Kristy McCann
Founder and CEO
Currently unnamed (formerly SkillCycle)
Episode 6
AI Demands a Communication Redo: Human-Centered Leadership in a Changing World
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features the voices of world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJanuary 26, 2026 · 20:44
Thesis
“Authentic, human-centered leadership and clear communication are critical for navigating today's rapidly changing, AI-driven environment, demanding HR tech that genuinely supports holistic employee development and organizational alignment.”
Show notes
After 20 years in HR — from startups to enterprises, through digital transformations and organizational crises — Kristy McCann decided to build the thing she kept wishing existed. As founder and CEO of SkillCycle (and now her next venture), Kristy has a perspective on the state of HR that's equal parts pragmatic and impassioned: the field is at an inflection point, and most companies are blowing it.
Her diagnosis is sharp. Communication, once treated as a soft skill, has eroded into something closer to a critical organizational failure. People talk past each other, leaders deflect instead of direct, and managers are so afraid of giving feedback that they say nothing at all — until it's too late. Meanwhile, HR tech stacks are full of "everything systems" and "point solutions" where, as Kristy puts it bluntly, "the data just dies." All those performance reviews, development conversations, and engagement signals are sitting in disconnected tools, generating no insight and driving no action.
Kristy's vision for what comes next centers on two things: a return to baseline humanity in the workplace, and a new category of HR technology that makes performance and development data flow in real time. Her advice for leaders is as direct as her critique — look in the mirror, ask yourself why you're a leader, and remember that nobody cares what you accomplished 20 years ago. They only remember how you made them feel in the last five minutes.
What you'll learn:
- Why communication has become HR's most urgent "hard skill" — and what a reset looks like
- The fatal flaw in both "everything systems" and "point solutions" in the HR tech stack
- What democratizing leadership development actually means at scale
- How Kristy bootstrapped SkillCycle and gave the platform away free during COVID
- Why manager fear of feedback is one of the most damaging forces in modern organizations
- The leadership "mirror test" — and what it reveals about why so many employees disengage
Built by People is presented by Previ — the free tool that helps HR teams boost internal communication engagement.
What you'll take away
- 1Prioritize building managers and leaders for today and tomorrow to navigate rapid change and prevent employee distress.
- 2Recognize communication as a fundamental, eroding skill that requires a 'redo' at all levels, emphasizing clarity and directness over deflection.
- 3Re-evaluate HR tech stacks to move beyond disconnected 'everything systems' and 'point solutions,' focusing on platforms that integrate performance and development data in real-time.
- 4Leaders must look in the mirror and define their 'why,' remembering that true leadership is about enabling others to succeed, not just personal gain.
- 5Strive to return to a 'baseline level of humanity' in the workplace, fostering environments where people feel good, safe, and happy in their jobs.
What most organizations get wrong
- •I wasn't the type of HR person that you came to and asked about payroll benefits. I didn't even know what my payroll benefits were half the time.
- •I think a lot of the things that we're all putting up a front these days, and I think that, you know, we're just, every time we put up that front, we're eradicating the humanness of us and we need to be more human.
- •COVID just amplified the many wrongs that were happening in this world.
In Kristy's words
“There is no change within organizations unless you bring your people along. And a lot of times there's so many unknowns, it's ambiguous, and what's in it for me.”
This highlights the critical people aspect of successful organizational change, emphasizing buy-in and addressing employee concerns.
“We need to build managers and leaders for today and tomorrow. We need to build systems and infrastructures that support the masses and not the few.”
This quote expresses her core mission for inclusive growth and development, focusing on broad impact rather than elite benefits.
“Communication, it makes or breaks everything... What we want to talk about is what we're passionate about, but that doesn't mean that everybody else is passionate about it. We're looking at everything from an individual lens instead of a much larger lens.”
Kristy diagnoses a key problem in modern communication: self-centeredness and a failure to consider broader organizational impact.
“The commonalities between an everything solution and a point solution is that the data dies, right? There's so much data that occurs in organizations, so many data points that are just dying in these systems.”
This critiques the fundamental flaw in current HR technology architectures, highlighting a lost opportunity for valuable insights.
“When you are a leader, you're on a pedestal and people look to you. And what do you want people to see. And I think that we all need to look in a mirror, especially leaders. What is it? Why are you a leader and what are you trying to do? Because if you're just trying to make money, then guess what? You're in the wrong business because you don't make money unless other people make money, right? A leader leads people. And if people, you know, don't believe in the leader, then the leader is not going to— will only be able to get so far. With this game, and they're gonna see through it. And that's why so many people are disengaged. And we have all these buzzwords from quiet quitting to quiet stating to whatever new time we're in right now. And I just think that when you come out as a leader, and if you're not able to be a beacon and magnify what true leadership traits are, which is having the ability to communicate, having the ability to change, having EQ, having the ability to situationally lead, How to deal in times during crisis, how to get everybody rowing in the same boat without forcing them to row in the same boat. What's going to define you? And I think that that is what every leader really needs to start to question. Why are you a leader? And who do you really want to be remembered for at the end of the day? Because guess what? Nobody remembers what you did 20 years ago. They only remember the last 5 minutes. How did you make them feel?”
A powerful statement on the true essence and lasting impact of leadership, emphasizing empathy, purpose, and the leader's role in inspiring belief and engagement.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Lack of clear, unbiased communication leads to employee distress and unconscious bias within organizations.
- •Managers are afraid to give feedback, hindering employee development and creating a 'conundrum' in the workplace.
- •Self-centered and opinion-based communication, exacerbated by social media and AI, causes disengagement and lack of understanding across the organization.
- •Disconnected HR tech stacks (both 'everything solutions' and 'point solutions') lead to valuable employee data 'dying' in systems, preventing actionable insights into performance and development.
- •Ambiguous and unclear communication, where simple questions can't be answered concisely, wastes time and fosters widespread frustration and lack of clarity on needs and goals.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features the voices of world's top HR leaders
Built by People: Christy McCann
You spent 20 years in HR before leaving to start your own company
Exploring Your Career Path
What are your top priorities right now? Top priorities
Top priorities for leaders
What's, Christy, what's one initiative you've rolled out over your career
What's one initiative you're proud of in your career?
One thing that we've noticed nationally is employee communication becoming harder and harder
Employee Communication: Harder
What tools or platforms are most essential for, in your opinion, HR operations today
What tools or platforms are most essential for HR operations today?
If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring leader, what would it be
As an Aspirant Leader
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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