What can swing dancing teach us about leadership? More than you'd think. In this episode, Carol Fraser, an HR veteran with 30+ years of experience and 28 years of teaching swing dance, reveals the surprising parallels between the dance floor and the boardroom. Carol breaks down how partner dancing builds trust faster than any corporate team-building exercise, why leaders need to understand "leading vs. bulldozing," and what neuroscience research tells us about movement and brain health. 

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Most organizations have company values — yet very few use them. They sit on a website, printed on a wall, or buried in an onboarding deck… but they rarely guide decisions, shape culture, or influence performance.

In this episode of The Team Check-In, Emre sits down with Ann Melinger, Founder & CEO of Bink, who brings 25+ years of expertise in employee communications, culture transformation, and values-driven leadership. Together, they unpack:

• Why company values become “wallpaper” in most organizations
• The biggest misconceptions leaders have about defining values
• How to translate a value into clear, observable behaviors
• What values look like in action — especially under pressure
• How to integrate values into hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, competencies, and recognition
• What to do if you realize your values are outdated, ignored, or misaligned
• How fast-growing companies can prevent cultural drift
• A simple storytelling exercise that helps leaders identify their real values
• When (and how often) to refresh your values as your business evolves

Ann breaks it all down with clarity, practicality, and zero jargon — offering a framework that any HR or People leader can start using immediately.

If you're realizing your company values aren’t doing the job they should, this episode is your starting point.

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In this episode of The Team Check-In, Emre sits down with Felicia Heward — a seasoned HR leader who’s worked with industry giants like GE Aerospace and Tesla before launching her own fractional HR practice. Felicia shares her remarkable journey from managing labor relations in male-dominated industries to supporting growing startups that need structure and culture.

She discusses what “employee relations” really means, how to handle workplace conflict constructively, and the story of Charles — the 80-year-old employee who became a symbol of loyalty and leadership. Felicia also offers an insider look into Tesla’s rapid growth, explaining how HR played a pivotal role in scaling under charismatic leadership and fast-paced innovation.

Whether you’re an HR professional, a startup founder, or simply fascinated by workplace dynamics, this episode is filled with wisdom, humor, and heart.

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In the third installment of our HR Expert Series, we sit down with Natalie Ledbetter, fractional Chief People Officer, startup advisor, and consultant, to explore the role of HR in early-stage companies. Natalie shares why bringing HR in too late can create “people debt,” how hiring strategically early on can change the trajectory of a Series A or B startup, and why DEI is far more than a compliance exercise but actually a core business strategy. Along the way, she offers a candid perspective on why most people don’t scale with companies, how to celebrate exits when they happen, and the patterns that distinguish early-stage builders from late-stage operators.

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In the second installment of our HR Expert Series, we sit down with Ina Atanassova, Senior Talent Development Manager at MaltegoTechnologies, to talk about navigating uncertainty and making training programs truly impactful. Most strikingly, she reveals how she re-engineered Maltego's training strategy: shifting from “everyone gets a budget” to a goal-driven approach that aligns individual development with company objectives. Along the way, Ina candidly discusses the messy realities of training from trial-and-error vendor selection to the impossibility of making everyone happy and leaves us with a powerful reminder: The real measure of success is whether learning translates into growth for both people and the organization.

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In this episode of The Team Check-In, host Emre sits down with globetrotting Chief People Officer Cécile Pompei to challenge everything you think you know about HR and people management. Cecile brings a refreshingly candid perspective to modern people strategy, starting with her memorable insight that "HR processes exist to protect companies from bad managers." However, her approach goes far beyond that provocative statement. As a self-described "non-traditional HR" professional, she advocates for strategic, people-centered approaches that treat employees as key partners rather than disposable resources.

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From Microsoft MVP to one of the most prolific voices on LinkedIn and YouTube, Nick DeCourcy has been at the center of the Copilot conversation since day one. In this episode of The Team Check-In, Nick joins Emre to look back on the evolution of Microsoft 365 Copilot, from the hype of its 2023 announcement to the reality of how it’s actually being used today. Together, they explore what Copilot got right, what it still struggles with, and why organizational context is the missing piece in most AI rollouts. Nick also shares what separates successful AI adopters from the rest, how companies can structure their data to maximize the benefits of Copilot, and why ethical AI and better work, not just more work, should be the ultimate goal. The conversation spans everything from lazy app reskins to meeting agents, from tear gas to taxation in the age of AI.

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From LinkedIn’s first Chief HR Officer to the author of Workquake, Steve Cadigan has long been at the forefront of how work is evolving. In this episode of The Team Check-In, Steve sits down with Emre to talk about what today’s leaders get wrong about retention, why employee departures shouldn’t be feared, and how the employment contract is being rewritten in real time. Together, they unpack why returning employees might be more valuable than long-tenured ones, what we can learn from movie studios and college basketball teams, and how companies can future-proof their talent strategy by embracing movement instead of resisting it. Steve also shares behind-the-scenes stories from his time at Electronic Arts, LinkedIn, Cisco, and more, including the nightmare moment his boss at EA discovered he was interviewing with LinkedIn!

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