The ONE Thing

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

Dec 5, 2022

57:31

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

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