What if employee experience isn’t an HR initiative… but the system your entire business runs on?

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues, Robin and Al sit down with Ashlea Desroches, People & Culture Leader at Elastic Path, to unpack a powerful shift in how organizations think about culture, performance, and leadership.

Ashlea challenges the idea that employee experience is a “nice to have,” and reframes it as the true competitive advantage driving engagement, retention, customer experience, and ultimately, business results.

From psychological safety and leadership behavior to pay transparency and growth-driven management, this conversation goes deep into what actually creates high-performing teams… and why most organizations are still getting it wrong.

If you’re leading a team, scaling a company, or trying to build a culture people don’t want to leave, this episode will change how you think about performance, trust, and what it really takes to win.

You’ll hear about:

• Why employee experience is the operating system of your business
• The link between culture, customer experience, and profitability
• Why high performance does not always equal high engagement
• How employee referrals reveal your true internal culture
• The role of psychological safety in innovation and team performance
• Why great cultures are built on clarity, safety, and recognition
• The difference between comfort and true psychological safety
• How avoiding difficult conversations destroys team trust
• Why growth conversations outperform performance reviews
• The one question every leader should be asking their team
• How leaders create conditions where performance becomes inevitable
• Why pay transparency is becoming a leadership imperative
• The hidden trust gap created by compensation secrecy
• How to implement pay transparency without exposing salaries
• Why compliance is the floor, not the strategy
• The long-term impact of developing first-time leaders

We talk about:

• 00:00 Introduction to Ashlea Desroches and her approach to people & culture
• 02:00 Why employee experience is a true competitive advantage
• 04:30 The connection between employee satisfaction and business performance
• 06:00 How culture shows up in customer interactions and reputation
• 08:00 Why retention is built when hiring is easy, not hard
• 10:00 What actually shapes the employee experience end-to-end
• 12:00 Common traits of high-performing cultures across industries
• 14:00 Psychological safety vs comfort, and why it matters
• 17:00 The danger of avoiding difficult conversations as a leader
• 19:00 How to create safe, open dialogue within teams
• 21:00 The leadership shift from performance to growth conversation
• 23:00 The question that transforms employee development
• 25:00 Where growth conversations should actually happen
• 27:00 The biggest people-related challenge leaders face today
• 29:00 Pay transparency, trust, and the future of compensation
• 32:00 Why most organizations misunderstand transparency
• 34:00 Building trust through clarity, not secrecy
• 36:00 Leadership legacy and developing future leaders

Connect with Ashlea

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleadesroches/
• Website: https://www.elasticpath.com/

Connect with Us

• LinkedIn: Robin Bailey and Al McDonald
• Website: Aria Benefits and Life & Legacy Advisory Group

What if the Chief People Officer is no longer just responsible for people… but for how the entire business operates?

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues, Robin and Al welcome back Michelle Brooks, Chief People Officer & Head of Operations at Security Compass, to explore one of the most important shifts happening inside modern organizations.

The role of HR is evolving fast. What was once seen as a support function is now becoming central to how businesses scale, operate, and perform.

Michelle shares how the CPO role is expanding into operations and even technology, why organizations are moving from departments to workflows, and how leaders can rethink structure, decision-making, and culture in a rapidly changing environment.

The conversation also dives into a surprising redefinition of burnout, why it’s no longer about working too much, but about working inefficiently, and how removing friction inside organizations can unlock both performance and engagement.

If you are a CEO, founder, HR leader, or operator navigating growth, complexity, and change, this episode offers a clear lens on where leadership and organizational design are heading next.

You’ll hear about:

• Why the Chief People Officer role is expanding into operations and technology
• How organizations are shifting from departments to workflow-based thinking
• The concept of the CPO as an “organizational architect”
• Why HR and operations are no longer separate functions
• How COVID accelerated the strategic importance of people leadership
• The real reason burnout is rising, and why it’s not about hours worked
• How inefficient processes and bottlenecks create modern burnout
• Why removing friction is the fastest path to productivity and performance
• The balance between empowerment and structure inside organizations
• How clarity of mission drives better decision-making across teams
• Why decision-making should live closest to the information
• How strong leadership creates ripple effects across entire organizations
• Why the future of business is less about hierarchy and more about flow

We talk about:

• 00:00 Introduction to Michelle Brooks and her evolving leadership role
• 02:00 Why the CPO role is expanding into operations and technology
• 04:00 The shift toward organizational design and workflow thinking
• 05:30 How COVID accelerated the evolution of HR leadership
• 07:00 Breaking down silos and creating more efficient workflows
• 08:30 Benefits and challenges of blending people and operations roles
• 10:00 Reframing HR and operations as business enablers, not cost centers
• 12:30 When companies should bring in HR and operational leadership
• 14:00 How burnout has changed, from overwork to inefficiency
• 16:00 The impact of processes, bottlenecks, and friction on teams
• 19:30 Why clarity of mission is foundational to performance
• 23:00 Connecting individual work to company-wide impact
• 24:30 Why siloed organizations are becoming outdated
• 25:30 The shift toward workflow-based operating systems
• 27:00 Adapting organizational design to a rapidly changing environment
• 30:00 The ripple effect of strong leadership across teams and organizations

Connect with Michelle

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-brooks-1747b924
• Website: https://www.securitycompass.com/

Connect with Us

• LinkedIn: Robin Bailey and Al McDonald
• Website: Aria Benefits and Life & Legacy Advisory Group

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues, Robin and Al sit down with Stewart Whittingham, Director of Culture and Belonging at Miller Thomson, to explore one of the most overlooked challenges in leadership today: the gap between the culture leaders believe they are creating and what employees actually experience.

With nearly 30 years of experience in leadership, talent strategy, and inclusion, Stewart brings a thoughtful and practical perspective to the conversation, grounded in both strategy and lived experience.

The discussion reveals a critical truth: many organizations are committed to inclusion, yet struggle to translate that commitment into consistent, everyday experiences for their people.

Stewart explains how gaps in awareness, psychological safety, and leadership behavior can quietly undermine culture, even in organizations with strong values and clear intentions. He also highlights how belonging drives engagement, performance, and better decision-making across teams.

If you are a CEO, HR leader, executive, or business owner responsible for culture and performance, this episode offers a clear and practical lens on what it takes to build environments where people and organizations can truly thrive.

You’ll hear about:

• Why inclusive leadership directly impacts business performance, not just people strategy
• The real cost of exclusion, including missed ideas, turnover, and stalled innovation
• How belonging drives engagement, retention, productivity, and results
• The hidden gap between the culture leaders think they create and what employees actually experience
• Why silence in organizations often signals fear, not agreement
• How cognitive overload and complexity prevent leaders from making intentional decisions
• The role of bias awareness and how it shapes everyday leadership decisions
• Why psychological safety is the foundation of high-performing teams
• The difference between inclusive intentions and inclusive conditions
• How leaders can identify whose voices are missing and why it matters

We talk about:

• 00:00 Introduction to Stewart Whittingham and his leadership background
• 02:00 How lived experiences shape leadership and inclusion
• 04:00 Why inclusion improves decision-making and innovation
• 06:00 The cost of exclusion in organizations
• 08:00 Belonging as a driver of performance and retention
• 10:00 Bias awareness and the “who comes to mind” exercise
• 12:30 Identifying who is missing from the table
• 14:00 Why inclusion is an awareness game, not a blame game
• 16:00 The gap between leadership intention and employee experience
• 18:00 Psychological safety and speaking up at work
• 20:00 The danger of silence and misinterpreted feedback
• 22:00 Inclusive intentions vs inclusive conditions
• 24:00 Leadership barriers, clarity, mindset, and competing commitments
• 26:00 Cognitive overload and why leaders struggle to pause
• 27:30 The power of “Stop, Pause, Reflect” in leadership
• 28:30 The legacy leaders create through culture and people

Connect with Stewart

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stewart-whittingham-43bb5612/
• Website: https://www.stewartwhittingham.com/

Connect with Us

• LinkedIn: Robin Bailey and Al McDonald
• Website: Aria Benefits and Life & Legacy Advisory Group