Cohesion

This episode features an interview with Will Leahy, VP of People Development and Business Partners at Greenhouse; and Layla Kajer, Director of People Experience at Greenhouse. Will leads people development, focusing on optimizing performance, career growth, and driving culture. Layla spearheads people experience where she creates productive, connected, and empowering work environments for employees. 

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Will and Layla as they dive into psychological safety, vulnerability, and leading by example.

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“The power of vulnerability is limitless and it takes bravery and it takes courage. [...] That vulnerability from a leader actually creates a space where someone else is going to model that behavior. That is the cornerstone, in my opinion, of psychological safety is vulnerability. And that can launch into all kinds of other good things and relationship building and team norms and all that good stuff. But it just starts with being human, in my opinion.” – Will Leahy

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:09): Will and Layla’s backgrounds

*(07:40): Will and Layla explain the mission of Greenhouse

*(09:38): Segment: Story Time

*(10:11): The importance of psychological safety in the workplace

*(22:57): The impact of layoffs on psychological safety

*(25:28): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(29:32): How Greenhouse is ensuring behaviors are mirrored by leaders and employees

*(40:25): How Greenhouse is tackling DE&I

*(47:30): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Will on LinkedIn

Connect with Layla on LinkedIn

Greenhouse’s Inclusive Communications Guidelines

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Laila Tarraf, author of Strong Like Water. After losing her parents and husband, Laila learned that compassion was essential in her personal and professional life. Prior to writing her book, Laila served as the Chief People Officer for Allbirds and Peet’s Coffee, and was the Vice President of HR for Walmart.com. 

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Laila to discuss leading with love, harmony between company values and felt experience, and psychological safety.

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“It matters more that what your stated values are mirror the felt experience, than what those stated values are. There's a cognitive culture, which is what you say your values are and the stated words. And then there's the emotional culture. It's like, ‘Okay, but how does it feel? How are people talking to me? How are we relating to each other?’ And the greater the dissonance between those two things, that's where you run into issues because then, employees are like, ‘Well, we say it's this, but what I'm seeing is this.’ And that's where trust breaks down. And so it actually hurts you to have these beautifully well-articulated values and the accouterments that come with whatever you think employees are looking for; free lunches or workout rooms, but you're not able to talk to your manager. You're not clear on what your role is. Conflict is swept under the rug, So, it becomes passive aggressive. It's all of those things. It's your felt experience really, that is the true culture and the other things become like window washing and that actually ends up hurting you because then you lose the trust.” – Laila Tarraf

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:52): Laila’s background

*(05:58): Segment: Story Time

*(06:14): Laila discusses her book Strong Like Water

*(17:17): Laila’s advice for leading with courage and love

*(27:49): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(28:29): Skills leaders need to have to guide employees through challenging times

*(31:24): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(31:49): What future changes in leadership Laila expects

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Links:

Visit Laila’s Website

Follow Laila on Instagram

Connect with Laila on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Hannah Bolte, Director of Marketing and Communications at Lozier Corporation. Starting as a print and television reporter, Hannah uses her journalism expertise to craft internal, external, and crisis communications strategies and content.

In this episode, Amanda and Hannah discuss Lozier’s mobile-first employee experience platform, reaching deskless workers, and intentional communications.

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"The bulk of our employees work in a manufacturing facility. They don't have email access and their jobs are in the plant, it's not sitting at a desk. We approached the intranet in finding an intranet that would work for us with a sense of, ‘We can't reach those employees right now,’ aside from all those things that you said, like a flier in the break room, providing information to supervisors to say at startup meetings. But, how do you engage them beyond their day-to-day? How do you make them feel like they're part of something bigger? How do you make them realize their impact on the company, on the community? So, mobile-first was a non-negotiable thing for us. We had to make sure that it was accessible by all of our employees at any point in time." – Hannah Bolte

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:47): Hannah’s background

*(08:09): Segment: Story Time

*(09:13): Why Lozier created a mobile-first employee experience platform

*(11:58): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(12:27): Hannah explains the ins and outs of LozierLink

*(29:30): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(32:49): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn

Connect with Lozier Corporation on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Chase Warrington, Head of Remote at Doist, a leading remote-first company. Having worked remotely since 2009, Chase has managed teams across all timezones and is passionate about the future of work. He has been named a LinkedIn Top Voice for Remote Work, a Global Top 50 Remote Enabler by Remote.com, and is a frequent contributor to the world’s top remote-work outlets such as Forbes, BBC, and AP.

In this episode, Amanda and Chase dive into remote work; discussing challenges, experience, and what companies get wrong.

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“What I would love to see those same leaders do though, is to stop saying you can't build team culture in a remote environment, or you can't collaborate, or we can't do good brainstorming sessions, or have good relationships with our employees, or mentor our team because that is not true. And you're seeing it being done at scale now. Companies with tens of thousands of employees going remote. We're a team of 100 and in 35 different countries, and at one time, we were seen to be one of the big ones that were doing fully remote work. And so, it is being done. And I do think those companies will continue to see an exodus of talent if they don't invest in at least trying to make it work on some level.” – Chase Warrington

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:13): Chase’s background

*(06:20): Segment: Story Time

*(09:43): Chase explains the nuances of remote work

*(17:53): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(18:17): Problems that Chase is solving in remote work

*(22:18): Things companies get wrong about remote work

*(27:46): Breaking remote experience into subsets

*(30:02): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(30:22): Chase’s thoughts on back to office mandates

*(33:05): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Chase on LinkedIn

Do You Need a Head of Remote? White Paper

Follow Chase on Twitter

The Async Newsletter by Twist

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Pinaki Kathiari, CEO and owner of Local Wisdom, a digital communications agency. Pinaki’s experience spans two decades serving global Fortune companies, startups, and multi-industry agencies. He’s also the co-founder of Resource Hero, Vice President of Professional Development for the IABC Tristate Area Chapter, and a Business Mentor for WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. 

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Pinaki to discuss his communications team maturity model, the ROI of employee recognition, and the value of a digital communications presence.

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“If people don't know how they're actually, or really making a difference, then they kind of lose sight of why they're here. So we all do that. It feels like being in a conversation with two other people who are speaking another language. Kind of like, ‘why am I here and how am I even contributing?’ [...] I think leaders want to quantify investment into recognition systems and programs. And that I get, because that takes some funds and investment and planning. But I also think that recognition doesn't have to take a large investment. Like I said, simply adding a topic to your leader's speaking points; it's the littlest thing you could do that doesn't cost really anything. Because at the end of the day, we work better as friends and friends show appreciation to each other.” – Pinaki Kathiari

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:12): Pinaki’s career journey

*(10:02): Segment: Story Time

*(10:58): How Pinaki quantifies the ROI of employee recognition

*(17:16): How leaders can institute employee recognition

*(22:41): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(23:07): Pinaki explains his communications team maturity model

*(29:37): Must-haves for a good internal comms team

*(34:15): Metrics internal communicators can use to show ROI

*(38:40): Changes to the communications team maturity model

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Links:

Connect with Pinaki on LinkedIn

Follow Pinaki on Instagram

Follow Pinaki on Twitter

Local Wisdom

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features a roundtable discussion with Carolyn Clark, VP of Employee Experience Strategy and Transformation at Simpplr; Julie Miller, Senior Internal Communications Specialist at Simpplr; and Paralee Johnson, Senior Manager of Community and Content at Simpplr.

In this episode, Carolyn, Julie, and Paralee discuss how they wish Internal Comms to be perceived, learning from their mistakes, and trends they’re looking forward to in 2023.

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“We could do everything possible in our tool belt of tools for comms and something can still fail in the eyes of stakeholders. It's really important not to tie our value to the success of a particular program, that we don't necessarily own, to the success of the things that we do, per se. Because, sometimes you can do all of the things in your comm playbook, you can throw everything at the world at it, and maybe it's actually not what the audience needed or wanted. And then the organization or the stakeholders have to go back and reassess, ‘What are we actually doing? Was this to check a box? Was this some larger business goal that maybe really wasn't what they needed or wanted?’” – Paralee Johnson

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:37): The panelists discuss their backgrounds and roles at Simpplr

*(08:11): How Internal Comms is viewed and how they wish that would change

*(10:54): How to show the value of data

*(14:31): How to create a unified understanding of success

*(16:41): How to onboard stakeholders

*(20:44): The panelists discuss past mistakes and how they learned from them

*(32:57): How the panelists found their voices to speak up

*(39:13): What Internal Comms can learn from other departments

*(50:03): Rapid fire Internal Comms questions

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Links:

Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn

Visit Carolyn’s website

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn

Follow Julie on Instagram

Follow Julie on Behance

Connect with Paralee on LinkedIn

Simpplr Blog

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Olga Skouteli, Head of Culture and Engagement at Lilium, a high-growth scale-up revolutionizing aviation. Olga specializes in developing and delivering engagement, internal communications, and Diversity and Inclusion strategies. Olga previously served as an employee experience consultant for global organizations like Rolls-Royce, Visa, and Nestlé where she transformed their culture and employee experience to drive business results.

In this episode, Amanda and Olga discuss breaking down silos, nuances of language, and their hopes for internal communications in 2023.

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“I would like to see communicators be part of the conversation and the decisions, not only the conversation after the decisions have been made. Because, this is the power of communication and creating culture and building engagement and inspiring people, and there is so much potential in there. So, I think the trend I would like to leave back, is this trend of coming to communications just to communicate. It's about understanding that communications is much more than that, and the language and the words is just one aspect of it. Engagement is much more than communications, but communications can drive engagement.” – Olga Skouteli

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:49): Olga’s background

*(04:58): Segment: Story Time

*(06:54): The nuances of meaning behind language

*(16:11): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(16:49): Indications of working in silos

*(23:11): The do’s and don’ts of breaking down silos

*(25:37): Segment: Asking for a Friend

*(25:57): A trend Olga is looking forward to leaving behind in 2022

*(28:02): How Olga gets better at her job

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Links:

Connect with Olga on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Tyler Muse, CEO and Founder of Lingo Live, a one-on-one leadership coaching program. Prior to starting Lingo Live, Tyler worked as an analyst for GE Energy Financial Services, where he focused on underwriting and portfolio management of energy investments. He also founded an internationally-focused mentorship program for multilingual youth in New York City.

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Tyler to discuss work trends like “quiet quitting”, how to motivate leaders to invest in coaching, and the inspiration he draws from Maya Angelou.

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“Maya Angelou famously said, ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ And I think that's really important when we talk about communication. Communication isn’t what you said. It is to some extent, but it's only important what you said in terms of how that made the person feel. What was the feeling that you elicited out of that person and was that actually in your or their best interest? [...] That doesn't mean you say only nice things, you have to deliver critical feedback. But if you do it in a way where you make someone feel blamed or all these other things, you're not going to get anywhere and they're not going to get anywhere either. I think it's important when we enter a coaching conversation, this is what coaches do for people; is they help them not only understand what is it that you need to say to this other person or to yourself sometimes, but also how's that going to land and are we sure that that's actually what you're trying to convey or is there a different way to communicate this?” – Tyler Muse

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:44): Tyler’s background

*(04:53): Tyler explains Lingo Live

*(09:18): Segment: Story Time

*(09:36): What inspired Tyler to build a coaching business

*(16:04): Tyler’s advice for coaching leaders to be better communicators

*(23:59): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(24:28): How Tyler works with HR to get investment for executive coaching

*(31:34): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(31:45): Tyler’s thoughts on work trends like “quiet quitting”

*(38:30): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Lingo Live

Email Tyler

Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Laura Borland, TA and Clinical Communications Director at Waters. Unlike most communications professionals, Laura has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry and began her career as a science consultant and government project manager. She found her passion in supporting scientists and communicating their stories to drive business outcomes.

In this episode, Amanda and Laura discuss manager-led communications, strategies for reaching people globally, and helping leaders become better communicators.

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“Executives need to identify that the managers are your best representatives of the employee base. They're the ones that are eyes and ears; they're all around, they see it. They're at that sort of level, and they really should be, hopefully, empowered and respected and heard. And that when we communicate to them, find ways to better empower and not just assume that they're going to cascade verbatim the message from on high. There's a lot of contextualization, translation to get that message from what the executive sees at a high-level strategic business, and even strategic cultural level, down into the organization to really pump the blood through and get those tactics, those strategies, all those things from the business and culturally through the organization.” – Laura Borland

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:43): Laura’s background

*(06:48): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(07:14): One strategy that gets overlooked when trying to reach people globally

*(08:51): Laura opens her manager-led communication playbook

*(23:16): Segment: Seat at The Table

*(26:56): How Laura coaches leaders to be better communicators

*(30:51): Segment: Asking for a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Laura on LinkedIn

Waters

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast