Season Two Launch: What HR Sees
Meet the nine leaders of Season Two and hear why this season brings HR and coaching into the same conversation.
Welcome to Leadership Exchange. Before I share where we are going, I want to begin with the conversations that brought us here.
I launched Leadership Exchange in April with a clear view of what authentic leadership looked like: honesty, sound values, discipline, and the credibility that comes from lived experience.
Ten conversations with twelve senior leaders refined that view. Authenticity is expressed differently by every leader, shaped by their history, the responsibilities they hold and the pressures they carry. Good intentions do not make anyone immune to blind spots; each new level of responsibility exposes a gap that was not visible before.
The observation I keep returning to is this: many leaders, surrounded by capable peers and colleagues, still face their most consequential moments alone. Support exists in their organizations, but it is seldom available at the point of decision.
Vandana Das, Dr. Pamela Tull, Radhika Khandelwal, Michal Lasman, Gabby Ring, and Afsheen Azam.
And to Jamie O'Brien, Cheryl Richoux-Torres, Swee Hoon Ong, Susan Minaya, Neha Rathi, and Gaston Betoled, who continue this journey with us into Season Two.
My career in HR began in 1994. Across more than two decades in Fortune 500 HR and organizational development, I sat in the rooms where people decisions were made, and I watched what happened to people after those decisions left the room.
Season One kept returning me to that vantage point. Beneath most of the leadership challenges we explored sat a people question HR was already managing: whether the right person is in the right role, who is struggling without saying so, what the organization expects of its people, and whether it equips them to deliver.
Season Two grew from that question.
Work is changing faster than most organizations can redesign their roles, structures and people practices.
In many organizations, AI is adopted before its consequences for the workforce are fully understood. It is deployed into roles, teams and processes, frequently without a plan for the human side of the change. It is also reshaping employment itself: which roles expand, which contract, and what an organization owes the people in transition.
HR is expected to answer questions the profession has not faced before, while leaders make consequential decisions amid a series of unknowns, often with little room to step back and think.
Season Two, What HR Sees, places two perspectives in the same conversation. The HR leader brings what they observe inside organizations; the coach brings the questions that help leaders decide what to do about it.
My role is to anchor each conversation, connect the two perspectives, and ensure every episode closes with a point to reflect on and an action you can take that week.
The changes ahead are technical, yet their consequences are human, and they deserve a serious, honest conversation.
Every episode pairs an HR leader with a coach, anchored by Husna. The two trade seats as the season unfolds.
The HR leader shares what they see inside organizations.
The leadership patterns behind the organizational challenges we face.
The coach brings a perspective that helps us examine what leaders can do about it.
Husna connects the perspectives so you leave with something worth reflecting on and something you can act on.
Every conversation this season moves along the same path: from the situation inside the organization, to what people are experiencing, to the action and accountability leadership must take on.
Where is the change showing up in the work?
Which tasks, responsibilities and decision rights are affected?
How are people experiencing it, and what concerns may remain unheard?
Which human capabilities, relationships and forms of judgment need to be preserved or developed?
Are we redesigning the work, or adding change to an outdated structure?
What must change in responsibilities, learning, authority and leadership support?
How will we know people are becoming more capable, not simply more productive?
From organizational reality to human insight to responsible action.
Explores the systems, structures, and people realities shaping today’s workplaces.
Explores mindset, behavior, and leadership choices in the moments that matter.
Different lenses. A deeper conversation. Greater possibilities.
Each issue introduces the week's episode and follows the same eight sections.
Subscribe on LinkedInA new conversation releases every Thursday on YouTube, with the Strategic Leadership Brief on LinkedIn every Tuesday before it. We pause for Thanksgiving, with no releases on November 26 and December 3, and for Christmas and New Year, with no releases on December 24 and December 31. The season returns on January 7 and closes with the finale on February 11, 2027.
Meet the nine leaders of Season Two and hear why this season brings HR and coaching into the same conversation.
Join Husna Syeda for a conversation on how AI is reshaping work, what organizations are asking of people, and what responsible leadership must redesign now.
What happens when capable people sit in roles that do not fit their strengths, and how leaders and HR can realign talent and role.
Why leadership teams can leave a meeting in apparent agreement yet move in different directions, and how to build alignment that holds.
When results excuse damaging leadership behavior, what it costs the team, and who is responsible for addressing it.
The Season Two leaders come together at the midpoint of the season. Details and date to be announced.
Whether performance systems still measure the contribution, judgment and growth that matter in a changing world of work.
As AI shapes more of the information behind decisions, what it takes for leaders to keep exercising their own judgment and stay accountable for the outcome.
When people resist another change, is it fatigue, or a deeper loss of trust in how change is being led?
How leaders can use AI to expand human capability rather than deplete it, and what regenerative leadership asks of organizations.
How much change people can absorb, what transformation costs them, and how leaders can protect capacity while still moving forward.
What remains with people after a project, a role or a leader moves on, and how leaders shape the impact they leave behind.
The leaders return together to reflect on what the season revealed and the questions organizations must carry forward.
The season resumes on Thursday, January 7, 2027, and closes with the finale on Thursday, February 11, 2027.
A conversation at the intersection of organizational reality and human insight.
Returning voices will be joined by Sarah Staley and Tiffany Friend. Welcome to the next chapter of Leadership Exchange.
Leadership Coach & Transformation Consultant, Cerithia Strategies
Cheryl works in the distance between where strategy gets decided and where work actually happens, the space where priorities multiply, handoffs break, and an organization's most capable people quietly compensate for gaps nobody has named.
As founder of Cerithia Strategies, she helps organizations and their leaders build operations that carry strategy all the way to execution, and develops the strategic thinking in their people so progress holds long after the engagement ends. Her work joins two disciplines that rarely share a room. Operational excellence brings Lean Six Sigma rigor and VP-level experience across digital transformation, M&A integration, and AI strategy. Psychology and executive coaching bring an understanding of how people actually adopt change, which is where most well-designed initiatives succeed or stall. She has a particular commitment to high-performing women, whose capability is so often relied upon and so rarely positioned, and she leads Uncovering Amazing, a leadership program for women available to individuals and organizations alike.
“I believe the most capable people in any organization deserve systems that work with them, not around them. That belief shapes everything I do, from redesigning how work flows to helping leaders reclaim the confidence to use their full voice. Outside of work, I'm a mom of two boys on opposite ends of childhood, an artist, and someone learning that taking up space in ways that bring me joy enables me to be a better guide for others.”
Executive Coach · OD Consultant · SHO Align
Swee Hoon partners with leaders to move from complexity to clarity. As an Organization Development consultant, she works with teams to align on shared purpose, build healthy cultures, and lead transformation that delivers sustainable growth.
In this human-AI era, she believes leadership's true value lies in cultivating deeply human capabilities.
Leadership Strategist · Executive Coach · Learning & Development Executive
Susan Minaya is an award-winning leadership development professional, executive coach, and learning strategist with more than 20 years of experience helping leaders and organizations strengthen leadership capability, navigate change, and improve organizational effectiveness.
Her career spans executive and consulting roles with global, national, and regional organizations across healthcare, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, manufacturing, and other industries. She brings a systems perspective to leadership development, combining business strategy, organizational culture, learning, and executive coaching to help leaders translate insight into meaningful action.
Susan serves as COO and Chief Learning Strategist of Minaya Learning Global Solutions and is an Advisory Board Member for Florida Gulf Coast University's Master's Program in Instructional Technology and Design. She holds an M.Ed. in Instructional Technology and Design and credentials in executive coaching, human resources, and talent development.
Founder, Executive Coach & Consultant · Sunstone Leadership Group
Tiffany spent 20+ years in public utilities and trade and service companies, often in rooms that valued straight talk over polish.
She's led HR operations and workforce strategy, done COO-level work for small startups, and served as the first dedicated HR leader at a fast-growing organization through a major revitalization during COVID.
Across all of it, she saw the same thing: people stepping into leadership, some pushed and some by choice, with little development or support, then learning fast that it's a different skill set - one that keeps changing the higher you go. So she left corporate to do something about it.
At Sunstone Leadership Group, Tiffany coaches leaders who are stuck, stretched, or ready for more. Leadership development is the work she loves most: helping people get clearer on how they lead and grow into what their role asks of them. Her years as an operator keep it practical and grounded, and she can shift between coach and consultant as each client needs.
Based in San Diego, CA, she's an adventurer, mostly by backpack, who believes the best growth happens just past the edge of comfort.
Executive Coach · Founder, J. O'Brien Coaching
Jamie is the Founder and Principal of J. O'Brien Coaching, built on the belief that bold, visionary leadership transforms not just careers. It transforms teams, cultures, and organizations.
Drawing on 18+ years of experience and partnerships with more than 380 organizations, he works with senior leaders and high-potential talent to break through complexity. He concurrently serves as Senior Advisor of Leadership Development at Momentum HCA.
“An avid traveler, I practice what I preach. I left a job and a team I loved to relocate to Brazil where I now live. I am deeply grounded by the relationships that matter most.”
HR & Organizational Development Executive · Executive Coach · Author · Doctoral Candidate
Sarah is an organizational development and human resources executive, executive coach, author, and doctoral candidate whose focus centers on leadership, emotional intelligence, and meaningful organizational change.
Drawing on nearly two decades of experience leading people strategy across complex organizations, she is especially interested in what helps leadership insight translate into sustained behavioral change. Through executive coaching, leadership development, emotional intelligence, and organizational strategy, she helps leaders move beyond simply knowing what effective leadership requires to consistently demonstrating it when the stakes are real.
“I am fascinated by the space between knowing and becoming. Leadership growth comes from developing the self-awareness, courage, and capacity to examine who we are when leadership asks the most of us.”
Coach, Consultant & Org. Design Specialist
Gaston brings leaders a space to think out loud, then find a structured path forward.
As a coach, consultant, and trainer with deep roots in organizational design and talent development, he helps individuals and teams in complex environments translate reflection into action and uncertainty into strategy.
Executive & Holistic Coach · Founder, OM Coaching
Based in Germany, Neha partners with professionals and leaders to cultivate executive presence, lead with clarity under pressure, and sustain high performance through mindful leadership.
With a foundation in IT consulting and leadership roles, she integrates mindfulness, coaching, and well-being into leadership development.
“I am a mother of two and value living with balance and intention. I believe that true leadership begins with self-awareness and inner alignment.”
Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant
Vandana helps professionals and leaders navigate complexity, visibility, and change. Her work focuses on leadership presence, confidence, cultural intelligence, and helping leaders stay effective and authentic in demanding environments.
She brings a blend of deep leadership experience, cross-cultural perspective, and a calm, reflective coaching presence.
“Beyond work, I am energized by travel, spirituality, philosophy, and service. Having visited over 30 countries, I am deeply curious about people, cultures, and ideas, and committed to service, including volunteering for Haiti relief efforts and rural communities in India and Nepal.”
The Leadership Exchange brief, every Tuesday through Season Two. Not a digest. A companion for leaders who read thoughtfully.
You are already part of this conversation. The work of leadership begins within.