The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR The Modern People Leader

Hebba Youssef, Founder & Creator of I Hate it Here & Chief People Officer at Workweek, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about the work they're doing to elevate their managers to the next level, why the CEO and Chief People Officer dynamic is challenging, and whether there has been scope creep for the CPO role.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place to Work®. Download their latest research on Return-to-Office Mandates here.

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2:36 Good news stories

10:26 Your thirties

14:04 Hebba’s story

21:49 Balancing Dual Roles: CPO and Content Creator

25:42 What Hebba dislikes most about being a creator

27:30 Maturing as a company is painful

31:09 Getting managers to the next level

33:14 Friday manager trainings at Workweek

39:20 Changing the mindset of leaders to want to change

45:45 Why the CEO and Chief People Officer dynamic is difficult

48:53 Your CEO needs a professional coach and a therapist

54:24 Is the scope of the CPO role getting too big?

57:56 The piece of HR that Hebba would give away

59:11 Rapid fire questions

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Erin Thomas, VP, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Upwork, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about how her team is leveraging data in their DEI work, why you need high utility DEI programs, and she shared a couple examples from the last year at Upwork.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place to Work. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com/mpl.

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1:11 Good news stories

05:22 Erin’s Journey to becoming the VP of DIB at Upwork

07:32 Where DEI efforts can go wrong

14:11 The polarization of DEI

16:50 Key ingredients of DEIB work in 2024

19:09 The Importance of Data in DEI

25:10 The GlowUp community at Upwork

30:00 DIBs programs VS the DEI work that has to be deeply integrated into the business

35:04 Using AI to improve feedback quality for people of color

41:13 Exploring Generative AI in DEI

46:12 Making DEI work fun

51:31 Rapid Fire Questions

55:03 Future of Work and DEI

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Don Robertson, EVP & CHRO at Northwestern Mutual, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about prioritizing company values over star performers, why the future of work is more about skills and less about job titles, and the real reason change takes so long in the workplace.

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This episode was brought to you by Great Place to Work. Learn more at greatplacetowork.com/mpl.

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(0:55) Good news stories

(5:05) Don’s story: Shifting from finance to HR

(9:07) Turning HR discussions with your CEO into business outcome discussions

(12:07) How working in sales has helped him as a people leader

(14:04) Northwestern Mutual

(19:40) Managers need to become career coaches and guides

(22:33) You can’t town hall your way to change

(23:46) Incentivizing managers to develop the next generation of talent

(27:55) Holding managers accountable

(34:03) How Northwestern Mutual thinks about moving people around to different teams throughout the company

(39:20) CHROs will need to help design a system that’s less about your title and more about what you know

(43:20) Change is needed but there's no incentive for those involved in the system to change

(46:20) Rapid fire questions

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Erica Spitale joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about the current HR job market, why soft skills should be called power skills instead, and the work-life smoothie.

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This episode was brought to you by Tilt. Learn more at hellotilt.com/mpl.

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(2:41) Good news stories

(7:28) Erica’s journey and what’s next for her

(11:20) The current job market for HR leaders

(14:33) How she’s approaching her job search 

(18:48) Erica’s obsession with leadership

(22:54) What it means to be a manager versus a leader

(24:30) The hardest things in leadership are the things that make us human

(27:12) To be a leader requires you to think of yourself less and others more

(30:21) Building an inclusive leadership series

(33:15) What great leadership looks like

(36:12) Soft skills should be rebranded to “power skills”

(39:00) We need to find metrics to measure “power skills”

(41:00) Erica’s superpower skill

(43:30) Making leadership a choice, not a requirement

(45:37) The work-life smoothie

(48:21) Rapid fire questions

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Trey Boynton, Chief Diversity & People Officer at Chief, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about why running a community is similar to HR work, where communities and companies tend to stumble, and the metric we wish existed for managers.

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This episode was brought to you by Tilt. Learn more at hellotilt.com/mpl.

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(2:35) Good news stories

(10:50) Trey’s journey from academia to CPO

(17:45) What Chief does

(21:46) The myth around the divestment of DEI

(24:50) Why running a community is a lot like HR

(29:57) Intentionality is everything with community building

(34:19) Things are constantly changing in the world and in HR—you have to evolve with your people

(37:59) Onboarding community members versus employees

(45:50) The leadership crisis

(51:25) The best leaders know they don’t know

(56:30) Rapid fire questions

(1:02:27) One word or phrase close

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Sam Baber, SVP of People at Kalkomey Enterprises, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about the work his company is doing to build a high performance culture, why he’s consolidating their HR tech stack, and why it’s important to maintain the perspective that HR is just a job.

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This episode was brought to you by Tilt. Learn more at hellotilt.com/mpl.

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(2:35) Good news stories

(10:50) Sam’s story

(17:35) Pivotal moments of his career

(21:15) A career in HR is a journey and discovery of the human condition

(24:21) What Kalkomey does

(27:40) Developing conscious leaders

(31:34) Building a performance culture

(38:42) They’re working on their values

(41:43) Thinking about the future generations

(51:12) Consolidating the HR tech stack

(56:58) Maintaining the perspective that HR is just a job

(1:04:24) Rapid fire questions

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📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get key learnings & career advice from Modern People Leaders

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