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.

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!