Leah Buckley
VP of People
Art of Problem Solving
Episode 33
Ignite Growth: Empowering Employees with Clear Paths and Leadership Lifelines
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleOctober 7, 2025 · 13:24
Thesis
“Empowering employees with clear career trajectories and providing robust leadership support, especially in rapidly scaling environments, is paramount for both individual agency and overall organizational success, requiring a strong foundational understanding of company values.”
Show notes
Summary
In this episode of the Built By People Podcast, Leah Buckley shares her non-traditional career journey in HR, highlighting key influences and mentorship that shaped her path. She discusses critical decisions made during acquisitions, the importance of building business partner teams, and the challenges of making unpopular decisions for long-term benefits. Leah emphasizes the significance of implementing competencies and leveling in organizations and provides advice for early career professionals on valuing their voices and ideas.
Takeaways
- Leah's career journey in HR was non-traditional and exploratory.
- Key influences include her father and mentors from Target and Amazon.
- Navigating critical decisions during acquisitions can build trust.
- Building business partner teams provides essential support for leaders.
- Unpopular decisions can lead to long-term organizational benefits.
- Implementing competencies and leveling is crucial for employee growth.
- Foundational steps are necessary for successful HR initiatives.
- Early career professionals should value their voices and ideas.
- Mentorship plays a significant role in career development.
Chapters
00:00 Leah's Non-Traditional Career Journey
06:23 Navigating Tough Decisions in HR
12:28 Advice for Emerging Leaders
What you'll take away
- 1Building robust business partner teams provides critical support and a 'lifeline' for leaders in scaling companies, making them feel less alone in decision-making.
- 2Implementing competencies and leveling frameworks empowers employees with agency over their careers by clarifying expectations, promotion paths, and internal transfer processes.
- 3When making unpopular but necessary organizational changes (e.g., pay cycle adjustments), transparent communication, explaining the 'whys,' and offering support programs are crucial for successful adoption.
- 4Foundational elements like clearly defined company values must precede and inform initiatives like career leveling to ensure they are meaningful and effective.
- 5Junior professionals should disregard intimidating factors like titles and tenure, confidently speak up, and act as thought partners, as senior leaders highly value diverse perspectives.
What most organizations get wrong
In Leah's words
“I think getting rid of that unlocks everything. And I think as a senior leader myself now, I love so much when my teams and the folks that I work with speak up, value their voice, feel confident in their opinion, and actually act as thought partners and peers to me.”
Emphasizes the value senior leaders place on empowered, vocal team members, countering the common fear of speaking up.
“building business partner functions for certain companies has helped a lot with making sure that key leaders have that thought partner, somebody to lean on, somebody to make it feel less lonely, you know, to be at the top and, you know, and try to make those tough decisions and make folks happy and all of the things that come with management.”
Highlights the often-overlooked emotional and strategic support HR business partners provide to leadership.
“I think the ability to understand what's expected in a role, how to promote, how to internally transfer, all of those things, and then being able to use that as a foundation for career conversations, pay conversations, everything else, like, to me, I think it's a really, really critical piece for any company to have and definitely worth the lift that it takes to build something like that.”
Articulates the foundational importance of clear competencies and leveling for employee agency and broader HR functions.
“We did a lot of explaining the whys, which I think for any unpopular decision is the foundation for getting people to come along with you and helping them really see what you're seeing and that, you know, it's not a small decision. It's not something that we're taking lightly, but here's why it's important.”
Provides a clear strategy for managing difficult organizational changes by prioritizing transparency and context.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Managers in scaling startups often lack the leadership development resources and support commonly found in mature companies.
- •Employees in rapidly growing companies frequently lack clear career paths, promotion criteria, and internal transfer processes, diminishing their sense of agency.
- •Acquisition processes present challenges in aligning compensation structures and building trust with acquired company employees.
- •Managing multiple payroll cycles across integrating companies can impede scalability and operational efficiency.
- •Implementing HR initiatives like leveling and competencies without a strong foundational set of company values can render them ineffective as decision-making frameworks.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Your career journey in HR was non-traditional, as I think many have
Exploring the Career Journey in HR
Leah says her dad shaped her career from the beginning
What Shaped Your Career?
Leah, can you tell us about a moment where something was on the line
Leah, can you tell us about a moment in your career
Leah, what's the most meaningful change that employees still feel today
What's the Most Significant Change Your HR Team Made at Work?
Leah, what's a leadership initiative you've repeated in more than one company
Leah, What's a leadership move or HR initiative you've
If you could leave one piece of advice for our community, what would it be
Leo on Starting Out in Your Career
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Organizations and entities mentioned
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