Paige Lisk
Chief People Officer
Kyruus Health
Episode 355
Opportunity, not aptitude, unlocks talent: A CPO's guide to impact
Current chapter: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built By PeopleJanuary 9, 2025 · 13:03
Thesis
“Aptitude is equally dispersed, but opportunity is not; organizations must actively create pathways for individuals from non-traditional backgrounds and underrepresented groups to unlock talent and drive profound societal impact. Modern leadership success hinges on emotional intelligence and influencing skills, which often outweigh technical expertise.”
Show notes
Paige Lisk was an opera singer before she became a Chief People Officer. She makes that biographical detail do a lot of work: the performing arts world is, in its own way, a masterclass in meritocracy by reputation — where aptitude and talent are constantly being evaluated outside of traditional institutional pathways. That experience shaped her conviction that aptitude is equally dispersed in the population, even when opportunity is not — and that the talent organizations overlook by requiring traditional credentials is often exactly the talent that differentiates them.
Paige's approach to talent development is built around that premise. Aptitude-based hiring programs — designed to find and develop candidates from non-traditional backgrounds — aren't just equity initiatives. They're competitive advantages. The employees who enter a tech career through non-traditional pathways and reach $95,000 annual earnings within five years aren't just changing their own lives; they're bringing perspectives and problem-solving approaches that institutions full of similarly credentialed people simply don't generate.
Her leadership philosophy places emotional intelligence at the center. If she's choosing two skills that matter most in corporate leadership today, they're EQ and the ability to influence without authority. Technical skills can be taught and eventually automated. The capacity to read a room, build trust, and move people toward a shared outcome — that's what separates leaders from high-performing individual contributors.
- Aptitude-based talent development — why non-traditional hiring pathways aren't just equitable but strategically advantageous
- Advancing women and people of color — making opportunities visible and building the support networks that sustain advancement
- Inclusive meeting design — working norms that create space for quieter voices and prevent the loudest person from crowding out the room
- EQ as the paramount leadership competency — why emotional intelligence outranks technical skill when all else is equal
- The 60/40 leadership skills split — building organizations where soft skills aren't soft but foundational to performance
What you'll take away
- 1Implement aptitude-based hiring and training programs to access diverse talent from non-traditional backgrounds, significantly boosting individual earnings and community impact.
- 2Actively promote women and people of color by creating visible opportunities and fostering supportive networks (e.g., Women in Technology groups, Chief-like organizations).
- 3Cultivate inclusive meeting environments by establishing working norms that allow for silence and proactively inviting contributions from quieter attendees.
- 4Prioritize the development of emotional intelligence (EQ) and influencing skills among leaders, recognizing them as paramount for navigating complex, remote, and hybrid team dynamics.
- 5Strive for a 60% soft skills to 40% technical skills balance for leadership success, as soft skills are often harder to teach but critical for collaboration and customer engagement.
- 6Embrace change as the only constant in the corporate world and encourage finding passion in mission, skills, or team to sustain engagement.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Paige Lisk suggests that women, especially when few in number in leadership roles, have not always been good at advocating for each other, sometimes becoming territorial, which is an unexpected observation.
In Paige's words
“Aptitude is equally dispersed, but I don't think opportunity is, right?”
This quote encapsulates the core philosophy behind her approach to non-traditional talent acquisition.
“By the time they had been in a tech field for 5 years, they were making $95,000 a year. This is life-changing for that human, their family, and even the community around them.”
It highlights the tangible, transformative impact of creating opportunities for individuals from non-traditional backgrounds.
“The best way to support their advancement is to make sure that they see themselves in roles that they are aspiring to move into, right?”
This provides a direct, actionable strategy for fostering diversity and advancement in corporate spaces.
“If anybody were to ask me today, what are the two skills that you think are the most important in corporate America, all other things being equal, I would tell you EQ, emotional quotient, emotional intelligence, and influencing.”
This strongly emphasizes the critical importance of soft skills as foundational for career success in today's environment.
“To be successful in an organization today, it's 60% soft skills, 40% technical skills.”
This quote offers a clear, quantifiable benchmark for the necessary balance of skills in modern professional roles.
The problems this episode addresses
- •HR teams struggle to find sufficient talent through traditional recruiting channels, especially as baby boomers retire and new skills are needed rapidly.
- •Organizations face challenges in creating and sustaining opportunities for women and people of color to advance into leadership roles.
- •Meetings, particularly in remote or hybrid settings, often lack true inclusivity, leading to some voices being unheard or dominated by more assertive participants.
- •Many leaders, especially post-pandemic, lack the emotional intelligence needed to effectively lead diverse individuals and rally them around common goals in a 'full selves at work' culture.
- •Even technically proficient employees often lack essential soft skills (e.g., collaboration, customer interaction) required for cross-functional success in modern roles.
In this episode
Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built by People
Dave Zirin started off as an opera singer and then moved into tech
CIO Dave Goldberg on Built by People
How do you expand talent development to include individuals from non-traditional backgrounds
Talent Development: Non-Traditional Backgrounds
What are some of the effective strategies that, um, you use to promote women's advancement
What are some of the effective strategies to support and promote women's
How do you create an inclusive environment in meetings, especially women's voices
How to Create an Inclusive Meeting Environment
How do you balance technical skills and soft skills needed for effective leadership
How to Balance the Soft Skills and EQ
Paige, any parting advice you'd like to share with our audience
Paige On The Built by People Podcast
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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