What Workplace Culture Really Looks Like Under Pressure

Workplace culture is easy to talk about when everything is going well.

It shows up in values, vision statements, onboarding decks and the words companies use to describe who they are. But the real test of workplace culture is not what sits on a wall or a website. It is what people experience every day.

In a conversation with Francois de Wet on Solving the People Puzzle, Stephanie Usher, Head of Talent Acquisition at Heineken Beverages, shares a grounded view of culture, leadership and accountability.

Her message is clear. Culture is not an HR project. It is not something a consultant can design and hand over. It lives in behaviour. It shows up in how leaders respond under pressure, how teams communicate, what gets celebrated, what gets corrected and what is allowed to continue.

At the heart of the conversation is a question every business should be asking.

Is your workplace culture intentional, or is it simply happening by accident?

Workplace Culture in Action

For Stephanie, workplace culture is not just what people say. It is what people do.

Many organisations spend time defining values and launching internal campaigns, but culture does not stay neatly inside a document. It is shaped every day by the people inside the business, especially those in leadership.

A founder’s values may shape the early personality of a company, but as the business grows, the culture has to grow too. You cannot build a strong organisation by only hiring people who think, act and work in the same way.

Growth needs different perspectives. It needs challenge. It needs people who can align with the vision while still bringing something new to the table.

That is why Stephanie draws an important line between culture fit and culture alignment.

Culture fit can become limiting when it means hiring people who feel familiar. It creates comfort, but not always progress. Culture alignment is different. It means people believe in what the organisation is building, while still having the space to question, contribute and think differently.

A healthy workplace culture is not built by surrounding yourself with people who always agree. It is built by aligning around what matters and making room for people to bring their full perspective.

What Your Culture Tolerates

One of the strongest themes in the episode is accountability.

Stephanie explains how culture starts to break down when organisations make exceptions for certain people, especially top performers.

Most businesses have seen some version of this. Someone delivers results, brings in revenue or consistently hits targets, but their behaviour damages the team. They interrupt, create tension, ignore values or make others feel unsafe.

Because they perform, leaders look the other way.

At first, it can feel like a small compromise. But over time, those compromises become the culture.

When poor behaviour is tolerated because someone is valuable to the business, the message becomes clear. Performance matters more than values.

And once people see that gap between what the organisation says and what it allows, trust starts to disappear.

Stephanie’s point is not that top performers should be treated unfairly. It is that everyone should be held to the same standard. Accountability cannot be selective. If values only apply when they are convenient, they are not really values.

Workplace Culture Starts with Leaders 

Leadership is often spoken about in terms of strategy, performance and big decisions.

But in this conversation, leadership is much more practical than that.

Leaders shape workplace culture in meetings, one-on-ones, feedback conversations and moments of conflict. They shape it when they clarify expectations, admit mistakes, address tension and create safety for people to speak honestly.

Stephanie shares how, in a previous role, she stepped into a team that felt disconnected. Instead of simply expecting the team to fix itself, she had to look deeper.

Were expectations clear? Did people understand their roles? Were strengths being used properly? Was there accountability? Did the team know what they were working toward?

That is the real work of culture.

It is not always glamorous. Much of it happens quietly, in the background. But it is the difference between hoping a team will improve and intentionally creating the conditions for people to work better together.

As Francois adds, leadership is not about being liked. It is about being present, respected and willing to have the conversations that reinforce the organisation’s values.

Culture is shaped every time a leader acts. It is also shaped every time they choose not to.

Being Human

One of the most powerful parts of the conversation comes when Stephanie shares a deeply personal leadership moment.

After experiencing a pregnancy loss, she arrived in a meeting focused purely on the task in front of her. A team member noticed that she was not herself and checked in.

That moment made Stephanie realise that the openness and accountability she expected from her team also had to apply to her.

So she chose to be honest. She apologised for how she had shown up and shared what she was going through.

The result was not weakness. It was trust.

Her team supported her. They asked what she needed. They gave her space to be human.

It is an important reminder for leaders. Authenticity is not about oversharing or letting go of professionalism. It is about being honest enough to build trust.

People do not need leaders to be perfect. They need them to be real.

A healthy workplace culture gives people room to have difficult days, to apologise, to learn and to keep going. Psychological safety is not created through slogans. It is created through consistent, fair and human behaviour.

Adult Conversations Build Trust

Another standout idea from the episode is Stephanie’s approach to communication.

Treat people like adults.

In organisations, leaders sometimes avoid difficult conversations because they fear how employees will respond. They delay information, soften the truth or ask for feedback they have no intention of acting on.

Stephanie challenges this directly.

If you are not prepared to change something, do not ask people for feedback on it. Asking for input and then doing nothing with it damages trust.

People can handle difficult information. What they need is honesty, context and respect.

This applies to conversations about bonuses, benefits, organisational changes and performance. Employees make serious decisions in their personal lives every day. They deserve to be treated with the same dignity at work.

Transparent communication does not mean everyone will agree. It means people are given enough information to understand what is happening, why it is happening and what it means for them.

When leaders communicate openly and consistently, they reduce uncertainty. And even when the message is difficult, they build trust.

When Workplace Culture Gets Tested 

Perhaps the most valuable part of the conversation is its honesty about the messy middle of leadership.

It is easy to speak about workplace culture in theory. It is harder to live it when people are tired, targets are under pressure, teams are frustrated or leaders are dealing with challenges of their own.

Stephanie does not present leadership as perfection. Instead, she reminds leaders not to be too hard on themselves.

The goal is not to get everything right all the time. The goal is to keep learning, keep listening and keep returning to the behaviours that build trust.

Workplace culture becomes intentional when leaders take responsibility for the everyday behaviours shaping it. It becomes accidental when no one does.

Because the culture you have is not only the one you design.

It is the one people experience.
It is the one leaders model.
It is the one teams repeat.
And it is the one the organisation is willing to tolerate.

The Path Forward

Workplace culture is not built in a workshop and then left to run on its own.

It is built in the moments that happen after the workshop. In how people speak to each other. In how leaders respond when pressure rises. In whether values are upheld when it is inconvenient. In whether people feel safe enough to be honest.

Stephanie Usher’s conversation is a reminder that culture is not separate from the business. It is the business in action.

And when leaders become more intentional about what they model, reward and tolerate, workplace culture becomes more than a statement.

It becomes something people can actually feel.

Watch the full episode of Solving the People Puzzle to hear Stephanie Usher share her perspective in her own words.