The Open Honest and Direct Podcast

Oshrat Binyamin is a seasoned people executive with a passion for building and scaling businesses. With over 15 years of experience in organizational growth, she has played a pivotal role in helping companies scale, from her time at monday.com, where she helped grow the team from 650 to over 1,600 employees and navigated an IPO, to her current role as Head of HR at Connecteam. In this conversation, Oshrat shares invaluable insights into what it truly takes to build and scale teams effectively, how to navigate the growing pains of an expanding organization, and why leadership is not just about growth—but about building teams that thrive because they are adaptable, empowered, and future-ready.

Liat Nachmani is a seasoned leader and expert in scaling startups. She has a proven track record at companies like Zerto, Anobit, and Apple Israel. Passionate about growth, she specializes in overcoming leadership challenges, building empowered teams, and creating sustainable systems to thrive in high-growth environments. Her insights have helped organizations navigate the chaos of scaling with confidence and success. In this episode, she shares her playbook for successfully navigating and overcoming growth challenges.  

Bobby Powers is a passionate learning and development director, avid reader, and writer. Reading over 70 books per year, who better than Bobby can talk about influential and essential reading for business leaders and people professionals. (Plus, Bobby and Raising the Bar on Leadership host Aaron Levy love talking about books—this episode is peek into some of their favorites.

Mia Blom, a seasoned human resource director and strategic business partner with over 20 years of experience, shares her expertise in leadership and human potential. Mia joins Raising the Bar on Leadership host Aaron Levy and discusses the importance of active listening, building trust, and creating value in workplace relationships. 

Get to know a company's products and services; dig into the culture and processes—then get to know the people. This is the insightful advice from Victoria Bethlehem, Chief People Officer at Jitjatjo. On this episode of Raising the Bar on Leadership, Victoria shares the lessons she's learned from living in a country other than her country of origin—lessons that can be applied to professionals who work with teams in a global setting. 

People will give their best efforts when they work in a company where they feel valued, recognized, and seen. That's the perspective of Marcela Pizzi, of Atlas Renewable Energy as shared on this episode of Raising the Bar on Leadership. With over 15 years' experience leading global companies, Marcela has some clear advice about engaging employees in a way that truly matters—and gets results.  Marcela shares first-hand experience about working across different cultures and languages, and how to navigate that territory in a way that builds relationships and strong communication.

Can a culture of performance truly be cultivated? Alison Pickett, Chief People Officer at Kenect, believes it can. In her dynamic approach, Alison shares how she drives a high-performance culture in rapidly growing companies by using what she calls the 'triangle of accountability.'

Starting something is easy; sustaining it is hard. Building team habits and consistent follow-up are crucial yet challenging. How do we create a work environment where companies thrive because of their leadership, not despite it? Joining us today is Deb White, former people executive at Peloton, Nike, and Williams-Sonoma. From sales floor to L&D leader, Deb crafted Peloton's global learning strategies, excelling in large-scale facilitation and behavior change. In this episode, we explore Deb's journey and her strategies for creating sustainable change across diverse and remote environments. Discover practical steps for long-term success in leadership and talent development.

In the latest episode host Aaron Levy sat down with Vice President of Human Resources at Backstage, Stephanie Trindade. Stephanie navigated through her unexpected transition from a criminal justice career into the realm of people management, driven by her strong desire to make a positive impact on others. She emphasized the integral role that people have within organizations and highlighted the value of clear communication from senior executives to entry-level employees in understanding the company's core values and culture.

Join us as we dive into the world of virtual team building and authentic leadership with Heidi Scott, Ph.D, VP of Learning and Development at Salary.com. Discover brain-centric techniques for boosting creativity, the secrets of million-dollar meetings, and how to align project objectives with business goals. And listen as Heidi talk about the power of curiosity, humility, and servant leadership in driving peak team performance.

How can you grow confidence and encourage top performance in your company's people? Can constructive conversations bring about true authenticity in your workforce? Tom Bromwich didn't start off in the gaming industry, but now as the Head of People Development at Kwalee, he brings his own leadership journey to his role.  On this episode of Raising the Bar on Leadership, Tom and Aaron explore how to pick up the good tactics of mentors, while developing your own leadership style. Tom explains how personal and company values are crucial to team harmony as well as how to honor the experience of more senior leaders as newer leaders are being developed. 

In today's episode, David Kaus, VP of HR at Catalyte, is a human resources professional and servant leader that is passionate about increasing the effectiveness of organizations and maximizing employees' potential. In his roles, which have ranged from his current position managing over 700 employees to an Instructional Designer, David collaborates with business leaders to create and implement strategic and tactical plans to meet company objectives and growth initiatives, develops and tracks HR metrics to identify process improvement, organizational development, and employee engagement opportunities and helps employees and managers navigate ambiguity in fast-paced and changing environments. 

In this episode, we are joined by Wanda Lee Florestine, Director, Outreach (People Development/DEI) at GRID Alternatives, a nonprofit on a mission to transition to clean, renewable energy by making renewable energy technology and job training accessible to underserved communities. In addition to that powerful work, Wanda is an author and in the process of publishing her second book; if that doesn't keep her busy enough, she does DEI training & workshops in her local community.

In this episode, we welcome Barr Moses, the Co-Founder & CEO of Monte Carlo, a data reliability company and creator of the industry's first Data Observability Platform. Barr and I discuss the importance of speed; not just speed for the sake of moving fast, but focused, intentional speed. We talk about how it's helped her grow and scale Monte Carlo and how she's put structures in place to help her team move at speed and take the time to reflect, reevaluate, and move forward even faster. Lastly, Barr leaves us with probably the most important nugget of all about authenticity. You'll have to listen to the end to hear that one.

Matt is the CEO and Co-Founder of Clockwise and AI-powered scheduling app built to help teams and people make time for what matters most before Clockwise. He helped build RelateIQ, a company acquired by Salesforce for 390 million. He was previously a front-end software engineer. A civil litigator and a founder of a variety of software startups. Matt holds a BA from Dartmouth and a JD from UPenn in Philadelphia. In today's conversation, we talk about the challenge of moving from an individual contributor to a manager of people, of going from getting instant gratification to delayed gratification as you lead others, and how to best maximize your time during that transition.

On today's episode, we are joined by Aidan McCullen. Aidan is a change consultant and works with organizations to improve how they collaborate and create the environment for change. He is the Host and Founder of The Global Innovation Show, a speaker, board advisor, author, and a reinvention expert. 

In today's episode, Keturah McCottry, Director, Learning and Development at Radancy, the leading cloud-based talent acquisition software provider intelligently solving the most critical challenges for enterprises globally and delivering cost-efficient outcomes that strengthen their organizations, shares the importance of being open to change, her key tool to GSD, creating and then letting go so projects can spread their wings + more. 

In today's episode, Rod Lacey, the Chief People Officer at simPro, a private SaaS company that provides cloud-based job and project management software to those in field service and trade contracting industries, introduces the concept of fostering trust through candor as a people leader. We dive deep into the 90-second rule, how to identify a great manager, tips for leading + serving teams across a multicultural organization, 3 questions to ask yourself before making an investment as a people leader, and more. 

Welcome to the Raising The Bar on Leadership Podcast!  We're excited to have you joining us today as we welcome the very insightful Kelly Buchanan, CPO at Revinate, to the show.  In this episode you will learn: How hungry team members can become Ambassadors for cultural growth Why we should shift our focus from getting more people to cultural initiatives to the people that are showing up Wise words from leaders and past experiences + more Kelly brings 20+ years of experience to her role as Chief People Officer at Revinate, where - as a proud boomerang hire - she oversees the team's global people and culture strategy. She is also a founding member of Chief's San Francisco chapter - a network focused on developing female executive leaders.    Kelly's had a wide range of experience as a people leader and in this conversation we dive deep into the importance of experimentation, what it looks like on a people team and how to get initiatives off the ground faster so your business doesn't have to wait to reap the benefits.    Enjoyed this convo? Don't forget to share it with your team.     

In today's episode, Anitra St. Hilaire, the Vice President of People at ThreeFlow, a Benefits Placement Software that brokers and carriers use to maintain relationships and help employers make the best benefit decisions, introduces the concept of Responsible Transparency. We dive deep into the importance of communication and its impact on business performance and what it means to provide clarity and context in your communication.

In today's episode, Mariah Nagy, the Head of People at Monte Carlo, a company that helps data engineers improve their data reliability and downtime, talks about how they maintain culture and connection across a global and remote team. Mariah was a college athlete turned public accountant turned seasoned people leader with 15 plus years of experience scaling high growth global companies. In this conversation, we talk about the vulnerability cycle, a one size fits one approach to employee experience, and all the other things that it takes to grow a fully remote global team.

In today's episode, Laura Luckman Kelber, Chief Marketing Officer of Double Good, a virtual fundraising organization, selling premium popcorn to fund teams and non-profits, talks about the non-sexy stuff that builds successful teams, from stamina to deliberate practice and saying no as the core tenets of what builds successful leadership and successful companies. Laura is a strategic catalyst, a marketing wiz, a revenue accelerator, and productivity orchestrator.  

In today's episode, Anthony Onesto, a leading expert and published author on culture, human resources, and talent, joins us to talk about the changing role of HR and Gen Z's impact on the workforce. Anthony has this fantastic high level view of the people space, the HR space and function, and its role within the business, and how that role is changing and will continue to change in the next couple of years. Anthony is currently the Chief People Officer at Suzy, the author of The New Employee Contract: How to Find, Keep, and Elevate Gen Z Talent, and the creator of Ella The Engineer and the Ella Project.

Doug Kofoid, the CEO of EDITED, a global leader in retail intelligence, has had a myriad of experiences leading and scaling successful teams. Before Edited, Doug ran DialogTech and led them through a successful exit. In today's conversation, Doug dives deep into his varied experience to pull out some common traits that you can use to help your team succeed.

In this episode, Dr. Timothy R. Clark, Founder and CEO of LeaderFactor, and international authority in the fields of psychological safety and innovation, large-scale change & transformation, and senior leadership development, explores the stages of psychological safety in an organization and its relationship to vulnerability. Dr. Clark is the author of five books, including his new best-seller, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation. 

In this episode, Caroline Werner, the Chief People Officer at LogicGate, a fast scaling organization that provides a modern risk management platform for enterprise businesses, discusses the concept of career journeys or portfolios and how they create a common language for top talent in your organization. We dive a mile deep into the benefits, the challenges, and the way a good career journey supports the future growth of your business. 

In this episode, Loran Nordgren, Professor at the Kellogg School of Management and author of the bestselling book The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance that Awaits New Ideas, explores why change often fails and how we can make change more aerodynamic by focusing on the barriers to change. Loran's mission is to use behavioral science to make leaders and organizations better.

In this episode, Celia Balson, the Founder & CEO of WorkFriendly, a people-first consulting agency that provides HR, recruiting and training support for companies as small as two people all the way up to Fortune 100 organizations, shares valuable insights she's garnered from both her experience as a People Leader and helping organizations think and create their own people experience.

In this episode, basketball champion Ann Wauters shares her lessons and experiences on what makes a great team - and she should know, as she's played on many successful teams in her 20 year playing career. Now the assistant coach of the WNBA Chicago Sky, Ann mentors and coaches younger players. Ann shares her stories and lessons on what it takes to lead and be a part of high performing successful teams, both on the court and in the office. 

Women have made great strides in driving corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability; in fact, more female corporate leaders are found in sustainability governance than other corporate leadership roles. As sustainability and Environmental Social Governance (ESG) become more important for organizations, many women are leading the way to a more sustainable future. In honor of the intersection of Women's HIstory Month and Earth Month, RTB Leadership Coach Kimberly Flood talks to two women sustainability leaders to discuss and celebrate the contributions women have made in this space and provide actionable tips for anyone who wants to become more sustainable in their work and life.

In this episode, Peter Geiregat, the Chief People Officer at TVH, a global leader in parts and accessories with over 5,000 employees worldwide, shares his lessons with us and goes a layer deeper in sharing how he actually puts those lessons into practice with his team. Peter's journey has ranged from law school to nonprofit work in Eastern Europe, to the tech sector. As the former Chief People Officer of Showpad, all of this has played a role in teaching him lessons about life and what it takes to create safety on his teams and enable teams to perform at a high level. 

In this episode Winnie Park, the new CEO of Forever 21, shares both her vulnerability and her humanity in the journey to become the leader she is today. Winnie, who has had an impressive career as a brand builder for two decades, goes deeper as she talks about how to build trust in teams, why relationship building is so important, and how a leader needs to show curiosity and humility. 

When you are burnt out, the simplest task can seem like a mountain to scale. Executive Well-Being and Burnout Coach Kaitlyn Lyons experienced it firsthand; always a top performer in her career in the corporate world, one day, she just couldn't muster the interest or enthusiasm she once had in her work. After making the appropriate changes in her life, she now enables others to recognize and heal from their own burnout.

Jim Conti, Talent Partner at Hyde Park Venture Partners, shares his knowledge and experience in building and growing people operations at two fast growing software startups at dScout and Sprout Social. In his role,  Jim provides strategic talent support and consulting to the firm and their portfolio companies. Jim talks about why it's important to make clarity an integral part of your company's culture and why taking a human-based approach to People Operations is a game changer.

In this episode, Mike Tassone, the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Own Up, talks about how a desire for more transparency in the home lending process led to a company built on the idea that technology can simplify the home financing process for consumers. Mike talks about the importance of measuring what matters and being intentional about what you say yes to and what you say no to in your work.

In this episode, Ryan Mundy, former Super Bowl winning NFL player and tech investor, discusses his many past lives that have led him to where he is today as the the founder and CEO of Alkeme Health, a digital health startup rooted in black wellness, Before starting Alkeme, Ryan co-founded SWZLE, which was acquired back in October of 2020 and was also the managing director of Techlete. Ryan talks about his career as an athlete, his exploration of finding his identity when sports ends and his trials and tribulations with mental health and how that's helped to form his new business and the impact that he's having on the world.

In this episode, Raise The Bar Coach Shiri Bade talks about how to best give and receive negative feedback and prepare for difficult conversations. Feedback is a gift, even the negative type, and it's important to set your mind properly to receive it.

As Raise The Bar celebrates its 5th anniversary, the tables are turned. Founder and CEO Aaron Levy is interviewed by RTB's Head of Marketing and talks about his WHY, the evolution of their science-backed training methodology, and his role in helping create the future of a better workplace.

Raise The Bar Coach Kimberly Flood, a transformational coach and organizational development consultant with nearly two decades of Fortune 500 work experience, talks about how to build resilience in yourself and in your team. 

Welcome to the Raise The Bar Coaches' Corner, a new feature where our Head of Marketing interviews our coaches to gain tips, insights and strategies. In this episode, Natalie Guillen talks about the messiness of learning new skills and why leaders need a support system. Natalie is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach thru The Co-Active Training Institute, with over 15 years of experience working with some of the biggest brands including Google, PayPal, and Wells Fargo, helping companies define their strategic goals and aligning teams to achieve them.

Dr. Ari Levy, Founder & CEO of an organization that is disrupting the traditional healthcare system, is a Doctor and MBA, a Crain's 40 under 40 honoree, a personal mentor, friend and my brother. Ari has been laser focused on working to fix a broken healthcare system and now in his second business, SHIFT (Life), he has made strides in developing a model for just that. In today's episode, Ari talks to us about the SHIFT model and how he's been able to grow his business and team despite the pandemic.

Dorie Blesoff, the former Chief People Officer and Talent Advisor at Relativity, joined Relativity when they had 200 people and helped the company grow and evolve to where they are today at around 1,200 employees around the world. Dorie is also Adjunct Faculty at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy, a role she's been in for over 20 years. Dorie is deeply passionate and incredibly knowledgeable about the future of work, social and racial justice, and its role in our development as people and a society.

In this episode, Shaniqua Davis, the Founder & CEO of Noirefy, a diversity advancement platform that connects diverse professionals with high growth companies, discusses how Noirefy was born out of her own encounters with bias during a job search. Shaniqua talks about how they consult with companies to build out structures to help tear down the barriers to a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

Elles Skony was recently brought on as the Head of People at XSELL Technologies, a fast growing company that uses Artificial Intelligence to transform the way businesses interact with their customers. In this episode, Elles discusses her process for building her people department and walks us through her three pronged action plan. 

In this episode, Monica Royer, the founder and CEO of Monica + Andy – a company that provides organic essentials for kids and babies, along with kids' classes and events for new and expecting parents in their Guideshops around the country and virtually, talks about how she and her team pivoted their business successfully during the COVID pandemic. Monica believes it's key to hire the right people and embrace a humans-first culture in order to meet the challenges. Monica also talks about her personal mission to empower other female entrepreneurs and young girls to reach their potential through The Monica + Andy Girls Foundation.  

In our very first live podcast, Dr. Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and foremost expert on Psychological Safety, talks about why trust, candor and psychological safety are integral for a high performance team and culture, and why this concept is gaining such momentum as a key component in the future of work.

Peter Lynch, a noted Fortune 500 executive, TEDx Speaker, and performance coach, joined Cardinal Group Companies as the Head of People & Culture to help them build a culture that embodies the future of work. Peter talks about the first two steps to take when leading a new team and highlights the importance of owning your own weaknesses as a way to be a more powerful leader.

Cultivating a gifting strategy that builds bridges between organizations and their customers is hard, and is what inspired Jonathan Legge to start &Open. In today's episode, Co-Founder and CEO Jonathan Legge talks about how they bootstrapped their company and grew it purposely and organically by hiring slowly, hyperfocusing on their numbers, and staying true to their values and mission.

In this episode, PJ Bouten, Co-Founder and CEO of Showpad, recognized a need to empower sales and marketing teams to deliver a better buyer experience. Since 2011, PJ has helped build a global company with more than 1,000 customers in 50 countries and grew the organization to 350 team members. But when the pandemic hit, he was faced with difficult decisions in order to save the company as a whole. PJ talks about the importance of finding a great co-founder, investing in your managers, and treating your people with compassion and empathy.

Tim Schumm, the founder and president of Lucas James Talent Partners, started and grew the organization to a team of 32 people in just 20 months– then COVID hit. Tim shares the step by step process he took to lead his team through this crisis, what it takes to build a culture of feedback, and the daily practices he follows to make sure he shows up at his best for his team and his family. 

In this episode, Matt Kunkel, the co-founder, and CEO of LogicGate, discusses the importance of mentors and relationships. Matt co-founded LogicGate, a Chicago based SaaS platform which operationalizes regulatory, risk, and compliance programs for organizations, just over 4 years ago and has quickly grown it to 120+ employees and raised $35 million. Matt discusses the critical role mentors played in his growth, his focus as a leader in this time of crisis and what he's doing to help his team feel more in control and more informed in this time of uncertainty.