Melanie Naranjo
Chief People Officer
Ethena
Episode 144
Your 'People Problem' Is A Business Communication Challenge
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJune 17, 2025 · 10:37
Thesis
“Effective HR leadership requires translating people-centric initiatives into tangible business outcomes, understanding the full ripple effect of every decision on the organization's financial health and strategic goals. What appears to be a 'people problem' is often a communication issue impacting business performance.”
Show notes
Most CEOs don't hear "engagement is down 8%" as a crisis. They hear it as an HR metric. Melanie Naranjo's insight — built across roles from the fashion industry to Ethena, a compliance training company — is that the same information sounds completely different when you translate it: engagement drops lead to productivity drops, productivity drops lead to ARR attainment drops. The number doesn't change. The language does. And the language is what gets you the budget, the support, and the seat at the table.
Her most instructive case study at Ethena started with an obvious symptom — friction between sales and product teams — and turned out to be a communication architecture problem. Sales didn't understand what product was building. Product didn't understand what sales was promising. The gap was creating real business damage. The solution wasn't an HR program; it was a cross-functional pulse check mechanism that gave both teams faster visibility into each other's realities. "We identify issues faster and solve them faster." That's what business partnership looks like when it's working.
Melanie's broader philosophy — that every HR decision must be understood through its ripple effects on cash flow, burn rate, and resource allocation — is the frame she uses to evaluate herself as a leader. "If you're not thinking about all the different pieces, then you're not thinking like a true business leader." It's a standard most HR professionals aspire to and fewer than you'd expect actually meet.
- Translating HR metrics into CEO language — how to connect engagement to ARR and earn executive attention
- Cross-functional pulse checks — the mechanism that surfaced a sales-product communication breakdown
- Partnering effectively with a CEO — the operating model for becoming a true business co-pilot
- Ripple-effect thinking — how to evaluate every HR investment through its downstream business impact
- Humility and curiosity as leadership tools — why the best HR decisions start with not assuming you already know the answer
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What you'll take away
- 1Translate HR metrics (e.g., engagement) into business outcomes (e.g., productivity, revenue) when presenting to CEOs to secure executive buy-in.
- 2Implement cross-functional pulse checks or similar mechanisms to proactively identify communication gaps and foster mutual understanding between departments.
- 3Approach every HR investment with a 'true business leader' mindset, considering its impact on cash flow, burn rate, and potential alternative resource allocation.
- 4Cultivate humility and curiosity in leadership to effectively bridge gaps, build compelling arguments, and facilitate continuous growth and team functionality.
- 5Recognize that perceived 'people problems' are often symptoms of deeper communication breakdowns that directly impact business goals.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Most people would not think of this as a people problem, but I do because it involves people and it is impacting the business.
In Melanie's words
“drops in engagement lead to drops in productivity, which lead to drops in business attainment, right? And ARR attainment and revenue, revenue growth, all that stuff, right? But that's not what a CEO hears.”
This highlights the critical disconnect between HR language and a CEO's focus on financial and business metrics.
“What ends up happening is that we solve, we identify issues faster and we solve them faster, and there's just more cross-functional insight and visibility.”
This quote succinctly describes the direct benefits of implementing structured cross-functional communication.
“Every piece that you move has a ripple effect. And if you're not thinking about all the different pieces, then you're not thinking like a true business leader, and that's what you need to do to partner effectively with a CEO.”
This emphasizes the holistic, strategic mindset required for HR professionals to become effective business partners at the executive level.
“Lead with humility and curiosity. The worst thing you can do is just assume you are right and other people are wrong, and if they disagreed with you, it's 'cause they didn't understand you or they're just not with it and they don't get it.”
This offers powerful advice on fostering effective leadership and communication, promoting self-reflection and openness.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Product and sales teams often experience communication silos, leading to misalignment on priorities and a perception that one team isn't listening to the other.
- •HR initiatives can fail to gain executive support because HR professionals use internal jargon (e.g., 'engagement') that doesn't clearly translate to CEO-level business outcomes (e.g., revenue, burn rate).
- •Lack of cross-functional understanding regarding departmental constraints, workload, and priorities can lead to inefficient resource allocation and delayed business goals.
- •Decisions regarding HR investments (e.g., manager training budget) are sometimes made without fully evaluating their ripple effect on the company's financial runway or other critical business areas.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
I am the Chief People Officer at Athena, a compliance training company
In the Elevator With HR's COO
Product team and sales team were not talking to each other directly enough
The Problem of Cross-Function Communication
Melanie has partnered with CEOs to help translate HR initiatives into business outcomes
How to Partner with a CEO
Melanie: Opening up conversations between departments can help solve complex business challenges
Building a Bridge Between Product and Sales
Lead with humility and curiosity; there's always a growth opportunity
Melanie's Last Words
Melanie says teamwork is the best way to grow professionally and build teams
Built by People: The Power of Teams
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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