Institute for Health and Human Potential

IHHP is a global leader in culture development and emotional intelligence, with a proven track record of working with Fortune 500 organizations.

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

We’re thrilled to announce that our co-founder, Dr. JP Pawliw, has published a new article in Harvard Business Review: The Secret to Building a High-Performing Team.

This is a proud moment for our team, as the article highlights a core principle that drives our work with organizations worldwide: The Last 8% — the moments in conversations and decisions where performance, execution, and innovation are on the line.

Drawing on data from more than 34,000 professionals, JP explains:

👉 Why people consistently hold back the final 8% — the hard feedback, the inconvenient truths, the critical details.

👉 How this silence quietly erodes execution and slows results.

👉 Why the highest-performing teams balance high courage and high connection to move faster, take smart risks, and deliver on their strategies.

This is a framework for building cultures where leaders and teams perform at their best under pressure.

Read the full article here: https://t.co/OuyjtNS4wm

Please note: Reading this article requires an HBR account, which includes 5 free articles per month.

#HighPerformanceCulture #EmotionalIntelligence #CultureSystem #CourageAtWork #LeadershipDevelopment #TrustAndPerformance #FutureOfWork #HighPerforming #HighPerformingTeams #Last8 #Last8Culture

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Leadership today isn’t about charisma, title or fearlessness.

It’s about courage.

Courageous leaders do something most others avoid: they step into the Last 8% of conversations. The ones where the tough truths, the uncomfortable decisions and the feedback that fuels performance are named.

What makes them different?

✅ They balance care and accountability
✅ They stay emotionally intelligent under pressure
✅ They create cultures of safety, trust, and resilience

In a world where many leaders stop at 92%, courageous leaders go further and their organizations perform their best under pressure because of it.

Explore how you can become a courageous leader for your team and organization: https://t.co/fJqzU4tvcA

#PsychologicalSafety #OrganizationalCulture #Last8Percent

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Did you know that women hold 48-49% of entry-level roles, but only about 28% of C-suite positions?*

Closing that gap matters. When more women step into leadership roles, organizations benefit from broader perspectives and stronger workplace cultures.

Today, on International Women’s Day, we celebrate the women making an impact across organizations.

Here at IHHP, we are especially proud that a majority of our team is made up of talented and thoughtful women who shape our work every day. We are grateful for the impact they have on our clients, our partners and the cultures we help build!

Thank you to the incredible women on our team and in our community who continue to lead and inspire.

#InternationalWomensDay #WomenInLeadership #Leadership

*Statistic pulled from McKinsey's Women in the Workplace 2025 report.

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

How are you recognizing your team today on Employee Appreciation Day?

In our work with leaders around the world, a consistent pattern appears: Appreciation that strengthens culture shows up through conversations that require both courage and connection.

Examples include:
⭐ Recognizing someone’s impact in front of peers
⭐ Addressing difficult issues while still valuing the person
⭐ Taking time to acknowledge the effort behind demanding work

These conversations shape how people feel about their team and their organization. Employee appreciation goes far beyond a single day on the calendar. It lives in how leaders communicate, recognize effort and support growth every day.

And to all of our IHHP team members, thank you for everything you do.

#EmployeeAppreciationDay #Leadership #Last8Percent

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

You have the meeting, align on priorities and leave the room confident about the plan. Great!

But then, a few weeks later, very little has changed.

Not because your leaders lack commitment, but because the conversations that make change happen, the ones about accountability and hard trade-offs, never quite happen.

That’s the gap our Science of Emotional Intelligence open program is designed to close. Leaders learn how to stay present when pressure rises and keep their teams committed so decisions stick and execution follows.

As one participant from Rolls-Royce shared, the program helped their team stay “in the game” together, and that’s exactly what sustained execution requires.

Join us live online March 10–12: https://t.co/1pYpmCFtAo

#LeadershipDevelopment #EmotionalIntelligence #Accountability #ExecutiveLeadership #IHHP

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Empathy isn’t soft. It’s a performance lever.

On high-performing teams, results often hinge on a leader pausing for six minutes to really listen and surface what’s underneath. That small moment builds the trust teams need to execute when pressure is high.

Where have you seen a short moment of authentic empathy change a team’s results?

#HighPerformingTeams #LeadershipDevelopment #EmotionalIntelligence #OrganizationalCulture #TeamPerformance

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Most leaders don’t damage feedback culture intentionally. They do it with small phrases they don’t notice.

“Why didn’t you…?”
“Please fix.”
“This feels rushed.”

A recent Forbes article breaks down why these comments backfire and what leaders can say instead. The research from the cited Adobe survey shows the critical impact poor feedback is having on teams.

Here at IHHP, we see feedback as a Last 8% Moment. Clear, specific conversations require High Courage + High Connection and drive better execution.

Worth sharing with any leader on your team: https://t.co/tL7r1QGeqA

#LeadershipDevelopment #FeedbackCulture #HighPerformanceTeams #EmotionalIntelligence #FutureOfWork #Last8Percent #IHHP #Forbes

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Most leadership teams we work with do not have an IQ problem. They have a pressure problem.

The difference between a team that debates productively and one that avoids hard issues is emotional intelligence.

Leaders with high EQ consistently:

✅ Listen deeply before responding
✅ Deliver tough feedback without damaging trust
✅ Navigate change by addressing underlying fears
✅ Separate facts from emotional reactions
✅ Focus conversations on shared outcomes

These behaviors create cultures where execution improves because people are willing to speak up, challenge ideas, and commit together.

At IHHP, we teach leaders how to build these habits in their real Last 8% moments, using neuroscience-based tools that make emotional intelligence practical and measurable.

In our latest article, we explore what high EQ looks like in practice and how leaders can start building it today.

Read more here: https://t.co/CUGntfk1fQ

#EmotionalIntelligence #LeadershipDevelopment #LeadershipSkills #HighPerformance #Culture #IHHP

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

One idea that stays with leaders after hearing “The Secret to Building a High-Performance Culture” keynote is simple:

Pressure creates stories.

A leader assumes someone is not committed.
A team assumes leadership will not listen.
A department assumes risk will be punished.

Those stories shape behavior in meetings, decisions and execution.

They determine whether feedback gets delivered and whether accountability is handled clearly or avoided.

When leaders see how these stories are shaping their culture, they start to recognize patterns they had normalized. They understand why strong strategies stall and why even the most talented teams still struggle to deliver.

Seeing culture through that lens gives leaders a different starting point. It shifts the conversation from programs and slogans to the habits that shape performance every day.

If you want your leaders to see their culture in a new way, explore the keynote at: https://t.co/H9VKw6t5PS

#Leadership #OrganizationalCulture #HighPerformance #LeadershipDevelopment #TeamPerformance

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

If you want to understand how Emotional Intelligence shows up on your team, watch your weekly meeting.

Notice what happens when someone disagrees with a decision. Does the room open up or shut down?

Pay attention to how missed deadlines are handled. Are they addressed directly, or quietly moved past to keep things comfortable?

Listen for whose voices dominate and whose perspectives are never heard.

Weekly meetings are not just about updates. They are where norms are reinforced in real time. How leaders respond in those moments determines whether people speak up, take ownership and raise risks early, or stay silent and disengage.

Over time, those patterns shape performance far more than any stated values.

If you want stronger Emotional Intelligence across your organization, start by looking closely at your next team meeting.

Learn more: https://t.co/P8EvjxeT1X

#Leadership #EmotionalIntelligence #TeamMeetings #OrganizationalCulture

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Many teams proudly describe themselves as a family.

Family cultures are warm and deeply supportive. People feel cared for. Those are strengths.

Where leaders get stuck is in how that care shows up when performance is on the line.

Clarity starts to feel uncomfortable. Direct feedback feels heavier. Accountability feels personal. So courageous conversations get delayed, expectations stay implied and standards quietly drift.

Not because leaders do not care. But because they do.

High-performance cultures do not choose between care and clarity.

They treat clarity as respect. They believe honesty strengthens trust. They hold standards because the mission and outcomes matter.

If your organization calls itself a family, the question is not whether you care about your people.

It is whether you are protecting comfort or protecting performance.

We explore the shift from family culture to high performance in more depth here: https://t.co/nfqcjk9Fcb

#Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #TeamPerformance #ExecutiveLeadership #IHHP #Last8Percent

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Research consistently shows that the vast majority of top performers demonstrate strong emotional intelligence.

What we see through our EI360 Assessment adds important context to that finding by making emotional intelligence visible in day-to-day leadership behavior.

The EI360 looks at leadership behavior across 11 core emotional intelligence competencies, including self-awareness, emotional self-management, empathy, and the ability to navigate difficult conversations.

The focus is on how leaders are experienced by others, particularly in moments of pressure.

In high-performing cultures, leaders tend to show closer alignment between intent and impact. They manage emotion effectively, address issues directly, and create clarity when tension is present. Those patterns show up again and again in how teams perform and make decisions.

If you are exploring how emotional intelligence shows up in leadership performance, this is one of the ways we approach that work. Get in touch to learn more.

#LeadershipDevelopment #EmotionalIntelligence #Leadership #HighPerformance

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

One of the reasons Bill Benjamin values being on stage is what happens after the talk.

Not the applause (although we're sure that doesn't hurt!).

The conversations that start when leaders begin sharing what pressure looks like for them and how emotion shows up in their Last 8% Moments.

That same dynamic comes through in this episode of Leadership Journeys, where Bill talks about managing emotion in tough moments and why those moments define culture far more than any stated value.

If the short clip resonates, the full episode is worth the time. Listen here: https://t.co/ZdyG0u4d35

#EmotionalIntelligence #BillBenjamin #KeynoteSpeaker #Last8Percent #WorkplaceCulture #TeamLeadership

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

This week’s Culture Tip is inspired by a strong piece from @McKinsey on the growing importance of brain health as AI accelerates across organizations.

When technology increases speed and complexity, the limiting factor is no longer access to information. It is leaders’ ability to create environments where people can:

✅ think clearly
✅ regulate emotion
✅ make sound decisions when stakes are high

That is not a wellness conversation. It's a performance conversation.

The article, The human advantage: Stronger brains in the age of AI, is a worthwhile read for anyone shaping culture and leadership right now: https://t.co/P1OlmqI9oM

#Leadership #OrganizationalCulture #FutureofWork

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

The EI solution leaders are using this week: emotional connection.

When tension shows up, most leaders push for answers. Stronger leaders slow the moment, surface what’s driving emotion while creating the conditions for clearer thinking and better leadership conversations.

Emotional connection is one of the three core modules in our Science of Emotional Intelligence Open Program. Alongside self-awareness and managing emotions under pressure, leaders build the skills to lead more effectively when the stakes are high.

Our next live online cohort runs February 10–12.

Learn more and register today: https://t.co/NdwmcXQMYU

#EmotionalIntelligence #LeadershipDevelopment #LeadershipSkills #HighPerformance #Culture #IHHP

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Choosing a keynote speaker isn’t an agenda decision. It’s a business decision.

The person you put on stage sets the emotional tone, the strategic focus and ultimately the outcomes your event drives.

We just published a new article for event planners and senior leaders on how to choose a keynote speaker who does more than motivate.

Inside, we break down:
✅ What a keynote is responsible for
✅ Why most events struggle to translate inspiration into execution
✅ The three factors that determine whether a speaker fuels culture and performance change

If your next leadership event is meant to support growth, transformation, or execution, this decision matters more than most teams realize.

Read the full article here: https://t.co/zStyXkGwBI

#LeadershipDevelopment #CorporateEvents #KeynoteSpeaker #OrganizationalCulture #HighPerformance #IHHP

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

In the video, Bill shares something leaders hear often: “We’re in all four quadrants. It depends on the leader.”

That’s what happens when culture is left to chance.

When senior teams aren’t intentional, culture fragments. Each team becomes a reflection of how that leader shows up in their Last 8% Moments. Under pressure, inconsistency replaces clarity and performance suffers.

Phase 1 of the Last 8% Culture System brings precision where most organizations rely on assumptions.

We start with an organization-wide culture assessment and a comprehensive report broken down by level, department, and function. Teams are mapped using our Culture Map across Family, Transactional, Fear-based, or Last 8% cultures, and the specific Last 8% Moments blocking performance are identified.

Because culture cannot be aligned until it is understood.

Learn how Phase 1 creates the foundation for sustainable culture and performance change:
https://t.co/owvHj3URsY

#Last8Percent #CultureTransformation #OrganizationalCulture #LeadershipDevelopment #HighPerformance #IHHP

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Most organizations talk about culture like it’s a concept.

Beliefs. Values. Mindsets. Engagement.

Then people go back to work on Monday and nothing changes.

The most effective keynotes don’t motivate. They reframe. They shift culture from something abstract into something behavioral.

From “We need to be more innovative” to “Here’s what innovation looks like in a meeting when someone challenges the plan.”

From “We want accountability” to “Here’s the moment where accountability either happens or quietly dies.”

From “We value trust” to “Here’s the conversation most leaders avoid that erodes it.”

When a keynote lands, leaders stop debating culture and start recognizing it.

They see it in their one-on-ones.
Their decision meetings.
Their performance conversations.
Their silence.

That reframing is often the turning point. Because once people can see culture in behaviour, they can finally change it.

Explore how an IHHP keynote can frame culture as behavior for your organization today: https://t.co/NBBptut45g

#KeynoteSpeaker #LeadershipDevelopment #OrganizationalCulture #EmotionalIntelligence #Neuroscience #LeadershipStrategy #CultureTransformation #HighPerformanceTeams #Last8Percent

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

Culture is being built in the micro-moments most organizations never debrief.

The project update where a director notices a deadline was missed and says, “No worries, we’ll figure it out,” instead of asking what broke down.

The leadership meeting where everyone agrees… and then three people Slack each other afterward to say what they really think.

The performance conversation where a manager talks about strengths for 20 minutes and skips the one behavior the entire team is struggling with.

Nothing explodes, no one storms out, and no HR issue is triggered.

And yet, every time this happens, the culture quietly shifts towards what’s tolerated.

Over time, those small moments teach people exactly how safe it is to challenge, how accountable they’re expected to be, and whether results or comfort really matter.

That’s the Last 8%.

Not the obvious 92% of the conversation. The part that gets avoided.

And it’s where your culture is being defined, for the good or the bad.

Learn more about how we can support your culture change initiatives at https://t.co/PUmVMZErUt.

#LeadershipDevelopment #EmotionalIntelligence #HighPerformingTeams #KeynoteSpeaker #Last8Percent #IHHP #WorkplaceCulture

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

When pressure rises, emotionally intelligent leaders do not rush to fix or avoid.

👉 They manage themselves first, noticing their own emotional response before it drives their behavior.

👉 They get curious instead of reactive, asking questions that understand the root cause of what's happening rather than jumping to conclusions.

👉 They address what others are avoiding, even when it feels uncomfortable, because they understand unspoken tension carries a cost.

👉 And, they stay grounded in connection, recognizing that how they show up under pressure sets the emotional tone for the entire team.

These responses are not about staying calm for appearance’s sake. They are about protecting trust, decision quality and performance when teams need leadership.

Want to strengthen your emotional intelligence as a leader in 2026? Explore our Q1 Emotional Intelligence training programs here: https://t.co/cBckS0Ndi9

#LeadershipDevelopment #EmotionalIntelligence #HighPerformanceCulture #LeadershipSkills #Last8Percent #TrainingPrograms

[Institute for Health and Human Potential @IHHP]

High-performing teams don’t happen by accident. And they don’t happen through motivation alone.

They are built at the intersection of High Connection and High Courage.

Connection creates trust, belonging, and engagement.
Courage creates honesty, accountability, and forward momentum.

One without the other limits performance.

High connection without courage leads to comfort and harmony, but also avoidance.
High courage without connection drives action, but often at the cost of trust and commitment.

Sustainable performance lives where both exist together. The teams that consistently execute, adapt, and innovate are the ones who can stay connected while leaning into challenge.

@DrPawliwFry explores more of this directly in his @HarvardBiz article, “The Secret to Building a High-Performing Team.” Read it now: https://t.co/OuyjtNSClU

#HighPerformanceCulture #LeadershipMindset #OrganizationalLeadership #CultureStrategy #HarvardBusinessReview #ExecutiveLeadership