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Bettina Deynes, Global Chief HR Officer at Carnival Corporation, joins We’re Not Recording to talk about what it really means to lead HR at massive global scale. From supporting 200,000 crew members and employees across 152 nationalities to building trust through intentional listening, Bettina shares why great HR leadership is not about holding all the pressure yourself, but creating the conditions for others to rise with you. She and Melanie dig into communication across distributed teams, why Carnival employees stay for generations, how AI can give HR teams more room for strategic work, and why the most meaningful people work sits at the intersection of business impact and human impact.

Margaret-Ann Cole joins Melanie to talk about what it really takes to build trust inside an organization: transparency, follow-through, and communication that actually reaches every employee. From engagement surveys and frontline communication to snail-mail newsletters, wellbeing, AI in HR, and the challenge of making training truly stick, this conversation digs into the hard part of people work: not just offering support, but making sure employees can access it, absorb it, and use it when it matters.

Q Hamirani, CPO at HighLevel, joins Melanie to talk about what it really takes to grow fast without losing discipline. They dig into the messy balance between hypergrowth and efficiency, why AI is changing the old headcount math, and how leaders should communicate hard resource decisions without pretending every bet is a sure thing. From hiring smart instead of hiring hard, to reskilling teams, reallocating resources, and admitting when a plan may need to pivot, this episode is about the humility required to lead through change. Growth still requires bets, but the best leaders are honest about the risks, clear about the indicators, and willing to adjust when the bet plays out differently than expected.

In this episode of We’re Not Recording, Melanie Naranjo talks with Nabeel Ahmed, Chief HR and Safety Officer at Wellbore Integrity Solutions, about what it really takes to build a culture of performance, accountability, and safety. Nabeel shares why compensation is one of the clearest ways a company communicates what it actually values, and why performance bonuses only mean something when they truly differentiate the people who go above and beyond. He also opens up about the human side of safety leadership, including the difficult responsibility of supporting employees and families when someone is injured on the job. Together, they explore why safety can’t just be a buzzword, why every employee has to see themselves as a safety leader, and why accountability has to show up in real actions, not just company values. The conversation also touches on how HR leaders can think more boldly about AI, moving beyond simple automation and toward technology that can meaningfully transform how work gets done.

In this episode of We’re Not Recording, Melanie Naranjo talks with Brandon Sammut, Chief People and AI Transformation Officer at Zapier, about what it really takes to keep work human while AI changes everything. They dig into how AI is reshaping HR, compensation, career paths, and team leadership, not as an abstract future-state, but as something employees are already feeling in their day-to-day work. Brandon shares how Zapier’s AI transformation started showing up in unexpected places across the business, from HR to legal to recruiting, and why giving people concrete examples, peer-to-peer learning, and room to experiment matters so much. The conversation also explores the tension leaders are navigating right now: how to reward outsized AI-driven impact without creating compensation problems later, how to set ambitious goals without turning the wrong measure into the wrong target, and why clarity alone is not enough unless it also gives people a reason to care. At its core, this episode is about building AI-forward companies without losing the human center of work. Melanie and Brandon unpack why every department needs more than a mandate to “get on the AI train.” Teams need a clear, specific, and inspiring picture of what their future looks like, and leaders need the humility to say, “Great question. I’m not sure yet. Here’s how we’re going to figure it out together.”

What if the problem isn’t your job—but that you’ve never stopped to ask what actually gives you energy? In this episode, Jeri Doris shares why so many people settle into work that’s comfortable but unfulfilling, and how that disconnect quietly impacts everything—from performance to well-being. They explore the intersection of what you’re good at and what brings you joy, and why finding that overlap isn’t a luxury—it’s the difference between feeling drained and feeling alive in your work. The conversation also dives into how AI is reshaping the way we work—not just by increasing speed, but by creating an opportunity to remove the mundane and focus on what actually matters. But without intention, it risks becoming more noise, more pressure, and more surface-level output instead of real progress. At its core, this episode is a reminder: people deserve to feel energized by the work they do—and if that energy isn’t there, it’s worth asking why.

This conversation sits inside the quiet, often invisible weight of leadership—where helping people grow isn’t just a responsibility, it’s something you carry with you long after the workday ends.

Arthur and Melanie unpack what it actually feels like to be responsible for someone else’s development: the pressure to have answers you may not have, the tension between surfacing problems and being able to solve them, and the reality that much of this work goes unseen or unrecognized. They explore the emotional cost of caring deeply—losing sleep over your team, holding their uncertainty, and navigating the gap between what employees expect and what managers can realistically provide.

At its core, the episode is about redefining growth as a shared responsibility. Not something managers own alone, but something built through trust, clarity, and honest expectations—where the goal isn’t just to retain people, but to genuinely help them become who they’re meant to be, even if that journey takes them elsewhere.

This episode breaks down the shift from managing work to actually activating people. It explores how real leadership isn’t about control, tracking, or oversight—it’s about creating clarity, building trust, and unlocking the effort people already have inside them. When employees feel connected and developed, they show up differently—and that’s what drives customer experience and business results. It also hits a hard truth: people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. Which makes leadership the difference between engagement and disconnection. And as teams scale and AI replaces more managerial tasks, control stops working. What’s left is leadership. Because at a certain point, the job isn’t to manage work. It’s to activate people.

As AI rapidly reshapes the workplace, HR leaders are being asked to move fast without losing the human side of work. Karishma Patel Buford joins Melanie to talk about psychological safety, employee fear, burnout, AI and mental health, and why teams need guidance—not just tools—to adapt. This episode explores how great HR leaders help people navigate massive change without making them figure it out alone.

A fast-moving business demands speed, but the real work of leadership happens in how you bring people along with it. In a world of constant velocity—where priorities shift, acquisitions reshape organizations, and no two days look the same—human leadership becomes the anchor. It’s not just about driving strategy and execution, but about creating an employee experience that feels connected, intentional, and worth being part of. At the center of it all is the balance between business needs and human impact—making decisions that optimize performance while ensuring people feel supported, heard, and set up to succeed. Whether it’s integrating cultures, navigating change, or making difficult talent decisions, the most effective leaders stay close to their people: listening, understanding their strengths, and helping them build confidence in what they bring. Because when leadership moves at business speed without losing its humanity, that’s when organizations don’t just operate—they evolve, adapt, and actually work for the people inside them.