The New Employee Honeymoon Is Dead. Here’s What Killed It — and How to Fix It.

June 02, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

A Major 2026 Research Report Reveals That Onboarding Is Now the Worst Experience New Hires Have. Here’s What That Means for Your Business. A Stat That Should Stop Every Leader Cold The Qualtrics 2026 Employee Experience Trends Report — drawing on research from employees across 24 countries and every major industry — dropped a finding... Read Full Article

Harvard Business Review Just Validated Everything I’ve Been Teaching for 25 Years.

May 26, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

The May/June 2026 Cover Story on Customer Loyalty Says “Good” Is Not Good Enough. Here’s How to Get to “Love.” Harvard Just Said What I’ve Been Saying Since 1998 The May/June 2026 issue of Harvard Business Review landed on my desk this week, and I want to be direct with you: I read the cover... Read Full Article

Good at Their Job. Killing Your Culture.

May 19, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

Two Employees Every Leader Is Afraid to Confront — and the Framework That Changes Everything A Leadership Study That Put a Number on Something I’ve Known for Decades A recent piece in CEOWORLD Magazine on courageous leadership included a finding I want every leader to sit with. Eighty-six percent of employees believe courageous leadership is... Read Full Article

The Lazy Way Out: Why Your Customer Experience Inconsistency Is a Leadership Problem, Not a People Problem

May 04, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

What Marc Benioff’s Callout of His Fellow CEOs Reveals About Building a Turnkey System for Consistency Marc Benioff Said Something This Week That Every Leader Needs to Hear On April 7th, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff went on record with a take that made headlines across the business world. Speaking about the wave of tech layoffs... Read Full Article

“Back to Starbucks” Is Working. Here’s the Leadership Lesson Behind It.

April 20, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

How One Brand’s Comeback Reveals the Answer to Modeling the Behaviors You Want to See I’ll Be Honest With You About Starbucks I have a complicated relationship with the Starbucks story right now. On one hand, I’ve spent 25 years holding them up as one of the greatest customer experience organizations ever built. I helped... Read Full Article

The Buc-ee’s Paradox: How America’s Cult Convenience Store Earned an “F” While Everyone Still Loves It

April 06, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

When expansion moves faster than your service culture, the cracks always show up in the customer relationship — not the clean restrooms. A look at what Buc-ee’s BBB “F” rating really means, and the five steps every scaling brand must take before it’s too late. ▪ THE NEWS — MARCH 2026 The Better Business Bureau… Read Full Article

How Do I Align Employee Personal Development with Company Goals?

March 20, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

The Answer Hiding Behind the “Quiet Cracking” Crisis What I’m Seeing in Organizations Right Now I’ve been working with organizations across the country for decades, and what I’m seeing right now is something I’ve never quite encountered at this scale. It’s called “quiet cracking,” and it may already be happening inside your organization — even… Read Full Article

What Target’s Brand Collapse Teaches Every CEO About Culture, Identity, and the Frontline

March 16, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

What the fall of one of America’s most beloved retail brands teaches every CEO about culture, identity, and the one thing no restructuring plan can fix. There used to be a joke that only insiders understood. Customers didn’t say they were going to “Target.” They said they were going to “Tarzhay” — the faux-French pronunciation… Read Full Article

Your Engagement Surveys Are Lying to You. Here’s What You Should Measure Instead.

March 10, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

Why 82% of Employees Feel Lonely at Work, Even When Engagement Scores Look Good. I’ve spent the last three decades working side by side with some of the world’s most admired organizations — Starbucks, The Ritz-Carlton, Chick-fil-A, KeyBank, Lexus — helping them build cultures where both employees and customers genuinely thrive. And in that time,… Read Full Article

Your Signature Experience Is Not a Perk. It’s the Product

February 17, 2026 | By: John DiJulius

What Every CEO Can Learn from Southwest Airlines Right Now. On January 27, 2026, Southwest Airlines boarded its last open-seating flight. Passengers who had flown Southwest for decades lined up one final time without knowing which seat they would sit in. By the next morning, the airline that had been defined for 53 years by… Read Full Article