Is Culture killing the Anna in YOUR Team ?

She was just 26. A newly minted chartered accountant with exceptional academic credentials, unbridled enthusiasm, and a work ethic that mirrored her unmatched positivity. The world was her oyster. 

In early 2024 Anna Sebastian joined Ernst & Young (EY), fulfilling her dream of a Big-4 job. In July 2024, she celebrated her convocation with her parents, flying them over from Kerala with her first earnings. Days later, Anna was dead. No one from EY attended her funeral. 

Recently her grieving mother wrote a heart wrenching email to the Chairman of EY India. About Culture. About Values. About Empathy. And about the absence of all of them at EY. She ended the email explaining why she had written it: ‘My Anna is no longer with us, but her story can still make a difference.’ 

Anna’s story is exactly the kind no mother should have to narrate, and no employer in the world should be at the centre of. It is a narrative about everything that is wrong with corporate culture. A culture that took the life of a 26-year old at the cusp of what should have been a long and potentially brilliant career, perpetuated by a  leadership that did nothing to change it.  Until one day, almost inevitably, its toxicity turned fatal.

The mother’s letter told the story of a manager who had gained a company wide reputation of losing multiple employees from excessive workload. A tale of postponed meetings to late evenings and nights so the manager could watch cricket matches. Of an assistant manager who called up team members late at night to demand they submit new pieces of work by morning. Of a leader who actually had the gumption to tell Anna: ‘You must stick around and change everyone’s opinion about our team.’ 

Anna tried. For many months with no off days, suffering from severe sleep deprivation, delivering under relentless pressure. Until she could not. In the end, unlike her predecessors, she didn't resign. Instead, she paid the ultimate price in trying to do the right thing. 

The Role of Corporate Culture

In its 2024 Global Workforce Report, Gallup defined culture as ‘the way you attract highly talented employees and turn them into brand ambassadors. Employees and teams that feel most strongly aligned with their culture are more engaged, less burned out and less likely to leave their employer. They also perform better.’ 

The report went on to add that only 2 out of 10 corporate employees today feel connected to their company’s culture. And yet there is no good reason for this. In the companies that Gallup describes as Best Practice Organizations, 70% of the employees are actively engaged at work. What they get right is the culture, and what the right culture does for the company, Gallup finds, is this:

• Attracts world class talent to the organisation: An organisation’s reputation is a primary reason why highly talented individuals want to work there. Especially along millennials, a strong purpose and mission are important factors for determining where they work. Growing and maintaining a consistent culture across all business units is essential for winning over elite workers. 

• Creates Alignment: Alignment means that everyone from current and prospective employees and customers to shareholders, industry influencers and members of the media thinks and talks about the company in the same way. In fact, employees and teams who most align with their organisation’s culture consistently perform higher on internal performance metrics than those who least align.

• Affects performance: Organisations with a well-defined and inclusive culture have a competitive advantage in the marketplace and are proven to improve performance outcomes across many measures. 

So why on earth would every company in the world not want to have a positive culture that works? 

Culture is Not what you write on your Website and Mission Statement

On their website EY writes: ‘we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people…and [Building a better working world] is the foundation of our culture.’ Then they go on to add: ‘At EY, we empower our people with the right mindsets and skills to navigate what’s next, become the transformative leaders the world needs, pursue careers as unique as they are, and build their own exceptional EY experiences.’

The question is whether they walk it. 

And therein lies the problem. As if the circumstances surrounding Anna’s death and the role played by her managers was not indictment enough of their failure to walk the talk, this is how EY India’s Chairman responded to Anna’s mother’s email: ‘Anna worked with us for only four months. She was allocated work like any other employee. We don’t believe that work pressure could have claimed her life.’ 

That is as defensive, insensitive and poorly considered response as any I have come across in over three decades in corporate life. It is indeed a self-indictment of what is wrong within - Culture is not what you write on your website, it is about how things are actually done on the ground. 

‘Culture’, as Gallup points out in their report, ‘is a pervasive force that influences the way people work together, how decisions get made, which behaviours are rewarded and who gets promoted. Culture sets the tone for a workforce.’ When there is a disconnect between the words and reality on the ground is where Anna, and other Anna’s around the world, pay the ultimate price.

Better People Make Better All Blacks

If EY or any other company that is not in denial about toxicity in their culture wants to turn it around, the New Zealand All Blacks, the most successful sports team in history, is a good place to start. 

Across their 150-years of existence, the All Blacks have won 79% of all Test matches they played. That is a staggering statistic. And they have done this through not just getting the right processes and players in place, but by getting the culture right.  

In 2004 when the All Blacks were going through a dark phase in their performance curve, they decided the way to get back on track was by working on the culture within the team. They believed that ‘by developing the individual players and giving them the tools, skills and character that they needed to contribute beyond the rugby field, they would also develop the tools, skills and character to contribute more effectively on it’. The performance impact (just to get it out of the way) was that over the next eight years, the Kiwis won 86% of all matches they played, and.. a rugby World Cup.

So what was the statement they came up with to drive home this culture? It was simple yet powerful: Better people make better All Blacks. But what they do to perpetuate it is what makes this culture statement one that every corporation in the world should seek to emulate. 

After every match, before they leave the change room, the All Blacks do something no other team in the world does. They pick up the broom and clean the dressing room so that it is in exactly the same condition as when they walked in that day. The first one to do so is the captain. Rarely is the Ownership principle more vividly exhibited than by that simple action. 

The All Blacks confront failure and weaknesses without flinching and with deep self-reflection. Again, at the forefront in setting an example is the leader of the team. This commitment has fostered an environment where every player seeks continuous improvement. To take this a step further, the team’s culture of honesty, courage, and comradeship nurtures resilience in the face of adversity and encourages personal growth on and off the field.

Finally, in every aspect of the way the All Blacks operate is reflection of the fact that leadership is not a privilege reserved for a select few but a responsibility shouldered by all players, leading not by the rank of their jersey, but by their action and character. And that comes from the top through true empowerment.

The Four Seasons Difference 

Great cultures are not just confined to sports teams. Simon Sinek talks about a conversation with a staff member called Noah during a stay at Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas. Sinek describes Noah as being warm, fun and engaging, and this encouraged him to strike up a conversation. 

While being served a coffee, Sinek asked Noah whether he likes his job.  ‘I love my job,’ the young man answered. The answer surprised him since it's unusual to get such an unequivocal positive response to a question he asks often. So he then asked Noah, ‘What is it that the Four Seasons is doing that makes you tell me you love your job?’ 

This is what Noah said: ‘Throughout the day managers will walk past me and ask me how I am doing and if there is anything that I need to do my job better. And this is not just my manager, but any manager.’ He then went on to contrast it with his experience at a previous job at Caesar’s Palace in the same city where the managers came by to check if he was doing his job properly and point out mistakes if any. 

The contrast brought out by Noah is not accidental. This is how the Four Seasons Belief Statement reads: 

‘Our greatest asset, and the key to our success, is our people. We believe that each of us needs a sense of dignity, pride and satisfaction in what we do. Because satisfying our guests depends on the united efforts of many, we are most effective when we work together cooperatively, respecting each other’s contribution and importance.’

Noah and all his colleagues across the world know that their employer truly walks its talk. And it reflects in their bearing, their behaviour, their work and in how they deal with their customers. 

The All Blacks and the Four Seasons, along with the likes of Google, Netflix, Salesforce, and Southwest Airlines are just a few of the firms who do it best when it comes to culture. They genuinely believe that happy employees beget happy customers, and eventually happy shareholders. Then they walk the talk. 

They ensure that their Anna lives. And thrives.