The corporate world is experiencing a fundamental shift in leadership philosophy, and chief human resources officers are at the forefront of proving a compelling business case. And that case is that empathy isn't the opposite of high performance—it's the pathway to it.During the recent AESC Global Summit on Leadership in New York City, a panel of Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) echoed what moderator Gian Power, founder and CEO of TLC Lions, described as the essential challenge of our time. He said, “employees seem to be crying out for leaders to be more human.”But as these seasoned executives revealed, being human in leadership isn't about lowering standards or avoiding difficult conversations. Instead, it's about recognizing that sustainable high performance requires a fundamentally different approach to managing people.Redefining the Performance Equation"Empathy is the new superpower," underscored Matthew Breitfelder, Head of Human Capital at Apollo Global Management. "And empathy is what drives durable outperformance over a long period of time, which is what we're here to do."This perspective represents a significant evolution from traditional command-and-control leadership models. As Stephanie Kramer, CHRO at L'Oreal North America, explained, modern leaders face "a strong tension between empathy and drive," noting that "as CHROs, that's one [...]

When Jessica Sibley became CEO of TIME in 2022, she stepped into a brand with a legendary past and an uncertain future. Like much of legacy media, TIME was struggling to hold its place in a world where news consumption had moved online, and attention spans had grown shorter.What followed was a transformation that few could have predicted. Under Sibley’s leadership, TIME has grown its audience to 120 million people, reaching more readers than ever before, and doing so across a far broader media landscape than its founders could have imagined.The 'TIME 3.0' BlueprintSibley's transformation began with what she calls "TIME 3.0", a seven-page strategic plan that became both roadmap and rallying cry for the organization. The plan emerged from a pivotal conversation with TIME's owner, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who asked a deceptively simple question during their first meeting: "What would you do with TIME?""I opened my laptop to a blank screen, and I just started, and I wrote TIME 3.0," Sibley recalled. "By the time I got to TIME, which was about three and a half months later, I was on version seven, seven pages. And I had the plan; I had the playbook."The strategy focused on leveraging [...]

In the high-stakes world of executive search, much attention is paid to track records, leadership competencies, and strategic vision. But one factor remains both elusive and critical: organizational culture. It is no longer enough to ask, “Can this person lead?” We must also ask, “Will this person lead here?”Organizational culture—the shared values, norms, and behaviors that shape how work gets done—can either be reinforced or disrupted by executive leadership. Executives are not passive participants in a company’s cultural landscape; they are its most potent shapers. This interplay between leader and culture means that when selecting external candidates for executive roles, cultural alignment is not a soft metric—it's a strategic imperative.Culture Starts at the TopExecutives don’t merely adapt to organizational culture; they define it. Their behavior, decision-making, and priorities become the reference points for others. Decades of research show that the kind of organizational culture an executive creates is driven by their values. At Hogan, we measure values with the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI). The 10 values of the MVPI are not surface-level preferences; they are enduring motivations that influence how a leader communicates, what they prioritize, and how they build their teams.For instance, an executive with high scores on [...]