Todd Cunningham
Chief People Officer
AvidXchange, Inc.
Episode 357
Care and Candor: The Unexpected Equation for High-Performance Culture in HR
Current chapter: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built By PeopleJanuary 7, 2025 · 13:27
Thesis
“High performance is fundamentally driven by a culture of deeply connected relationships built on care and candor, which should be intentionally embedded into every HR process from talent acquisition to compensation.”
Show notes
Todd Cunningham spent most of his career believing the common myth that work relationships should be different from non-work relationships — professional, boundaried, a little transactional. After 37 years in HR, he rejects it entirely. At AvidXchange, the performance culture he's built over a decade rests on a counterintuitive foundation: deeply connected relationships, not goal-setting frameworks, are what make high performance possible. The goals swim in the culture. Get the culture wrong and the goals drown.
Todd's equation is elegant in its directness: care + candor = performance. Care without candor produces kindness that avoids hard truths. Candor without care produces feedback that people reject. Both together produce the kind of honest, trust-laden working relationships where real performance conversations can happen — and where people actually change because they trust the person asking them to. The structural expression of that philosophy is visible throughout AvidXchange: development opportunities are by invitation only, earned through demonstrated performance and curiosity.
His advice to HR professionals reflects his three-plus decades: stop talking about HR. The moment you walk into a conversation with a business leader and start with HR language, you've lost them. Start with their business challenge. The people implications will surface, and you'll be far more valuable having arrived there together than by leading with the framework you already had.
- Deeply connected relationships as the foundation of performance — why culture must precede goal-setting, not the other way around
- Care + candor as a performance equation — the prerequisite relationship quality that makes honest feedback land
- Invitation-only development — how linking growth opportunities to demonstrated performance reinforces the culture of excellence
- Inclusive hiring as a performance strategy — building a broad talent funnel and making diversity an outcome of excellence, not a separate initiative
- Leading with business, not HR — why the most effective HR conversations start with the leader's challenge, not the people function's agenda
What you'll take away
- 1Cultivate a performance culture where deeply connected relationships, founded on trust and candor, precede and enable effective goal alignment.
- 2Integrate performance principles into all HR processes (hiring mindset, invitation-only development, variable compensation) to organically foster the desired culture.
- 3Adopt the 'care plus candor' equation to build strong team relationships, ensuring that care is the prerequisite for constructive, honest feedback.
- 4Design a broad talent funnel and inclusive experiences to attract and retain diverse talent, making diversity an outcome of a commitment to performance.
- 5Shift HR conversations from being HR-centric to business-centric, focusing on business leaders' challenges and data to strategically identify people implications and add value.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Challenges the myth that work relationships should be fundamentally different from personal relationships, advocating for deeply connected relationships regardless of setting.
- •Asserts that care must precede candor in relationships; you cannot effectively build candor and then grow into care, as care establishes the trust needed for genuine candor.
- •Advises HR professionals to 'scrap the HR talk' and engage in business-focused conversations to better understand needs and identify people-related solutions.
In Todd's words
“the value and the impact of aligning performance goals really occurs the step before. Those goals need to swim in a pool of the culture. And so we've worked hard over the last 10 years around a performance culture.”
This quote highlights the foundational role of culture in successful performance goal alignment.
“most of my career I bought into a pretty common myth that relationships should be one way at work and a different way away from work... what we've really embraced is performance is about deeply connected relationships, and there should be no difference whether you're at work or you're not.”
This challenges conventional wisdom about professional boundaries and relationship depth.
“our processes around teammate development, most of our development opportunities are by invitation only. And so what we do is we invite people based on your performance to date and based on your commitment and how you're demonstrating your curiosity and commitment to personal growth.”
Describes an unconventional, performance-driven approach to development opportunities.
“if you want performance, it's care plus candor equals desired performance.”
Provides a concise, actionable formula for fostering high-performing team dynamics.
“I think my advice as somebody who's been in HR for 37 years is not to talk about HR... nearly every conversation I have throughout the day, particularly with business leaders, is about the business.”
Offers a contrarian but highly strategic perspective on how HR professionals can best contribute.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Organizations struggling to align individual and team goals with overall company success due to a lack of cohesive performance culture.
- •Companies facing challenges in talent acquisition and retention, particularly in attracting and developing diverse talent across a wide talent pipeline.
- •Teams experiencing superficial relationships that hinder authentic feedback and constructive conflict, impacting overall performance.
- •HR professionals who feel disconnected from core business objectives and seek ways to enhance their strategic influence and impact.
- •Leaders grappling with how to integrate personal and organizational values to foster an environment where employees perform at their highest level.
In this episode
Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built by People
Todd Cunningham's career journey spans 37 years in HR
Built By People: Todd Cunningham
Todd: Avid Exchange believes performance is about deeply connected relationships
ALLEGING PERFORMING Goals
How does your focus on performance differ from other organizations' approaches
WSJD Live: The Focus on Performance
Avid Exchange focuses on both talent acquisition and retention
Talent Acquisition and Retention
Todd: If you want performance, care plus candor equals desired performance
Relationships between peers and managers: Care + Candor
Tom says staying true to your personal and organizational values help boost performance
Working True to Your Personal and Organization Values
Todd Miller: Nearly every conversation I have with business leaders is about the business
Todd Wiseman on Built by People
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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