Build Better Leaders, Build Better Businesses: Scott Burgmeyer Makes the Case for Leadership-Driven Culture at HRSouthwest 2025

At the crossroads of innovation and people strategy, the HRSouthwest Conference 2025 brought together leaders redefining what effective HR looks like today. Among them was Scott Burgmeyer, Founder and CEO of BecomeMore Group, who shared a message that cut through the jargon: culture isn’t an HR initiative — it’s a leadership responsibility.

Through his firm, BecomeMore Group, Burgmeyer partners with organizations to close the gap between potential and performance. His focus is on more than metrics like engagement or retention; it’s about reshaping how companies think about the employee journey — from the first interview to long-term development. He argues that many organizations hire for skills but forget to hire for heart. The most successful teams, he says, combine capability with cultural and behavioral alignment, resulting in dramatically higher retention and performance rates.

Speaking with host Daniel Litwin, the Voice of B2B at MarketScale, Burgmeyer underscored that the HR leaders of tomorrow won’t be defined by compliance checklists but by their ability to cultivate relationships and elevate leadership. “If there’s one priority for HR right now, it’s leadership development,” he explained. When organizations invest in leaders who connect, coach, and communicate intentionally, profitability can increase by as much as 150 to 200 percent, according to research he cited. The takeaway: HR can’t own culture alone — but it can lead the charge in teaching leaders how to. And as the industry looks toward 2026, Burgmeyer’s advice rings especially true — build better leaders, and everything else will follow.