Chloe Drew
Chief People Officer
Redox
Episode 299
Beyond the Org Chart: Intentional Culture Transforms HR Leadership Through Change
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleFebruary 14, 2025 · 11:13
Thesis
“Effective HR leadership, especially during significant organizational change and economic challenges, requires intentional and sustained cultural efforts, transparency, and a willingness to embrace vulnerability and collaborative knowledge sharing within the HR community.”
Show notes
When the CEO of a founder-led company steps back, the cultural ripple is bigger than most organizations anticipate. Chloe Drew, Chief People Officer at Redox, lived through exactly that transition — and she's candid about what it actually takes to rebuild trust when the face of the company changes and the economic environment turns difficult at the same time.
Redox is a healthcare interoperability platform that went through a leadership transition, a period of economic pressure, and the complex cultural reset that follows both. "The transition of the company happened sort of exactly when it needed to," Chloe says — and that framing matters. The most effective HR leaders in moments of organizational change aren't the ones who pretend things are fine. They're the ones who can hold two truths simultaneously: the disruption is real, and the path forward is real. That requires relentless transparency, the courage to acknowledge what you don't know, and the patience to let trust rebuild on its own timeline rather than a manufactured one.
Chloe also makes a compelling case for balanced executive team composition — the deliberate mixing of internal talent who carry institutional knowledge with external expertise who bring fresh perspective and challenge inherited assumptions. She's a genuine advocate for vulnerability as a leadership practice, not as performance. When leaders are willing to say "I don't know" or "I got that wrong," psychological safety increases — and with it, the quality of decisions and the speed of problem-solving. She's equally enthusiastic about open knowledge-sharing across the HR community, seeing peer transparency as one of the most underutilized learning assets in the field.
- CEO transitions and cultural continuity — why leadership changes are more disruptive than organizations expect, and how to manage the aftermath
- Rebuilding employee trust after layoffs or turmoil — transparency, consistency, and the honest acknowledgment of what you don't yet know
- Balancing internal talent and external expertise — designing executive teams that combine institutional memory with outside perspective
- Vulnerability as a performance accelerator — why leaders who say "I don't know" create faster, better teams
- Knowledge sharing in the HR community — why peer transparency is one of the most underused professional development strategies
- Psychological safety as organizational infrastructure — building the conditions where people identify problems earlier and solve them faster
Built by People is sponsored by Previ, the private pricing network that saves employees an average of $2,200/year on essentials like cell phone and auto insurance — free for companies to launch and maintain.
What you'll take away
- 1CEO transitions require intentional, sustained cultural change, often underestimated in its ripple effect and the need for constant reinforcement of new values.
- 2Rebuilding employee trust and morale after turmoil, such as layoffs, demands significant time, relentless transparency, and consistent repetition of the strategic direction and 'promised land' messaging.
- 3Achieve a dynamic executive team balance by leveraging external expertise for fresh insights (e.g., product innovation) while promoting internal talent to retain deep institutional knowledge.
- 4Vulnerability in leadership fosters psychological safety and significantly increases effectiveness, leading to better ideas, stronger team collaboration, and a more open environment.
- 5Actively participate in HR peer networks and knowledge-sharing platforms, as the 'wild generosity' of sharing playbooks and mistakes makes the entire HR community smarter and more effective.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Challenges the idea that a CEO transition is merely an executive swap, highlighting it as a profound and underestimated cultural undertaking requiring intentional, sustained effort.
- •Refutes the conventional notion that vulnerability is a leadership weakness, arguing instead that openly discussing vulnerabilities enhances effectiveness and psychological safety within teams.
In Chloe's words
“I think the transition of the company happened sort of exactly when it needed to. We were founded by just absolutely passionate, brilliant, founders, and at a certain point we needed a different level of expertise, frankly, just notches on belts.”
Highlights the natural evolution of a company requiring different leadership at various stages of growth.
“what I underestimated was particularly with a CEO transition, what that meant in terms of intentional thought-out, planned, sustained cultural change.”
Emphasizes the deep, often underestimated impact of leadership changes on company culture, requiring deliberate strategic effort.
“the lesson that I learned about regaining people's confidence that there wouldn't be kind of turmoil was it takes a lot of time and it takes every day. It takes transparency, it takes repetition.”
Provides a clear, practical strategy for rebuilding employee trust and morale after difficult periods like layoffs.
“That level of new external insight with folks who've been in this industry for so many years creates this wonderful dynamic and level of insight on the executive team.”
Explains the powerful synergy created by blending internal institutional knowledge with fresh external perspectives.
“People saying, take my tool, here's my playbook, here's the mistake that I made. I wish we hadn't done it this way. So I just see us all being so much smarter and sharper and more vulnerable, and we're all just getting more effective.”
Describes the unique, collaborative knowledge-sharing environment that emerged among HR leaders post-pandemic.
“the more that I have found my own vulnerabilities and talked about them openly with my peers and the people on my team, the minute I started doing that, I found that I was able to be so much more effective.”
Offers a personal and powerful insight into how embracing vulnerability can significantly enhance leadership effectiveness and psychological safety.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Companies struggle with intentional, sustained cultural change during major executive transitions, particularly after a CEO change.
- •Regaining employee trust and morale after economic downturns and layoffs requires more time and repetition of strategic messaging than typically anticipated.
- •Balancing the need for innovative external executive talent with the desire to promote and develop existing internal talent can be challenging.
- •HR leaders can feel isolated when facing complex organizational changes, highlighting a need for stronger peer support and knowledge-sharing networks.
- •Evolving a company into a more mature organization while preserving the valuable, historical aspects of its original culture presents a delicate balance.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
I started out working in politics. I found my way into health technology
In the Elevator With Mayor de Blasio
Your company transitioned from founder-led company to one led by seasoned executives
Have We Reached a New Direction at Work?
How do you maintain employee trust and morale during economic downturns
How to Raise Employee Trust and Morale During a Recession
You've talked about promoting internal talent while bringing in external expertise
Redox has a New Executive Team
How has this shift in knowledge sharing affected the HR community, and what benefits have you seen
How has the Shift in Knowledge Sharing Affect the HR Community?
How do you balance preserving valuable aspects of company culture while evolving into mature organization
The New Redox: A Company's Culture
Chloe says talking about vulnerabilities makes her more effective as a leader
Chloe On The Challenges of Being a Leader
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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