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Workplace Culture & People Strategy
A CEO culture handbook
A handbook designed to save business owners a fortune in recruitment fees, and to lift productivity and satisfaction for their team and for themselves.
8.9/10
The author's own team engagement
67
eNPS, where above 30 is great
2018
Measured fortnightly since
James Webb
Workplace
Culture
& People
Strategy
A CEO culture handbook
Cover is indicative. Working title.
What it argues
Three things this book does that the others do not.
From instinct to structure.
The first five years ran on instinct, and instinct made plenty of mistakes. This is the book about what replaced it: the structures, feedback loops and rituals that turn a good gut feel into something repeatable. Written from lived experience across accounting, marketing and beyond, not from theory.
Culture is measurable, and refusing to measure it is lazy leadership.
For years James believed LINK had one of the best cultures anywhere. He was also flying in the dark. Once measurement started, some areas were exactly as strong as he thought and others were not. The book treats culture the way you would treat financial performance: a baseline, a trend, and an early warning when something breaks.
Values on a wall change nothing.
The real turning point was building rituals around the values rather than writing them down and feeling good about it. Values became actions, and actions became culture. That is why every chapter ends in an action plan rather than a summary.
Inside the book
Nine chapters, each ending in an action plan.
Four are written, five are in progress. Waitlist readers get to argue with this list before it is final, and that feedback genuinely changes it.
Introduction
WrittenEight years in accounting, a near-miss as a firefighter, and the decision to stop being a technician and start building a team.
Measuring Culture
WrittenTen metrics, a baseline, and the fortnight engagement fell from 8.6 to 7.8 and the data showed exactly where the problem sat.
Brand Identity & Story
WrittenVision, mission, purpose and values as an operating system rather than a poster, and the culture kit that makes them usable.
Attraction & Retention
WrittenRespect, empowerment and growth, why they beat beanbags and free fruit, and the three assets that prove your culture is real.
Performance & People Systems
In progressThe annual review is broken. Continuous coaching instead: feedback weekly is a gift, feedback saved twelve months is an ambush.
Reward & Recognition
In progressMoney is a hygiene factor. Recognition is free and priceless, and it works best travelling sideways between teammates.
Coaching Leaders
In progressWe promote the best technician, then act surprised when they struggle. Managers create culture, so this is where the leverage is.
Empathy as a Core Value
In progressNot the soft stuff. Psychological safety, leading the person rather than the role, and why quiet teams hide expensive problems.
Conclusion: Culture Compounds
In progressSmall behaviours repeated daily become your identity. Neglect compounds at exactly the same rate, in the other direction.
Who wrote it
James Webb
CEO & Founder, LINK
James spent eight years in accounting, much of it in his father's firm, before leaving to start a bookkeeping practice with a couple of clients and a lot of determination. He came close to becoming a firefighter instead. What he built is now a 50+ person group across accounting, bookkeeping, finance and marketing, on the back of a culture he learned to design rather than hope for. His first employee stayed eleven years.
“I started with one desk and one name on the payroll. Every person who came after chose to be here, and the ones who stayed did not stay for the coffee machine.”
The methods in this book have a scoreboard.
Everything in here was run on LINK's own team before it was written down, and the results are public. Most culture advice cannot be checked. This can.
8.9/10
Team engagement, a record high in 2025
67
eNPS, where anything above 30 is great
91%
Of the team answering, every fortnight
2018
Measuring without a gap since
What it comes down to
Ten rules the whole book is arguing for.
Culture is going to form whether you design it or not. The only choice is whether it is yours on purpose, or an accident you inherit.
- 01Measure everything.
- 02Leaders create culture.
- 03Culture is behaviour.
- 04Systems beat slogans.
- 05Story beats policy.
- 06People stay because of leaders.
- 07Recognition is free but priceless.
- 08Transparency creates trust.
- 09Every interaction teaches culture.
- 10Great businesses intentionally design culture.
The waitlist
It is not finished, and pretending otherwise would be a strange way to start a book about culture.
Four chapters are written. Put your name down and you get the Introduction and the Measuring Culture chapter as soon as they are edited, plus the ten-metric scorecard you can run on your own team immediately, which is useful whether or not you read the rest.
Early readers also get to shape it. If a chapter is not earning its place, the people on this list are the ones who will say so.
Need the help before the book lands?
James coaches founders and leadership teams on exactly this, and the free Culture Checkup gives you a scored read on where your team stands in two minutes.