TL;DR

😯 The career advice you probably didn’t get — especially for women

🎭 HR’s disproportionate impact on employees’ careers — for better or for worse

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

What’s this? A mission worth joining. A prize you don’t want to miss.

The career advice you probably didn’t get — especially for women

Sadly, this happens a lot. HR leaders in start-ups get replaced halfway through their progression. And no, it’s not always fair. But it is almost predictable in a scaling journey.

When it happens, the advice HR leaders receive is familiar: “Be more assertive. Be more visible. Build your confidence.”

Not wrong…just incomplete.

It reminded me of a TED Talk I heard years ago by Susan Colantuono: we’re missing 33% of the advice required to reach the executive level — especially for women.

The unspoken assumption that derails careers 

In her talk, Susan shared what executives list when asked what they look for in high-potential future executives:

• resilience, hard work, trustworthiness (personal greatness = 33%)

• stakeholder skills, empowerment, communication (people greatness = 33%)

And then they stopped ⛔.

When Susan asked why they didn’t mention business acumen, the reply was:

A given!?! 😑 A baseline so obvious they didn’t even think to say it out loud.

But when Susan asked 150 women in the room whether they had ever been told explicitly that business acumen is the door-opener to senior leadership, only 3 (⁉️) raised their hands.

HR leaders know personal greatness (33%). We excel at people greatness (33%). But what is systematically underdeveloped (for women and for HR) is: Business acumen.

The part no one tells us is required because they assume we should already know 🤷🏻.

We need to prepare for the inflection point in our careers

As HR leaders, we’re often the ones helping the business redefine roles as it scales. But we rarely pause to check how our own role is evolving…or whether we've kept pace with the shift.

When a start-up raises funding to scale, the business strategy changes🎯. 

Investors now expect repeatability, predictability and a clear pathway to profitability. So the HR role expands from “supporting the team” to designing the operating system that shapes every hire, every manager, every organisational decision — all to enable business growth.

This is where many early-stage HR leaders hit a ceiling. Not because they lack capability, but because the role has changed beneath their feet. And suddenly we’re told we need to “be more strategic”.

The most unhelpful sentence in career development

Your founder probably can’t articulate what “be more strategic” means either.

From my experience, here’s what they actually need from their HR exec:

• Someone who understands the business model

• Someone who connects people decisions to financial outcomes

• Someone who scales systems, not just sentiment

Ask yourself:

• Can you explain how your company makes revenue?

• Do you understand how headcount impacts runway?

• Are your HR priorities tied to revenue, margin and market share?

If the answer is no, you will struggle to own your seat at the table — even if you’re invited to it.

Now that you can name it, you can close the 33% gap

HR leaders get replaced when the organisation outgrows the version of the role they originally stepped into. 

Once we understand this, the question shifts from: “Why is this happening to me?” to “What would change if I build the very capability no one told me I needed?”

Closing that 33% gap is how we protect our own trajectory, shape the organisation’s future and unlock the potential of every future leader watching how we lead.

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HR’s disproportionate impact on employees’ careers - for better or for worse

For this section, let’s apply something businesses do constantly: scenario modelling.

But instead of forecasting revenue or market conditions, let’s model a scenario based on Susan Colantuono’s research: that we may be missing the 33% of leadership capability required at the executive level, especially for women.

Hypothetical scenario:

It’s not a comfortable thought — but stay with me.

We build for the 66%, not the 100%

If we, as HR leaders, were never explicitly taught the missing 33% (business acumen), then the talent development strategy we build naturally emphasises the capabilities we do understand deeply:

1️⃣ Personal greatness (33%)
2️⃣ People greatness (33%)

And that leads to a predictable pattern in our HR work:

• We design development programmes that improve communication, collaboration, and confidence ➡️ but not commercial fluency.

• We build performance frameworks that reward behaviours and values ➡️ but say little about business impact.

• We promote early-career talent who excel in two-thirds of leadership ➡️ but not the full three.

But when the last missing 33% (business acumen) isn’t understood, it won’t be: ❌ assessed, ❌ taught, ❌ rewarded, ❌ measured or ❌ embedded.

And then, as leaders move toward executive roles, they hit a ceiling — not because they lack ability, but because our HR strategy never equipped them for executive responsibilities.

When HR leaders have a blind spot, our HR strategy inherits it

If HR isn’t commercially fluent, the organisation won’t produce commercially fluent leaders. Our blind spot becomes the organisation’s blind spot, we unintentionally scale the very gap we hope to close. 

And when start-ups began scaling:

• Strategy execution becomes complex

• Cross-functional misalignment increases

• Financial discipline matters more than ever

• The cost of unclear leadership becomes a real P&L risk

This is the moment founders start saying: “We need to hire new execs.”

Because…the leadership bench we’ve built isn’t ready.

The implications are uncomfortable, but ultimately significant AND positive

If this scenario is true, then my message is not “HR has failed”. The message is: we now know what to fix.

1️⃣ Personally for HR leaders: Strengthening our business acumen increases our readiness for executive leadership. It deepens our influence, sharpen our impact and enables us to own the seat we’ve earned.

2️⃣ Organisationally for talent development: It elevate the impact impact we can have. We stop developing people in 66% of the equation and hoping the rest appears by luck. We build HR strategy that prepare people (especially women) for the executive roles the business requires.

And that, to me, is genuinely good news for how this scenario plays out.

TED Talk by Susan Calantuono

Susan’s talk stayed with me. This newsletter draws on her insights, along with patterns I’ve seen (and felt) in my own experience developing executive leaders.

Click here for her TED talk 👉

Step up from HR Leader to Business Leader

Ready to influence strategically, drive business impact and make HR indispensable?
Here are 3 ways I can help:

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

🍽️ You’re invited to… 

The People Systems Dinner 2026

Co-hosted by Christopher Priebe (Founder of Zelt) and JooBee (you know me...I hope😅)

💡Theme: "Balancing Agility & Scale”

The most resilient organisations are built where two distinct strengths meet: 

1. The agile innovation of high-growth startups

2. The operational excellence of larger organisations.

One is able to create something new; the other can see what already works

Join a curated group of 20 People & Culture leaders for a private dinner designed as a cross-industry exchange. We will discuss:

• Cultural Velocity: How to preserve decision-making speed as headcount explodes.

• Operational Rigor: Building scalable structures that move quickly.

• The People Factor: Managing the human side of growth and scale.

This is an opportunity to hear from a different scale of business and learn from peers at different stages of growth. 

The Details

• Date: 19th Mar 2026

• Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

• Venue: Hawksmoor Borough

This is a free of charge, invite-only gathering with limited places.

Click the box below to secure your place before we’re fully booked.

The People Systems Dinner

Join a curated group of 20 People & Culture leaders for a private dinner designed as a cross-industry exchange.

Register here →

See you there!

💛JooBee

Psst…a little throwback to our last dinner in June 2025 👉 click here

TL;DR

💹 HR Leaders belong in QBRs: How to add strategic value

😎 Who says HR can’t run QBRs? Here’s how

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

What’s this? A mission worth joining. A prize you don’t want to miss.

HR Leaders belong in QBRs: How to add strategic value

😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 (Yup, that was my first reaction.) 

HR leaders, if you are not in the QBR, you’ve already vacated your strategic seat.

I’m saying this without judgment, because I’ve made this mistake myself.

Early in my career, when a QBR invite landed in my calendar, my internal reaction was: “Eurgh. Another meeting I have to show my face in. I could read the summary later.” (I never did.)   

I remember one session vividly. The leadership team was debating 2 customer segments and struggling to expand into one of them. Not people stuff, I thought — so I switched off and started drafting an engagement report instead. 

When HR leaders think, “I don’t have anything to add in the QBR,” what they usually mean is: “I’m treating HR as downstream execution, not upstream strategy.”

A strategic HR leader cannot afford to be absent from the QBR

Because a QBR isn’t just a meeting. It’s a direction-setting and prioritisation ritual for the next quarter, aligned to the annual goals.

It exists so the business can answer one core question: 

While the business is deciding whether to increase revenue by doing X, pivot product by doing Y, or grow market share by doing Z...this is exactly when HR should be in the room, contributing.

In newsletter #26, I shared that I decided I no longer wanted to sit at the corner of the exec table, feeling like an outsider, so I chose QBRs as one of my training grounds. I stopped trying to multitask during QBRs and made a conscious decision to be part of the conversation.

It was daunting at first, but I started by focusing on doing 3 simple things:

1. ADD insight that shapes decisions

2. ASK questions others aren’t asking

3. ALIGN decisions to operational reality

(I call it the 3A’s 😉. Easy for you to remember when the next QBR rolls around.)

Contribute and add value to QBR with the 3A’s 

Let’s say the business decides to ‘increase revenue and prioritise enterprise expansion next quarter.’

Here’s how a strategic HR leader shows up in that conversation:

1. ADD insight that shapes decisions

“Our revenue growth projection for next quarter assumes a time-to-first sale of 5 months. Based on our last 9 months of onboarding data, Enterprise AEs typically close their first deal in 6 - 9 months. We therefore need to either revisit the projection assumptions or prioritise initiatives to reduce ramp-up time.”

📌 Your insight slows the room down just enough to make better decisions. 

2. ASK questions others aren’t asking

“Our enterprise AEs have flagged difficulty closing deals due to a lack of ISO certification. I don’t see this prioritised next quarter, how does that affect our confidence in this target?”

📌 You’re asking an executive leadership question; it doesn’t belong to Sales or Product alone. 

3. ALIGN decisions to reality

“Our Customer Success team is already at capacity. Without additional support, onboarding enterprise clients will create delivery risk.”

📌 You’re ensuring good decisions don’t become bad execution.

But what if you don’t have QBRs?

You’re not alone. Many start-ups building to scale haven’t formalised this yet. And if it doesn’t exist, don’t wait for the CEO, COO or CFO to create it.

Because scaling isn’t about doing more HR. It’s about helping the business make better decisions — earlier, and with fewer surprises down the line.

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📺 Watch the demo to see how →

Who says HR can’t run QBRs? Here’s how

Too many QBRs feel like extended exec meetings. Same updates, same slides, same polite nodding around the table. Just…longer🤯.

Before the calendar invite goes out, ask: “What must be different after this meeting?”

If the answer isn’t clearer priorities, explicit trade-offs or deliberate decisions — repeat after me: don’t bother running the QBR. 

Wait, isn’t there a QBR agenda template?

👉 Click here if you’re looking for QBR template. Honestly, ChatGPT could whip one up before you can say “admin” 😉.

But that’s not what makes a QBR valuable.

What’s hard is the tight facilitation and shared understanding needed to make your QBR genuinely valuable. That’s where most QBRs fail — a sloppy attempt to tick the “best practice” box without driving real alignment, decisions or commitment.

3 Non-negotiables to run a valuable QBR that moves the business

I’ve learned that must come to life for a QBR to do what it’s meant to: move the business forward.

1️⃣ Set clear expectations, BEFORE the meeting begins

It’s easy to assume your execs know what’s expected. After all, they’re experienced leaders, right?

Err…wrong. We made that assumption once and the result was a derailed QBR. Different people came in with different expectations — some ready to present polished progress updates, others hoping for strategic discussion. The tension in the room was palpable. Worse, when the mismatch was called out, people got defensive.

Since then, I’ve always align expectations upfront. Here’s what we make explicit:

• This is outcome-focused, not activity-focused.

• This is not a presentation of department’s progress, but holistic business progress.

• We care about what moved the business, not ‘busywork’.

• Trade-offs are expected, this is where we make them.

• We’re here as one leadership team, not as function reps. (This one’s my favourite. I send this Lencioni video before every QBR — yes, every time. Because there’s always a new face, and alignment isn’t a one-off.)

It might sound basic. But making it explicit ensures the QBR starts with alignment, not assumptions.

2️⃣ Only discuss business-level metrics

QBRs are not a showcase for every department’s dashboard. You need to zoom out and focus.

At the business level, we typically anchor on one key metric from each of the 3 core pillars:

• Product / Customer (e.g. time to value, NPS)

• Commercial Growth (e.g. revenue, market share)

• Business Health (e.g. gross margin, EBITDA, productivity)

(These should reflect your biggest business bets, the metrics that matter most this year.)

If you have strong business clarity, you may only need one clear north star metric. That’s rare, but powerful.

A simple rule of thumb: If a metric doesn’t influence a business decision, it doesn’t belong in the QBR.

Department-level metrics still matter — but only as supporting insight to help illuminate business-level priorities. They’re context, not the main event.  

3️⃣ A good facilitator is a must

The best QBRs I’ve attended had one thing in common: excellent facilitation.

Not someone who simply moves the agenda along. But someone who:

• Holds the room to the intended purpose

• Surfaces tensions and forces trade-offs, not smooths them over

• Knows when to pause the conversation and ask, “What decision are we trying to make here?”

Ideally, this is the CEO. In reality, that’s often not possible in start-ups, especially for first-time founders or leaders who’ve never run a QBR before. So choose someone else who can hold the room to the outcome. A senior exec with a strong cross-functional understanding works. Even better, a neutral third party (like a trusted advisor) who isn’t afraid to challenge and redirect when needed.

QBR is not “someone else’s priority”

HR leaders, this is a strategic leadership ritual. If you don’t have one, this is your guide to creating it. If you do have one, this is your guide to making it better. 

Either way, don’t leave it to “someone else on the exec team” and limit yourself to HR-only rituals. 

This is your strategic contribution. 

Step up from HR Leader to Business Leader

Ready to influence strategically, drive business impact and make HR indispensable?
Here are 3 ways I can help:

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

If I could give you one thing this March... (you choose)

1️⃣ JooBee’s pocket ebook: Your cheat sheet to sound strategic & commercial
2️⃣ JooBee’s BeeBot: Your quick answers from my content library when you’re stuck
3️⃣ Career coaching with JooBee: Your personalised advice to unlock your next move

Why this? Why now?

My BHAG (big hair audacious goal) this year is: 

And honestly...the best way to do that is with you.

Many of you already recommend my newsletter to friends, founders, and fellow HR leaders. I see the quiet referrals. I hear "My colleague sent me this!" all the time.

So I thought…what if we made this official? What if we went a little ambitious...together? 🙌

Here's a crazy thought…

Let's get to 6,000 readers together by March 31 🎯

Is it a big number? Yes. Is it absolutely possible? Also, yes. All we need is…

Because if each of you recommends the newsletter to just one person who would genuinely benefit... we get there. (And if more than one? Even better!)

🎁 If by Mar 31 we hit 6,000 readers together…

EVERYONE who makes at least one successful referral will win the MOST-voted gift:

• 1️⃣ JooBee’s pocket ebook: Your cheat sheet to sound strategic & commercial, or

• 2️⃣ JooBee’s BeeBot: Your quick answers from my content library when you’re stuck, or

• 3️⃣ Career coaching with JooBee: Top 3 referrers get coaching (everyone gets a real-life video of how I positioned HR to the business when I was a CPeO).

🚨 Use your personal referral link

That's the only way I can track your referral and send your reward. When your friend subscribes through your link, it counts. As simple as that.

This is a global challenge...so, what do you say?

One reader, one recommendation…and we double the number of HR leaders who think commercially, act strategically, and stop burying themselves in operational chaos.

I'd love to build this with you. 🎯 One shared goal. 🎁 One big thank you.

With gratitude, 
💛JooBee 

Who to share with? Here are some ideas:

TL;DR

🤨 Everyone thinks they can do HR’s job (here’s what to do about it)

🪞 Confidence at the exec table: Why you hesitate and how to lean in

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

Everyone thinks they can do HR’s job (here’s what to do about it)

It’s not just one frustrated VP of People, I’ve heard it from countless HR leaders. When it comes to people stuff, everyone has an opinion and it often feels like the rest of the exec team is always ‘marking our work.’

I get it. It’s annoying. Very annoying.

But you know me – I like to poke the bear sometimes 👉🐻. 

So my first instinct is: “Why don’t you mark their homework back?”

Yes, I’m that annoying😆. When someone meddles in my stuff, I meddle right back.

(But there’s a serious point underneath that cheeky comeback.)

Same behaviour, different label

Let’s step back for a moment and look at the bigger picture. If you sit at the exec table as an HR leader, that is your team.

And what do high-performing teams do?

• They give feedback.

• They share opinions.

• They challenge assumptions.

Now…what does “marking HR homework” look like?

• Giving feedback.

• Sharing opinions.

• Challenging assumptions.

It’s the same behaviour, just a different label.

The difference is not what they do, it’s how we see it

If I want my exec peers to care about my work, I want them to challenge me. That’s what good collaboration looks like.

So here’s the honest check-in:

Or are we sitting back quietly, thinking “that’s not my lane”?

Not from pride. Not as revenge. But because that’s what cross-functional leadership looks like.

I didn’t mark their homework either, and it was a mistake

Let me be the first to raise my hand 🙋🏻‍♀️ 

In my first exec role, I didn’t mark anyone else’s homework. There were 2 reasons:

1️⃣ I didn’t understand the business enough

So, of course, I couldn’t challenge anything meaningfully.

2️⃣ I didn’t think it was my job

I was a first-time Head of People. I thought I was there to lead HR. Sales handle sales, tech handles tech, and so on. So I stayed in my lane.

Which, in hindsight, was the biggest mistake of my early career. 

The moment we sit at that table, we are no longer a functional leader. We’re a business leader with one shared goal: make the business successful through enabling people.

Strategic HR challenges the business (not just the people stuff)

So this week’s newsletter is not about blaming others. It’s about us. Our mindset. Our missed opportunities. And what we can do differently — starting now.

So go on. Mark their homework. 

• Ask Sales if that next 2-quarter forecast makes sense, given the slow ramp-up time.

• Ask Product how they plan to scale if they keep prioritising custom solutions.

• Ask Finance if we pivot to X, how does it impact our funding narrative in the next 12 months?

Ask the hard question. Share your observation. Challenge the assumption. 

You’re not “meddling”. You’re doing your job — as a strategic, commercial, equal member of the exec team.

Sponsored: Captain the Exec table with Zelt

To "mark the homework" of your exec peers effectively, you need objective data. Without it, challenging a colleague is a confrontation; with it, you are providing facts.

HR is uniquely positioned to captain this cross-functional alignment. With Zelt’s Company Goals and OKRs, you define department-level targets and track measurable key results for every owner. By structuring company goals and tracking results regularly, you gain the evidence needed to challenge assumptions and ask hard questions through a professional, objective lens.

Book a demo to learn how →
 

Confidence at the exec table: Why you hesitate and how to lean in

If you’re thinking, “Yes, I’m ready to mark the other execs’ homework… I want to ask that question… I want to challenge that assumption…,” but then a little voice whispers:

“It’s probably already been asked.”
“You should know this already.”
“Don’t embarrass yourself.”

So you stay quiet — silenced by a dip in confidence.

Confidence: A competence problem? Or a perception problem?

Lack of confidence usually comes from one of 2 places:

1️⃣ A real lack of competence (you genuinely don’t know enough yet). 

2️⃣ A perceived lack of competence (you fear people will think you don’t know enough).

If you’re in the first category, like I was, and your confidence wobbles because you’re afraid someone will discover you don’t fully understand the business… good news: that’s fixable. You can learn it.

And yes, here comes a shameless plug — the STEP UP Bootcamp and STEP UP MBA were built exactly to close that gap. Business fluency is straightforward to build when someone shows you the shortcuts.

But if your hesitation comes from the second category, the fear of being perceived as incompetent, the internal monologue sounds like this:

• What if this question makes me sound stupid?

• What if they already said this and I missed it?

• What if I say something wrong and lose credibility?

If that’s the case, let me say it clearly:

And that fear is what’s holding you back.

What’s really behind the fear and how to tackle it

👌 Expecting yourself to be ‘perfect’

People say perfection is unattainable, I think it’s worse – it’s dangerous. If we’re “perfect,” there’d be nothing left to learn. That’s not perfection… that’s preventing us from growing.

Remind yourself: You’re learning. So, instead of saying, “This might be a stupid question,” try:

• “Can I clarify something?”

• “I want to check I’ve understood the risk correctly…”

Curiosity sounds confident — because it is.

😨 Fear of vulnerability and mistakes

We often treat mistakes as proof of incompetence. But do you think others are incompetent when they ask clarifying questions? Do you judge leaders for wanting more context? Of course not. 

Yet when we make a slip or admit we don’t know something, our inner critic screams: “Everyone will see I’m not good enough” or “I’ll look foolish.”

Remind yourself: You give others grace, give yourself the same. Speak to yourself the way you'd support someone you lead.

🔦 The spotlight effect

We wildly overestimate how much others are watching or judging us. They’re not. They’re too busy worrying about themselves.

Back in college, I used to point out my love handles to a friend. One day, she said: “If you didn’t say anything, I wouldn’t have noticed at all.” That moment stuck with me. 

Remind yourself: No one cares more about your “imperfections” as much as you do. (Yes, tough love — but true.)

Confidence comes from action

If you're holding back because you’re worried about how you’ll be seen, you’re not alone. But confidence doesn’t come first, it follows action.

Start small. Ask one business question this week, then two, then three.

Your confidence builds, and your influence grows every time you choose to lean in.

Step up from HR Leader to Business Leader

Ready to influence strategically, drive business impact and make HR indispensable?
Here are 3 ways I can help:

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

🏗️ Before AI, fix the org 

Recently, I wrote ‘Before AI, Fix the Org’ with People Managing People. It’s a piece I’ve been wanting to write for a long time. Not because it’s about AI (AI isn’t my usual lane😉), but because AI is now crashing straight into the lane I am in: people, leadership and organisations. 

👉 It’s exposing every unclear decision
👉 Surfacing every messy workflow
👉 Shining a light on every “we’ll fix it later” org structure

And that’s the thread running through the whole article: we can’t build AI-ready organisations until we learn to think, design and decide with sharper reasoning.

A few reflections as I wrote it:

• I found myself smiling at how full-circle this journey is; from crashing my PC running AI models in 2000s 😅, when I was modelling power plants, to now modelling organisations.

• I realised how much HR is standing at a crossroads. Stay a support act, or become the architect of the system everyone else relies on.

• And writing this reminded me (again) that AI doesn’t forgive lazy thinking – myself included. If our thinking is vague, it reflects the vagueness right back at you. Very clearly. 👀

Before AI, Fix the Org

A Leadership PhD’s Advice for Going Back to Org Design Fundamentals Before Integrating AI and Scaling HR Teams

The article walks through 3 shifts I’m noticing:

1. AI is exposing weak organisational systems

We can’t just throw AI into a broken system and hope it works miracles. If our org design, decision-making or workflows are messy, AI will only scale the mess. Which is why disciplined organisational design can no longer be “nice to have.”

2. Thinking quality is now the leadership advantage

AI removes information scarcity. What matters now is how leaders frame problems, design decisions and leverage AI as a thinking partner. Vague thinking gets mirrored right back. The strongest leaders will use AI to challenge their logic, improve clarity and scale their decisions.

3. HR role as the system architect

We either step into our role as strategic system architects…or risk becoming irrelevant. Our job has always been to build commercial perspective and connect the dots across the business — and AI now gives us even more leverage to do that well.

If any of this resonates with the way you’re building your team, your thinking, or your organisation, I think you’ll enjoy this one.

💛JooBee

TL;DR

🍚 Exec meeting is like bad fried rice (and why nothing gets done)

⏱️ 3Ws to run effective Exec meetings (that move the company faster)

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

Exec meeting is like bad fried rice (and why nothing gets done)

“No, you can’t.” That was my immediate answer. And no, it wasn’t the answer the founder wanted.

Because when I dug a little deeper, what he was really asking was this:
“How do I solve the entire company’s problems in 60 minutes?”

That, right there, is the same recipe for bad fried rice. 

🧂 Status update? Toss it in.
📉 Pipeline issue? Sure, that too.
👥 Hiring escalation? Throw it in.
🔥 Customer fire? In you go.
🗨️ Product roadmap debate? Why not.
🧭 Strategy pivot? Let’s squeeze it into the last five minutes.

If you throw everything in at once, you get a soggy, confused, beige mush.

And that’s exactly what a weekly exec meeting becomes when you try to cook every business problem in one pan. It steams, not fries. It gets dense, directionless and nobody leaves feeling satisfied.

Some execs walk out thinking, “Well, at least we solved my thing.” 

Others leave frustrated, “We didn’t even get to the important thing.”

Having worked with enough start-ups post-product-market fit, I can tell you this: Show me a company with just one weekly exec meeting, and I’ll show you a business with:

• unclear priorities,

• misaligned teams, and

• decisions stuck in limbo.

Honestly, don’t get me started on the cost. Put all your exec salaries into a spreadsheet, multiply by meeting hours…😱

Why do bad exec meetings happen in the first place?

Because everyone is in the room.

That’s it. That’s the whole reason 🤦🏻‍♀️.

There’s a psychological pull: “Since we’re all here, let’s fix everything now.” 

But just like frying rice, it doesn’t matter how many ingredients you have — if you add too much, it stops frying and starts steaming into mush (and you’ll start hearing Uncle Roger shouting ‘haiyaaaa!’).

Exec meetings suffer the same fate:

• too many topics → nothing cooks properly

• too many priorities → no clarity 

• too many goals → no momentum

So, have more than one exec meeting perweek

I know, I know…founders hear that and cringe, “We can’t afford to have execs in more meetings.”

So here’s the question I push back with:

What could possibly be more important for executives than:

• setting clear priorities,

• creating alignment,

• unblocking the business, or

• enabling the organisation to move faster?

This is their job.

The real goal is not more meetings

The goal is to have the right meetings — each with a clear purpose, clear decisions and clear boundaries on what belongs in that wok (ahem, meeting).

And that’s the difference between bad fried rice…and a start-up that actually scales with clarity and momentum.

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3Ws to run effective Exec meetings (that move the company faster)

There are far too many playbooks on how to run meetings – agendas, templates, timeboxes, facilitation models…all useful, but they send leaders straight into the weeds.

At exec level, the job is simple: make sure the company can move forward with momentum.

And momentum really boils down to just 3 questions:

Question 1️⃣: Who can make the decision?

I use “can” intentionally. Not who wants to, not who has opinions – but who actually has the authority, context and accountability to make the call?

Simple, but in my experience, you’d be surprised how often exec teams don’t know this. As a result, discussions drag on, more meetings get added and decisions stall.

Question 2️⃣: Whose input is needed to make a good decision?

Not every meeting requires everyone. You only need people who can add valuable insight, detect risks early and help shape informed decisions.

I need to emphasise this: input is not the same as authority. It’s not a consensus. And it definitely doesn’t mean including everyone just in case someone’s feelings might get hurt (that’s a different problem to solve).

Question 3️⃣: Who needs to know so they can execute decisions made with clarity?

The best decision still fails if the people doing the work don’t know what was decided, why it was decided and what it means for them.

So back to the weekly exec meeting — what problem are you actually trying to solve?

❓ If only the FOUNDER can make the decision:

Your weekly exec meeting should focus on decision readiness, not brainstorming. The exec team’s job is to bring data, risks and implications (not to debate endlessly 😫) but to give the founder the clarity to make a fast, confident decision that unlocks momentum for the company.

Examples: Entering a new market, pausing hiring to extend runway, changing pricing.

The exec team’s role is to bring the data, the risks and the options and trade-offs. So the founder can make a fast, confident call that unlocks momentum.

❓ If a SUBSET OF EXECS can make the decision:

Your weekly exec meeting should focus on alignment, not solving. Let the right group tackle the issue in a smaller, faster room. The exec meeting is simply the place where you connect the dots: “Here’s what we’re solving, why it matters, and what the organisation needs to know.”

Example: 

• CRO and CMO: deciding on shifting GTM focus from SMB to mid-market or redefining how leads are qualified. 

• CTO and CPO: choosing which technical debt to tackle this quarter or how engineering capacity will be allocated across product requests.

This doesn’t need the full exec table to solve it. A smaller group works it through quickly.

❓ If an INDIVIDUAL EXEC can make the decision:

Your weekly exec meeting should focus on visibility, not approval. Share the decision, the rationale and the implications. No fishing for validation. No committee thinking. This is how you keep velocity.

Example: 

• CPeO deciding to redesign performance, refresh onboarding or run a leadership workshop.

• CMO adjusting content strategy, reallocating budget to a new performance channel, changing messaging tone.

• CFO updating financial reporting cadence, revising forecast assumptions, tightening spend controls.

The weekly exec meeting is about visibility, not permission. CxO shares the decision, the rationale and the business implications.

Answer the 3 questions honestly to move faster

If you can’t, no meeting playbook can fix your meetings. But when you can, the right meetings (and the right cadence) become obvious: leaner, clearer and built for momentum.

Step up from HR Leader to Business Leader

Ready to influence strategically, drive business impact and make HR indispensable?
Here are 3 ways I can help:

TL;DR

♟️ Start your new role like a strategic CPeO, not an HR admin

🚦 Signal “I am strategic” in your first 90 days

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

Start your new role like a strategic CPeO, not an HR admin

“When you get promoted into a new role in the same company, you carry your old baggage,” my previous manager, Monica, once told me. Wise words.

A new role in a new company is a brilliant chance to reset – to show up as the future version of you, not the old one you already outgrown.

But most of us drag our baggage right in with us. 😱

We land in the new seat and the instinct kicks in: prove ourselves quickly. We scan for problems, roll up our sleeves, start fixing. It feels responsible. It feels competent. It feels like leadership.

It isn’t.

If you want to be seen as a strategic leader from day one, you have to stop onboarding yourself back into the very corner you were trying to escape.

🧳 Decide what baggage you’re NOT bringing into your new role

Before we get into the practical “how-to” (that’s coming in part two), let’s start with the mindset shift.

Your actions in the first few weeks speak louder than any vision deck you share. Your first impression becomes the lens through which the business will perceive you for the rest of your tenure. Of course you can change it later — but why make it harder for yourself?

So before you start a new role, ask yourself:

The habits that instantly peg you as…

• operational / admin

• here to clean up the mess

• the safe pair of hands who says ‘yes’ to everything

• HR, but not commercial

Here are some examples HR leaders have told me they’re leaving behind:

• Becoming the crutch that hides deeper issues: weak leaders, bad structures, unclear ownership.  (This one is my absolute favourite 🫶)

• Diving too deep, too fast into every problem they can see.

• Taking responsibility for all fixes simply because they could fix them.

• Scoping work so broadly, then drowning in their own ambition.

• Acting as the parent-child translator between leadership and the org.

Strategy is a choice: Make yours before you even start

When you leave those habits behind, you stop onboarding yourself as the over-functioning executor who keeps the organisation alive through sheer willpower. 

That’s not strategic leadership — that’s saviour mode dressed up as helpfulness.

And remember: your start-up desperately wants someone who will make the chaos feel less chaotic. They need a leader who can help them climb out of it — not someone who climbs in and tries to hold it all together from the inside.

So make the choice early. In your first 90 days, keep it simple:

• Build credibility, not dependency.

• Build clarity, not comfort.

• Build a strategic foundation, not an operational safety net.

Everything else is noise.

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Signal “I am strategic” in your first 90 days

So here’s how you turn Part 1 into operational reality — the first 90 days that signal strategic leadership before you’ve even delivered anything.

We’ll use the 3Cs to achieve this during your onboarding: clarity, confidence and connection.

🎯CLARITY: Diagnose like a Business Leader, not an HR specialist

If we only ask HR questions, we onboard ourselves as HR. If we start with employees' systems and tools, we onboard ourselves as operational support.

So we start with the business.

I use the 6 Foundations as my onboarding guide — a set of guardrails that keep me focused on what actually drives value. These questions aren’t exhaustive, but they help you probe strategically.

1️⃣ Strategy: Get to know how your business makes choices

• What business model(s) is your new company running?

• How do they build product, sell product and generate revenue with profit?

• What strategic choices have they made? (ICP, positioning, how to win customers, how to retain them, etc.)

• What are the 12–24-month big goals? (Fund raising, market expansion, new product,  etc)

• What organisational rituals keep the company on track (OKRIs, QBRs, strategy days, all-hands, etc.)?

💡Your goal here is to understand how value is created and how the company plans to scale it.

2️⃣ Structure: Map how the business is organised to deliver the strategy

Look at the structure through a value-creation lens:

• How does value flow through the org?

• Does the org design support that flow — or block it?

• Are roles clear on accountabilities, decision-making, and communication flow?

• Where does work actually get done (formal and informal structures)?

💡Structure tells you whether the business is set up to win or set up to stall.

3️⃣ Capabilities: Assess gaps at the right level

HR is great at spotting capability gaps, but we often start at the wrong altitude.

So here’s the reminder: start with the business, not the people.

• Start with business-level capabilities: What can’t the company do yet that it must be able to do to hit its goals?

• Then move to department-level capabilities: Consider product velocity, GTM muscle, leadership depth, manager quality, etc.

• Then, and only then, assess individual / role-level capability gaps.

💡This is how you avoid treating symptoms and start solving root causes.

4️⃣ Process & systems: Identify where value gets stuck

Ask 3 layers of questions:

Strategy to execution

• What’s the operating rhythm?

• Where do plans break down?

• Where does speed collapse?

Customer lifecycle

• What are the repeatable steps from awareness → closed won → retained → expanded?

• Where does customer value get stuck?

Employee lifecycle

• What are the repeatable steps from hire → onboard → perform → grow → exit?

• Where does employee value get stuck?

💡 Most “HR fires” start in strategy or customer flow — not HR.  You’re looking for systemic friction points, not process checklists.

5️⃣ Data: Understand how the business measures reality

• What metrics are used to give insights & visibility of progress

• What metrics are used to identify problems 

• What metrics are used to make decisions

• What metrics are used to forecast and predict outcomes

💡 If the company can’t measure it, they can’t manage it — and neither can you.

6️⃣ Principles & values: Uncover the unwritten rules that drive behaviour

• What shared philosophy aligns people to move in the same direction, fast?

• What behaviours are rewarded? Tolerated? Quietly punished?

• What’s the founder’s strongest (or quirkiest) belief that’s not written anywhere? 

💡 You might not like what you find out, but knowing it will save you months of misalignment.

⚡ CONFIDENCE: Reset expectations so you don’t inherit the past

To build confidence in yourself and in how others see you, you need a clear baseline. You can’t reset expectations if you don’t know what expectations already exist.

Questions to ask your manager in 1:1s

• Who are my key stakeholders?

• Who is most sceptical of HR?

• Who is most sceptical of the changes we need to make to achieve our business goals?

Question to ask your stakeholders, leaders and employees in conversations

• “How have you worked with HR in the past?”

• “What has HR done that was genuinely valuable?”

• “What did HR to broke your trust?”

• “What are your expectations of HR here — and of me in this role?”

These conversations tell you: HR’s starting reputation, where trust is fragile, where you’ll meet resistance and where you need to reset expectations.

Around month 3, formalise the reset:

• “Here’s what you can expect from my team and me.”

• “Here’s what we don’t do and won’t own.”

• “Here’s how we’ll work together.”
  

💡This is how you proactively set yourself and your team up for success, instead of being hindered by the ghost of HR past.

🤝 CONNECTION: Build alliances, not dependencies

You don't need everyone to love you. You need people to trust you.

Build early relationships with:

• The leaders who drive value creation

• The operators who keep the engine running

• The sceptics who will test whether you’re for real

• The connectors who shape the informal power network

💡You can achieve more collectively with shared goals than HR team could ever carry alone.

The first 90 days shape the version of you the business will remember

Not because of what you deliver, but because of how you show up — what you pay attention to, how you listen, where you challenge and how you decide to lead.

Your onboarding is your first strategic act. Use it to signal the leader you’re becoming, not the one you’ve outgrown.

PS: This isn’t only for HR leaders in new roles — if you’re going into the new year ready to step up as a strategic HR Leader a.k.a. a Business Leader, take this with you 😊

Step up from HR Leader to Business Leader

Ready to influence strategically, drive business impact and make HR indispensable?
Here are 3 ways I can help:

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

3 Strategic tensions I still find hard to balance 

Christmas period is my full introvert indulgence. I stay in my flat, alone with my thoughts — yes, by choice 😅 (I’ll face my share of festive chaos during Chinese New Year 🤯).

It’s the quietest headspace I get all year, and it’s when I naturally reflect on what mattered, what didn’t, and what I want to say yes to next.

Strategy, after all, is just a series of choices. And this is the season when I make mine.

You might be doing something similar heading into a new year — weighing work against personal needs, ambition against sustainability, visibility against space.

There are 3 tensions I still find hard to balance:

🌀 Being me vs what the algorithm wants 

This one’s the hardest. Staying true to how I think, while knowing exactly what the algorithm rewards:  binary positions, clean villains and heroes, quick tips, manufactured urgency.

I’m wired differently. I care about trade-offs, context and systems. And strategy is messy.

So I ask myself again: Am I writing for the algorithm? Or am I helping one person see something a little differently? Which one brings me more joy?

Yes, I know how to optimise — for clicks, views, engagement. (Trust me, my marketing friends remind me regularly 😅) But if I can’t do it in a way that feels like me, then what’s the point of building something on my own terms?

This year, I chose to create value first and find alternative paths to wider reach, on my own terms.

👀 Always visible vs protecting private space

The algorithm also wants everything loud and public — every conversation, every insight, every interaction, all visible on social media, now. For an introvert, that’s overwhelming😣. The constant need to be ‘on’ can start to feel performative. 

I’m drawn to the opposite: 1:1 DMs, private messages, small group conversations, deeper discussions. Social media is great for meeting new people. But the real value has always come from moving those connections off-platform and into something more personal.

This year, I’m still choosing depth of relationship over volume.

💪 I’m a hard T, learning to flex my F personality

When I write, record a podcast or share a LinkedIn post, I do it with my natural T (Thinking) tendency: every word must add value, people’s time is precious – don’t waste it!

But this year, people told me they enjoy the stories I share when we meet in person – at events, in one-to-ones, during the bootcamp. The human bits I rarely share online.

The most recent came just before Christmas, from Missy: “I’ve followed your writing since your first blog in 2021. I know how you think. But only this year, spending more time with you, did I really get to know you.”

For someone with a strong T preference, value has always meant insight first. I’m learning that, for some readers, value also comes from seeing the person behind the thinking.

So I’m choosing to flex my F more consciously.

All of the above comes with a cost. I choose to pay it deliberately - that’s strategy.

So, what tension are you balancing between work, leadership and being you?

And what conscious choices are you making as you go into 2026?

Because strategy isn’t just about decisions for your business. It’s also about the choices you make for yourself:

And those are often the hardest ones.

A note of gratitude from me to you

I’m deeply grateful to everyone who reads my newsletter, and to those of you who reached out this year to share what you were trying, struggling with, or winning at.

🚀 You trusted me with your ambitions.

🌱 You trusted me with your growth.

⌚ And you trusted me with your time — the most valuable thing any leader can give.

Thank you for letting me be part of your journey from HR Leader to Business Leader

Your courage makes my work meaningful.
Your progress makes HR indispensable to your business and your people.

Still strategic. Still me.

💛JooBee

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

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TL;DR

🚀 3 Levers for a more strategic 2026: HR’s end-of-year reset

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

3 Levers for a more strategic 2026: HR’s end-of-year reset

Q4 in start-ups isn’t “busy.” It’s brutal. 

You’re closing performance cycles, running calibrations, mapping 2026 strategy and fielding last-minute “one quick thing” requests… all while you’re still trying to wrap up this year 😵‍💫.

If you’re feeling stretched between finishing strong and starting smart, you’re not alone. 

So this final edition of the year is your space to reset, refocus and rebuild — so you don’t just drag 2025’s chaos into 2026.

Here are 3 levers to help you wrap smart and step into 2026 ready to lead strategically 👇

1️⃣ Refocus for impact: From HR busywork to business leverage

2026 is the year to stop working ‘harder’ and start building smarter — systems that multiply impact instead of adding workload.

If you’ve spent the year fighting for more headcount (or fighting not to lose it), shift the question from “Who else do I need?” to “What could run better?”

Here are 3 reads to spark that shift:

🧭 Alignment check: Are your people ready for the year ahead?
Before you sprint ahead, get clarity on what your business actually needs to achieve in 2026.

🚫 You don’t need more headcount — you need a better system
Why scaling a start-up is less about hiring, and more about designing leverage.

🛑 HR, stop bracing for layoffs — start driving revenue
Reposition HR as a growth engine, not a cost centre.

2️⃣ Rebuild HR’s influence: Your value, impact and being indispensable

Founders don’t need more HR projects. They need HR voices that shape business direction.

Here are 3 reads to help you rebuild influence from the inside out:

😩 Fed up with HR being misunderstood? Build the brand that changes it (pt 1 & pt 2)
If we don’t own our brand, we’ll keep living in our own shadow.

😖 HR leaders, if we don’t want to be seen as admin, stop acting like one
Break the unconscious habits keeping us stuck in the admin lane.

🙅 Founder not buying what you’re selling? Here’s why
Shift from convincing to aligning — and start driving buy-in.

3️⃣ Redefine performance: Align people decisions to business outcomes

Every December, performance season lands like an unwanted sequel 😬. But it’s also our best opportunity to anchor the business for 2026 — if we treat it as a strategy tool, not an admin task.

Here are 3 reads to help you rethink performance:

😬 Performance ≠ promotion (mixing them screws everyone)
Separate the past (how someone performed) from the future (what they’re ready for).

👓 Read this before measuring AI adoption in performance reviews
Avoid old performance review mistakes. Learn what actually matters when evaluating performance.

🍽️ Stop treating EOY conversations like an all-you-can-eat buffet
Focus conversations on what matters most: recognition, growth and retention of top talent.

Before planning ahead, look back with pride

If you’re reading this with a coffee in one hand and a strategy doc in the other – pause for a second.

You’ve navigated another year of shifting priorities, tighter budgets and rising expectations.

• You’ve kept your team focused.

• You’ve stabilised the chaos.

• You’ve built systems where there used to be ‘gut feel’.

So before you rush into planning the next big thing…take a breath.
Recognise what you’ve built, what you’ve learned and how far you’ve come 🥂

Then, reset your focus and step into 2026 with conviction.
You’re not supporting the business. You’re building it.

Here’s to ending the year with clarity – and starting the next with leverage 🔥🎉

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Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

🔗 LinkedIn | 🌎 JooBee’s blog | 🤝 Work with me

TL;DR

😰 Falling out of love with HR? 2 things to do before you walk away

🦋 This is how it feels to almost quit HR – and return with a purpose (Guest writer: Paola Tartaglione)

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

Falling out of love with HR? 2 things to do before you walk away

Lately, I’ve been hearing more of this from HR leaders in start-ups:

• “JooBee, I think I’ve fallen out of love with HR. I’m beginning to hate my job.”

• “I don’t know if I want to do this anymore.”

• “I feel like I’m in a loop dealing with never-ending 💩 and no one even sees it.”

And come year-end, we feel it even more — we’re wrapping up the year and strategising for the next, teams are exhausted, execs still misaligned and we’re quietly keeping it all together in the background.

If what you’re feeling is mental or physical tiredness, a recharge might be exactly what you need. And many of you are probably already doing what you can: sleeping more, setting boundaries, taking mini breaks, walking, journalling, meditating, eating better... we know the drill.

But here’s something we don’t talk about enough:

What if what really needs recharging is… your ego?

Ooof. Did you just flinch a little when I said ‘ego’? OK, let me clarify. Ego isn’t bad — just like ice cream isn’t bad. Too much of it, sure, it’s a problem. 

Ego is simply our self-worth or self-esteem, which is not inherently good or bad. A healthy ego gives us confidence and resilience. Too much? Arrogance. Too little? Insecurity.

So if we want to stay balanced, we need to recharge our ego — our need to feel seen, valued and reminded that what we do matters.

Because when we don’t feel valued:

• the long hours feel thankless

• the work feels invisible

• and we quietly start to resent the job we once loved

1️⃣ Short-term recharge: Ask for better feedback

“Ask for feedback” – we say it all the time. But what we get is: “You’re going great, keep going.”

Nice, but useless 🙄. It doesn’t recharge us, it doesn’t show our impact and it doesn’t help us feel valued. If we want feedback that genuinely reminds us we matter, we have to guide it. 

And the end of the year is the perfect time to reflect, gather evidence and refuel.

Pick one person this week; your CEO, founder, COO or a senior leader you work closely with. Instead of “Any feedback for me?”, ask them these 5 questions:

That’s it. Don’t soften it. Don’t apologise for asking. We’re not fishing for compliments. We’re creating evidence:

• of impact

• of value

• of why we matter for our business

Screenshot their answers. Save them in a folder. Call it “I am amazing!”. Open it on the days when we’re exhausted, overwhelmed and tempted to walk away.

2️⃣ Long-term recharge: Make our work matter

We know by now: doing more doesn’t make us feel valued. Doing what matters does.

The answer isn’t firefighting more efficiently — it’s influencing, shaping, and leading the business through people.

The long-term ego recharge comes from redesigning your role to reflect your value. So as you plan the year ahead, think about how you will:

• tie your role clearly to business outcomes

• reset expectations with your CEO on what you will and won’t own

• build rituals where HR impact sits alongside product, sales, and revenue

• say no to work that doesn’t move the needle (even when it’s uncomfortable)

That’s longer-term, structural and systemic change. We’ll get there. But we can’t create long-term change if we’re already running on empty.

So this week, start small. Recharge your ego. You might just find your love for HR wasn’t gone — it was buried under exhaustion, waiting to be seen again 🤗

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Check it out →

As I began drafting this section, I thought: “Why hear it from me when you can hear it straight from someone who’s gone through this journey recently?”  So, I’m excited to hand the pen over to Paola Tartaglione from Ecologi to share the journey of redefining and making her work matter. Over to Paola…

This is how it feels to almost quit HR – and return with a purpose

Six months ago, I was ready to leave HR.

I’ve loved start-ups for their energy and “get sht done” spirit. But over time, it started to feel like “same sht, different pile.” I was stuck in execution, drifting further from the meaningful HR I believed in.

I started questioning myself:

“Is this still for me?”
“Have I outgrown HR or has HR outgrown me?”

I spoke to my husband and HR friends about leaving HR. I still loved HR… I just didn’t love how I was doing it. I was tired, demotivated, low on confidence – and feeling like what I did didn’t matter.

Fast forward 6 months

Recently, I walked into our Exec meeting excited to share my HR Roadmap. Something I didn’t feel in a long time. I started with:

“What are a company’s priorities? Build great products, sell them and make revenue.”

From there, I positioned HR as a strategic driver of those outcomes, not just an executor or admin function. Then I walked the Exec Team through the 3 biggest areas we needed to solve to hit our revenue targets and accelerate growth.

For each, I laid out:

• The problem and its business impact,

• How HR initiatives could help address it, and

• The expected outcome.

After the session, I got responses I’ve never received before. A couple of execs reached out immediately. One of them said:

Since then, they’ve been coming to me regularly (sometimes very regularly 🤣). They’re proactively involving me in their strategy planning rather than treating HR as an afterthought.

This is how it feels…to be valued

For the first time in a long time, I feel like I’m genuinely influencing the direction of the business. I felt like I belonged in the room — not as a background role, but as someone the business relies on. Previously, I was expected to wear every hat and solve problems without being in the conversations that created them.

For the first time in a long time, I can say this with full honesty: I’ve fallen back in love with my work.

But this didn’t happen overnight

When I decided I needed a change, I signed up for JooBee’s STEP UP bootcamp. From Day 1, it was a shock to my system. I told her, half laughing😅, half overwhelmed😱: “My brain hurts!” But it was the good kind — the kind that comes from stretching.

I learned 2 things that shifted everything:

• To be seen as a strategic partner, I had to operate like one.

• Commerciality and empathy aren’t opposites — HR is strongest when it holds both.

After the bootcamp, I started applying what I’d learned: reframing challenges, linking decisions to outcomes and speaking the language of business.

Within a month, an exec told me;

That moment planted a small seed of belief. I thought:

“Maybe I can do this. Maybe I do have something valuable to bring.”

That small seed motivated me to make a bigger shift

Four months ago, when I joined my new company, I didn’t rush to send out engagement surveys and I resisted the urge to jump into busy HR activity.

Instead, I chose to slow down before speeding up. I spent my first weeks reading, asking questions, and speaking with over 50 people to really understand:

• Our business model,

• Our products, ICP and GTM strategy,

• Our revenue targets and how close or far we were,

• and the organisational friction is making execution harder than it needed to be

In parallel, I started the STEP UP MBA (another shock to my system 😅). I had to watch Module 1 three times just to absorb it properly. But it helped me decode stakeholder language — when someone said “we’re changing our business model”, I finally understood the implications.

I won’t lie. There were moments I panicked thinking: “I haven’t shipped anything. Am I adding value?”

But slowing down was the value. And my business wanted me to take that time.

And the rest, as you already know from the spoiler above😊. I presented the roadmap and tied every HR initiative back to what the business actually cares about. 

A journey to make my work matter again

My biggest takeaway from this journey is: “If we can’t connect to business goals, challenges and outcomes, our impact is limited.”

I still have a lot to learn, but my confidence is rebuilding — slowly, steadily, authentically. For the first time in a long while, I’m excited about what HR can be.

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

🔗 LinkedIn | 🌎 JooBee’s blog | 🤝 Work with me

TL;DR

🍽️ Stop treating EOY conversation like an all-you-can-eat buffet

🪞 2 ways to help managers have braver performance conversations

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

Stop treating EOY conversation like an all-you-can-eat buffet

Here’s a slide from one of my Performance Management strategy proposals. One section I want to highlight: the ‘all-you-can-eat conversation’ that happens at year-end😱.

Everything, all at once, within an hour

Most companies still conduct Performance Review Conversations like a year-end buffet. Everything piled onto one plate: feedback, development plans, career conversations, salary reviews – stuffed into a single hour.

People don’t load their plate with broccoli. They head straight for the lobster — or in this case, salary. Suddenly, the intended purpose — recognising performance, setting development goals, talking about career paths — flies out of the window. The conversation becomes one thing and one thing only: “Why didn’t I get more money?”

We don’t run buffets. We serve fine dining

So, as part of performance and development strategy, we stop running ‘buffet conversation’ and we start serving fine dining conversations. Structured, intentional, well-paced conversations where each ‘course’ gets the attention it deserves.

Here’s how my team and I helped the business set clear expectations for what that looks like across the year:

🍽️ Performance conversations (focused on the current role, for everyone)

This is about how someone is doing in their current role. It’s not a once-a-year event; it’s a continuous drumbeat. Regular 1:1s, real-time feedback and then a quarterly or annual summary to connect the dots. Everyone gets this because clarity on performance is the baseline.

🍽️ Career moves conversations (focused on future role, not for everyone)

This isn’t about today’s performance; it’s about development into future roles. There are 3 main pathways for people to move their careers:

• 1️⃣ Opportunity to take on more complexity 

• 2️⃣ Opportunity to change paths (IC ➡️ MG ➡️ IC) 

• 3️⃣ Opportunity to change professions (a.k.a. job families) 

(for more details on Career Moves 👆click here)

We expect managers to dedicate at least 4 conversations a year (one per quarter) to career development. But with one condition: only if the person is ready. If they’re still finding their feet in their current role, be honest — now’s not the time to talk about what’s next. First things first: deliver today before we plan for tomorrow.

And sometimes, they’re simply not interested in a career move right now — and that’s okay too. Not everyone’s on a quest for the next shiny title (some people genuinely like what they do!).

In those cases, we ask managers to shift the focus: 

• How can you help them stay great at what they do?

• What support do they need to stay effective and motivated in their current role?

Career development isn’t always about moving up. Sometimes, it’s about staying great and feeling valued while doing it.

🍽️ Salary review conversation (once a year, everyone)

We make this a standalone conversation. A clear, structured review of pay in line with current role performance. Yes, it naturally ties into performance, but by splitting it out, we give equal oxygen to development and career discussions. Otherwise, they suffocate under the weight of pay debates.

Because if you don’t pace the courses, people binge on one

Fine dining means pacing the courses, giving each its due timing and attention. Done right, we shift from transactional “why didn’t I get more money?” negotiations to meaningful conversations that recognise, develop and retain top talent.

Sponsored: Fine dining starts with a better kitchen 😉

With EOY planning season here, do your HR tools still feel like a buffet of tabs, process duplication, and spreadsheets?

If your systems couldn’t keep up this year, now’s the time to upgrade.

Zelt helps People teams prepare for what’s next by bringing HR & payroll under one roof - so your performance reviews, salary changes, and role updates flow in sync, not in silos.

Start the new year with better systems, clearer decisions, and way less admin 🧑‍🍳 Bon appétit!

2 ways to help managers have braver performance conversations

“I don’t feel comfortable saying someone is ‘not ready’. I feel bad.”

This was said by a brilliant, highly experienced exec in one of my leadership bootcamps. We weren’t even talking about performance reviews. We were talking about delegation.

But that one sentence speaks volumes. Because this is the real struggle for many leaders.

They struggle to say, “You’re not ready.” Not because they don’t know it. Because they feel bad saying it.

And it gets even harder during Performance Review conversations

That discomfort doesn’t just show up in delegation, it seeps into everyday feedback and shows up in full force during Performance Reviews. When managers feel bad about telling the truth — because they don’t want to seem unsupportive or harsh — that’s when we’ve got a problem.

They end up saying nothing at all. 

• They tick the box to follow the processes.

• They say “You’re doing well.”

• They vaguely mention areas for growth.

• They nod through a promotion request — and walk away hoping their employee takes the hint.

Help your managers have braver performance conversations

No amount of frameworks or processes on how to give feedback or have effective Performance Review conversations will fix this. 

As HR leaders, we need to help managers face what’s really going on. 

And that’s what we need to help them move through.

1️⃣ Help managers overcome fear

Start by breaking the belief that being kind means being nice. Because when managers try to be nice, they dilute the message. They talk about ‘potential.’ They soften the truth. And they mislead.

Being clear isn’t cruel. It’s leadership.

When we help managers reframe statements like “You’re not ready”, we unlock something powerful. Because it doesn’t mean:

• “You’re not good”

• “You’re not worth investing in”

• “You’ll never get there”

It means:

• “This is what ready looks like”

• “Here’s where the gaps are”

• “And I’ll support you to close them—together”

2️⃣ Help manager see their impact

When a manager hesitates to say the hard thing, ask: ‘Is this discomfort about you or what your team truly needs to hear?’

Softening the truth might feel good in the moment. But clarity delivered with belief and support is what actually develops people. Ambiguity erodes trust. It leads to confusion. And eventually, it blindsides.

Clarity, on the other hand, gives people a choice. It gives them a chance to rise.

The courage to step into leadership discomfort

At the end of the day, helping managers master performance conversations isn’t about giving them another template — it’s about shifting how they see their role. Clear, honest feedback isn’t the opposite of kindness; it’s the highest form of it. When managers stop avoiding the hard truths, they give their people something far more valuable than comfort: trust, direction, and the chance to grow. That’s the real work of leadership.

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

🔗 LinkedIn | 🌎 JooBee’s blog | 🤝 Work with me

TL;DR

🚪 Performance Reviews make me want to quit HR (every year!)

👁️‍🗨️ Performance Reviews: tackling bias with the SEEDS model

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

Performance Reviews make me want to quit HR (every year!)

Let me just put it out there: I hate performance reviews.

Every single year, when we reach that point where managers start deciding salaries and bonuses, I want to quit. Walk out. Never do HR again. Honestly—every year!

You might ask, why such a strong reaction? Especially when most people who know me would say I’m chill as a cucumber 🥒.

Because this is when decision making biases hit their glorious peak.

5 biases that hijack performance reviews every time

1. Similarity bias

“We prefer what is like us over what is different”

Managers reward people who mirror their own style. If a manager works long hours, they’ll rate those who also stay late more favourably — even when another employee delivers stronger results in fewer hours. The “mini-me” almost always wins.

2. Expedience bias

“We prefer to act quickly rather than take time”

Speed trumps accuracy. A manager recalls the most recent or most memorable mistake and lets it overshadow months of solid work. One slip-up, and performance ratings tank. This bias works both ways, for example a single big win at the end of the year can inflate ratings (therefore reward), giving someone an easy pass for an otherwise mediocre year.

3. Experience bias

“We take our perception to be the objective truth”

Yesterday’s reputation distorts today’s reality. “Once average, always average.” Or, “They used to be great, so they must still be great.” Past impressions outweigh current evidence, whether positive or negative.

4. Distance bias

“We prefer what is closer over what’s farther away (e.g. distance, time, relationship)”

Proximity gets mistaken for performance. Employees in the same office — or those with stronger personal ties to the manager — receive higher ratings and rewards, than equally strong remote or less visible colleagues. 

5. Safety bias

“We protect against loss more than we seek out gain”

Fear of loss drives rewards. Managers overcompensate employees they worry might quit: “Let’s give them a big raise so they stay.” Meanwhile, equally valuable team members who haven’t voiced a threat to leave are undervalued.

Bias isn’t going away. We’re all human

These aren’t bad managers; these are normal humans with normal human biases. But unless we acknowledge and tackle them head-on, the cycle continues.

And when that happens, we’re not measuring performance. We’re rewarding bias.

In the article below, I’ll share how I work to mitigate these biases — not perfectly and not instantly, but one shift at a time. Because as much as performance reviews make me want to quit HR every year, I’m even more driven to reduce bias in the system and achieve more consistent decisions.

Sponsored: "One of the most accurate cycles we’ve ever had"

That’s how Claire, HR Director at Croci Collective, described their latest performance review in Zelt.

Zelt helps People teams run faster, fairer, more accurate review cycles — aligning feedback with real KPIs — so you can make confident promotion or growth decisions, every time.

Book a demo & receive a £50 Amazon gift card →

Performance Reviews: Tackling bias with the SEEDS model

In the article above, I shared the 5 biases that show up like clockwork when performance reviews roll around. You might have noticed they spell out SEEDS: Similarity, Expedience, Experience, Distance and Safety.

That’s not me being clever 😅, that’s from NeuroLeadership Institute (NLI), who coined the SEEDS model. It’s memorable and makes bias easier to spot and more importantly, easier to mitigate and challenge.

Here’s how I’ve used their recommendations when my team and I designed performance review systems and in the room when managers are deciding ratings and rewards.

1. Similarity bias → look for commonality & create a sense of us

Managers love a “mini-me.” Work the same hours? Think the same way? Instant brownie points. Instead of telling them to “ignore style,” we make sure managers set outcome-based goals well before review season. Clear goals act as the north star.

At calibration, my People Partners always ask: “Your whole team is working toward X goal. Who actually moved you closer?” Suddenly, the conversation flips from “Who looks like me?” to “Who delivered?”

2. Expedience bias → slow down and consider all information

Snap judgements are tempting, one big win or one mistake dominates. To break this, we build in evidence (objective data vs. subjective opinions). Review questions require managers to list tangible results from 360° sources (and notice I didn’t say 360° feedback? There’s a reason for that). 

In calibration, my People Partners pause and ask: “What evidence are we missing?” That single question slows the room down just enough to avoid lazy decisions.

3. Experience bias → get others to check your thinking

“Once average, always average.” Or worse, “Once a star, always a star.” Old reputations die hard. By pulling in evidence from 360° sources and running calibration, managers are forced to test their assumptions. When peers question whether someone is really “still great” or “still average,” it pulls the evaluation back into the present.

4. Distance bias → take distance out of the equation

Visibility ≠ performance. This one’s tricky, and you can’t fix it at review time; you have to bake it in earlier. One way we do this is by encouraging managers to share informal ratings quarterly with their team member (one engineering team loved it so much they made it monthly!). 

It’s not about the score, it’s about breaking the “big reveal” at year-end. Regular check-ins give employees (especially remote or less visible ones) the chance to show impact along the way. That way, quieter employees aren’t forgotten — and contributions get tracked, not just who grabs coffee with the boss.

5. Safety bias → reduce the fear factor in decisions

Managers sometimes over-reward people they fear might quit. When we see this happening during salary review, our People Partners step in with reframing questions: “If this person wasn’t at risk of leaving, would you still decide the same way?” or “If this wasn’t your team, what would you recommend?” That little reframe takes the fear factor down a notch and usually brings managers back to a fairer, more balanced decision.

Designing for bias-resistance

The goal isn’t to erase bias, it’s impossible. The goal is to design systems and use facilitation techniques that catch bias before it drives the decision.

That’s the real power of the SEEDS model: it gives us a shared language for bias and a toolkit to make performance reviews less about shortcuts and more about substance.

And yes, technically I did quit 😅 (though not because of performance reviews). But clearly, I haven’t quit caring. If you’re still stuck in those review meetings thinking, “This makes no sense!” – good news: you’re right! Better news: you’re the one who can change it!

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

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TL;DR

😬 Performance ≠ promotion (mixing them screws everyone)

🧭From principles to process: How to build clarity in promotions

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

Performance ≠ promotion (mixing them screws everyone)

Nick Fury once said: “I recognise the council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.”

That’s exactly how I felt years ago (before I joined HR) when my manager told me I couldn’t be rated 5 out of 5 because a top score was reserved for people “ready” for promotion. (I knew I wasn’t ready for the next role. But I was f***ing great at the one I was in.)

Apologies to that manager 😅 — I later realised it wasn’t you, it was the system.
So let me rephrase: it was the most stupid-ass system I’d ever seen.

Performance review and promotion are not the same thing

Performance review = past.
How well did someone deliver on their current role? Where did they excel? Where can they grow further in their current role?

Promotion = future.
What do they need to deliver in the next role? Where are the capabilitys gaps? How can we help them build towards the next role?

Too often, companies collapse these into one messy process, 🎲gambling that strong performance now = strong performance later. Sometimes it works. Mostly, it fails.

3 reasons to split Performance Reviews from Promotion decisions

When I joined HR, I wanted managers and employees to have clarity (not confusion), so I split the two processes.

• Performance review = about the role you’re in now.

• Career moves (promotion/shift) = about the role you may take next.

Here’s why this matters:

1. Not everyone wants a promotion

Yes, really. Some people love what they do and want to excel at it — without wanting the next role, now. I learned this the hard way, watching a manager slide a promotion letter across the table, only for the employee to slide it back. “No, thanks,” she said. “I don’t want more responsibility for a few years.” 

Jaw, meet floor 😮.

She was right. Why should someone be capped at 4 over 5 just because they didn’t want a promotion? We should create space for people to excel in-role — and reward them in ways that matter beyond promotion.

2. One can be 3 over 5 or 4 over 5 and still ready for promotion

Stretching into a new role takes energy. If someone is consistently meeting expectations in their current role, it makes sense that their extra effort goes into learning the next one. As a business, of course we should expect them to get their current role right — while also giving them the safety to get things wrong as they stretch into the future role. That’s how learning happens.

If we evaluate both roles the same way, we create a conflict of interest⚖️. And where will people optimise? For the role with the bigger consequences: the current one (the job they could lose if they fail). And that leaves no room for learning.

3. Reduce organisational risk

Too often, promotion decisions sit in the unspoken assumptions of a manager’s head — intangible and inconsistent. That’s risky when such important people decisions in a company are shaped by personal beliefs or past experiences.

I champion splitting performance reviews from promotion decisions, but I don’t claim it’s the only way. What I strongly advise is this: make the intangible tangible. Create clarity so decisions are made consistently across the organisation — reducing not just the risk of someone failing in a role, but also the risk of dissatisfaction and morale drops caused by inconsistent judgments.

The right system sets people up to succeed today and tomorrow

In the end, this isn’t about process for process’s sake. It’s about clarity, fairness and setting people up to succeed. Performance reviews should celebrate what someone has achieved and help them grow in their current role. Promotions should prepare people for what’s ahead, with the right support to bridge the gaps.

When we collapse the two, we create confusion, bias and unnecessary risk. When we split them, we give managers sharper tools, employees clearer paths and organisations stronger odds of getting the big bets right.

That’s not a “stupid-ass system.” That’s a system that serves people and the business.

Sponsored: Performance cycles as smooth as butter*

Most HR teams spend review season chasing forms, nudging managers, and stitching together spreadsheets — leaving little time for the conversations that actually matter.

- Set it up once, let the system do the chasing
- 360° feedback that surfaces real strengths & gaps
- Data that maps to real KPIs and makes promotion decisions easier

Put the pressure where it belongs — on the system, not your team.

* Zelt didn’t realise what they’d done with the above, but they hit the perfect note of one of my favourite songs = Smooth like butter 😉

From principles to process: How to build clarity in promotions

If you want to split promotion decisions from performance reviews, where do you start? 

By getting your ducks in a row🦆🦆🦆. Because if you don’t, you’ll end up chasing ducks in every direction with no alignment.

Alignment starts with principles. And let’s pause to align on what principles actually mean (yes, there’s a lot of alignment going on here 😅).

Principles are the philosophy your team practices to bring alignment to how strategy is delivered. They make the intangible, tangible. They explain why we do things a certain way, the trade-offs we’re willing to make and the assumptions we’ll carry. 

Before you start designing promotion processes, you need to anchor on principles. Principles give you the why. And once you’ve agreed the why, then you can build the how.

Agree on promotion principles with execs

When I built our promotion process, the first step wasn’t a template. It was alignment with the exec team on principles.

This took longer than building the process itself — because this is the real challenge:

(Spoiler: once we had alignment, building the process was quick. Embedding it was smooth, too — because we weren’t constantly stopping to disagree as a result of unspoken assumptions.)

Here’s an example from one of my companies:

👉 Why this matters: It makes clear that promotions are based on the development of future capabilities, not just today’s capabilities.

👉 Why this matters: It sets the expectation that readiness takes time, and is not a one-off project or lucky quarter.

👉 Why this matters: It shows ambition must meet business reality. The company invests in development, but can’t guarantee roles that don’t exist.

👉 Why this matters: Because once the role spans across teams/functions, it requires cross-functional visibility and endorsement.

👉 Why this matters: It holds all leaders accountable for developing people, not hiding behind “the system.”

From principles into process

Once we aligned on principles, we built out the promotion process — and every step of it tied directly back to those principles.

Below is a sample from our “career moves” pitch deck (which includes promotion). It guided managers to capture the right insights for decision-making.

When managers put forward their people for promotion, they provided evidence aligned to the principles:

🌱 Evidence of development — consistent behavioural examples tied to the next role (e.g. career maps) and company values

🔢 Evidence from multiple sources — tangible examples observed by others and measurable results from projects or team performance

⌛ Evidence of consistency — sustained behaviours over time (not a one-hit wonder!)

And that’s the key: once principles are clear, process becomes straightforward.

Promotion pitch deck Shoutout to Jess Dealey who put this together📣 Reminder: this template was designed from our principles. If your company’s principles differ, using the template alone won’t get you the same results. Align on your principles first and use this template as inspiration. Promo (career moves) pitch deck

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

🔗 LinkedIn | 🌎 JooBee’s blog | 🤝 Work with me

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

The many hats of HR: What we forget to wear for ourselves

I had the joy of chatting with former BBC tech journalist Jane Wakefield on The Techspace Pod — and for once, I wasn’t the one asking the hard questions 🥵.

She started gently: “You call yourself a proud introvert. Why?”

I laughed, remembering one Christmas where I didn’t leave my flat for EIGHT straight days (the streak only broke because Deliveroo couldn’t find me 😅). 

The Techspace Pod, Episode #3

JooBee Yeow shares how tomorrow’s People leaders break out of the HR lane to create real business impact: build influence (even as an introvert), collapse silos, and drive bottom-line decisions.

👆 Click here for the podcast

People assume introverts are shy, awkward or lack confidence. Not true. It’s about how we recharge so we can show up as our best selves.

And that’s got me reflecting on the hats we wear . As HR leaders, we juggle so many — coach, operator, firefighter, strategist — that sometimes we forget the most important one: the hat that grounds us

Here are a few hats Jane and I explored together:

🌱 The identity hat — your personality isn’t a blocker, it’s a strategy

A founder once told me: “I can’t be charismatic like others.”
But leadership isn’t about putting on someone else’s hat.
Your team doesn’t need a movie star. They need you.

🎧 In the podcast, I share why introversion (and showing up your own way) might be your hidden strength.

🎯 The strategy hat — it isn’t missing, it’s waiting for an owner

Many HR leaders tell me: “My business doesn’t have a strategy, so I can’t…”
But chaos ≠ absence of strategy. It just means someone needs to help shape it.
And often, the person best placed to do that is the one already wearing the “people” hat.

🎧 I explain why on the podcast.

🪑 The credibility hat — a seat at the table ≠ a voice

One HR leader admitted: “Last year I was so proud of one project… because it was cool. But it connected to nothing in the business.”

When she anchored her next idea to revenue impact, suddenly she was heard.
Commercial credibility is the hat that unlocks trust.

🎧 It’s a moment worth sitting with in the podcast.

🔥 And the founder hat I sometimes have to hand back

The most direct thing I say to founders: “It’s not you. It’s them.”

When founders avoid a tough conversation, that hesitation is about you — your discomfort, your fear of being disliked.  But the cost lands on them if you don’t give the feedback they need.

Silence isn’t kindness. Honesty is.

🎧 I shared my unconventional method in the podcast.

As I look back on my conversation with Jane, I realised something: as HR leaders, we’re brilliant at wearing all the hats for others.

I believe there’s one hat that matters most. What about you?

Let’s bring this to a live conversation — join me in Berlin!

(The last time I was in Berlin was 2012 😱)

I can’t wait to meet so many of you in person! 👋 Sign up below and save your spot!

From Podcast to Live Conversation: How HR Leaders Become Business Leaders

Date: 27th Nov 2025
Time: 18:00 - 20:30
Location: Techspace Eiswerk

Spots are limited, book yours now 👉

With love, Joobs 💛

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

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TL;DR

👓 Read this before measuring AI adoption in performance reviews

🎭 Brilliant Jerk or Friendly Incompetent? Which are you rewarding?

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

Planning to measure AI adoption in Performance Reviews? Read this first

Founders keep telling me the same thing:
“I want AI adoption included in performance reviews. We need to adapt to change.”

HR leaders are also saying the same:
“My founder wants this. We want to keep up with the times. People need to use AI more.”

Okay, fine. But by now, you already know what I’m going to ask: Why is this important?

And that’s when things start to wobble. Most responses are vague. Trend-driven. FOMO-fuelled.

•  “We need to keep up.”

•  “Everyone should be using it.”

•  “It’s the future.”

Yes, yes…but what do you actually want AI adoption to achieve?

[**Cue tumbleweeds🌵🌬️**]

And here we are, back at the same old problem with performance reviews. We measure what people do…not whether it drives results. 

Measure what matters: Impact, not busywork

When I press harder, the answers finally get clearer:

• “CS can expand accounts by flagging churn and upsells.”

• “Sales can grow pipeline with better targeting and outreach.”

• “Tech can improve quality through smarter incident management.”

• “We can hit goals without extra headcount or cost.”

Now that’s impact and performance. AI isn’t the point — business outcomes are.

Know your goals: Effort vs. outcome

So let’s talk about goals, there are broadly 2 kinds:

💪 Effort goals (process): hours worked, tools adopted, skills developed, tasks/projects/activities completed, etc.

📈 Outcome goals (results): revenue delivered, speed of execution, customers retained, risk mitigated, results shipped, etc.

Here’s the critical difference:

• Effort = lead indicator → what went in

• Outcome = lag indicator → what came out

If you listen closely, you’ll hear business leaders talk a lot about lead and lag indicators.

Let’s illustrate this with an example.

So why am I dragging you through all these distinctions? 😅

Because we’re making the same mistake (again!) with AI in performance reviews. We over-index on effort:

• Are people “using AI”?

• “Did they attend the AI lunch & learn?”

• “How many tools have they tried?”

Then comes performance review time and everyone’s misaligned:

• Founders expect results.

• Managers argue and point to effort and activities.

• HR gets stuck in the middle, again.

It’s the performance equivalent of installing a treadmill in the office… and wondering why no one has run a marathon. 🏃

Don’t repeat the mistake

If you want to include AI in reviews, ask the right question: 

“Are we measuring effort → adoption? Or outcome → results?”

Both have their value. Just don’t confuse one for the other.

If you are going to reward for results, AI adoption is not the result. Impact is.

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✅ Streamline onboarding, reviews, and T&A
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Brilliant jerk? Friendly incompetent? Who are you rewarding

In the article above, I talked about the trap of measuring effort vs. outcome without clear separation. On paper, simple. In practice? Messy.

If your company uses a single performance rating, here’s what happens:

• One manager scores based on outcomes.

• Another scores based on effort.

• And……employees talk. 

They compare. They speculate. One thinks they’re being evaluated on delivery. The other thinks it’s all about attitude. Inconsistency breeds confusion, frustration. Frustration turns into, “Why did they get a raise?”

And that leads to the worst thing in any performance system: perceived unfairness.

Is one better than the other: Effort vs. outcome

Nope. And that’s exactly the point.

As I always say, strategy is a choice — not a default, not borrowed ‘best practices.’

The key is to be intentional. Decide what matters to your business, then back it with structure and consistency.

I’ll share how I tackled the challenge. Not as a prescription, more for the rationale that shape our choices.

The Brilliant Jerk vs. Friendly Incompetent

We’ve all seen it:

• The brilliant jerk who delivers results but poisons the team.

• The friendly incompetent who everyone likes but is not delivering.

Neither is good for the long run. One undermines culture. The other drags down performance.

But this is what happens when no one is aligned on what “good performance” actually looks like. And if you’ve only got one rating, managers default to their personal biases:

• Results-first managers defend the jerk.

• Relationship-first managers protect the nice-but-ineffective one.

Over time, both types erode team standards. 

And when that happens, I’ve seen it play out the same way: The real talent (the ones who are both good and good to work with) leave…and the company is left with both ends of the spectrum.

That’s exactly what I told our exec team when I pitched the change.

If we truly believe performance is about what you deliver and how you deliver it, then we need to evaluate—and reward—both. Explicitly.

So that’s what we did. 

Two performance ratings. Not one

We separated performance into two distinct ratings:

• Outcome → how well they deliver against role expectations.

• Effort → how well they demonstrate values and behaviours (the “how”).

We used a 7-point scale (I’ve tested many scales and my preference is odd numbers. But that’s another newsletter — email me if you want the rationale). A score of 4 means they are meeting 100% of expectations; either side reflected above or below.

We reward what is important to us

We made a deliberate call: we reward performance. 

But in our business, performance = outcome + effort. 

That means salary reviews are only triggered when both are met. No one coasts on charm. No one gets rewarded for results at the cost of culture.

Example:

• Outcome (role expectations) = 6/7
  Evidence: delivered quarterly revenue target with 10% uplift.

• Effort (values/behaviours) = 3/7
  Evidence: consistent complaints from peers about collaboration, ignored agreed team processes.

• High results, low values = no salary review

Of course, as a business, we expect managers to act. Reset expectations. Build a clear development plan. Support the individual to course-correct.

It’s not about what others value. It’s about what you value.

Performance reviews only work if they reflect what your business truly cares about.

I’ve been asked, “What if we value results more…like 75% outcomes, 25% behaviours?”  

Great. Then make that clear. Align your process to it.

When you separate the measures, you make expectations transparent. And that means fewer surprises, more consistency and a fairer system for everyone. #nosurprises

Here’s the one lesson I’ve learned after designing countless performance reviews:

“People don’t hate performance reviews.
They hate inconsistent decisions that feel unfair.”

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

🔗 LinkedIn | 🌎 JooBee’s blog | 🤝 Work with me

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

🎂 JooBee's Newsletter turns 2 this week...and you’re invited to the party!

Two years, countless experiments, plenty of wins, learnings and f*ck-ups… and the best part? You’ve been right here with me. Thank you 🤗

Now, no birthday is complete without a bit of fun…

📝 Sign the birthday card wall

Drop a one-liner about what you’ve learned or loved from this newsletter. 

Sign the wall to enter the draw to win 1 of 10 STEP UP MBA 🎁 spots (12 months’ access, launching Dec 2025).

🎁 Birthday gift bag

Because birthdays deserve presents and these are yours:

✨ 30% off the Effective Manager in November
(code: BIRTHDAY2025EM — 4 places left, expires 2 Oct)

✨ 30% off the STEP UP Bootcamp in November
(code: BIRTHDAY2025 — 5 places left, expires 2 Oct)

👀 And the surprise gift: a chance to win the STEP UP MBA!
Just sign the card wall or celebrate on LinkedIn — tag me to enter the draw.

🌟 Party poll

Based on the numbers, these were the newsletters you loved most:

• 1️⃣ Time to give an F (or 4Fs) in Performance Conversations

• 2️⃣ Is your HR data undermining your credibility

• 3️⃣ HR, stop bracing for layoffs, start driving revenue

But I’d love to know:

📣 Birthday shoutouts

Some of you send me emails that fuel me more than coffee. I’ll share 3 that gave me energy this year.

♊ Birthday fun fact

Last year, I found out a reader shares the same birthday as the newsletter. Happy birthday, Carol Paddison! 🥳 Anyone else?

🌠 Birthday wish

Blowing out the candle, here’s my wish for the year ahead:

• For me: to keep experimenting boldly, sharing the wins, learnings and f*ck-ups with you as I go.

• For you: to step beyond the HR lane and lead with commercial clarity, confidence and impact.

• For STEP UP: to become the place where HR leaders grow into business leaders, together.

This is not just a birthday, it’s our shared milestone.

So let’s celebrate 🎉— card wall, gift bag, poll or just a cheeky LinkedIn toast.

With love, Joobs 💛

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

🔗 LinkedIn | 🌎 JooBee’s blog | 🤝 Work with me

TL;DR

😖 HR leaders, if we don’t want to be seen as admin, don’t act like one

🏃🏻‍♀️‍➡️ How I stopped chasing leaders and made them chase me

🎧 Listen to the newsletter here

This newsletter edition is brought to you by Zelt 💛

HR leaders, if we don’t want to be seen as admin, don’t act like one

I know this title is blunt. But if you’ve read my newsletter long enough, you’ll know it comes from a place of intention — not to insult, but to interrupt our patterns.

Recently, I’ve been coaching HR leaders–many fresh from my STEP UP bootcamp–who are working hard to influence at the leadership table. They’re building commercial acumen, aligning priorities to business goals and challenging themselves to think beyond HR. But there’s one behaviour I keep spotting that is undermining all that progress.

Chasing. Nagging. Reminding.

“How much time do you spend chasing your founder or execs to complete HR tasks such as holiday approvals, performance reviews, engagement surveys?” I asked one leader.

Her answer? “Most of my time.”

And when those leaders didn’t deliver, she’d move deadlines for them.

That’s when I told her straight: 

“That behaviour, subtle as it feels, shouts one thing to the business – you’re here to be admin.”

Unconscious ‘admin behaviour’ undermines our credibility

We don’t mean to fall into this trap. We’re accountable people, we care deeply and we want processes completed. But solving for “process blockers” by nagging or shifting dates pegs us into the admin box. And if we behave like admin, that’s exactly how we’ll be treated.

Here’s the boundaries I gave her—and now I’m giving to you:

• You can chase, remind or nag a maximum of three times.

• You do not move deadlines for senior leaders.

• You find different, smarter ways to get the work done.

What we allow defines culture

When we let leaders dodge responsibility, we teach the organisation 2 things: 

Neither is acceptable if we want to be taken seriously as business leaders.

So what do we do instead? Let’s take the most common culprit 😅 — the founder.

1. Set expectations and hold founders accountable

We’d do this for any other manager. The founder is no different. If anything, they should be held to a higher standard because they set the tone for leadership. That means being crystal clear upfront about what you will and won’t do. You might offer extra guidance, coaching, or 1:1 walk-through if a founder is inexperienced. But you will not move deadlines. You will not send 10 reminders. If they miss a deadline, they explain it to their team — not with you to mop up. You treat them like the leader they should be.

Most of the time, founders step up once they see the impact of their inaction. But if you get the rare one who tells you outright that your role is to behave like an admin and bend to their timetable—then you know what you’re dealing with. And you can decide whether or not that’s the leader you want to work for.

2. Find another way or challenge the status quo

Sometimes the issue isn’t unwillingness, it’s bandwidth. Fine. Then let’s redesign. If a founder can’t approve holidays fast enough, can their EA do it? Or, can their direct reports approve requests themselves within clear boundaries? If a founder can’t complete reviews for 13 reports, then maybe the problem isn’t process — it’s structure. These are opportunities to challenge status quo, not excuses to slip back into admin.

3. Be okay with the work not getting done

As HR leaders, we’re well-intentioned. We hate seeing things fall apart. But if we believe in adult-to-adult relationships, we can’t play the “helicopter parent” chasing homework.

Take performance reviews. We can design the process, provide training and offer support. But we cannot nag founders into holding 1:1s or completing reviews on time. That’s their job. If they don’t step up, that’s their choice (as an adult) — and they are accountable for the outcome: disengaged teams, weaker performance, broken trust.

When that happens, of course we support them to develop. But the endless in-between, reminding, chasing, propping them up, is not the answer. Founders need to meet us halfway. After all, leading their team is literally their job description.

Don’t let admin creep undo your work of becoming strategic

If we want to be recognised as strategic leaders, then our behaviours need to send the right signal. Every time we chase endlessly, bend deadlines or cover for irresponsibility, we reinforce the wrong message.

So, if we don’t want to be treated like an admin, we stop behaving like one.

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How I stopped chasing leaders and made them chase me

Like most of us in HR, I started my career focused on executing processes. Then I moved up to managing them. And I thought that was the job: make sure the processes get done. If they’re running, make them faster or more efficient. And if leaders weren’t playing ball — chase them, accommodate them, serve them. That’s how I saw my role.

Back then, I was working in a business unit that had spun out of a larger company, scaling from ~30 people to 400 in just two years. Five locations, hypergrowth and all the chaos you’d expect.

Chasing leaders got me nowhere

One of my responsibilities was onboarding. Locally, we’d onboard people as they joined. But every two months, we ran a one-week Onboarding Bootcamp where all new hires came together in person. We rotated locations so they could meet colleagues across sites and learn how every department contributed to the strategy.

It was intensive. It mattered. But here’s the problem: many leaders treated it like a “chore” and, to be blunt, half-assed it. That’s not my opinion, that’s straight from the participants. The same departments were scored poorly for their sessions, bootcamp after bootcamp. (see Dashboard 1 below)

My CTO spotted the pattern and asked me, “What are you doing about it?”

With a sigh, I said, “I’m chasing. I’ve offered to help them redesign. I’ve offered to coach. They’re not taking it up. I don’t know what else to do.”

That’s when my CTO said something that completely shifted how I saw my role:  “Share the data. Not just with exec — share it with the whole company.”

My first reaction was panic. “Really? Won’t that make people look bad? Isn’t HR supposed to protect them?”

He looked at me and said: “Leaders are adults. Transparency is part of our culture. Let them own it.”

And he was right. We shared engineering velocity, customer NPS scores, sales target —nothing was sacred. Why should onboarding quality be exempt? 

Letting leaders own outcomes achieved what nagging never could

So I shared it. For the first time, onboarding results went company-wide: which sessions scored well, which didn’t and what new hires were saying.

And guess what happened? The 4 department leaders I’d been chasing for months suddenly started chasing me. They wanted help. They wanted feedback. They wanted to fix their sessions — because nobody wanted their team to be the one new hires dreaded. (Dashboard 2 says it all).

From then on, I stopped the cat-and-mouse game. After each bootcamp, I published the data openly: scores, comments, changes we were making. And at the bottom of the dashboard, I added storytelling — shout-outs to teams who’d improved and notes on what we’d learned.

From nagging to enabling

It was a mindset shift: from behaving like an admin to building adult-to-adult relationships with leaders (even when I sat four levels below them on the org chart!).

That was my turning point. HR isn’t about chasing or ‘serving’ leaders to get work done. It’s about creating systems that make accountability unavoidable, so leaders step up because they choose to, not because we nagged them into it.

Or put another way: I stopped being their PA and started being their mirror.

💡Special feature: HR and Finance removing ‘reminders’ off the table

As I was writing this newsletter, Constance Ho, one of our HR leaders in the STEP UP Boardroom community, shared an experience I couldn’t resist highlighting.

Constance was facing a familiar headache. Her HR team ran a joint offsite with Finance to strengthen collaboration and operational efficiency. Both teams had the same pain point: senior stakeholders who constantly miss deadlines — pushing them into “nagging” mode. That drags them away from strategic-level work and makes them look like admin rather than strategic partners.

So instead of inventing ever smarter ways to remind stakeholders, they agreed to take reminders completely off the table and set to brainstorming other ways of holding stakeholders accountable.

Some of the ideas on the table:

• A “shit list” (by far the most popular 😝) or a monthly leaderboard to apply public pressure

• Removing problematic stakeholders out of the flow altogether

• Using software settings to add restrictions and control

• Communicating the cost of delays and risk of non-compliance 

• Having “reset” conversations to mutually agree on expectations

• Escalating to the Chairperson of the board to hold even the CEO accountable

• Stopping the habit of anticipating problems for others — and letting them feel the consequences

I love this mindset shift. What about you — how have you tackled this in your business?

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

🔗 LinkedIn | 🌎 JooBee’s blog | 🤝 Work with me

Buzzbytes is part of JooBee’s newsletter. Think of it as the bonus track🎶: a break from the usual format with behind-the-scenes updates, reflections and the occasional fun extra.

What HR can do about revenue problems

Fresh from my Modern People Leader (MPL) podcast with Daniel Huerta and Stephen Huerta 🎙️ — I’ve pulled out the bite-sized takeaways you can use right away.

If you’ve ever been stuck debating solutions, drowning in to-do’s or quietly wondering where the revenue’s leaking… here’s your quick-apply toolkit (with a dose of inspiration).

MPL podcast #252

What HR can do about revenue problems & flipping the HR pyramid

🎈 Sharing good news

“Wow, this stuff really works.”

One HR leader from my STEP UP Bootcamp took a founder conversation that had been stuck in two weeks of solution debates… and resolved it in two minutes by reframing around the problem. That’s the power of alignment: fix the problem first, then talk solutions.

💡 The big idea summarised

Most HR teams at 50–500 people are drowning because of 3 traps:

• Jumping to solutions before aligning on the problem

• Trying to do everything

• Confusing activity with impact

When you feel that pull, anchor to the only 3 priorities a for-profit business has:
Build product, sell product, make revenue and profit.

Start there. Everything else ladders up “so that…” (Ulrich’s first principle still holds).

📌Micro-frameworks (save these!)

• PIC (Problem → Impact → Cause): stop debating solutions; align on the problem first.

• Amazon’s Working Backwards: write the press release for the dream outcome, then design.

• 3C’s: Clarity, Consistency, Context. Aim for those in every plan and message.

• Stop over-functioning: if you’re always the admin, the system will treat you like one.

🥷🏻 One-liners to steal this week

• Ask why until it’s uncomfortable.

• Prioritise ruthlessly (and say no cleanly).

• Add “so that” to every HR sentence.

🤭 Not sure you want to steal this one…

Two lines you’ll never see on a corporate slide — but yes, I said them:

“Same shit, different pile.”
Because whether it’s headcount growth, AI adoption or performance reviews — the traps don’t change, they just show up wearing new clothes.

“Don’t just throw shit on the wall.”
Rolling out more initiatives without diagnosing the real problem isn’t strategy. It’s… well, wall art.

File these under: brutally honest, oddly useful.

💜 BTS with JooBee: Why I wrote newsletter #46

I wrote this one in anger after hearing: “Isn’t it too much to expect HR to be commercial?” and “They just need to handle firing well.”

No. Business problems are often people problems. We influence revenue when we stop staying in our lane and start from a business lens.

📑 Newsletter #46 expanded: If revenue is off this quarter…

Do this in the next 72 hours.

1️⃣ Lock time with a revenue owner (Founder, CRO, CMO, Head of CS/Product).

Ask one question: “Where is revenue leaking?”

2️⃣ Stay out of the how. Go deeper on why until it’s uncomfortable. Common leak patterns:

• Low conversion / stalled pipeline

• Rising churn

• Slow product delivery against customer needs

• Weak expansion revenue

3️⃣ Use ‘so that’ to tie your work directly to the leak. For example:

• “Adjust CS incentives so that expansion revenue increases by Q4.”

• “Fix onboarding so that new hires hit quota in half the time.”

• “Create team rituals so that release cadence increases.”

4️⃣ Pick the smallest action with the biggest impact. Ruthless prioritisation is a leadership behaviour, not a box-ticking exercise.

5️⃣ Flip your time pyramid. Reduce ops drag (automate, streamline, delegate) so you can spend more time on levels 2 – 4 of the HR Hierarchy of Needs.

HR Hierarchy of Needs

Keep the lights on → enable this year’s strategy → prepare for the future → design to scale 10× without linear cost growth.

6️⃣ Enforce the 3-chase rule. You chase leaders a maximum of 3 times for HR tasks. No deadline extensions. If it still breaks, fix the system — not your calendar.

🎧 Listen now

I unpacked all of the above (and more) on the MPL podcast with Daniel and Stephen — including the HR hierarchy of needs, the 3 traps and why partnering with CTOs made me a stronger commercial HR leader.

👩🏻‍🍳 What’s cooking

• STEP UP Bootcamp: A 5-week accelerator for HR leaders ready to step out of the HR lane and into the role of strategic growth driver. The final cohort of the year kicks off 13 Nov.

• STEP UP Boardroom: An exclusive community for HR leaders who refuse to stay in their lane and think commercially at the exec table. Join the wait list.

• STEP UP MBA for HR leaders: I’ve kept this one under wraps… but expect a Q4 drop 👀.

With love, Joobs 💛

Scaling your start-up?

Let’s make sure your leadership, people and org are ready. Here are 3 ways I can help:

🔗 LinkedIn | 🌎 JooBee’s blog | 🤝 Work with me