Toxic culture pushes out talent 10 times more than salary does. (MIT Sloan Management Review)
This is about what to do on Monday morning, for CEOs and founders who are done winging it.
Corporations suffocate in bureaucracy. Startups burn out in chaos. The problem is rarely strategy; it's the soil your team grows in.
I help you prepare the ground. I'm Manu Soriano, Speaker, CEO and Advisor with more than 20 years transforming organizations through human talent.
Five tools, one system. From alignment before you hire to an employer brand you can actually prove. This is what I work on with you on Monday morning.
The 3 P Map. Alignment before you hire. "They join aligned, or they don't join. Gut feel is not a hiring strategy."
The 3 Ps · Aligned purposes
The Reality Contract. The culture that happens when nobody's watching. "Most bad exits started as bad entries."
The 3 components · 30/60/90 days
The Rewards Loom. Emotional salary isn't perks: it's a weave of 5 levers × 3 levels. "Nail the Hygiene and lean into your Cultural Signature."
The 5 levers × 3 levels
Four seasons. 1,000 days. "Design a journey, not a tenure. Move your talent before they move on."
The 3 milestones of the cycle
Provable Storytelling. "Your employer brand isn't your website, it's your repeated behavior. If it can't be checked in an interview or a reference, it isn't your story. It's advertising."
The story in 4 acts
Talks on leadership, organizational culture and talent for corporate events, conferences and high-level forums.
Book a talk →For CEOs and founders of small and mid-sized companies who feel talent no longer stays for the money. I don't sell recipes. I ask the questions no one on their board dares to ask them.
Let's work together →The Between the Lines newsletter, the Echoes of Leadership podcast and the knowledge library on talent and leadership.
Explore the content →Knowledge isn't stockpiled. It's cultivated. 64 editions on leadership, talent and culture. No algorithms. You choose what to read.
Personal
Closing a chapter
Personal
Closing the year is finding your north again
AI
Be water, my friend
Personal
What really drives a career
Leadership
What if putting yourself out there wasn't vanity?
Talks, recorded keynotes and reflections on leadership and high-performance teams. View the full channel →
#37 Talent
How to Adapt Your Talent Attraction to a Competitive Market
#36 AI
How to Compete in AI and Scale with Culture and Team
#35 Wellbeing
Why Leaders Who Listen to Their Body Make Better Decisions
#34 Investing
What Nobody Explains About the Financial Sector
#33 Headhunting
The Real Value of the Headhunter: People Before Revenue
From boardrooms to packed auditoriums. Strategic rigor with real stories. I don't talk about leadership from theory: I've lived it.
How to turn personal energy into collective momentum and measurable results.
Personal leadershipFrom "retain" to "cultivate": culture, trust and purpose as a competitive edge.
Talent CultivationConsistency, habits and meaning to inspire high-performance teams.
Executive developmentStrategy, narrative and presence to build trust and attract talent.
Personal brandThe keys to growing fast without losing purpose or culture.
Scaling & cultureSeeds, Soil, Water, Journey and Light: the complete system for cultivating teams that grow from within.
The Cultivate Talent systemOrganizing an event and looking for a talk on leadership or talent? Let's talk →
CEO and founding partner of W Executive España, the Iberian arm of the European W group. Beyond running an executive search firm, I work in human capital: I help CEOs and leadership teams design how they cultivate the talent they already have and the talent they need to attract. I've spent more than 20 years in the sector, first at Michael Page (Madrid, Barcelona, Istanbul) and since 2022 at the head of W. I'm a regular speaker on talent, culture and leadership, author of the Between the Lines of Leadership newsletter and host of the Echoes of Leadership podcast. LinkedIn Top Voice 2025.
Cultivate Talent is the thesis I work from: talent isn't retained, it's cultivated. Retention is a cage; cultivation is a system. Traditional management focuses on holding people in place; Cultivate Talent focuses on creating the conditions for them to flourish. It comes together in five concrete tools: Seeds (alignment before you hire), Soil (the reality contract), Water (the rewards loom), Journey (the seasons of talent across 1,000 days) and Light (provable storytelling).
I work with the CEO on the talent decisions that move the P&L, not the ones that only move the org chart. I diagnose the real culture (the one that happens when nobody's watching), design the cultivation system (the five tools applied to your business) and work with you on what you're going to do on Monday morning. I don't show up with a generic deck; I show up with a plan that survives Monday.
I mostly work with three profiles: CEOs and founders of small and mid-sized companies who have left founder mode and need the team to sustain the growth; HR directors and VPs who need tools and arguments to take to the board; and C-suite executives (CEO, COO, CHRO, CFO), whether they're firmly in their role or weighing a move.
I give talks to CEOs on why toxic culture pushes out talent 10 times more than salary does, and what to do on Monday morning to reverse it. My three pillars are: Cultivate Talent (versus retaining), leadership in moments of transition (mergers, successions, AI, market shifts) and culture as a competitive advantage (culture isn't implemented, it's cultivated, and it moves the P&L).
Through the contact form on this site (the Let's talk section). Tell me the date, the format (in person or online), the type of audience and, if you can, the angle you want me to take. If the event fits my schedule and the topics I work on, I'll get back to you with availability and a proposal within a few days.
It's my biweekly newsletter on culture, talent and leadership. More than 60 editions published and +4,500 subscribers. The format isn't academic: I take a reference from film, books or pop culture, cross it with a real business situation and pull out a lesson you can actually apply. It's all archived and searchable by topic in the Library section of this site.
On YouTube, Spotify and all the usual podcast platforms. More than 30 episodes published, with long conversations with CEOs, founders and talent leaders in Spain. The full episodes with summaries and platform links are in the Episodes section of this site.
If you want to talk about a keynote, an advisory engagement or simply explore whether it makes sense to work together, drop me a line. I usually reply within 48 hours.
Manuel Soriano Olona
Cristóbal Bordiú 33, 28003 Madrid
hola@cultivandotalento.es · cultivandotalento.es
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Manuel Soriano Olona
Address: Cristóbal Bordiú 33, 28003 Madrid
Email: hola@cultivandotalento.es
Web: cultivandotalento.es
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