Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Work with Erika Ayers Badan
Episode: WORK Unsolicited Advice: How to Build Good Habits and Avoid Bad Culture at Work
Host: Erika Ayers Badan
Date: January 14, 2026

In this episode of "WORK," Erika answers two listener questions:

Which habits should leaders and employees adopt early?
How to handle culture clashes in mergers or partnerships?
With her signature candid, humorous, and practical tone, Erika offers unfiltered guidance drawn from her real-world leadership experiences, reflecting on both successes and hard-won lessons.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Essential Habits for Leaders

[00:18–03:50]

Consistency
Erika emphasizes that consistency is crucial for leaders, especially in dynamic or tumultuous environments.
- Consistent leaders are seen as trustworthy and reliable.
- Steadiness helps employees feel safe, especially during challenges.
- Leaders should aim to be approachable when problems arise.
"Steadiness in a leader can be very, very important, especially if you work in something tumultuous... I think the best thing I can be is just steady."
— Erika Ayers Badan [01:02]
Presence and Approachability
- Being present and walking the walk matters.
- Predictability in leadership helps people feel secure bringing challenges forward.
"You want to be a leader where people can go to you when things are going wrong."
— Erika Ayers Badan [01:28]
Communication
- Erika values over-communicating, whether via email or meetings.
- Lack of communication breeds doubt, distrust, and dysfunction.
- The "black box" effect happens when teams silo information, stalling collaboration.
- Leaders should proactively communicate—even when news is negative or answers are unclear.
"Communication or the lack of communication is where doubt and distrust and dysfunction set in."
— Erika Ayers Badan [02:15]

"If people could just commit to communicating when it’s good, when it’s bad, when you don’t know the answer, doing what you say you will do... those are habits that are really important in leaders."
— Erika Ayers Badan [03:12]

2. Valuable Habits for Employees

[03:51–05:00]

Initiative and Curiosity
- Initiative is highly underrated compared to intelligence or experience.
- Action and curiosity outweigh overthinking and excessive meetings.
- People with initiative gain more by doing and learning through action.
"You can be less smart, less talented, less capable, less experienced. And if you have initiative, you will end up ahead because you will learn more by doing more."
— Erika Ayers Badan [04:45]

3. Handling Culture Clashes in Mergers and Partnerships

[05:01–10:02]

Reality Check: Most Mergers Fail
- Erika references statistics suggesting up to 88% of acquisitions fail; culture is a primary culprit, not financials or product-market fit.
"Most mergers fail... Acquisitions fail mostly because of culture, not really because of product or the finances or the structure."
— Erika Ayers Badan [05:20]
Empathy and Complexity
- Mergers are difficult and impact all parties.
- Tension often arises from "mothership" resentment, perceived outsider success, or envy toward the acquired team.
"There's always something, I think, a little bit in mergers and acquisitions where the mothership... resents that they couldn't create what the acquiree did."
— Erika Ayers Badan [07:10]
Best Practices from Experience
- From her board seat at Axon, Erika cites incentive alignment and combining the best of both companies as success factors.
- Real-world examples where integration worked and where it didn’t.
Addressing Culture Clashes Directly
- Don’t ignore tensions; acknowledge and solve them in real time.
- Avoid letting problems fester or turn into organizational resentment.
"How you handle it is you have to put the culture clash and the tension always at the forefront so that you are solving it real time."
— Erika Ayers Badan [08:08]

"When it's not working, but nobody says anything... it's like gum. The resentment just sticks to one another on all sides."
— Erika Ayers Badan [08:23]
Actionable Steps
- Put problems at the forefront.
- Establish a shared vision and align incentives.
- Celebrate wins, call out problems promptly, and foster open conversation.
"When you don't talk about the clash and you just avoid it, that's really when things start to slow down and things start to fail."
— Erika Ayers Badan [09:10]

Notable Quotes

On communication and trust:

"I think consistency and communication are two highly, highly, highly underrated and underutilized habits by leaders."
— Erika Ayers Badan [00:30]
On employee initiative:

"I think initiative is also highly, highly underrated."
— Erika Ayers Badan [04:24]
On mergers:

"Acquisitions are tough for everybody. And acquisitions are tough because you are growing unnaturally."
— Erika Ayers Badan [06:12]

Memorable Moments & Timestamps

Contrasting styles of leadership and their impact on culture [01:00–03:50]
Concrete example of internal silos: The “Black Box” problem [02:35]
Empathy for merger participants and reference to Barstool’s acquisition [06:00]
Steps to address culture clashes head-on; “resentment gum” analogy [08:08–08:35]

Conclusion

This episode delivers candid, actionable advice for anyone seeking to foster strong habits or navigate difficult cultural dynamics at work. Erika champions steadiness, communication, transparency, and initiative while offering honest reflections on why so many work cultures falter after mergers. Her humor, humility, and willingness to “call out the messy stuff” make the episode a practical resource for both seasoned leaders and employees just starting out.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Welcome back to work. This is unsolicited advice. Unsolicited advice is where we talk about questions people have about work. Today's question is, which habit do you wish more leaders or your employees would adopt early? I mean, do I have to just have one? I have like a hundred and including for myself. Now, work. Let's start with leaders. I. I think that consistency and communication are two highly, highly, highly underrated and underutilized habits by leaders. I think consistency is. You show up the same way. People know what they can get from you. They know who you are, trust what you're about. They believe what you say. You are durable, you're steady. I think steadiness in a leader can be very, very important, especially if you work in something tumultuous. So I would consider this company highly, highly, highly tumultuous. Sometimes I think the best thing I can be is just steady. So steadiness, consistency, being present, showing up, walking the walk, doing the thing, being a little bit predictable so that people can take problems or challenges and that they feel safe, and they feel safe when something is wrong. I think you want to be a leader where people can go to you when things are going wrong. So I think that's the first thing. I think naturally, as leaders, people don't want to bring their problems to you. I like problems. I hate when people hide problems. So. So I think just being consistent, present A1, A. I think the second one is I think that leaders. I spend a lot of time communicating, actually. Like, I like a big email. I think I spend a lot of time communicating. Could be one on one, could be one to few, could be one to many. Like, I feel better if I have said something always. And I think communication or the lack of communication is where doubt and distrust and dysfunction kind of set in. So I wish more leaders would communicate more proactively. One of the challenges we have here is like this, just this concept of the black box. Like, there's so many black boxes inside of Food52 and Schoolhouse. And the other issue is people are like, no, it's me, it's my team. Like, I want it. It's just, for me, we're going to do it our way. And it's like, well, you're not actually, because, like, we're an ecosystem and everybody has to work together. If we don't all work together, we're never gonna get done what we need to get done. So communication is part of that. When people don't know the answer or they don't have something good to say they just don't respond. And so as a result, there's a huge amount of dead ending in the company. And I think that is something that is very easily solved by communication. And if people could just commit to communicating when it's good, when it's bad, when you don't know the answer, doing what you say you will do. When you back to the consistency piece, I think those are habits that are really important in leaders. And then in terms of habits that I think employees can start early or people can start early is just initiative and curiosity and just doing stuff and spending less time on the hand wringing and the meeting after the meeting and the what did this mean? What did that mean? Like just the inertia and swirl and spending more time on, hey, I want to learn, I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to talk to this person. I'm going to make this project happen. So I think initiative is also highly, highly underrated. I think you can be less smart, less talented, less capable, less experienced. And if you have initiative, you will end up ahead because you will learn more by doing more. Our second unsolicited advice question is how do you handle culture clashes in mergers or partnerships? I actually would take this one all the way down to people. I think this one happens, happens all, all the time. Most mergers fail. So just like, let's start with the merger and partnership. Like, I think there's some stat that like 88% of acquisitions fail and acquisitions fail mostly because of culture, not really because of product or product market fit or the finances or the structure. I think acquisitions fail because either misaligned incentives or, or culture. And you know, obviously the Penn acquisition of Barstool is like the greatest culture clash of all time where, you know, and I have empathy for everyone involved in that. And I have empathy. You know, I'm on the board. I had a board meeting yesterday and you know, the, the company I'm on the board of is in the midst of an acquisition. And acquisitions are tough. Acquisitions are tough for everybody. And acquisitions are tough because you are growing unnaturally. You are taking like some other or some other thing that exists and you are putting it into your world. And then there is the actions and decisions of how do you parlay what you have and you're going to bring to the organization you've just acquired. How are you going to take their skill sets and knowledge and capabilities and culture and resource and bring it into the mothership? And it is very, very, very hard to bring the culture of the acquired company into the mothership, mostly because there's a lot of people at the mothership who are res or who don't work that way. There's bitterness that the acquired company people made a lot of money, they got a lot of press, there was the bright new shiny object. And there's always something, I think, a little bit in mergers and acquisitions where the mothership or the parent company or the acquirer resents that they couldn't create what the acquiree did. I actually think being on the board of Axon, Axon does a ton of acquisitions. I think they've done an amazing job of those acquisitions. Like, yes, some of them haven't gone well. Yes, things could always be better. But they've done a really good job of understanding incentives and aligning incentives, first and foremost. And then the second is being able to trade the best of both pieces so that what the acquiring company has can be brought into Axon and what Axon knows how to do can be leveraged by the company. So I think there's companies that are 100% doing it right and companies that are 100% doing it wrong. How do you handle it? And I realize I'm kind of rambling, but how you handle it is you have to put the culture clash and the tension always at the forefront so that you are solving it real time. I think where things go wrong in people and groups and partnerships and companies is when it's not working, but nobody says anything and then just. It's like gum. It's like the resentment just sticks to one another on all sides of the equation. And the resentment and the distrust and the dislike and the dysfunction grows. So I think one is just putting problems at the forefront. Two, making sure there's a shared vision of what you're running at and there's shared incentives aligned to that. And then three is just like celebrating the win. It's just normal shit. But celebrate the wins. When there's problems, call them out. You know, I think sometimes people are very reticent to talk about things that are wrong and things that are uncomfortable or things they don't like in the other person. Like, you know, I can be like that. Everyone can be like that, like. And companies are also like that. And I think when you don't talk about the clash and you just avoid it, that's really when things start to slow down and things start to fail. And let's face it, groups come together, partnerships get struck, people band together. You join a job to create something new. And when the new thing doesn't get created or the new result doesn't get achieved. That's when you're like, I shouldn't have done it. And you kind of walk away. And then you write off whatever decision you had made or acquisition you had started or thing you had initiated. You write it off as a mistake. That's my unsolicited advice. Thank you for listening to work. You can follow me at Erica on Instagram, at Erica on TikTok. You can follow us on substack. Our substack is called the Great Ones Play Hurt. We've got all sorts of good stuff in there and we have all sorts of different episodes for you.