The HR Insider: Melanie Naranjo, VP People at Ethena Gets Real

Melanie Narnajo is the VP, People at Ethena and an insightful writer at the forefront of HR thought leadership. In this episode, Melanie, Kelli and Nolan dig into the current sentiment in HR, why the bar is set lower than it should be, why you should abandon PIPs, instilling a culture of feedback among execs, and why EQ isn’t the most important skill to develop in a people leader. If you’re looking for HR software that drives performance, check out Lattice https://www.lattice.com/hrheretics

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RECOMMENDED PODCAST:

Check out Run The Numbers! Kelli and Nolan were guests on the most recent episode: a deep dive into FIRING CEOs and EXECS. This one's hilarious. Listen here, wherever you get your podcasts: https://link.chtbl.com/runthenumbers

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KEEP UP WITH MELANIE, NOLAN, + KELLI ON LINKEDIN

Melanie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-naranjo/

Nolan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nolan-church/

Kelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellidragovich/

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LINKS:

The Cost of Tolerating Underperformance: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cost-tolerating-underperformance-overlooking-your-high-naranjo/

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview

(00:43) Intro

(02:40) Melanie's Ethena Journey

(05:17) Is it fun being in the HR tech space?

(06:19) Biggest learnings for HR leaders

(12:41) Sponsors - Lattice | Continuum

(14:24) Is High EQ the most important quality in a people leader?

(16:50) Emotional maturity and logical problem solving

(20:04) Having support and guidance and intentionality

(27:07) Ego, politics and feedback

(29:00) On meritocracies in tech

(32:48) On handling performance issues

(35:00) Insights on writing "The cost of tolerating underperformance — and overlooking your high performers" - see links

(37:47) Using or abandoning Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs)

(40:26) Ethena's selling points

(41:45) Most people suck at giving feedback

(43:08) On growing personal and employer brand awareness on LinkedIn

(46:06) When a CEO and CHRO works together

(48:23) How to find the CEO and leadership team to partner with

(51:20) Assessing for intellectual nimbleness during an interview

(53:16) Why Melanie doesn't backchannel for non-execs

(55:43) The best interview question

(56:40) Melanie's best hire

(57:44) Advice for people leaders going into 2024