Charise Beckett
Founder and CEO
POISE
Beyond the Grind: Sustainable Leadership Redefines Success with Well-being & Influence.
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.”
What you'll take away
- 01Sustainable leadership balances high performance with personal well-being, influence, and strategic clarity for long-term effectiveness.
- 02Resilience in leadership extends beyond quick recovery; it's about actively replenishing oneself to sustain purpose through continuous pressure.
- 03Building a personal brand requires aligning values, voice, and desired impact, coupled with setting clear boundaries for external work while adhering to corporate compliance.
- 04Traditional leadership assessments often neglect mental, emotional, and strategic operational aspects; a comprehensive psychometric tool can address these gaps.
- 05True 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
Intro
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
Full transcript
Expand transcript (918 words)
Welcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce.
I'm excited to welcome Charise to the Built By People Podcast. Charise, thank you so much for joining us today. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.
Yes, absolutely. So I started out in supply chain many moons ago. I realized that was something that I did not really like to do, and I saw HR as the people that knew everything, and they always were like together. And then I, now I realize why they were always together, 'cause you really can't talk to anybody else. But I was like, I gotta get into that. So I got into HR through a Six Sigma project, and then I have had a career from junior level HR to an executive HR to owning my own business and actually creating my own leadership framework. So that's been really how I built my career, but that's how I got here talking to you.
Charisse, how did your journey from a junior HR professional to an executive subject matter expert shape your decision to create Poise? And what specific challenges did you face along the way?
Yeah, so I started out as a passionate but often underestimated HR pro navigating like bureaucracy, bias, burnout in these complex corporate systems. So over the years, I saw that performance wasn't alone, wasn't it? Presence, politics, and positioning mattered just as much.. And so I became obsessed with understanding what is sustainable leadership, what does it look like, and how do we make it work? Not just for the organization. So then I created POISE to fill the gap, which stands for precision, optimization, influence, strategy, and endurance. And I wish I, I wish this model was something I had as I was coming up the ladder, something that balanced like high performance with wellbeing, with influence and strategic clarity. So that's where that is.
Can you share a specific example of when you had to demonstrate resilience in your leadership journey and how that experience influenced your inclusion of endurance as a key component of your Poise Framework?
Yes. So in one of my previous roles, I led a massive global organizational restructure during a time of massive uncertainty, including layoffs, public scrutiny. And executive transitions, I was carrying the weight of employee emotions. People have emotions and leadership decisions. And then my personal exhaustion. I had a baby at the time, so I was raising a family, navigating all kinds of different personal obstacles. So what got me through wasn't just the grit I have, it was learning how to replenish myself while still performing. That experience directly informed the endurance pillar in Poise. Which is about building stamina through wellness, boundaries, and long-game thinking, not just in the moment for chaos. So resilience isn't just like bouncing back quickly, it's sustaining purpose through pressure.
What strategies did you implement to build your personal brand while still maintaining your executive role, and how have you navigated potential conflicts between your corporate responsibilities and your entrepreneurial aspirations?
Yeah, I started by getting crystal clear on my values, my voice, and the transformation I created for people internally and externally. 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? So I created boundaries as a cadence, early mornings, weekends, and non-conflict windows to work on content, coaching, and speaking. I was mindful of compliance, never using my internal resources. You gotta be mindful of that.. And then I framed my external work as a brand ambassadorship would help, which helped me grow and helped the organization grow as well.
How did your experience in sports and entertainment HR specifically inform the development of your psychometric assessment for organizations, and what gaps in leadership development were you trying to address with that?
So my experience in sports and entertainment is one snapshot of a much broader career that spans multiple industries, each with its own unique demands on leaders. Over the years, I've worked across high-pressure, high-visibility environments with one constant: leadership success isn't just about skill, it's about sustainability. So throughout my career, I noticed that organizations often measure performance outcomes, but they rarely assess how leaders are operating mentally, emotionally, and strategically. So that's what inspired the development of Poise, the psychometric tool to measure what traditional assessment MIST: Precision, Optimization, Influence, Strategy, and Endurance.
What parting advice would you like to share with our community?
I'd say this: 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. You shouldn't have to trade your peace or your health or your joy to lead well. So give yourself permission to lead smarter, not harder, and to define success on your own terms.
Sharice, thanks so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast.
Thank you so much.