Raising The Bar on Leadership

Have you ever looked at a "natural" leader and wondered why it seems so easy for them? In our latest episode of Raising The Bar on Leadership, I sat down with my close friend O’Brien McMahon (SVP at Lockton and host of People Business) to debunk the myth of the natural-born leader. O’Brien’s core philosophy is simple but transformative: Everything is a skill. From leadership and communication to p...

Simon Curran, Chief Development and Culture Officer at Rokt, is a passionate and experienced leader dedicated to unlocking human potential. In this conversation, Simon shares models and deep insights to explain how to create high-performing teams in any environment, from elite sports to hyper-growth businesses. You Will Learn: The Three C's of Performance: What is the non-negotiable order (Connect...

Annie Trombatore, Chief People Officer at Vox Media, discusses the evolving role of HR, the impact of AI on people operations, and the importance of effective internal communications. She emphasizes the need for HR to align closely with business goals, adopt an AI mindset, and empower managers to lead authentically. 

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...

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 co...

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 w...

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.  Marc...

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 st...

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 va...

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 i...

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 t...

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 stra...

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'...

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...

Matt is the CEO and Co-Founder of Clockwise, an 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 i...

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 pr...

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...

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 word...

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 a...

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 co...

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 m...