Y-Connect Thought Leadership

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Yoke

Meaning, Leadership, and the Courage to Address the Elephant in the Room

Some of the most important growth happens in the places we tend to avoid. Drawing on the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold, this conversation explores how fractured moments in life and work are not signs of failure. They are invitations to build wisdom and strength. When leaders find the courage to address the elephant in the room, teams begin to rebuild trust and say what has been left unsaid. Real leadership makes room for others to shine. The fractured places are not the end of the story. They are often where the most meaningful transformation begins.

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9 July 2026
Cultures that scale with Margaret Hirsch and Yoke van Dam
Leadership
Yoke

Great leaders build great people: lessons from my conversation with Margaret Hirsch

Five years after her last visit to Leadership Lyrics, Margaret Hirsch joined me again, this time from Florida, where she and Allan now live after handing Hirsch’s over to their son Richard. We spoke about the deliberate choices behind the Hirsch’s culture: what Disney University taught them about structure, why every morning starts with training and singing, why they hired for attitude ahead of skill, and how they prepared the next generation to lead. Margaret leaves every founder with one practical question: what happens in your business by design, and what happens by accident?

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9 July 2026
Leadership
Yoke

When Performance Isn’t Enough: The Real ROI of a Team Culture Intervention

There’s a dangerous illusion that organisations sometimes fall into: confusing short-term results with sustainable success. Numbers look good on paper, so leadership assumes the team is fine.
But what happens when strong performance is masking a culture on the verge of collapse?
The real question isn’t whether a toxic culture will eventually impact performance — it will. The question is how much damage accumulates before someone decides to act.

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22 April 2026