually file lawsuits if something strong isn't done about it. And so they actually begrudgingly implemented a very strong response.

Not only was the person terminated, they were told that they could not come around the establishment for years. They could not talk to any other employees. I mean, it was a harsh response, but it protected them.

It protected them against any further problems.

And it also sent a really loud message to all the employees that knew what happened. I mean, you know, employees talk. If you don't think employees are talking,

you're misled.

Employees are talking. And it made a very strong statement that we do what's right,

no matter what our personal feelings are, and we protect the good people doing the good work.

And it really eliminated that kind of behavior from ever being a problem again,

at least as long as I have known of this establishment, which has been in business close to 20 years.

And so they've done very well because they took a strong stand and it had a ripple effect.

They addressed the cultural fracture. They did the hard thing,

even though they had personal feelings involved.

Those fractures, when they start quietly, it's, you know, long before the scandal makes the headlines. You'll find warning signs.

You'll see boundaries up at the executive.

Levels beginning to blur.

You'll see performance becomes confused with immunity,

in other words, tolerating unacceptable behavior.

You'll see that HR begins to shift from being a compass, which they should be, to being more of a confidant among probably not the best people.

And mostly employees will feel psychological safety disappearing, and silence begins to set in. I know it's tough to be a manager. It's tough to hear the negativity all the time.

It's tough to hear people complain.

But you have to be open and listening for trends and patterns. You don't always have to address and fix everything that employees bring up. But you do have to have your finger on the pulse of what's happening in your culture.

Because unchecked,

these cracks don't just remain at the top. They ripple outward.

They erode trust,

clarity, and team chemistry. And eventually they do become public.

There are four fractures you can't ignore.

These are the warning signs that a cultural collapse may Be near. The first one is rapid growth outpacing the ability, ability to shore up your infrastructure. When rapid growth outpaces infrastructure, communication will break down, accountability will definitely weaken,

and then all of a sudden, inconsistent behaviors start taking root. At Jazz Business Consulting, many of our clients rotate their strategy cycles. They'll focus one year on growth,

and then the next year on strengthening their infrastructure.

It might seem slower, but it actually accelerates the sustainable growth.

Because when a business is fortified from within, it can handle the weight of growth and success.

Years ago, I owned a marketing strategies coaching company called Logomotion Concepts,

and I would create these marketing campaigns that would bring people in the door. But I found that the companies weren't ready for the growth.

And so through poor customer service and broken promises, they would actually blow out new customers as fast as I would bring them in.

So when we decided to launch Jazz Business Consulting,

our focus switched to building the infrastructure of a company and getting it ready for massive growth.

And then when we brought in marketing strategies, the growth would stick and it would compound and it would work, and customers would be happy. And it has really been a winning formula.

The second cultural fracture you can ignore is HR not having a seat at the leadership table where they can challenge leadership strategies.

So often HR is relegated to an administrative position, and they're not really given a voice,

but they should be acting as a compass. They should be alerting leadership to fractures that are happening, to trends, to things that might be starting to go sideways.

There has to be a boundary. When HR leadership is too aligned with executives, as we've seen,

neutrality will be lost.

Employees will no longer see HR as a safe zone. And that is a recipe for disengagement, for distrust,

and for eventual explosion.

I saw in a company recently where the HR department was eliminated and it became an administrative role that fell under the finance department.

And so when employees had complaints about people in the finance department,

they were told to send those complaints via email to people in the finance department,

and they would be evaluated.

So it no longer became safe to actually talk about some of the things that might be going on.

Be sure to look at your HR department and have somebody at the head who is actually a strategic partner. The third cultural fracture you can ignore is employee rumbling. I know employees always got something they're complaining about, but certain rumblings you can ignore.

And if you're experiencing rapid growth,

it's easy to sideline those.

If employees fear retaliation or don't think anyone will listen, those issues go underground.

And if they don't feel safe Internally,

they'll turn to external outlets like unions, competitors, or employee rating websites. You want your employees talking to you, not to outside parties.

And I know that this stretches you as leadership sometimes,

but trust me, it's worth it to listen to it and to make space for it before they go to an outside party. The fourth one is a drift between your core values and your actual lived behavior.

There have been times I have heard company employees say, yeah, we talk about the core values, but the people at the top don't live them. And what do you think happens then?

They think, well, if the people at the top aren't living them,

why should I?

And this becomes a huge vulnerability for your organization.

We saw this last week. What's at stake overnight, the CEO lost his job and the Chro may have badly damaged her career, but the ripple effects are much greater than that.

Those memes on Instagram and TikTok are going to live forever.

Their families are going to endure the trauma and the emotional fallout for years.

It's possible that this company,

the investment and funding could disappear overnight and putting all of those employees, jobs at risk.

And the innovation that was happening may be also at risk.

The younger generation sees these things happen and they grow even more skeptical of leaders.

But worst of all,

the bad behavior becomes normalized. Everyone does it, they just got caught becomes the prevailing way to think about things.

And you don't want that to happen in your company. But here's the good news.

Your organization isn't in scandal mode right now. And that means you still have the power to act proactively.

You're still in the do over zone right now. You can strengthen your cultural infrastructure that protects your people and performance.

Think of it like building a moat around your castle to protect your castle.

And you're doing that instead of leaving a back door open for destruction to walk in.

So here's what I want you to do. I want you to ask yourself, if something like this happened at my company,

would someone catch it before it hit the headlines?

Would employees feel safe enough to speak up about blurred lines or favoritism?

Let me tell you, favoritism,

perceived or real,

is a problem. It's a huge vulnerability.

The other question I want you to ask yourself is, do you know what people whisper about when leaders leave the room?

You should know.

So if you want to take steps right now and be proactive, here's five things that you can do. First, reflect.

Ask yourself. Are there any issues that you are quietly hoping will go away?

What are you ignoring?

Name it.

The second Thing is, scan your reputation. Check Glassdoor right now. Look for trends. Don't look for isolated comments from disgruntled employees. Look for common things. Now, if you're not familiar, Glassdoor.com is an online website where employees can go and they can share their salaries.

They can share how it feels to work at your company.

They evaluate your senior leadership. Right now, the young people, before they go and apply anywhere, they look at Glassdoor comments.

So if you've got some really negative comments, you need to fix those and address those things.

Otherwise,

you will not be receiving applicants from top talent because they all go there first.

The third thing is you need to audit your core values. Ask your employees if they can name the three, only three most important core values.

Because those core values that they name, that's what they're using as a benchmark for how they make decisions. Are your core values clearly defined?

Do you celebrate when people actually live them out?

And number four,

survey your team.

You're going to hear one little commercial today and it's about our organizational vibe assessment. And it will give you insights that you need to act on immediately.

But if you do the organizational vibe assessment, actually take action. Because ignoring feedback is worse than not even asking.

Before the lawsuit, before the walkout, and before the whisper of union interest,

there were signs the problem Most leaders don't see them until it's too late.

The organizational vibe assessment from Jazz Business Consulting changes that. It gives you clear, actionable insight into your team's clarity, competency and chemistry, the real drivers of performance and culture.

It's anonymous, it's online, and it's quick to complete. And it's not just helpful.

It's strategic.

You will get a comprehensive report with scores, insights and practical recommendations.

You'll also get a 45 minute debriefing session with me, Jodi to help you interpret the results and decide where to act first.

It's a powerful tool to use in strategic planning this fall, so you're not guessing where to invest your leadership, energy or budget.

And here's the kicker.

Right now, it's 50% off just $2,500 for up to 50 people.

Need more?

Add groups of 10 for just $500 each,

for a fraction of the cost of turning over one of your key employees or the cost of a lawsuit or a PR disaster.

You'll have something even more valuable.

You'll have better insight into your internal infrastructure than most of your competitors will ever have.

So if you're a business owner or.

A manager who wants to lead smarter and fix the right things before they explode. Visit jazzbc.com assessments to get started.

Your team is sending signals. The Vibe assessment helps you read them before they hit the headlines.

And now back to our show.

What do strong leaders do differently?

Strong leaders don't just ask, are we hitting our goals? They also ask, is our foundation and our infrastructure strong enough to support the growth that's coming? If it's not,

then people will feel like growth means extra work and people don't get excited about that. The only people that get excited about growth then are the ones that get commission on the sales.

And so if you want to mobilize everybody and have them enthusiastically engaged about growth,

you've got to look at your infrastructure. Don't ignore what may be bubbling just beneath the surface. The other thing you need to know, and it always amazes me how leaders don't really have a good grasp on this.

When was the last time employees shared all of the things they appreciate about your organization?

What are the things that they like? What are the things that keep them working at your organization?

What are the things that you're doing well and how can you capitalize on them and do more of them? Because obviously they're working?

Here's the truth. Vibe never lies.

It will always tell you what's happening beneath the surface.

You just have to be willing to listen.

Okay, that's it for me today. Thank you for joining me. I look forward to being with you next time. Go make the world a better place and build great vibe.