Navigating the Bumps in the Road

I came across a story that stuck with me. A monk asked his students, if you are walking down the street with a cup of coffee and someone bumps into you, why did you spill the coffee? The students answered, because someone bumped into me. The monk said, no, you spilled coffee because coffee was what was in your cup. If you had water in your cup, you would have spilled water.

The lesson is simple. People will bump into you every day. What spills out is whatever you are carrying. If you carry trust and transparency, that is what spills over. If you carry contempt and frustration, that is what spills over too.

This is exactly how culture is built inside a company. Leaders cannot control every bump in the road, but they can control what fills their cup. As a CFO, I know that if I walk into a room with clarity, openness, and a willingness to partner, that is what spills over into the business. It shapes how people make decisions, how they respond under pressure, and how teams collaborate.

Culture is not created by slogans or posters. It is created by what spills out of leaders when the unexpected happens.