The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR

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150 - How Top Companies Build Winning Cultures: Simon Taylor (Head of Organization Effectiveness, Gap) Jan 26, 2024

Show notes

Simon Taylor, Head of Organizational Effectiveness at Gap, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

He shared the three steps to building a high performance culture, the three things all leaders need to do really well, and the commonalities that he’s noticed among the top performing companies.

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This episode was brought to you by Leapsome. Explore their intelligent HR platform here.

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Pre-order his book Build Smart: A Blueprint for Building a High-Performing Organization

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Timestamps:

(1:55) Good news stories

(7:50) Chasing his childhood dream of moving to America

(11:29) What you do in Organizational Effectiveness

(13:12) Why we should be jealous Simon gets to work for the Gap

(14:30) Culture change is the number two priority for Global HR leaders right now

(18:43) The conflation between values and culture

(22:17) The 3 steps to building a high performance culture

(27:35) Shoring up sponsorship for culture initiatives with your leaders first

(33:30) His experience writing his first book

(35:03) Commonalities among the top performing companies

(37:52) The three things all leaders need to do really well

(49:04) How Simon identified his playbook for building a high performance organization

(50:37) The four pillars of building and managing a high performance organization

(53:46) Biohacking

(1:03:40) Rapid fire questions

(1:07:44) Build Smart: A blueprint for building a high performing organization

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149 - 1,000 Days of Distributed at Atlassian (Annie Dean, VP of Team Anywhere at Atlassian) Jan 22, 2024

Show notes

Annie Dean, VP of Team Anywhere at Atlassian, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

She shared Atlassian’s learnings after 1,000 days of distributed work: their calendar redesign experiment, the impact of in-person gatherings on team connection levels, and the ROI of real estate at Atlassian.

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This episode was brought to you by Pyn. Get access to their Employee Journey Designer ⁠here⁠.

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(4:03) Good news stories

(9:17) Annie's journey from practicing law to becoming a leader in workplace innovation.

(14:22) Transition to Atlassian and the philosophy of 'Team Anywhere'.

(20:59) Discussion about Atlassian's core values and its unique Australian influence.

(24:53) Launching the '1000 days of distributed Atlassian' report and its insights.

(27:06) The significance of data-driven decision-making in a distributed work environment.

(31:15) The importance of setting priorities and how it shapes Atlassian's work culture.

(37:09) Exploration of time zone impacts on team effectiveness.

(39:18) Addressing challenges in distributed work environments and measuring team connection.

(43:33) The role of real estate and office space in Atlassian’s distributed model.

(47:25) Annie's thoughts on building a strong company culture in a distributed setup.

(52:00) Closing thoughts and takeaways from the discussion.

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148 - The CHRO & CEO Relationship: Hannah Yardley (Chief People & Culture Officer, Achievers) Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

Hannah Yardley, Chief People & Culture Officer at Achievers, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

She shared how only 1/3 of CHROs feel a strong connection to their exec team, a framework for making big CPO<>CEO decisions, and how to work on your relationship with your CEO.

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(0:20) Good news stories

(5:40) Coming from a family of medical professionals

(7:34) What Achievers does

(10:03) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at Achievers

(12:20) HR needs a period of recovery to heal

(19:05) Only a 1/3 of CHROs feel a strong connection to their exec team & board

(27:43) A framework for making big CPO<> CEO decisions

(29:03) Working on your CHRO<>CEO relationship

(38:10) Their manager empowerment research report

(48:24) Rapid fire questions

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147 - Help employees find their higher purpose: Sunny Grosso (Workplace Wellbeing Igniter & Culture Maven) Jan 16, 2024

Show notes

Sunny Grosso, Workplace Wellbeing Igniter & Culture Maven, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about the current state of happiness at work, why wellbeing starts with your leadership team, transcendence and its role in the workplace, and helping employees find their higher purpose.

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This episode was brought to you by Leapsome. Explore their intelligent HR platform here.

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(0:55) Good news stories (04:50) Sunny shares her background, experiences, and how she became a happiness consultant (12:31) A deep dive into yoga's impact on Sunny’s personal and professional life (23:22) Sunny discusses her insights into the science of happiness and its relevance in the workplace (30:00) The employer’s role in the personal happiness of their employees (35:58) Strategies for embedding higher purpose in organizations for better culture and employee engagement (41:05) Practical advice for leaders to understand and implement concepts for a happier workplace (54:24) Discussing the concept of transcendence and its role in the workplace

(57:38) Rapid Fire Questions

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146 - The first 6 months as a Chief People Officer: Q Hamirani (Chief People Officer, Paper) Jan 09, 2024

Show notes

Q Hamirani, Chief People Officer at Paper, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about his first 6 months as a Chief People Officer, why your company should have well-defined focus areas, advice to other first-time CPOs, and tying your HR KPIs to actual business outcomes.

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This episode was brought to you by Leapsome. Explore Leapsome's intelligent HR platform here.

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Go check out The PeopleGPT Community.

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(1:26) How Q’s first 6 months as Chief People Officer went

(7:45) Good news stories

(13:42) What Q’s journey as a first-time Chief People Officer has looked like so far

(18:45) Setting rigor on backfilling and workforce planning process

(21:30) How he describes the role of Chief People Officer

(23:08) Why people should aspire to be a Chief People Officer

(24:30) Rebuilding trust at Paper

(27:30) Why they moved comms under the People Team

(30:29) Defining the three areas of focus for the business

(39:06) Advice to other first-time CPOs

(42:45) Tying HR KPIs to actual business outcomes

(46:05) Changing his views on AI in HR

(51:47) Why he built the PeopleGPT community

(1:03:42) Rapid Fire Questions

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145 - Broken Systems & Shifting from Pay to Performance Convos: Haris Ikram (Co-Founder at CandorIQ) Dec 18, 2023

Show notes

Haris Ikram, Co-Founder at CandorIQ, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

First, he interviewed us about how we got into the HR space and times we’ve noticed “the system” to be broken. Then, he shared how we can empower managers to have pay conversations, the insights they need to turn those talks into performance conversations, and how you can be more proactive about pay increases.

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Get the Pay Transparency Playbook: https://www.candoriq.com/resources/pay-transparency-playbook

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(1:45) Good news stories

(7:07) Haris interviews us

(8:07) How we got into the HR & People space

(14:50) Examples of times where we’ve noticed “the system” is broken

(23:16) Examples of times when the system has worked

(30:00) Stephen’s biggest learnings from interviewing over 100+ people leaders

(33:00) How Haris got into the HR Tech world

(35:30) The products need to work for the people team versus the other way around

(36:20) The most difficult thing about being a founder

(37:30) What CandorIQ does and why we should be jealous he gets to work there

(41:02) Equipping managers to have conversations about pay

(43:22) What makes talking about comp so hard

(46:47) The insights you need to turn pay conversations into performance conversations

(50:00) Understanding churn risks within your team

(54:05) How to be more proactive with pay increases

(56:40) How remote and global work has changed pay over the last 3 or 4 years

(59:00) Moving pay data out of spreadsheets

(1:01:06) Rapid fire questions

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144 - An HR Leader’s Journey with Workplace Accommodations: Jodie Cenci (HR Director, Primary.com) Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

Jodie Cenci, HR Director at Primary.com, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

She shared her journey navigating workplace accommodations since her fibromyalgia diagnosis, the surprising number of people in the U.S. with disabilities, and creative ways companies can be more inclusive of employees with disabilities.

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(3:10) Good news stories

(8:35) Jodie’s story: from selling Cutco knives to HR

(14:48) What Primary does

(16:02) Supporting employees with disabilities

(17:59) Flexibility is a huge win for people with disabilities

(21:02) The distrust of employees is problematic

(23:35) More than 25% of employees have some form of disability

(27:00) Disability is an inclusion issue

(29:10) Accommodation policies need to be more visible

(35:17) How fibromyalgia has impacted Jodie’s ability to work

(39:23) What Jodie learned from going through the accommodation process herself

(42:33) Making it easier for employees to disclose their disabilities

(46:33) Fibromyalgia is still widely misunderstood

(48:40) DISCLO

(50:11) Operating as an HR team of one

(55:25) What she has lined up for 2024

(58:30) Rapid Fire Questions

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143 - The Science of High Performing Teams: Josh Siegal (VP People, 7Shifts) Dec 05, 2023

Show notes

Josh Siegal, VP of People at 7Shifts, joined us on The Modern People Leader.

We talked about navigating complexity and conflict at work, the biggest misconceptions about high performing teams, and what the science says about the highest performing teams.

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This episode was brought to you by Pyn. Get access to their Employee Journey Designer here.

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(2:40) Good news stories

(6:46) Josh’s non traditional path to becoming a VP of People

(8:22) What 7Shifts does

(13:28) The current state of HR: Complexity & Conflict

(15:45) Navigating complexity and burnout in the world we’re in

(18:17) Getting laser focused

(21:30) Creating a safe environment for people during tough times

(30:40) Biggest misconceptions about having a high performing team

(35:35) Renewal rituals and speedy meetings

(37:14) Listening to the rhythms in your body

(40:00) Take a hard look at your daily activities to prioritize focus work

(42:40) Rapid fire questions

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