Leadership Discoveries #28: From HR to Strategic Leadership: Steve Widdoss on Earning a Seat at the Table
What is Leadership Discoveries?
Leadership Discoveries™ explores how accomplished leaders exercise judgement, navigate complexity and create impact. Drawing on her experience as a senior executive, executive advisor and leadership scholar, I bring listeners inside candid conversations with CEOs, founders, board leaders and innovators. Together we explore the decisions, experiences and leadership thinking that shape organisations, careers and performance. Leadership Discoveries is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favourite podcast platform.
Episode #28
In this episode, I speak with Steve Widdoss, Chief People Officer of One Physics, about what it takes for HR to become a truly strategic leadership function. Drawing on senior HR leadership roles across global organisations including JPMorgan Chase, Capital One and Barclays, Steve reflects on why commercial credibility is essential for today's Chief People Officer, how HR earns a genuine seat at the executive table, and why understanding the business is just as important as understanding people.
We also explore leading through growth, organisational transformation and acquisition, the importance of helping leaders manage themselves through uncertainty, and how AI is reshaping the future of work without diminishing the importance of human leadership.
Here's a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:
Is HR finally a true strategic partner, or still stuck being transactional?
What does it actually mean to be "acquisition ready"?
Treating people with respect on the way out, not just on the way in
What Steve would look for in a Chief People Officer if he were the CEO
Where AI is already an incredible accelerator inside HR
To learn more about Steve’s work, connect with him at OnePhysics.com and on LinkedIn
Check out the episode and show notes below.
Show Notes
From HR to Strategic Leadership: Steve Widdoss on Earning a Seat at the Table
[0:27] Welcome back to Leadership Discoveries!
[0:42] Connect with Shirley at ShirleyKavanagh.com and on LinkedIn. To learn more about Steve’s work, connect with him at OnePhysics.com and on LinkedIn
[1:23] The common threads across a career spanning JP Morgan Chase, Capital One, Barclays, and beyond
[3:32] From supply chain management to HR by accident and why Steve went back for an MBA
[5:45] Is HR finally a true strategic partner, or still stuck being transactional?
[8:31] Inside the "power triangle": CEO, CFO, and Chief People Officer
[10:58] How to sell long-term HR investments to a CEO who thinks in quarters
[13:54] Leading HR through expansion versus contraction
[18:45] What does it actually mean to be "acquisition ready"?
[22:24] Treating people with respect on the way out, not just on the way in
[24:33] Are AI-driven layoffs overblown, or are we just seeing the start of it?
[25:40] Where AI is already an incredible accelerator inside HR
[29:16] Using Claude to turn ugly slides into something boardroom-ready
[32:12] The human leadership skills AI can't replace and won't anytime soon
[34:24] What Steve would look for in a Chief People Officer if he were the CEO
Connect with Shirley at ShirleyKavanagh.com and on LinkedIn. To learn more about Steve’s work, connect with him at OnePhysics.com and on LinkedIn