Charise Beckett
Founder and CEO
POISE
Episode 99
Beyond the Grind: Sustainable Leadership Redefines Success with Well-being & Influence.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJuly 21, 2025 · 5:42
Thesis
“Sustainable leadership demands more than just performance; it requires a holistic approach that integrates personal well-being, strategic clarity, influence, and endurance to navigate complex corporate systems and define success on one's own terms.”
Show notes
Charise Beckett started in supply chain — got into HR through a Six Sigma project — and spent years navigating what she describes plainly as "bureaucracy, bias, and burnout" in complex corporate environments. The insight that shaped everything: performance wasn't enough. Presence, politics, and positioning mattered just as much.
That realization became POISE — a leadership framework she built to fill the gap she kept seeing in how organizations develop leaders. The acronym: Precision, Optimization, Influence, Strategy, Endurance. The framework came with a psychometric assessment tool, developed in part from her time in sports and entertainment HR, where high-performance sustainability was the operating condition, not the aspiration. Her redefinition of resilience is worth sitting with: it's not "bouncing back quickly." It's sustaining purpose through pressure — which requires active replenishment, not just toughness.
Her parting advice is among the most grounded you'll hear on this show: "Don't get so caught up in building your career that you forget to build a life you can actually support. Real success isn't about titles or achievements. It's about how you feel when you lay your head down at night."
- The POISE framework: Precision, Optimization, Influence, Strategy, Endurance — and what each pillar addresses
- Why performance alone doesn't determine career advancement — and what actually does
- How her work in sports and entertainment HR shaped her approach to high-performance sustainability
- The gap in traditional leadership assessments — and what the POISE psychometric tool measures instead
- What it means to build a personal brand as a leadership legacy, not a marketing exercise
This episode is brought to you by Previ — an employer network that saves employees thousands on the necessities they already pay for, at no cost to the company.
What you'll take away
- 1Sustainable leadership balances high performance with personal well-being, influence, and strategic clarity for long-term effectiveness.
- 2Resilience in leadership extends beyond quick recovery; it's about actively replenishing oneself to sustain purpose through continuous pressure.
- 3Building a personal brand requires aligning values, voice, and desired impact, coupled with setting clear boundaries for external work while adhering to corporate compliance.
- 4Traditional leadership assessments often neglect mental, emotional, and strategic operational aspects; a comprehensive psychometric tool can address these gaps.
- 5True career success is defined by internal peace and well-being, not solely by titles or achievements, encouraging leaders to lead smarter, not harder.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Challenges the notion that performance alone dictates success, arguing that 'presence, politics, and positioning mattered just as much' in career progression.
- •Redefines resilience not as merely 'bouncing back quickly' but as 'sustaining purpose through pressure' by learning to self-replenish.
- •Contradicts the singular pursuit of career achievement by advising, 'Don't get so caught up in building your career that you forget to build a life that you can actually support.'
In Charise's words
“I started out as a passionate but often underestimated HR pro navigating like bureaucracy, bias, burnout in these complex corporate systems.”
Highlights the initial challenges faced by aspiring HR leaders in complex organizational environments.
“So then I created POISE to fill the gap, which stands for precision, optimization, influence, strategy, and endurance.”
Defines the core components of her unique leadership framework.
“resilience isn't just like bouncing back quickly, it's sustaining purpose through pressure.”
Offers a nuanced perspective on resilience, emphasizing long-term sustainability over immediate recovery.
“I treated my personal brand like a leadership legacy. What I do, what do I want people to say when I'm in the room or when I'm not in the room? What do I want people to say about me?”
Underscores the intentional and enduring nature of building a personal leadership brand.
“organizations often measure performance outcomes, but they rarely assess how leaders are operating mentally, emotionally, and strategically.”
Identifies a critical blind spot in traditional leadership evaluation and development practices.
“Don't get so caught up in building your career that you forget to build a life that you can actually support. I've learned that real success isn't just about titles or achievements. It's about how you feel when you lay your head down at night.”
Provides a profound concluding piece of advice, prioritizing personal well-being and self-defined success over conventional metrics.
The problems this episode addresses
- •High-pressure corporate environments often lack sustainable leadership models that account for both performance and leader well-being.
- •Existing leadership development and assessment tools frequently miss critical aspects of a leader's mental, emotional, and strategic operation.
- •HR professionals and executives often contend with bureaucracy, bias, and burnout in complex corporate systems, needing strategies for sustainable engagement.
- •Leaders struggle to effectively manage the emotional weight of employee issues, tough decisions, and personal exhaustion without adequate replenishment strategies.
- •The conflict between corporate responsibilities and entrepreneurial aspirations presents a challenge for leaders seeking to build external brands while maintaining compliance.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
I started out in supply chain many moons ago. I realized that was something I did not like
How to Build a Career Through Six Sigma
Charisse's journey from junior HR professional to executive subject matter expert
Charisse Hewitt on Poise
Poise Framework encourages leadership to demonstrate resilience through endurance
The Importance of Resilience in Leadership
How do you build your personal brand while still maintaining your executive role
How to Build Your Personal Brand While Still Leading
Sharice Johnson developed Poise, a psychometric assessment for leadership development
How Poise: The Psychometric Assessment for Leaders
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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