In this episode, Ashok is joined by Maya Hari, global executive, board member, and now co-founder of Genie Health. Maya has led teams across Twitter, Google, Samsung, and other global companies, and now sits on the boards of public enterprises like Saint-Gobain. What makes her perspective rare isn't just her resume. It's her clarity around what culture really is, how to measure it, and how to build it intentionally.

Maya shares the three signals she uses to assess culture inside a company, how she assembles high-performing, cohesive teams, and why purpose is at the core of sustainable culture. She also speaks candidly about what emotional safety looks like in leadership, including real stories of crying at work, what she calls "cry counts," and how vulnerability, when authentic, is a leadership superpower. Whether you're scaling, transforming, or turning around a team, Maya offers guidance on what kind of CEO you need to be and how to figure that out for yourself.

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Inside the episode...

• What makes culture "good" and why it's never accidental

• The three metrics Maya uses to evaluate company culture

• Purpose as the root of culture (and why it doesn't have to be altruistic)

• How vulnerability in leadership fosters trust and prevents burnout

• "Cry count": what crying at work says about psychological safety

• The difference between wartime and peacetime CEOs and how to know which you are

• Why some leaders thrive in transformation while others thrive in growth

• How Maya thinks about hiring cultural glue in early teams

• What she looks for in CEOs during board interviews

• Co-founding a startup with your spouse and how to put up healthy guardrails

• Genie Health's mission to empower consumers with agency over their health

• Why coding with AI is blowing open product development for startups

Mentioned in this episode

• Genie Health

• Twitter

• Shazam

• EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System)

• Gino Wickman (from Shed & Shine podcast)

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