Most companies say they support employees through personal difficulty. Employees learn quickly where that support ends. Chris Coulter on the gap between the values board and what actually happens when someone's performance drops for six months, why low EAP utilisation is not a communications problem, and the three questions worth putting to your own leadership team this week.

A stranger in a Toronto pub told me he hadn't spoken to his son in almost ten years, then admitted he couldn't remember what started it. Most managers are carrying a smaller version of the same thing: a person on the team they've quietly stopped talking to properly. Nobody would take it to HR. Nobody is going to raise it either, because the person with the power in the room is you.

Leadership sees one company. Employees live in a different one. The Culture Signal Check measures the gap between executive perception and employee reality across 25 questions and three groups. Green means alignment. Red means your best people are already looking. Built by a founder who lost his job for telling the truth in a culture that couldn't tolerate it.

A corporate workshop revealed something many leaders already suspect but few know how to address. More than 40% of employees are carrying significant personal challenges, including struggling children, grief, divorce, and financial stress. This article explores why managers avoid difficult conversations, the cost of silence in the workplace, and how organizations can better support employees through First Conversation Coaching.