This week, we’re going to continue the discussion on the cultural impact of return-to-office policies and their impact on employee engagement by looking at the other side of the coin—the actions of employees. When talking about organizational culture and employee engagement, it’s critical to recognize that employee engagement is a two-way street.

The starting point for the journey to change your culture takes real courage and is an application of courage that doesn’t get nearly enough airplay. You see, the easy leadership road that leads to mediocrity is to hire people that look and talk like you and ensure that you remain the smartest person in the room.

The more difficult, but more rewarding path is to find the courage to hire people who have the potential to surpass you, who think differently than you do, and who are willing and able to challenge you.

I speak frequently about the benefits of adopting a continuous improvement mindset and practice—so much so that the premise of my second book, The Balanced Business, is that smooth workflows create an environment that fosters organizational accountability and allows trust to flourish. There are many preconditions to the establishment of smooth workflows, but one of the most important is to create clarity about how the work gets done in your business.

A balancing act all leaders must grapple with is the short-term benefit of moving fast with minimal drag from a personally curated “Team Yes,” versus the long-term satisfaction that comes from building a diverse team that will simultaneously challenge, support, and push the boundaries of your current state positions and thinking.