378. How People-First Leaders Will Win the Future with Cheryl Desantis

A major determinant of company culture comes down to how you value your people leaders — those who develop the talent within your company.

Cheryl Desantis is the Chief People & Diversity Officer at the Smile Direct Club, a company disrupting the 120-year-old, $20 billion dollar orthodontics industry. She holds more than 20 years of experience in strategic people and organizational development. She enables the growth of a business through its team members, striving to maintain a strong company culture through values-based leadership.

Her purpose is to inspire and empower courageous transformation in leaders to bring more empathy, love, and kindness to the world. Her new book “Steel Backbone, Soft Heart: How Heart-Centered Leadership Changes the Way You Live, Love & Lead” is out now. We discuss what it means to have a soft heart and a steel backbone, why human-centered leadership is a must for the future, and how to find the balance between productivity, profit, and purpose.

If you want to be a strong leader, bringing a full sense of who you are to the table is essential. If you want to dive deeper into your own self-knowledge, visit the1thing.com/corevalues and pick up our Core Values Deck.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods.

We talk about:

• What attracted Cherly to people development and coaching
• Leading with courage
• The inspiration behind “Steel Backbone, Soft Heart” and what those things truly mean
• Reclaiming humanity in the workplace
• Turning empathy for your customer into empathy for your employees
• The ten principles of “Steel Backbone, Soft Heart”
• The courage of asking for feedback
• Finding and achieving balance in the workplace

Links & Tools from This Episode

• Learn more at cheryldesantis.com
• Read: Steel Backbone, Soft Heart
• Connect with Cheryl on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cheryl-desantis-813259a/
• Free Resources
• Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email podcast@the1thing.com

Mentioned in this episode:

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