CEO Priority Check!

People and Culture ARE NOT soft stuff.

May 29, 2025

Dear Leader,

There’s a lot vying for your attention right now. Revenue. Market share. Product innovation. Visibility. Crisis management. Stakeholder updates. And let’s not forget your personal sanity.

But let’s pause and ask a hard question:
If you had to focus on just two priorities as a CEO, what should they be?

After years in leadership, here’s my answer:

1. Who Comes In

2. What They Come Into

That’s it. People and culture.

Everything else—strategy, execution, profitability, even vision—rises or falls on these two foundations.

🧠 Priority One: Who Comes In

The moment you approve a hire, you set a ripple effect in motion.

Whether it’s a teacher, a finance officer, a security guard, or a senior executive, that person carries energy, habits, beliefs, and decision-making instincts into your organisation.

So, who are you letting in?

✔️ Do they align with your mission, or are they here just for a paycheck?
✔️ Are they solution-oriented, or problem-centered?
✔️ Are they builders, stewards, or bystanders?

Hiring isn’t about headcount. It’s about head, heart, and hands.

Every person you add either multiplies your momentum—or mutates it.

🧭 Priority Two: What They Come Into

You’ve hired the “right” person. Great. Now… what kind of environment are they walking into?

Let’s be honest. Culture isn’t what’s written in the handbook. It’s what’s whispered in the lunchroom. It’s what people do when no one is watching. It’s what’s rewarded, tolerated, or quietly ignored.

Culture is:

– The kind of feedback that’s given (or not given)
– How mistakes are handled
– Whether excellence is expected—or optional
– How wins are celebrated
– Whether people feel safe to raise concerns

So here’s the deal:
Even the most brilliant hire can wilt in a toxic or unclear culture.
Even the most average hire can blossom in a healthy, high-trust, high-accountability space.

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🛠 CEO, This Is Your Job

You may delegate strategy.
You may outsource content.
You may automate operations.
But you cannot outsource people and culture.

You are the Chief Vision Carrier and the Chief Culture Officer.

If you’re not setting the tone, someone else is.

🔄 A Self-Check For Every CEO or School Head:

Who are we hiring, and why?
How do we welcome and onboard them?
What are we modelling as leaders?
What are we allowing to slide in the name of peace?
Does our culture attract the kind of people we want more of?

Because when people are wrong, strategy doesn’t matter.
And when culture is broken, even the best talent walks away.

Final Word:

You don’t need to chase every trend.
You don’t need to know everything happening in every department.
But you do need to be obsessed with these two questions:

📍 Who’s walking through our door?
📍 What are they walking into?

Answer those honestly—and you’ll build something that lasts.

Love and Light,
Dr. Abimbola Ogundere
Founder | Educator | Leadership Coach
“Because people build culture—and culture builds legacy.”

LAIT LETTERS