Why every business needs a Chief Culture Officer
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We’re entering a new era of work — faster, more complex, and increasingly powered by AI. But as machines take over the command-and-control tasks — standardised, repetitive, and rule-bound — the real value in organisations is shifting to what only humans can do:
Build trust
Solve problems creatively
Lead through ambiguity
Learn and adapt
Inspire, empathise, and collaborate
This is the human side of performance. And yet, most organisations are still structured for a world that values efficiency over empathy, consistency over curiosity.
If AI is accelerating work, then culture is the operating system that determines whether humans can keep up — and thrive.
That’s why it’s time to make culture someone’s job.
It’s time to hire a Chief Culture Officer.
Culture Isn’t soft and fluffy. It’s a strategic growth lever
In too many businesses, culture is still seen as an HR project or an afterthought. In reality, it’s a business-critical asset — because people don’t just deliver strategy; they believe in it, build it, and bring it to life. Or they don’t.
A Chief Culture Officer (CCO) is a senior leader responsible for exactly that:
Designing the conditions where people can do their best work
Tracking and improving culture health and change readiness
Embedding new behaviours, mindsets, skills and habits at scale
Ensuring wellbeing, trust, learning, and inclusion aren’t side initiatives—they’re how work works
Organisations doing this have the edge in so many ways:
Smart companies are already making the shift
Across industries, smart organisations are formalising culture as a leadership discipline:
Many years ago at Google, Stacy Sullivan was appointed by Sergey Brin and Larry Page to “enhance and develop” organisational culture, helping shape the company’s renowned workplace environment
Unilever evaluates leaders not just on outcomes, but on how they’re achieved—prioritising trust, inclusion, and employee experience.
At Microsoft, Satya Nadella famously reframed leadership from “know-it-all” to “learn-it-all,” embedding psychological safety and curiosity across the organisation and work focuses now on measuring ‘thriving’ to keep nurturing a growth culture.
These are not culture initiatives. They are strategic restructures, designed to make culture a business capability.
The best leaders are culture leaders
Recent research from i4CP (Institute for Corporate Productivity) confirms the shift:
“The most effective leaders today excel in culture-related skills—not just strategy or execution.”
– i4CP: Leading from Anywhere: Driving Results in the Age of Distributed Work (2025)
High-performing organisations are investing in leadership behaviours that drive:
Psychological safety
Adaptability and resilience
Empathy and inclusive decision-making
Energy, learning, and trust
When I wrote Make It Human, I identified a new breed of leaders who are in-tune with their people, teams and organisation. Human Leaders sense what’s needed and when, to continually nurture conditions for people to grow:
Culture is no longer a soft skill. It’s a leadership practice, but we do need someone to lead the charge.
What a Chief Culture Officer needs
To succeed, the CCO needs more than intent — they need tools, models, data, and decision-making power.
✅ Skills
Organisational behaviour and systems thinking
Capability to design & nurture growth cultures
Learning agility and a growth mindset
Behavioural science and storytelling
Interest in data and AI
✅ Tools
Culture health diagnostics & metrics (e.g. wellbeing, trust, energy, belonging)
Change readiness insights (e.g. resilience, optimism, psychological safety)
Habit change models, reflective practices, feedback loops
Culture skill building applications to scale culture capability
AI tools and systems to provide live feeds on culture health
Check out my 'New Measures of Success' scorecard for more inspiration.
✅ Mandate
They must report to the CEO and be empowered to shape how strategy is implemented through people—not just what it is.
The path is clear — the time is now
Employees today evaluate companies on how they support mental health, learning, and belonging.
Investors are asking new questions about workforce wellbeing, sustainability, adaptability, and engagement.
Culture has become both a risk factor and a growth lever.
And yet, very few companies have someone at the top accountable for making it work.
If you’re serious about performance, change-readiness, and human advantage — then it’s time to put culture at the core of your strategy.
What do you think? Time to hire a Chief Culture Officer?
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Sarah McLellan works with leaders looking to find a better, more sustainable path to growth—for people and businesses. She is a work psychologist, author and founder of Make It Human. Through a blend of psychology and real-world leadership experiences, Sarah and team demystify culture, breaking it down into simple, everyday habits and behaviours proven to deliver results. Get in touch to start your journey to a growth culture! 🚀
