IntheaftermathofHurricaneHelene,Iwatchedpeopleleadwithouttitles,solve problemswithoutpermission,andcareforoneanotherwithoutbeingasked.

Neighbors cleared roads. Restaurants fed families. Volunteers delivered supplies. Complete strangers checked on one another simply because it was the right thing to do.

The person with the right knowledge naturally took the lead, and everyone else found a way to help.

No one asked, “Who’sincharge?” They asked, “HowcanIhelp?”

That experience changed how I think about leadership. We spend a great deal of time talking about company culture. Organizations define their values, write mission statements, organize team-building activities, and create employee engagement programs, all with the goal of developing a healthier workplace.

Those efforts matter, but I’ve come to believe that culture isn’t the highest goal. I want to build a community. The difference may seem subtle, but I believe it changes how we lead, how people work together, and how success is shared.

What Hurricane Helene Taught Me About Leadership

In the days and weeks after the storm, titles stopped mattering. Nobody waited for permission or spent much time debating whose responsibility something was.

Neighbors checked on neighbors. People with chainsaws cleared roads. Those with trucks delivered supplies. Teachers organized donations. Restaurants fed families.

Construction workers, nurses, retirees, and complete strangers stepped into whatever role was needed. The people with the right knowledge naturally became leaders in those moments while everyone else found a way to support them. What stayed with me wasn’t only how much people accomplished. It was how instinctively they trusted one another. Everyone understood the goal was bigger than any individual and that every person had something meaningful to contribute.

That wasn’t company culture. That was community. It reminded me that the strongest organizations aren’t built around one person having all the answers. They’re built when people trust each other enough to share their expertise, step forward when they can help, and step back when someone else is better equipped to lead.

Culture Can Be Written. Community Has to Be Lived. A company can publish its culture on a website or display its values on a wall. Those statements provide direction, but they don’t automatically create trust, belonging, or connection.

To me, a workplace community is built on trust, shared purpose, mutual respect, and genuine care for the people around us. It’s a place where people feel comfortable asking questions, offering different perspectives, admitting mistakes, and taking initiative because they know their voice matters. That kind of environment cannot be created through slogans alone. It develops through consistent leadership, everyday interactions, and the willingness to genuinely listen.

Research supports what many leaders have experienced firsthand. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson’s research on psychological safety found that teams perform better when people feel safe speaking up, asking questions, and admitting mistakes. Gallup has similarly found that when employees believe their opinions count, organizations often see stronger engagement, better retention, and higher productivity.

McKinsey has also identified psychological safety as one of the strongest drivers of innovation because people are more willing to contribute ideas when trust exists.

The research confirms what many of us have experienced. Trust changes everything.

I Don’t Need the Best Idea

One principle has shaped how I try to lead throughout my career. I don’t need to have the best idea in the room. I want the best idea to win.

Leadership isn’t about proving you’re the smartest person at the table. It’s about creating an environment where the strongest idea has an opportunity to be heard, regardless of who shares it. Sometimes that idea comes from someone with decades of experience. Sometimes it comes from the newest person on the team. More often than not, it comes from the person closest to the challenge because they understand it better than anyone else.

When someone on our team has more knowledge in a particular area than I do, I want that person leading the conversation. My responsibility isn’t to control every decision.

It’s to create an environment where people can contribute their best thinking. That doesn’t mean every idea is adopted or every decision is made by consensus.

Leadership still requires accountability and difficult decisions. But people should know that disagreement isn’t disrespect and that challenging an idea is not the same as challenging a person.

Community Creates Ownership

I’ve never wanted people simply to work for me. I’ve always wanted to work with people. When someone feels like they’re only completing assigned tasks, they’ll usually meet expectations. When they feel like they’re part of a community, they begin thinking beyond their own responsibilities. They consider how their decisions affect clients, teammates, and the future of the organization. They take initiative because they care about the outcome, they offer help because they understand another person’s success strengthens the entire team, and they celebrate wins because those victories belong to everyone.

That’s what ownership means to me. It isn’t only about equity or a job title. It’s about feeling responsible for what we’re building together.

Putting Our Beliefs Into Practice

Beliefs only matter if they’re reflected in our actions. We believe in this approach so strongly that I created a profit-sharing program to encourage a genuine sense of community and ownership. I don’t want people to feel as though they’re simply helping someone else build a company. When their ideas, creativity, relationships, and hard work contribute to our success, I believe they should have the opportunity to share in that success.

Profit sharing doesn’t create community by itself. Trust, kindness, communication, and mutual respect have to come first. What profit sharing does is reinforce an important

message:

We’re building this together.

Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research has found that

well-designed profit-sharing and employee ownership programs are associated with stronger employee commitment, greater effort, and improved organizational performance. For me, profit sharing isn’t simply about rewarding performance. It’s about aligning our systems with our values.

Building Communities, Not Just Companies

This philosophy shapes how I approach leadership at Destinations & Detours and Super Storm Events. Whether we’re planning a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, designing an incentive travel program, producing a corporate event, or solving an internal challenge, I want people to feel trusted to contribute their expertise. I want them to ask questions, challenge assumptions, offer new ideas, and support one another with kindness and respect.

Community doesn’t eliminate accountability. It strengthens it. People hold themselves and each other to a higher standard because they care about what they’re building together.

Perhaps leaders should ask a different question.

Instead of asking, “How do we improve our company culture?”

Maybe we should ask, “How do we build a community where people genuinely care about one another’s success?” If we value expertise, we should listen to the people who have it. If we value initiative, we should give people room to act. If we value ownership, we should trust people with meaningful responsibility. If we succeed together, people should have the opportunity to share in that success.

Because cultures can be written, but Communities have to be lived. And when people feel trusted, valued, and invested in what they’re building together, communities accomplish extraordinary things.