Send us a text Every CHRO loves a good aspiration. Build an engaged culture. Be the employer of choice. Create a world-class talent strategy. The only problem? None of those are measurable—and none of them move the P&L. In this episode of The Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson Lynch goes straight at one of HR’s most expensive bad habits: the addiction to aspirational goals. These lofty slogans sound good in PowerPoint, but they don’t allocate capital, lift margin, or speed up execution. Jacks...

Send us a text Most advice to CHROs stops at “speak finance.” Useful, but incomplete. Financial fluency earns your seat. Integrated business fluency earns your voice. In this episode, Jackson and Scott make a sharper case: the modern CHRO cannot be a junior CFO. They must be a complete operator who connects capital, capability, and culture to competitive advantage. We break down a four-front campaign that turns credibility into authority: build a real CFO partnership by modeling ROI and...

Send us a text Every HR leader loves a good slogan—Build an engaged culture. Be the employer of choice. Create a world-class talent strategy. They sound great in a slide deck. They also sound exactly the same at every underperforming company. In this episode of The Talent Sherpa Podcast, host Jackson O. Lynch goes straight after one of the costliest habits in human capital: our addiction to aspirational goals. Jackson breaks down why HR keeps reaching for inspiration when the business is star...

Send us a text Senior leaders love values until they cost something. In this episode, Jackson O. Lynch and co-host Scott Morris put a hard edge on a soft topic and ask the only question that matters to a CEO or CHRO strategy leader: do your values change decisions under pressure, or are they just branding? Guest expert Ann Melinger, CEO of Bink, makes the case that values are only real when they shape rewards and consequences. Together, the group breaks down the difference between permission-...

Send us a text Most executives don’t fail because they lack ideas. They fail because they can’t find the time to think. In this episode of The Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson O. Lynch takes aim at the quiet killer of strategic leadership: the overcrowded calendar. He argues that most leaders have confused being available with being aligned, and the result is a company that is busy instead of effective. He tells the story of an executive team that filled ten hours a day with meetings and still ...

Send us a text Senior leaders say HR and Finance are partners until budget season exposes the truth. In this episode of The Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson Lynch and co-host Scott Morris tackle the uneasy marriage between the CHRO and the CFO. Finance measures what is. HR argues for what could be. Between those two truths, the business either scales or stalls. Jackson makes a simple point with sharp edges. If there are three leaders in the triangle the CEO, the CFO, and the CHRO and two are al...

Send us a text In this episode of The Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson O. Lynch explores a new reality for HR leaders. More companies now trust AI to run entire hiring processes from start to finish than they trust their own recruiters. What began as simple task automation has evolved into full-scale workstream control. Jackson explains that when AI takes over end-to-end processes, it no longer just supports decisions. It makes them. Without a clear understanding of the system’s design logic, H...

Send us a text More than half of all CHROs are replaced within twelve months of a new CEO taking the helm. That is not just turnover. It is a signal. In this episode of The Talent Sherpa Podcast, host Jackson O. Lynch and co-host Scott Morris explore why the CHRO seat has become the most volatile role in the C-suite and what sitting HR leaders can do to survive the transition. They start with a blunt truth. A new CEO is not only a leadership change but a mandate change. If HR keeps pushing ye...

Send us a text Most CEOs will ask it eventually. That gut-punch question that silences the room: “Are our people good enough?” In this episode of The Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson O. Lynch breaks down why that question rarely gets a straight answer and why the real problem isn’t about turnover, engagement, or even outcomes. It’s about the absence of a performance philosophy. Most companies mistake outputs for performance. They chase sales targets, project deadlines, and green dashboards with...

Most executive teams like to say they are aligned. The truth is, most are not. What looks like unity is often a polite fiction hiding competing agendas, resource battles, and the quiet scramble for CEO attention. In this episode, Jackson and Scott pull back the curtain on how a CHRO builds peer relationships when collaboration feels more like competition. They dig into why alignment and trust are not the same thing. You can agree on the goal and still fight over how to get there. Trust in the...

Executive teams often inherit a bloated structure: too many chiefs, not enough decision-makers. In Episode 77 of the Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson Lynch explores the hidden cost of letting the wrong people in the room and how it quietly kills speed, execution, and accountability. Through real-life stories, he shows how meetings devolve into status updates and turf wars instead of driving the big calls that actually shape a business. The true expense isn’t the compensation line: it’s the...

In this episode, Jackson Lynch and co-host Scott Morris dig into a hard truth: high performance starts with unambiguous outcomes. When leaders assume “smart people will figure it out,” they create hidden drag on speed, trust, and accountability. The conversation separates roles with precision. The CEO must demand clarity. Line managers must deliver it in day-to-day execution. The CHRO must build systems that make clarity consistent and measurable across the org. The episode explores h...

Is work supposed to be a safe space or a performance space? That was the debate at the SHRM Executive Network Visionaries Conference when Jackson Lynch sat down with SHRM CEO Johnny Taylor. In this episode of the Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson takes that conversation deeper, unpacking why leaders have confused psychological safety with comfort, and why that mistake is quietly eroding performance. Real safety matters. Every employee deserves freedom from harassment, retaliation, and bi...

In Episode 74 of the Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson O. Lynch and co-host Scott Morris take on a common misconception at work: safety has come to mean comfort. They reframe the idea by arguing that high performance requires psychological safety and honest, often uncomfortable conversations. Using Pete Carroll’s “Tell the Truth Monday” as a model, they show how clarity and consequences can coexist with respect and belonging. The discussion gets tactical. Jackson and Scott outline how leade...

In Episode 73 of the Talent Sherpa podcast, tackles a common but costly myth: that performance management can fix an executive mis-hire. Host Jackson O. Lynch and co-host Scott Morris outline a pragmatic decision flow for CHROs under pressure: confirm the selection, clarify expectations, test whether the role is actually doable, and time-box sprints for role clarification or redesign. If those moves fail, values or judgment gaps call for a fast exit. They dig into why CEOs delay tough ca...

In Episode 72 of the Talent Sherpa Podcast, the spotlight is on the disconnect between finance and talent and what happens when those two conversations finally converge. Executives often hear two different stories: the CFO’s numbers on margin, cash flow, and forecasts, followed by HR’s updates on engagement, retention, and hiring. Both are accurate, but without integration the company misses the bigger picture. The discussion reframes talent as capital, not cost. By bringing forward ...

In Episode 71 of the Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson O. Lynch and co-host Scott Morris examine the 2025 McKinsey HR Monitor and its tough assessment of the function. HR is lagging at a time when the stakes could not be higher. The discussion begins with workforce planning. Too many organizations are still filling seats instead of building scenario-driven, strategy-aligned plans. The hosts argue for anticipating disruption, planning for skill obsolescence, and designing work by starting with ...

In Episode 70 of the Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson Lynch challenges HR leaders to rethink what it truly means to be a CHRO by the year 2030. Spoiler alert: "good enough" is already obsolete—and "great" won’t be enough either. Jackson outlines five must-have capabilities that will define the world-class CHRO of the future. From setting the AI and automation agenda (without deferring to IT), to treating talent like capital and making ruthless, data-driven decisions, this episode is pack...

In Episode 69 of the Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson O. Lynch and Scott Morris tackle the uncomfortable — and essential — responsibility of the CHRO as the voice of performance truth. They dismantle the “Head of Harmony” myth and explain why avoiding difficult conversations costs organizations more than confronting them. They explore the fine line between politics and political savvy, showing how CHROs can navigate agendas without losing credibility. Through personal stories and practical ex...

In Episode 68 of the Talent Sherpa Podcast, Jackson O. Lynch and Scott Morris tackle the uncomfortable and essential responsibility of the CHRO as the voice of performance truth. They dismantle the “Head of Harmony” myth and explain why avoiding difficult conversations costs organizations more than confronting them. They explore the fine line between politics and political savvy, showing how CHROs can navigate agendas without losing credibility. Through personal stories and practical exampl...