Diagnosing Culture Before It Derails Performance with Eric Boromisa

What happens when the market isn’t the problem - but the messenger is? 

Highlights Covered

• Why product strategy often turns into culture therapy
• A case study - success metrics masked a deeper cultural breakdown
• How fear of leadership can quietly derail execution
• Leadership takeaway: Start every meeting with “How are you doing today?”

Summary

This episode reveals how behind every market-facing issue - there may be a deeper cultural disconnect - and how the right questions can break the gridlock and unlock performance.

Will Gladhart is joined by Eric Boromisa, Managing Partner at Numbers & Letters Advisory - whose strategic consulting work often uncovers more than just product misalignment - it reveals hidden cultural roadblocks.

With years of experience helping companies develop an idea into reality, typically in tech, healthcare, wellness, corporate governance - he has a global leadership lens shaped by years of working in San Francisco and Berlin, Germany. 

Eric shares a compelling case study of an industry association that, despite thriving on paper, couldn’t execute basic marketing campaigns. 

The root issue? Fear and miscommunication. 

Through careful diagnosis, cross-functional collaboration, and CEO engagement, Eric helped the organization address the cultural friction that was stalling growth.

This episode explores how leaders can treat organizational misalignment not just with strategy, but with empathy.  

Eric offers one deceptively simple, but powerful practice - always start with the person. His advice reminds us that trust, not just process, is the foundation for performance.

Connect with Eric on LI

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Episode Transcript

William Gladhart (00:00):
Welcome to the Leadership Levers Podcast.
I'm your host, Will Gladhart,CMO at the Culture Think Tank.
At the Culture Think Tank, weempower leaders with metrics
that strengthen culture, driveperformance and return.
We're here today to learn aboutthe actions leaders have taken
to address organizational change.

(00:21):
Today, our guest is EricBoromisa, managing Partner at
Numbers and Letters Advisory.
Thanks so much for taking thetime to join us.
Thanks Will, appreciate beinghere, absolutely.
Let's begin by having you sharewith our audience a bit about
yourself, your background andyour organization.

Eric Boromisa (00:40):
Sure.
So I run a product strategyadvisory firm, so I help
companies develop an idea intoreality, typically in tech,
healthcare, wellness, corporategovernance in that area.
And I live in Berlin, but Ispent 20 years in San Francisco,
so I kind of have thattransatlantic partnership
between the two going on.

(01:01):
So for me it's been a nice road.
I've been running my firm for11 years and had about 47
clients, and so it's been a niceroad.

William Gladhart (01:11):
Very cool.
Well, thanks for sharing that.
So we'll be discussing threequestions today as a warm-up to
start our conversation.
Would you share why you believea healthy culture is critical?

Eric Boromisa (01:20):
I get called in for projects all the time and
it's you know, hey, you know, isour product not good?
Like, are you missing themarket or missing a trend?
And I often play the role ofcorporate psychologist or like
therapist for a business peoplein the trenches and you start to
understand the gridlock, youstart to understand the friction

(01:47):
that comes with any workplaceculture and so I find that I'm
called in for maybe solving amarket issue.
But I often take some of thatfeedback or tea leaves,
anonymize it and say go to theboard and say so what I've been
hearing is and that sort ofbreaks the ice and helps people.
No one's to blame in situationswhere cultures maybe tend to be

(02:11):
more fractious or has theirattention, but I do think that's
a necessary thing for abusiness to be happy and humming
.

William Gladhart (02:20):
Absolutely.
I think that's a great point.
So let's begin with questionone.
It's been our experience thatleaders tend to struggle in
three key areas people, processor profits.
In your role as a strategicconsultant, could you identify
which of these areas, orcombination of areas, presented
a challenge with one of yourclients or several clients?

Eric Boromisa (02:39):
Oh yeah, actually I think one about eight years
ago.
You know, I was called in as anindustry association.
Their profits are great, theywere growing, their performance
looked great on paper, theirmembership was very engaged, but
you but they weren't gettingreleased and so, kind of working

(03:06):
through that, I was able toraise it to leadership that
there was a misunderstandingabout what the expectations were
to receive a marketing brief,launch a campaign, and so it
wasn't even called in for amarketing project.
It was actually a product thing, but it ended up being a
cultural diagnosis.
So, to answer your question, Iwas more of the people in that

(03:27):
case.

William Gladhart (03:28):
Yeah, interesting.
I mean it does sound like itwas a people, but it also
impacted all the process and thebusiness as well, which was
trailing down into potentiallyimpacting the finance.
So it's always one of the threethat impacts the other or it's
all together.
And, as you looked at thatchallenge, how did it negatively
impact the organization overall?

Eric Boromisa (03:46):
People were a little scared to bring things to
the head of marketing.
Frankly, like there was alittle fear there.
I think that once the CEO wasaware of the problem and was
able to coach the person anddevelop a better way of handling
those situations, I think itsmoothed out quite a bit and

(04:07):
since then they've gone on todevelop amazing content and
they've grown exponentiallysince they've left.
So I think they were able toactually address those concerns
in a very graceful way.

William Gladhart (04:19):
I appreciate that feedback because it's often
the CEO suspects or identifiesan issue but doesn't know how to
really move the issue forward.
So having an expert likeyourself to kind of help connect
the dots is really valuable.
So what was the one thing thatyou identified that helped
impact the culture positively,or that you have found impacts

(04:41):
that across organizations?

Eric Boromisa (04:43):
positively or that you have found impacts that
across organizations.
One thing that I thought wasreally impressive while I was
there is actually they had avery cross-functional, almost
like a Skunk Works multi-daymeeting to kind of reboot the
organization, like a 2.0 meetingof the mind, so like 50 people
came together for like two days,three days and, yeah, it was
really interesting to see fromIT, from customer support, from

(05:06):
content, from product, fromlegal, all just kind of
brainstorming ideas together andI thought that was a really
healthy way for an organizationto sort of look at itself, know
what's working, know what's notand come to some greater ground,
and I was really glad to be apart of that.

William Gladhart (05:25):
Yeah, I think that's a good strategy for
helping people move forward andrecognizing, identifying the
problem and then moving theissue on.
So, as we wrap up today, do youhave any insight for fellow
leaders that you have workedwith, or just a general insight
to share?

Eric Boromisa (05:41):
Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people like to
jump into business.
They're very action-oriented orproductive.
I really think it's importantto start with checking in with
the person first.
I almost always start mymeetings and I have to supervise
many people.
How are you doing today?
Understand if that person has afamily or has an aging parent

(06:02):
or a pet.
What's going on in their life?
That's not work.
Don't be nosy, but justunderstand that you're treating
a human in front of you.
I think that's really importantto build that trust and be a
good leader.

William Gladhart (06:16):
I'd love to hear that feedback and approach.
I think addressing the wholeperson, but that also impacts
into the culture, is reallycritical.
Eric, I've enjoyed having youon our Leadership Lovers podcast
.
Thanks so much for yourinsights.
Thanks a lot Will, great to behere.
Thank you for joining us on theLeadership Levers Podcast.

(06:37):
Find all our Leadership Leversepisodes on the Culture Think
Tank website at www.
theculturethinktank.
com, or listen on your favoritestreaming platform.
We'd love to hear from youabout the challenges you have
faced as a leader.
Tune in weekly as we inviteleaders to share their

(06:57):
experiences in strengtheningculture and performance, one
action at a time.