PeopleStar Podcast: Recent Episodes
PeopleStar Podcast
We deliver leadership perspectives from industry experts on their people, architecture, routines, and culture as they solve HR’s newest challenges.
Growing as an organization also means hiring new players and setting the bases for a structure.
Christine Zapata, Vice President of Human Resources & Talent Development for Starplast USA, talks about how she’s building for growth within her organization from an HR standpoint in terms of management structure, hiring, and recognition. As Starplast seeks to grow, they bring in corporate-level managers, directors, and vice presidents to create a vision and structure that new employees can grab onto. She explains why this will relieve leadership from administrative tasks and relegate new positions with a focus on production, purchasing, and material management in the manufacturing environment. She also explains how she uses a multi-layered behavioral-based interviewing process to find new hires and successfully bring the best new players. Christine also speaks about why recognizing good performance and small wins can empower employees to continue this behavior and inspire their peers.
Listen to this episode and learn about HR’s role in growing an organization!
When companies are successful they have the need to transform to reach new goals.
Mark Mathia, Chief Experience Officer at Signature Performance, is here to discuss why the company decided to split up its HR department into talent acquisition and talent operations, and how success has made them grow. He describes the functions of each new branch within talent, stating that the post-pandemic labor market has changed significantly. He also enthuses life-changing company culture strategies like listening, coaching, and communications. They work with their teams to take them from good to great, improving their people and the ROI.
Tune in to this incredible conversation about moving forward with culture when a company is successful!
Company Culture has transformed in recent years, and employee engagement is at the forefront right now.
In this episode, Jen Weinberg, Talent and Culture Manager at Conifer Research, talks about how routines, meetings, and positive feedback loops create a consistent, proactive culture at the organization’s different events in its hybrid context. After the pandemic, Jen changed the meetings’ content and format, and its subsequent development required flexibility and adaptability. The team now has monthly in-person and virtual meetings, so everyone is included. She discusses what has proven to be cons and pros for this hybrid model, and she also explains how employee feedback has fed these changes to build a mix of activities and surveys that appeal to everyone’s engagement. Jen also emphasizes the importance of constantly evaluating the routines at work to ensure they achieve the goals they set up for and make the necessary changes if they aren’t.
Tune in to learn more from Jen’s strategies to create a culture in a hybrid company!
The offboarding process requires extreme thought and care when an organization goes through layoffs.
Steve Lovig, Director of Human Resources for Homestar Financial, says that when it comes to managing layoffs and offboarding, approaching the impacted individuals from a human-empathetic perspective improves the experience. It all starts with ensuring that how the decision is communicated is respectful and keeps the employee’s dignity intact, preferably delivered by their direct manager but supported by the HR team. Steve explains how HR plays a crucial role in achieving this by building a communication strategy and framework in advance, preparing managers to choose the employees to be laid off, and outlining what will be said to them. However, individuals being laid off are still people with needs, frustrations, and desires, so Steve details how an HR department can ease the transition by helping them take the next step in their careers.
Tune in to this episode to learn how you, as an HR leader, can step into an impacted person’s shows and make the process more easygoing!
Our careers are a central part of our identity, how can we best find fulfillment and joy in them?
George Sample, Vice President of People & Culture for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, came to share how he impacts the lives of employees working in HR. Coming from a very different background, George found in HR a place where he could grow while helping others. George highlights how important it is for organizations and HR leaders to recognize where their people are to boost their processes with the right tools and resources. During the coaching sessions, George helps people understand why they do what they do, and how to align them with their goals.
What’s the impact you want to have in the universe and why? Tune in to this episode and see if you can find the answer!
You all know that what we love the most is listening to the HR stories people have to tell.
In this episode of the PeopleStar Podcast, we welcome Adam Nierenberg, Human Resources Director at The Singelyn Group, to share his insights about connecting people inside our industry. As HR professionals, we all share one gift: the power to connect with other people. The basis of every work relationship is respect. One does not have to like coworkers outside of the job relationship; it’s the division between personal and professional settings. Another element that Adam highlights is understanding the why, from small items to more significant tasks, and how to give employees an incentive when they reach their performance goals.
Tune in to this incredible episode about managing people in the HR industry!
People working in HR may come from various life paths, and all that experience makes them great.
Jacara Powers has been working in HR for the last 11 years after coincidentally falling into it, and she’s here to share some of her experiences in our field. Without knowing anything about healthcare rather than what happens in Grey’s Anatomy, Jacara found a place of love and passion at Duke Health. For quite a long time, Jacara bounced jobs until she landed one at Duke and realized she wanted to be in the candidate experience team. She decided to be the welcoming, smiley person she wished she had had at every new job she started!
Tune in to this wonderful conversation about employee engagement and Jacara’s story!
Let’s chat about HR without talking about HR.
Today’s conversation is an unusual but incredible one. HR has many points of view, and today’s guest has a pretty specific one that we need to share around a company’s culture and purpose-driven values. Michael Saterman is a Chief Customer Officer and managing partner working at Saterman Connect. When a company explains its purpose and what success is for them, its employees will come into alignment. Michael goes into the weeds of explaining his work with organizations, the key role HR has today, and how they engage in partnerships.
Tune in to this incredible episode about the role of HR today!
HR has and will continue to evolve through time, and people will always talk about what makes them proud; it’s just a matter of asking.
Today’s guest knows how to use his superpower: assessing people. Neil Katz has incredible experience working with C-Suite executives in different industries and is here to share his two cents on how to know people. Many HR professionals understand the organization and its people, but there are areas where they lack and fail to dive into, like business operations. Neil encourages every HR professional to start a learning journey within their companies. The benefits the whole company gets when HR is involved holistically are exponential.
Tune in to this incredible episode about growth, challenges, and professionalism!
Leadership is a two-sided growth highway: for both the employee and the employer.
Today’s guest found the perfect way to merge HR and healthcare through his positions developing businesses and strategy; we welcome Geoffrey Roche to the PeopleStar Podcast! He escalated the corporate ladder rather quickly and started having older individuals reporting to him. This was a challenge when he confronted a specific person that questioned what he, as his supervisor, could contribute. This experience was Geoffrey’s aha moment, and since then, he started identifying what each individual could provide and bring to the workplace. He always has tried to make people feel valued in their work, creating a positive and assertive environment within the organization.
Listen to this incredible episode about leadership and fomenting people to be their best selves, no matter their age!
Let’s bring someone with great experience in leadership and management… from another industry!
This episode of the PeopleStar podcast features the incredible Ted Turner, which not only has managed multimillion-dollar contracts and projects but also helps people achieve their best selves. In the end, it doesn’t matter the industry, it all comes down to the people that make up those projects, those companies, the ones that are side by side doing the work. He also dives into the cultural challenges of a pluricultural team and how he has resolved some of these stepbacks. He also advises on how to address C-suites when he’s doing an assessment.
Tune in to this great episode about project culture, crisis management, and leadership!
What do forgiveness and good gossip mean in the workplace?
This is a question that Dr. Shawne Duperon has asked herself in all the work she’s done with organizations, universities, entrepreneurs, and more. With a background in television, Dr. Shawne started her own business to help people better communicate with the world and learn to forgive themselves and everyone around them. Accountability is a huge part of forgiveness, and for each team member, it can look completely different. She developed her own five non-linear phases for forgiveness: anger, shock, grief, acceptance, and gratitude. She also gives a great tip on having the apology one will never get.
Tune in to this incredible episode that will help you grow as a professional and a human being!
The workplace has definitely changed for women, now it’s our time to grab the bull by the horns!
In this episode of the PeopleStar Podcast, we have a delightful conversation with an incredibly courageous woman in her career, the one and only Rawan Aldobai. Rawan is the owner of a consulting company that helps others, especially women, bring success and happiness to something that intrinsically affects every aspect of our lives: our careers. She jumped off the certainty and predictability train to find happiness and along the way, discovered how helping other women was something she wanted to keep doing. Success is never a straight line but rather a bumpy ride full of adventures.
We cannot stress enough how important it is to have a powerful and courageous figure in leadership; please tune in to this incredible episode about showing women their true potential.
Sometimes accidents lead to new and exciting roads where growth awaits you.
Nettie Nitzberg ended up in entrepreneurship out of the blue, but she found there the space to challenge herself and grow both professionally and personally. After some rough times of not getting a stable job, Nettie adventured into consulting and has worked in the Learning and Development field for the past 14 years building cultures of belonging through DE&I initiatives. Crisis management, especially around DEI and belonging topics is something Nettie does daily for organizations, knowing the importance of having a stance to increase employee engagement and well-being. Diversity has a lot of invisible dimensions, most of the time they aren’t exposed in plain sight.
Listen to this wonderful conversation about diversity, equity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging!
Sometimes life unfolds in very mysterious ways, always leading us to where we need to be.
Theresa Forgét has had so many life experiences that brought her to be a top-notch HR leader in the healthcare industry. She ended up as the Executive Director of Human Resources at Howard County General Hospital after working in several hospital systems. She understood the importance of building up a strong team after an acquisition, community-centered thinking, and learning from the get-go. If you’re destined to be in a specific industry, life will keep bringing you back to it one way or another, just like Theresa’s journey demonstrates.
This episode is an inspirational masterclass about people management but ultimately, about how to follow a passion through thick and thin.
Many companies want to transform today, but what does that mean?
We have the honor of discussing this topic with Corinne Murray, founder and chief strategist of Agate Studio and consultant for many organizations. The workplace has suffered one of the most significant impacts ever during the COVID pandemic and in the last three years, and they use the return-to-the-office example to explain how and when a company sees the need to transform. Corinne states that employees are consumers of the company brand since they are immersed in it all week long. She also shares a little bit of her philosophy at Agate and finally, she leaves with one thought: what would happen if your company stays in beta all the time?
Tune in to this wonderful episode about growth and transformation.
We need to talk about data and how it affects and gives insights into HR.
This week’s guest is our very own Rebeca Kling, part of our team as product manager for Insights at TrakStar! HR’s role has changed significantly during the past decade, and implementing data is now a crucial part of our roles for the organization's well-being. Through dashboards, the Insights team is analyzing trends, key ratios, and data points, and foreshadowing trends so that customers can make better business decisions. Leaders are now incredibly interested in understanding their retention rates and what they are doing right and wrong with their key performers. Rebeca also shares some examples from current customers, how having equitable applications of employment standards is beneficial for the organization, and benchmarking!
Tune in to this incredible episode about data implementation in HR!
Let’s talk about architecture and employee compensation within a company!
Our guest in this episode is James Griffin, CEO of a fast-growing consulting firm that develops custom software for health tech companies called Invene. James starts the conversation by sharing his thoughts on compensation and the two types of models they work with. He also describes thoroughly the different actors within one of those models and how they hire people at Invene. James remarks that good quality people are and will always be expensive, it’s on the company to know if they’ll invest in them or not.
Tune in to this incredible conversation about compensation models with an amazing young man!
How do you transform a company and show them the way to success?
This is what this week’s guest has been down to for the last 25 years, we have the honor of having Bill Goodwin over on the show. He was most recently the CEO of MeMD, which got acquired by Walmart Health. Bill shares how he joins companies, gets them to a healthy growth rate, and works on the culture instead of the metrics. Culture is everything, it needs to be aligned with where the company wants to go, and where it sees itself in the future. He reflects on leadership teams, conflicts, and ways you and your organization can auto-assess and take action.
Tune in to this wonderful episode about our four core topics: people, culture, routines, and architecture!
To lead others, one must first learn how to lead oneself.
Dr. Karen Semien-McBride has an impressive background in leadership and management, and one book changed the course of her education and career: Daniel Goleman’s Working with Emotional Intelligence. From working as a manager at Taco Bell at a young age, all the way to being the CEO of MKCircle CEO Institute, her leadership and coaching style has been determined by one idea: you are always working with human beings. Through research, she developed 4 operational styles that she explains in the episode. Karen also shares a couple of thoughts on building leaders, the culture of care, and how she does it at MKCircle.
Tune in to a fantastic conversation about leadership, the skills needed, and how to build leaders for current companies!
Most people need to learn to be more strategic regarding work and life.
Asia Bribiesca-Hedin is our guest in this episode of the PeopleStar Podcast. Asia is a fantastic HR professional and coach whose passion lies in helping others become more strategic and better decision-makers. From a young age, Asia learned how to be strategic about her life decisions. She also recognizes different leadership styles by doing or not doing certain things. One of the best pieces of advice Asia gives is that it’s entirely up to you how you show up to work and the things you have to do inside the organization. Asia also touches on creating an environment where everyone’s voices are lifted and heard.
Tune in to this episode and think about what type of environment you are working in!
Life will be challenging, there’s no doubt about that; it’s how you meet those challenges that make the difference.
This PeopleStar episode is truly special, as we are honored to have Olympian athlete, coach, author, and leader, Sherry Winn as a guest. She recognizes that what matters in life is not the achievements you have under your belt but how you overcame such challenges along the way. Language can do wonders to show us a path or how we describe things, but seeing everything as a problem or challenge can be daunting. That’s why Sherry likes to shift the mindset: success must be seen as an adventure. Imagination and excitement are two critical components of success, as Sherry mentions during her work with teams, both organizational and sports-wise.
Success is an adventure into the unknown, so tune in to this episode and enjoy!
Sometimes, you must build the HR department from scratch… and on your own.
In this episode of PeopleStar, we have a masterclass about how to do this with Donielle Williams, an HR professional with more than 15 years of experience. She recalls that when she started at this tech company, she was handed a Tupperware bin with employee files, and her reaction was to embrace this challenge with openness. Donielle took this opportunity to mold and grow the HR department just as she wanted to. From compliance and Human Resources Information Systems to the timeline and shifting from in-person to remote workspace are topics that Donielle shares her experience in. Finally, Donielle reflects on the power of networking with other HR professionals; so if you’re in the same position as she was a couple of years ago, start to network!
Tune in to this wonderful episode full of lore about the HR department from the inside!
Leadership and performance may be two topics that are daunting for many HR managers.
This episode of PeopleStar features writer, former HR exec, leader, and strategist Karan Rhodes. She left corporate America to pursue another passion within the HR realm: creating a better environment for employees and leaders. Out of the research she did, came out seven common tactics in every leader: intellectual horsepower, courageous agility, strategic decision-making, intrapreneurship, a drive for results, executive precedence, and stakeholder savvy. She also recalls a beautiful story about a leader who used one of these specific tactics and went on to be successful in her job. Buy-in from the target audience, the influence journey, and which your leadership triggers might be are topics they also touch on during their conversation.
Tune in to this episode to hear Karan describe every successful leader's seven tactics and more about her experience in the field!
Mergers and Acquisitions are common, yet intricate processes.
Klint Kendrick, an author, and expert on mergers and acquisitions with a Ph.D. in organizational leadership talks about what he considers the five key drivers of culture clash in a merger and acquisition process. He establishes a definition of culture in a company context and explains that areas, where things are done differently, are likely to create friction. Decision-making, collaboration styles, tactical operations, communication, and organizational self-concept are the five key areas to take into consideration. Not only do I have to look at the company that's being bought, we often refer to that as the target company. He argues that through self-awareness and understanding of both organizations undergoing an M&A process, the value from the acquired company will be kept and contribute to the bigger one.
This episode will teach you about each of the five areas to look into during a merger and acquisition process! Make sure to tune in and enjoy!
There are three topics that organizations are now focusing on: change management, employee experience, and employee engagement.
Alicia Vallarta worked on these, way before they were mainstream, and always had a human-centered approach to business. At United Minds, they help other organizations be aware of employee engagement, feedback, and satisfaction. Having leaders who start conversations will help employees open up and be vulnerable in a safe space. Richard Branson once said: “take care of your people and they’ll take care of your business”, and this has never been more true. Alicia shares one engagement exercise that she uses at United Minds that has helped their employees share how they feel about things that happen outside of work.
This episode is all about people! Be sure to tune in and enjoy!
John Carlson is a protector of Filtrous’ company culture. But wait, what does that really mean?
Instead of changing the company culture when he first entered Filtrous, John decided to recognize it and define it. If HR managers took the time to listen to their employees, their culture would be entirely different. John shares how he’s building the process at Filtrous to actively listen to his employees. Giving them the option to openly talk with someone and take into account their feedback will strengthen the company culture. Employees will change the way they approach work when they feel they have someone to go to during any type of situation.
Join this episode about creating a healthy company culture based on open communication between team members!
Life, and especially work in HR, is like a marathon: you train for it every day.
Megan Bickle, an avid runner and an incredible HR professional, joins us to discuss organizational engagement and culture. Her first advice when it comes to work is to break down the big tasks into smaller pieces. Doing this will prevent it from becoming overwhelming to people. She likes to break down the elephant by asking a couple of questions about the organization’s culture that can improve the work teams are doing. Megan also shares some experiences about when she had to adjust to a culture and how she dealt with that.
Join this episode for a quick analysis and streamlining of the process of talking about engagement and culture within an organization!
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way everyone approached their work, but mostly for HR professionals who had to find new ways to keep their people engaged.
Alison Jeske is a friend of the house that has worked before with our host Julie. She is also a great HR professional whose passion lies in an organization’s greatest asset: its people. She shares two experiences around HR growth that have made an impact on her. The two of them were in-person gatherings where people were so excited to be together that they shared their experiences around challenges in the sphere. She also emphasizes the importance of having mentors to go to that will probably have faced greater and bigger challenges than you, and ask them for guidance. Networking events are a way to connect professionally and also meet new friends that can help you grow.
Join us in this episode while we discuss HR’s greatest assets, how to find them, and how to keep them!
Matching an ideal candidate with a perfect position and team can be a titanic task in today's world.
We discuss this topic with Rob Studivan, a Senior recruiter and HR professional from the healthcare sector. Matching an ideal candidate with the perfect role, team, and company has become challenging for HR and recruitment over the past decade. Communication between HR, recruitment, and hiring managers is essential. Rob shares his thoughts on passion from the candidates and teams, the time and speed of current processes, career pathing, and more!
This episode is full of the nitty-gritty details of people and the recruitment process; tune in!
This episode is full of the juxtaposition of roles and backgrounds.
We had the honor of having Eric Weber, an HR professional who has worked with America’s biggest companies. He reflects on his job in the army with a story he frequently remembers whenever he feels stuck. Routines can be fun and adventurous, it’s all about the mindset. Eric gives a couple of examples of exercises he does with his people when they meet a roadblock.
Routines can sometimes be monotone, but our job is to reframe them and look for new exciting things every day.
When people are motivated to go to work, everything else flows successfully.
Aysha Alawadhi is a person that loves HR through and through, and we are incredibly honored to have her on the PeopleStar Podcast. With several diplomas under her belt, Aysha reckons that her life-long mentor taught her that lives are changed when people are happy in their work. She also talks about HR analytics and tech, which we don’t often hear about. She shares her journey and how the criteria and data can be applied when the problem to solve is identified. Culture inside the same company may be different if they have different locations across the nation or even worldwide, and that is something Aysha also talks about.
You will find that data will tell you a story about different issues inside the organization.
There is a direct connection between leading and sports!
This episode’s guest is Jeff Lukich, a man who retired to coach endurance athletes after working in child welfare and State Government in Georgia for more than 30 years. Jeff reflects on the parallels between teams in sports and work and how leaders can transfer skills from one to the other. Perseverance, patience, and strategic planning are just some things Jeff found in both endurance races and in leadership. He also shares how to deal with unexpected adversities and having to problem solve on the fly. Encouraging people to be curious will spark a million ideas to work better and more effectively.
If you are a sports practitioner and hold a leadership role at work, we hope this episode is helpful to transfer skills!
We are on a streak of women leaders in HR!
Today’s guest is the incredible Ruby Bakshi Khurdi, a multitasking supermom, educationist, author, TEDx speaker, and HR specialist. With a background of 12 years as an academic dean specializing in marketing and communications and HR, Ruby has a lot to say about the current environment around HR. Emotional intelligence affects every employee in the organization, from top to bottom, with no excuse, but here’s where true leaders arise. In terms of diversity, having in and out of the office moments where the team gets to know each other will create productive environments at work.
Tune in to this episode and see if you and your team are emotionally intelligent when it comes to crisis management!
Today’s episode features an incredible businesswoman and entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of Ladybugz Interactive Agency, the amazing Lysa Miller.
Lysa is a rounded entrepreneur, that decided to branch out from Ladybugz during the pandemic to venture into a new company and solve new needs that the workforce and clients might have. She also shares how she has moved across industries working with different types of companies and around what kind of culture she built Ladybugz. Change is something inevitable and it always happens when you’re building a company, so embracing it will help you grow.
All through the interview, Lysa shares how she built her company, from leadership to the people and most importantly, the culture.
This episode is the perfect merge of women, biotech, agencies, and entrepreneurship; tune in and enjoy!
Today’s episode features a very special guest for Trakstar, our founder, VP of Sales, and Julie Rieken’s father, the one and only Glenn Martin!
Today’s conversation spins all around the foundation of Trakstar and the lessons learned along the way. With a background in Electrical Engineering, Glenn quickly moved from hardware to software and ended up getting ideas to found Trakstar. As a leader, Glenn recalls the power and impact a great boss can have upon their employees, even years after they have parted ways. He also shares how Trakstar came to life and started from the ground up to the successful company it is today.
Tune in and listen to one of the greatest and most remarkable people Trakstar has ever had the pleasure of working with!
We welcome Gary Nowacki, CEO of TraceGains, to this episode of the PeopleStar Podcast in which he reflects on the different types of leaders and how it affects people.
Gary shares with us how the company has been growing in its number of employees, how they incentivize their workforce, and how they’ve been self-sufficient recently. He loves to read business books, and from them, he’s recognized two types of leaders: the harvester and the growth mindset leader. He identifies as a growth mindset leader; what gets him out of bed every day is making the company grow. Inside the company, they have a lot of programs that keep employees motivated and connected. Before wrapping up, Gary gives his thoughts on recruitment and finding the best people that fit your organization.
Listen to this episode and grab Gary’s hands-on experience keeping his team motivated and apply it to your people!
Kirby Scott Ingles came over to the PeopleStar Podcast to share his wisdom regarding leadership and coaching.
Throughout his career, Kirby has worked with a lot of people and has heard and seen the changes in the workforce. During the pandemic, a lot of people were laid off and now that things have stabilized a bit, employees are truly questioning their alignment with the company values, ideals, and mission. If people truly connect with a company’s culture and are mission-driven, they will perform better and be happier.
Tune in to this episode and see how you, as a manager, can connect better with your employees!
This episode’s guest has an incredible career as an HR leader.
We welcome Tony Perlingieri, the Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief HR Consultant for AWP Consulting LLC. With Julie, Tony decided on some big topics they needed to discuss and through the episode, they develop their thoughts and ideas about the types of leaders we can find in HR today. Tony gives us a quick overlook of the HR landscape and how it has evolved in the last 25 years he’s been in the business. He also shares some stories on specific circumstances around his career. He cannot stress enough the importance of communicating things to candidates.
Tune in to listen to some great stories from an HR leader that is rocking the business by the day!
Tommy Breedlove, a Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author came over to the PeopleStar podcast to share his view on leadership and accountability, among other topics. He got his favorite piece of advice from a river rafting guide and it is all about participating in your own rescue. Taking care of ourselves will ultimately help us take care of others, and the same thing happens with leadership. Human beings can be complicated sometimes, but you can always learn something from each individual you cross paths with.
Join us in this short but packed with wisdom episode!
There’s never been a better time to talk about company culture than right now!
Due to the pandemic, the culture of a lot of companies has risen up and has changed. Tony Chatman, this episode’s guest, is a fixer of cultures, and through his work helps companies take their team to the next level. As a speaker and leader, he walks teams through tough topics like unconscious bias and change management. He uses his own company as an example as he talks us through the process of changing culture. Tony’s three big words when building culture are relationships, perspectives, and expectations.
Tune in to this wonderful episode, it will for sure help you reflect on your company culture.
We’ve seen how conventional hobbies can teach you things like leadership and teamwork.
Today’s guest’s hobby is riding motorcycles! Steven Foster reflects on how his hobby taught him how a company should work, just like a motorcycle club: all in sync. He also touches base on sustainability in the workplace, a company’s greatest asset, and the meaning of passion, purpose, and power inside an organization.
Do not think twice and listen to this Steven’s advice on HR’s challenges!
This guest went from managing a start-up, growing it to a big company, and back to the start-up field!
Tony Perez is here to share his two cents on leadership and companies thanks to his experience on Sucuri, who then exited to GoDaddy and right now is back working with two start-ups. At Sucuri, he had his team scattered around 27 countries and he is here to reflect on the leadership challenges that brought in terms of organization inside the company. He also shines a light on how to build a team, and how to look for the specific individuals you need to enhance your company. Tony also shares his thoughts on creativity, ranching, and how the best ideas come to him.
You need to trust your employees to get their job done, but accountability and leadership are needed, even more, when everyone’s remote!
This week’s guest finds his team’s strengths and differences and uses them to boost their work.
Colin Walker, an employment lawyer, has dedicated his life to building teams. His first advice is to gather people that don’t have the same skill sets. Leaders learn over time to organize their individuals to the tasks that suit their strengths. Colin reflects that since he started at Fairfield and Woods in 1999, he has had to look at his strengths and weaknesses. Doing so has taken him to be appointed a position in the executive committee of the firm.
Tune in to this episode and listen to Colin’s strategies to stay fresh and always give his 110%!
Rob Belcher understands the difference between borrowing and selling equity.
His journey has been circuitous, but an interesting one. Rob has a clear understanding of him as an extrovert, trait that enhances his leadership. He also shares how important it is to be a leader with interpersonal skills to build relationships. Successful relationships have great balance. As Rob says, it’s all about giving and taking just enough for everyone to be happy.
Join this conversation with Rob and our host Julie!
This episode’s guest is all about bringing into the light the high-performance skills individuals have.
Wade Thomas has over 20 years of experience in this field and accepts that what really excites him is developing talent and watching careers take off. His philosophy towards work and life is based on empathy and compassion, and that started very early in his career. Having tough conversations can be hard, but starting with what our employees are doing well can help everyone.
Tune in to this episode and grab Wade’s advice on giving feedback and more!
During all of his path in the business, Brian Biddulph-Krentar didn’t know he wanted to be an entrepreneur.
In this episode, you will listen to his overall trajectory. From his early jobs to building companies and then selling them, Brian shares his two cents about leadership. Once he started building in entrepreneurship, he knew he wanted to create a culture in which his company was successful for the employees. Brian also remembers the time that Magnus bought his company Careflow and the challenge that brought in terms of merging the two company cultures. One of his final thoughts is that teams must be proactive and not reactive.
Join this conversation and listen to Brian’s experience on leadership and company culture!
Gabe Miller has had a very non-traditional way of surfing life!
To get to where he is today, Gabe went through a pre-med route, double majoring in chemistry and biology and finally finding his passion in microeconomics. He reflects on how his support system growing up helped him jump from one thing to another. As a sportsman, Gabe has had lessons learned from things unrelated to work that ultimately influence his work. This happens in teams too, and as a leader, one can share those experiences and learnings. Gabe applies the same philosophy in sports as in his businesses.
Have you ever thought about those outside-of-work lessons that you can apply to your team? After listening to this episode, it may be a great opportunity to do so!
Finding the best teammates can be such a difficult task, right? This week’s guest is the outstanding Phil Soffer; he tells us about how he has been able to find rainbow unicorns in his work thanks to his leadership. Phil’s working culture begins with the belief that efficiency is more important than accuracy and that breaking out of one's comfort zone is necessary for growth. He reflects on some scenarios in which he has used this advice for himself and his coworkers. Listen in on this episode to find out what you can do with your team!
Galen Emanuele is a master at creating company culture. This incredible guest shares his experiences working in this field and connecting the dots with several transferable skills. With a background in acting and improv, Galen started seeing how this could be applied to his business and other companies. That is why he now helps companies not only establish their first version of culture but go deeper into their values and what truly makes them unique. Galen defines company culture as the way people treat themselves, how they show up, and how they approach their job. Join this conversation in which Galen shares extremely valuable knowledge about company culture and how to establish it!
This episode’s guest is a mastermind on recruiting and staffing. Jake Norris came over to the PeopleStar Podcast to share how his hobby has taught him to be a better leader! In fishing, Jake has found a parallel to understanding business. In each, you have to have a mission and you have to follow a series of steps to make things perfect. Listen up to this episode and maybe you will find thoughts during your hobby that will help you become a better recruiter!
Today’s guest knows how to be a leader in a large organization! Randy Lambert, from Orion, came over to share his lessons on scaling. He accepts that leaders must learn how to scale and trust people to help them grow. Randy recognized there are three main behaviors in scaling. The first is a recruiting mindset based on bringing in and retaining the right people. Secondly, is a change agent mindset in which everyone is onboard on the decisions taken. Finally, there’s a growth mindset where everyone should ask themselves: How am I going to grow here? Which are your guideposts and markers inside the organization? This episode may give you an idea of how to state them!
Ferruh’s superpower is empathy. As the sole founder of Invicti Security, Ferruh has been in every single position inside the company. By working on the different departments, Ferruh developed empathy for and with his team. He understands their needs and their desires. He also learned how to choose the right people for the right positions in the company. As a leader, Ferruh acknowledges the strong points in his company. Ferruh leaves with a final piece of advice for leaders: repeat yourself over and over again.
At Precision Sample, Don and his team do market research for other companies across all industries. He gives an example of his routines whenever he’s hiring people. Don also shares how he ended up in the research industry. He acknowledges the danger it can be when a client represents 30 to 50%+ of the company’s revenue. Change is another core value for Don and a very important one.
Catch Julie interviewing an incredible man that’s been working on the Internet since he was out of college!
Tony York trains his people to have empathy and always think about the safety of others in the environments they are in. He knows how important it has been for him to always reflect on the decisions he has taken. Another important thing Tony mentions is the power of collaboration. Don’t miss Tony’s advice on hiring!
Welcome to the PeopleStar Podcast!
In this episode, our host, Julie Rieken walks us through what we are all about. PeopleStar Podcast wants to deliver solutions and advice to HR’s newest challenges. We will do this by asking the industry leaders about their experience. This show will focus on four main topics: people, architecture, routines, and culture. Also, feel free to contact us if you have any questions or challenges about Leadership and HR!
Do you want to learn more about people, architecture, routines, and culture?
Be sure to tune in to join our host Julie Rieken every Wednesday as she helps us navigate the HR world alongside industry experts.
Welcome to the PeopleStar Podcast!