Christine Tao, CEO and Co-Founder of Sounding Board, Inc., sat down with Lou Sanchez, Leadership and Organization Development Consultant for#LeadershipLive.
Lou Sanchez spent over thirty years in Human Resources across multiple industries, playing pivotal roles at Motorola, Bank of America, eBay, PayPal, Nokia Technologies, Emerson Collective, and Airbnb. His full time roles spanned organization development, talent management, people analytics, training, talent acquisition, operations, and business partnering, ranging from individual contributor to Chief Human Resources Officer.
Here are some highlights from their conversation:
Leadership Through Learning
Lou spoke about the importance of connecting leadership development to business outcomes. He highlighted his experiences in instructional design, which gave him insights into how training and development could be tied to business objectives.
Lou stressed that learning and development shouldn’t “waste people’s time,” but should make a connection between the business and the work. He remembers that collecting feedback from participants and stakeholders was essential to creating successful programs.
Leadership Challenges During Contraction
Lou shared his experience at Motorola and Airbnb, emphasizing the importance of treating people with respect and ensuring they feel valued, even during tough times. While it was a difficult time, he credits these experiences for helping understand the human implications of growth and contraction, and preparing for those situations in the interim.
He discussed the difficulty of balancing business objectives with the well-being of employees, especially during layoffs. He stressed the need for honesty, transparency, and empathy in leadership.
Cross-functional Collaboration in Decision-making
Lou highlighted the crucial role of collaboration between HR, finance, and legal teams when making significant business decisions, particularly around growth and contraction. He says this helps maintain a healthy culture and keeps the business objectives and values in perspective.
Above all, Lou reminds the audience of the humanity of those who leave during restructurings. This goes all the way down to messaging during the event. “Everywhere I’ve worked, the corporate BS always gets called out,” says Lou. It’s important to remain honest and thoughtful in order to remain productive and keep employees engaged.
Resilience and Adaptability Through Continuous Learning
Both Lou and Christine acknowledged that the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and learn from them is critical for long-term success in leadership and business. Lou advised leaders to prioritize continuous learning, both for themselves and their teams, to stay ahead of trends and effectively address challenges like hybrid work and AI.
