Welcome to The Team Check-in Podcast
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Hear Tim Newbold, founder of OKR Quickstart, on why most OKR rollouts stall after the first quarter, and the executive habits that finally make them work.
Hear Tim Newbold, founder of OKR Quickstart, on why most OKR rollouts stall after the first quarter, and the executive habits that finally make them work.
Hear Dr. Joerg Storm, former Mercedes-Benz IT executive, on 12 years leading teams across Japan and Germany and what culture changes about management.
Hannes Albrecht from How-to-OKR joins The Team Check-In to break down everything you need to know about OKRs. With 12 years of experience helping companies implement OKRs, Hannes shares what OKRs actually are (and what they're not), why they shouldn't be used for individual performance measurement, what causes OKR implementations to fail, and a nightmare story of a well-known brand that over-engineered its OKRs to the breaking point.
What can swing dancing teach us about leadership? More than you'd think. In this episode, Carol Fraser, an HR veteran with 30+ years of experience and 28 years of teaching swing dance, reveals the surprising parallels between the dance floor and the boardroom. Carol breaks down how partner dancing builds trust faster than any corporate team-building exercise, why leaders need to understand "leading vs. bulldozing," and what neuroscience research tells us about movement and brain health.
Most organizations have company values — yet very few use them. They sit on a website, printed on a wall, or buried in an onboarding deck… but they rarely guide decisions, shape culture, or influence performance. In this episode of The Team Check-In, Emre sits down with Ann Melinger, Founder & CEO of Bink, who brings 25+ years of expertise in employee communications, culture transformation, and values-driven leadership. Together, they unpack topics such as: Why company values become “wallpaper” in most organizations, the biggest misconceptions leaders have about defining values, how to translate a value into clear, observable behaviors, and so much more!
In this deeply human episode of The Team Check-In, Emre sits down with veteran Chief People Officer and founder of Agile in HR, Mindy Honcoop, for a candid conversation about the emotions we rarely acknowledge in the workplace: fear, shame, and the hidden stories we bring with us into our jobs. Mindy opens up about how fear shapes behavior, why shame disconnects us from ourselves and others, and how these forces quietly sabotage performance, collaboration, and confidence. She shares real examples from her career, breaks down the difference between scarcity and abundance cultures, and introduces practical tools like the Fear Audit to help leaders uncover unspoken blockers before they derail projects or people.
In this episode of The Team Check-In, Emre sits down with Felicia Heward — a seasoned HR leader who’s worked with industry giants like GE Aerospace and Tesla before launching her own fractional HR practice. Felicia shares her remarkable journey from managing labor relations in male-dominated industries to supporting growing startups that need structure and culture. She discusses what “employee relations” really means, how to handle workplace conflict constructively, and the story of Charles — the 80-year-old employee who became a symbol of loyalty and leadership. Felicia also offers an insider look into Tesla’s rapid growth, explaining how HR played a pivotal role in scaling under charismatic leadership and fast-paced innovation. Whether you’re an HR professional, a startup founder, or simply fascinated by workplace dynamics, this episode is filled with wisdom, humor, and heart.
In the third installment of our HR Expert Series, we sit down with Natalie Ledbetter, fractional Chief People Officer, startup advisor, and consultant, to explore the role of HR in early-stage companies. Natalie shares why bringing HR in too late can create “people debt,” how hiring strategically early on can change the trajectory of a Series A or B startup, and why DEI is far more than a compliance exercise but actually a core business strategy. Along the way, she offers a candid perspective on why most people don’t scale with companies, how to celebrate exits when they happen, and the patterns that distinguish early-stage builders from late-stage operators.
In the second installment of our HR Expert Series, we sit down with Ina Atanassova, Senior Talent Development Manager at Maltego Technologies, to talk about navigating uncertainty and making training programs truly impactful. Most strikingly, she reveals how she re-engineered Maltego's training strategy: shifting from “everyone gets a budget” to a goal-driven approach that aligns individual development with company objectives. Along the way, Ina candidly discusses the messy realities of training from trial-and-error vendor selection to the impossibility of making everyone happy and leaves us with a powerful reminder: The real measure of success is whether learning translates into growth for both people and the organization.