Culture is Built in the Middle: Where Talent Development Actually Happens

Mike Stover, Corporate Director of Talent & Culture, PCH Hotels & Resorts

Mike Stover is Corporate Director of Talent and Culture at PCH Hotels & Resorts, leading talent acquisition and culture strategy. He oversees distributed recruiting teams, vendor partnerships, workforce development collaborations, and delivers companywide management development programs focused on emotional intelligence.

In an exclusive interview with HR Tech Outlook, Mike Stover shares insights on building culture through frontline leadership, strengthening talent acquisition strategy, and developing emotionally intelligent managers in a multi-generational, multicultural workforce.

Culture is built in the middle.

Ask most leaders how they shape culture, and you’ll often hear answers like town halls, employee picnics, milestone celebrations, and training classes. You’ll likely also hear about values statements, engagement surveys, and leadership retreats. None of those are inherently bad.

But after years of working across organizations especially those with large frontline and operational teams I’ve learned a quieter truth.

Not only at the executive level where strategy is set. Not only at the frontline where work gets done. Culture lives in the space where managers translate intention into daily behavior. That middle layer is where talent development and company culture either come to life or slowly break down.

The Gap between Stated Values and Daily Experience

Most organizations have clearly stated values. Far fewer are clear about how those values show up at 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday when a supervisor is short-staffed, a deadline is looming, and an employee needs coaching.

In hospitality, this gap shows up quickly in guest interactions, service recovery moments, or shift changes gone wrong. But the same dynamics exist across nearly every industry.

Employees don’t experience culture as words on a wall. Many are understandably skeptical of those wall murals based on past experiences.

They experience culture through decisions, reactions, and reinforcement.

Most talent and culture initiatives don’t fail because the content is weak. They fail because people return to environments where old habits are easier, faster, or more rewarded than new ones.

From Training Events to Integrated Learning

One of the most meaningful shifts organizations can make is moving from training as an event to learning as part of daily work.

That starts by answering three simple questions:

1. What behaviors matter most right now?

2. Who is responsible for reinforcing them?

3. How do we know it’s working?

Instead of broadly training “leadership skills,” identify two or three observable behaviors that align with your culture for example, how feedback is delivered, how decisions are explained, or how mistakes are handled.

Then give managers practical tools: conversation guides, real examples, and simple follow-up checkpoints.

"The strongest cultures don’t rely on slogans or campaigns. They rely on consistency."

For example, don’t ask managers to “model accountability.” Ask them to do one specific thing: close every missed expectation with a same-day conversation using a shared framework.

Engagement may not improve overnight but clarity will. And clarity is often the first step toward trust.

The Manager as the Primary Culture Carrier

Research consistently shows that managers have an outsized impact on engagement, retention, and performance. Yet many organizations promote people based on technical excellence and hope they’ll figure out leadership along the way.

You’ve probably heard the phrase: people don’t quit jobs they quit managers.

Talent development must treat managers as intentional culture carriers not accidental ones.

That means:

• Simplifying leadership expectations into practical, repeatable behaviors

• Providing real examples, not abstract principles

• Coaching managers on how to reinforce behaviors, not just what matters

In hospitality, this might look like teaching leaders to recognize effort during peak demand not just results at the end of a shift. It could mean helping managers explain the “why” behind change before rolling out new processes.

The industry doesn’t matter.

Human psychology does.

Measurement That Supports Learning, Not Just Reporting

Many organizations measure engagement once a year and wonder why little changes. Measurement should create learning loops not just dashboards.

Short, frequent check-ins, pulse surveys, or structured manager conversations provide better insight and allow leaders to adjust in real time.

One practical way to do this: pair every development initiative with one behavioral indicator (what people do differently) and one business indicator (how you know it worked). If you can’t clearly name both, the initiative is probably too vague.

For example, saying you want to “strengthen a culture of accountability” is abstract. Instead, define a specific behavior:

We will increase accountability by using a simple expectation-setting framework for every project kickoff.

That framework includes:

• Clearly defining what success looks like

• Assigning a single owner with ultimate accountability

• Setting a visible deadline

• Asking for verbal confirmation that everyone understands the goal and is aligned

Now accountability isn’t a value it’s a practice.

And it’s measurable: you can track consistency and progress (behavior) and missed deadlines orrework, as well as project success (business outcome).

Culture Is a Practice, Not a Program

The strongest cultures don’t rely on slogans or campaigns.

They rely on consistency.

Culture is practiced when:

• Expectations are clear

• Feedback is timely and specific

• Leaders at every level reinforce the same priorities

Building environments that support talent development works best when they respect the reality of work not by adding complexity, but by simplifying what matters most.

Whether you’re serving guests, patients, customers, or internal teams, the goal is the same: create environments where people understand expectations, feel supported as they build skills, and see their effort recognized in meaningful ways.

That work doesn’t happen in big moments.

It happens in the middle every day.