The Performance Culture: How to Lead Teams That Win

We’re excited to welcome Khalil Smith as our featured guest speaker!

Khalil will present “The Performance Culture: How to Lead Teams That Win.” In today’s organizations, leaders are under pressure to deliver results while navigating rapid change, rising expectations, and growing complexity. Performance is no longer just about strategy or talent - it’s about culture. In this session, Khalil unpacks what a true performance culture looks like, why so many culture initiatives fail to stick, and how leaders can intentionally create environments where people consistently perform at their best.

Drawing on his experience as the author of The Performance Culture and his work leading inclusion, engagement, and leadership initiatives across global organizations, Khalil will explore how culture change actually happens in practice. He’ll break down the critical elements that shape high-performing cultures and show how leaders influence performance not through slogans or one-off programs, but through consistent behaviors, clear standards, and systems that balance accountability with care.

With a career spanning senior leadership roles at Apple, advisory work at the NeuroLeadership Institute, and his current role as Vice President of Inclusion, Diversity, and Engagement at Akamai Technologies, Khalil brings a unique blend of real-world leadership experience and science-backed insight. He’ll share how today’s most effective leaders create clarity, trust, and momentum - even in complex, fast-moving environments - and how culture becomes a measurable driver of results rather than an abstract concept

You’ll learn how to:

• Understand the four key elements that drive meaningful culture change and how they work together to sustain high performance.
• Identify the most important trends shaping organizational culture today, and what they mean for leaders and teams.
• Reframe accountability and care as complementary forces, and learn how top-performing cultures hold people to clear standards while creating the conditions to succeed.
• See how leaders shape culture through consistency, and why everyday decisions and behaviors matter more than grand initiatives.

Expect a practical, insight-rich session grounded in real-world leadership experience, clear frameworks, and actionable guidance - especially valuable for leaders, managers, and anyone responsible for building resilient, high-performing teams.

The event will kick off with a 30-minute keynote from Khalil, followed by a live Q&A before one-on-one begins.