Colombian Consultant Lisa X Walden Explains Why Human-Centered Leadership Matters in the BPO Industry

Colombia has a thriving, growing BPO industry, as evidenced by the success of the CX Summit 2026, organized by the industry association, Bpro. While the sector is known to have some very innovative employers,  Lisa Walden, co-founder of Good Company Consulting and co-author of The Future of Work Is Human was a keynote speaker at this year’s event where she spoke about how organizations can build more human-centered workplaces by moving beyond traditional leadership approaches and understanding employees as individuals.

Her presentation explored the “platinum rule” of leadership, which is treating people the way they want to be treated, as well as the changing expectations of different generations entering the workforce.

With Colombia’s BPO industry employing a large and increasingly younger workforce, Walden, A Colombian with roots in Santander, discussed how leaders can better engage Gen Z employees, build psychological safety, improve communication, and adapt to a rapidly changing global workplace shaped by technology, globalization, and shared experiences such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance Colombia’s Executive Editor Loren Moss was able to speak with Walden about her concepts and guidance for innovative employers in any industry sector.

Finance Colombia: We’re here at the CX Summit 2026. I’m with Lisa Walden. You’re quite the superstar. There’s been such a line of people looking at your book, The Future of Work is Human. You gave a great talk, and it’s exciting to have you here. At the end, there was a big surprise for me. I heard you speaking pretty good Spanglish, and then I learned you’re Colombian.

Lisa Walden: Yes, I am.

Finance Colombia: Wow, that’s so cool.

Lisa Walden: Yeah, I think so too. I very much represent Colombian pride as much as I can. This necklace is actually from Colombia, so I wanted to be wearing it on stage with me.

Finance Colombia: Great. And we could talk for an hour about that, but I think we want to talk about your presentation today. You gave an interesting talk, and you also have a book about this: how to relate to people differently in the workplace.You talked about the Golden Rule, which is to treat people the way you would want to be treated, but then—

Lisa Walden: The Platinum Rule.

Finance Colombia: Yes, exactly. The Platinum Rule: treat people the way they would want to be treated.

Lisa Walden: Yes, exactly.

Finance Colombia: Which is all the difference in the world, isn’t it?

Lisa Walden: Yeah. We don’t live in a one-size-fits-all world. Being able to know how to customize your leadership approach for the people you’re leading is the way to do it better: to lead in a more human-specific, nuanced way.

I know that’s hard. It’s not easy to do that if you have a team of 20. But that’s why I always say micro moves are your best friends. Think about what micro adjustments you can make that will help you connect and lead more effectively.

Finance Colombia: Something else that you touched on was interesting: how leaders in businesses — and that doesn’t just mean managers and directors, but leaders of all types, no matter their title — interact with people from different generations.

In a way, this can become a stereotype when people talk about Baby Boomers, Gen X, and other generations. But I think the message is to understand the people on your team and relate to them in a way that makes sense and is productive for both the organization and the individual. Is that the gist of it?

Lisa Walden: Oh yeah, 100%. As you said, sometimes people use these generational names as stereotypes, and I really caution against that.

It’s more a lens that you see other people through. It’s one piece of information, one additional bit of texture and nuance to how you lead, but you have to do the work yourself as well.

You have to find out, as individuals, what their preferences are, how they like to receive feedback, how they like to be appreciated, and what their style of work is. When you gain all that information, that’s what really helps you be a better leader.

Finance Colombia: Now, your consultancy has a business partner, and you both do consulting aside from having written a book together.

Lisa Walden: We have it here!

Finance Colombia: The Future of Work is Human. We’ll link to it, of course. Beautiful cover, by the way.

Lisa Walden: Thank you. We worked really hard on that. The first few we received were a no, but we landed on something good.

Finance Colombia: Great. My question is: what do you do as partners in your consultancy? What’s the purpose of the business, and what type of clients do you serve?

Lisa Walden: Our very tongue-in-cheek mission is to help people create workplaces that don’t suck.

We used to work together at an organization as generational consultants, and everyone would say, “Oh, we love your job. It’s so awesome. How do we work for you?”

We identified the gaps where people could focus more on the humans in the workplace and decided to make it our mission to help people create workplaces that don’t suck — but even better, make awesome workplaces.

The work that we do is focused on that people-first lens. We look at generations at work: Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z. We look at building psychological safety and trust, communication, and compassionate leadership.

Mostly, we deliver this content at meetings, associations, and events. But we also go into organizations. We do team building, workshops, and consulting engagements when a client comes to us with a very specific ask.

Our mission is simple: helping people create workplaces that don’t suck. The way we disseminate that information and pursue that mission is pretty varied.

Finance Colombia: That’s fascinating. Is there a website or a way people who might need that service can get in touch with you?

Lisa Walden: Absolutely. You can find me on LinkedIn. My name is Lisa X Walden, and you can find me easily with the X Walden. The X is for my middle name, Ximena, which is very common here in Colombia.

You can find us on Instagram at @goodcompanyconsulting, and you can also find our website at www.goodcompanyconsulting.com.

Finance Colombia: Lastly – and you’ve been very generous with your time – I love seeing the interest. We’ve been standing here and people keep coming up to you, which is amazing.

Lisa Walden: It’s cool.

Finance Colombia: I’ve been coming to this event for about 15 years, and I’ve never seen that kind of response. I’ve seen other popular people, but not like that. That’s really impressive for the keynotes.

Lisa Walden: Wow. Thank you for saying that.

Finance Colombia: What are the takeaways that people in the BPO industry specifically can use and apply?

Also, you talked about life-defining events and the things we remember — whether it’s 9/11 or other major events. It’s fascinating because you look at the parallels and differences between Colombia and other generations.

I think about the older generation when they think about the Bogotazo, when the presidential candidate was killed and everything that happened afterward. Were there differences that you found, or any surprises as you prepared for this and unpacked that?

Lisa Walden: I focused mostly on Gen Z because that was my ask. It sounds like for many BPOs, a vast majority of their employees are within that generational age range.

Gen Z right now is between 16 and 30, so I really focused on them in my interviews and research for this event.

I’ll also say that when we look at generations, the way we talk about them is through events and conditions during formative years — roughly your teenage years. Of course, a different country is going to have different formative events for different generations.

For Gen Z, there is so much that’s similar because of globalization, the internet, COVID, and technology. We have access to the same types of things, so they are showing up much more similarly across the board than older generations.

Of course, there are some uniting events. For example, I asked the room, “What is an event or condition you remember from your formative years?” I want to say there was a Millennial in the room who said 9/11, and a Colombian Millennial who said a Colombian event.

There are shared events and conditions globally, but for Gen Z, there are so many of them. I went in knowing that, but I was surprised to find the level of similarity between how that is shaping them at work.

Things like really prioritizing mental health, prioritizing their own wellness, and pushing for work-life harmony — that’s what we call it. It’s not balance, but it’s about getting resources from work that make them better people outside of work and then being able to unplug after work so they can be better at their work when they come back.

They also have a different association with people in positions of authority and a different kind of work ethic, I would say. It can push some people because it’s different from what they’ve seen in the past.

We see that cyclical conversation: “Oh, this generation doesn’t want to work anymore.”

What really surprised me was the similarities and how many there were. It was truly shocking, even as a generational researcher, to say: “Wow, the similarities across these countries are pretty staggering.”

Finance Colombia: Absolutely. We’re all on the same internet and connected. If you look at globalization, Colombians consuming US content and people in the US being able to access channels from Uzbekistan and Bangladesh on their cable systems now — it’s a different world.

Lisa Walden: Yep, exactly. You can see the whole world now. So yeah, it makes sense.

Finance Colombia: Great. You’ve been so generous with your time. Thanks so much. It’s an honor to talk to you, and it’s been a lot of fun.

Lisa Walden: Thank you for having me. It’s such a pleasure. I’m just happy to be here.

Finance Colombia: Great.