Ep 05 - Redefining People Leadership with Brittany Blumenthal, Cassidy Gonzalez, and Maggie Duvall

Where people work, how they work, and what they expect from work, continue to shift significantly, year over year. And it’s an organization’s People Leaders who hold a seat at the very heart of this transition. 

Today’s People Leaders not only need to stay up to speed, and adapt to the ever-evolving ways of working but they are also tasked with finding key talent and keeping up with candidate demands.

In Redefining People Leadership, we explore the ways in which today’s People Leaders can do more than just adapt to today’s ever-changing landscape, but prosper. 

Joining us will be, Brittany Blumenthal, VP of People Ops at The Block, Cassidy Gonzalez,  VP of People at Pura, and Maggie Duvall, Head of Recruiting at Veho. 

Here’s What We Discussed: 

• [00:32] The panel tells us about their background and experience.
• [03:37] Why transparency is key to how People Leaders will need to respond in an upcoming recession.
• [11:02] Maggie and Brittany talk about maintaining strong cultural values while scaling rapidly by being invested from the top-down and integrating it into everything you do.
• [15:51] Cassidy shares why you should consider how your values scale and how to embed them as you grow 
• [17:58] Our panelists share what the evolution of People/HR Leadership looks like to them
• [22:56] As the future of People Leadership becomes more data-driven, do you track key metrics within your organization to test the health of your culture?  
• [25:36] Our panelists share their best practices for providing value to Executives in a startup environment 
• [30:35]  When sitting down with your Executives, are there any metrics you make sure to present? 
• [35:39] How our panelists have responded to the rise of remote work and faced its challenges 
• [43:12] Virtual culture-building practices that have been helpful  
• [47:33] Final tips for managing remote teams 

About Our Speakers 

Brittany Blumenthal (she/her/hers) has over ten years of progressive experience in talent and people operations. Currently, Brittany is the Vice President, of People Operations, at The Block Crypto, a digital asset information company experiencing hyper growth. Previously she was the Head of People at Holler, a conversational media company, where she built the people operations function in preparation for scale as well as the Vice President, of People Operations at Reorg, a financial technology company. When she’s not focused on how to create a more inclusive and engaging workplace, she enjoys strolling through Central Park, finding a really great sushi restaurant, and spending time with her family. Brittany received her bachelor of science from The University of Texas at Austin (hook em) after growing up in a small town in Texas, Cut and Shoot.

Cassidy Gonzalez is a builder of great places to work. She is a self proclaimed career strategist, perpetual optimist and queen of getting stuff done. A people leader for over a decade, she has made her career leading people programs and teams at Google, SanDisk, Peek.com, and currently holds the role of VP of People at Pura. She is a wife and mother of two beautiful, rambunctious toddlers.

Maggie Duvall is an experienced talent acquisition leader, with a niche in building high performing recruiting teams, at hyper growth startups. Driven by the opportunity to build, she takes pride in helping companies identify top tier talent, while facilitating exceptional candidate experiences. Maggie currently leads recruiting at Veho, a logistics tech platform that puts the customer in the center, and has helped the company grow from 200 to 850 teammates within the last 12 months. Prior to that, she was part of the Uber recruitment team that grew the company from 5,000 to 25,000 employees globally, over the course of 5 years.

About Our Moderator

Anish Shah is the CEO & Founder of executive search agency Bring Ruckus. Anish has worked in-house in Growth roles at Snapfish and Getable. He started Bring Ruckus as a Growth consultancy 11 years ago working with 40+ clients, then re-focused his firm on executive recruiting for Growth leaders.

Quotes

“Transparency is the biggest key to keeping things from not falling apart… To do nothing is probably the worst thing you can do.” – Cassidy Gonzalez

 

“Even if you don't have all the answers, saying that you don't have all the answers, but talking about it is important.” – Brittany Blumenthal

 

“When scaling your values over time, there has to be top-down investment… It is up to us and the people organization to bring those values to life throughout the entire employee journey. And that actually starts with recruiting.” – Maggie Duvall

 

“You have to have a no-tolerance policy for people who are not living up to your values. If you're not willing to address those issues immediately, then those values are not going to be as impactful as you want them to be if people in the organization see that you don't hold everybody accountable to them.” – Brittany Blumenthal

 

“Make sure that no employee is just left in the dark so that no one is feeling left out in this remote realm.” – Cassidy Gonzalez

 

“something that oftentimes needs to be flushed out is what is the skillset that you need today? But more importantly, what is the skillset you're gonna need a year from now? Because at hyper-growth companies, the role as it exists today is gonna be very different from the role a year from now.” – Maggie Duvall

 

ABOUT RUCKUS

We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts! 

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