Teresa Kersten

40–55% of people confidently remember information that was never presented. This happens even when they are warned in advance to be careful. It is a classic finding from cognitive psychology, and it explains a lot about how people decisions go wrong at work. When information is incomplete or ambiguous, our brains fill in the gaps with patterns and assumptions. Intuition feels confident. It is often wrong. The same dynamic shows up in performance reviews, promotion discussions, and hiring decisions. Leaders believe they are good judges of people. The data suggests otherwise. In the Berkeley Transformative CHRO Leadership Program with UC Berkeley Executive Education we focus on how CHROs can replace intuition with structure. That means defining what “good” actually looks like, setting clear evaluation criteria, limiting snap judgments, and designing defaults that lead to better outcomes. Great people decisions are rarely about better instincts. They are about better systems. If you are a CHRO or aspiring CHRO who wants to strengthen how decisions get made in your organization, you can learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gx332_ba

97

16 Comments

Guild serves working adults balancing jobs, caregiving, and education. Their support team achieves 4.8/5 CSAT — and their Sierra AI agent matches it. COO Jonathan Marek shares how they're scaling across 20+ languages https://lnkd.in/ghytVvca

76

1 Comment

"A startup is just a temporary organization... designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model." - Steve Blank Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of keynoting and leading the first day of the Optica Startup Meeting in Washington, D.C. Fellow speaker Tareaz Pegues led Day 2 of the event. One of the main activities during my keynote and workshop sessions was completing a one-page Business Model Canvas (BMC). A BMC is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool developed to help organizations visualize, design, and innovate their business models on a single page. The now open source tool was introduced by Alexander Osterwalder with the goal of creating a simple, common language for describing business models. The canvas is a visual framework for mapping how a company creates, delivers, and captures value in 9 building blocks: 1. Customer Segments 2. Value Propositions 3. Channels 4. Customer Relationships 5. Revenue Streams 6. Key Resources 7. Key Activities 8. Key Partners 9. Cost Structure The BMC replaced lengthy business plans with a concise, visual, and collaborative tool. Today, it’s used worldwide by entrepreneurs, corporations and educators as a foundation for business design, innovation and strategy. Have you used a BMC before?

39

5 Comments

Excited to share a new 3-part blog series I wrote for Mursion called Leadership Reimagined: How Practice Builds the Skills That Matter. The series explores why traditional leadership training falls short and how immersive, practice-based learning closes the gap. At Mursion, we combine AI-powered simulations and human insight to give leaders a risk-free space to practice high-stakes conversations and build the interpersonal intelligence today’s workforce needs. Part 1, The Leadership Gap: What’s Missing from Today’s Development Programs, is live now. https://lnkd.in/e8_8N4YD

16

Most of us carry a handful of core stories at any given moment—not fixed for life, but foundational enough that they quietly shape how we grow, lead, and navigate our lives. I came to storytelling through 15 years in PR and communications, but I realized these skills didn't stop being relevant when I moved into business leadership. They became foundational. Strategy is a story about why an opportunity matters and how the world will be better if we succeed. Leadership isn't about slogans, it's about telling a bridging story that explains where we are, where we're going, and why the effort to get there is worth it. The stories we need fall into three types: -- Foundation Stories anchor your identity and meaning—like your Life Story and Values Story. -- Tool Stories direct energy and navigate specific situations—like your Career Story, Comeback Story, and Family Story. -- Template Stories are structures you return to again and again—like your Strategy Story, Accountability Story, and Bridging Story (similar to the change management story Patti Sanchez shared). These aren't rigid categories or fixed narratives. They're patterns that show up across careers, relationships, and seasons of change, and they evolve as your circumstances and goals shift. The goal isn't to craft perfect stories, but to become conscious of the ones already shaping you and skilled at refining them as your life and leadership grow. Tomorrow on Career Hack, I'm sitting down with a guest mentor for a conversation about building your Career Story—how to name where you are, claim what you bring, and shape what comes next. And next week, Career Hack members will get the first in a new series exploring these stories one at a time. https://lnkd.in/g2uhfk3s

18

1 Comment

In this special Humans Being Human episode of KnolShare with Dr. Dave, we explore the democratization of coaching through the lens of cultural and collective identity. Hasan Rafiq, PCC, shares how coaching can honor diverse traditions, histories, and lived experiences while expanding access across boundaries of class, culture, and geography. We examine how coaching empowers belonging, challenges displacement, and creates space for all voices to be seen, heard, and valued in the human experience, from migration to technology. This episode explores strategies to responsibly scale coaching while maintaining its human-centered essence, from workplace inclusion to community resilience. Discover how coaching can become a tool for collective upliftment and systemic change.

8