December 2024

The Winner of the MVP for 2025 is… the CHRO!

As I write this, I’m reflecting on the selection of Colorado University’s Travis Hunter as the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner, the most coveted individual award in college football. It got me thinking about who is going to be the MVP in our organizations for this upcoming year. Considering the challenges and opportunities that we face going into the new year, I’d put my vote in for the CHRO!

We’ve had some adventurous and challenging years recently, but in 2025, with the stakes continue to be as high as ever, CHROs are positioned well to have a deep impact. They find themselves at the center of enterprise strategy, transformation, and culture. I think this isn’t just HR’s moment in the spotlight; it’s a defining season for the entire profession.

As the pace of change accelerates and the complexity of leadership increases, HR’s role has evolved from back-office support to strategic powerhouse. According to the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), five priorities will dominate the CHRO’s agenda in 2025—and each one plays a critical role in driving organizational success (https://www.i4cp.com/predictions).

Your Coach,

Tim

President & CEO, Turknett Leadership Group

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FEATURED MEDIA

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH TLG CONSULTANT, Kathy Bahrambeigian

What advice would you give to HR professionals who feel overwhelmed by the rapid pace of change in the workplace in 2025?

HR will be a pivotal driver in shaping how organizations respond to the evolving disruptions in talent management, ensuring that people strategies are not only reactive but strategically aligned with overarching business objectives. As industries experience rapid technological advancements, globalization, and shifting market dynamics, the skills and competencies required for organizational survival and growth are undergoing profound changes. This evolution presents both challenges and opportunities, as a mismatch between current workforce capabilities and future organizational needs could significantly hinder business performance and competitiveness if not proactively addressed.

From AI To Workplace Polarization: Top HR Trends Predicted For 2025

Solange Charas & Stela Lupushor | Forbes

As the year winds down, HR leaders, consultants, and analysts are once again gazing into the proverbial crystal ball, attempting to chart the trends that will define the workplace in 2025. With rapid technological advances, economic uncertainty, and shifting societal dynamics, the coming year promises to be both a challenge and an opportunity for organizations ready to adapt.

Women in Leadership

We are thrilled to announce our next live virtual event!

With extensive background in global travel and transportation industries, Alex Marren will provide her insights of how to effectively move between cultures, navigating cross-cultural challenges, building diverse and cohesive teams, and driving operational excellence in today’s interconnected world; how to think globally and act locally simultaneously.

Listen in as our speaker shares her unique experiences and insights.

Facilitated by Anne Quiello, M.S., PCC

Senior Consultant & Host of Women in Leadership

DECEMBER WIL RECAP

Want to find out more? Here are some resources from our speakers:

Leading Yourself: Find More Joy, Meaning, and Opportunities in the Job You Already Have - Elizabeth McLeod Lotardo

In Leading Yourself, celebrated workplace thought leader Elizabeth Lotardo delivers an engaging guide to owning and elevating your work experience. With tips, watchouts, and funny stories, Leading Yourself will give you the encouragement and tactics to up-level your career, even if you aren't in your dream job. You'll learn to manage your self-talk, find meaning in the mundane, optimize your time at work, and build relationships with the people who matter.

Sticking Points: How to Get 5 Generations Working Together in the 12 Places They Come Apart - Haydn Shaw

This is the first time in American history that we have five different generations working side-by-side in the workplace: the Traditionalists (born before 1945), the Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964), Gen X (born between 1965–1980), Millennials (born 1981–2001) and Gen Z (born 1996–present). Haydn Shaw, popular business speaker and generational expert, has identified 12 places where the 5 generations typically come apart in the workplace (and in life as well). If we don’t learn to work together and stick together around these 12 sticking points, then we’ll be wasting a lot of time fighting each other instead of enjoying a friendly and productive team.

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness - Jonathan Haidt

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Catch Up with TLG

HR Live Breakfast Event

This past month, we had the incredible opportunity to dive deep into the transformative ideas in Culture is the New Leadership with none other than the author, Ben Ortlip.

Ben shared invaluable insights on how workplace culture can redefine leadership, drive engagement, and create sustainable success. The discussion left us reflecting on how intentional culture-building empowers teams and strengthens organizations from the inside out.

Thank you to everyone who participated and brought their perspectives to the conversation—it’s these moments of connection and collaboration that truly make HR Live! special.

Here’s to carrying these lessons forward into 2025 as we continue to lead with character and intention!

SHRM December Chapter Meeting

So excited to have listened in on, "They Just Don't Get It: Bridging Multigenerational Tug-o-War," from Skot Waldron at the Georgia Aquarium! A big thank you to SHRM-Atlanta for hosting this insightful event.

This keynote gave us valuable insights into understanding and bridging generational gaps in the workplace. With a focus on empathy and communication, we explored how different generations—from Baby Boomers to Gen Z—bring unique perspectives shaped by historical events, and the costs of generational discord.

Thank you to Nancy Cranford, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Cindy Cheatham, Anne Quiello, M.S., PCC, and Kathy Bahrambeigian for joining us! And a big congratulations to Xavier Cugnon MS, SHRM-SCP, PHR for being appointed the new Chairman of the Board!

We are so grateful to have gained new tools to foster a more harmonious and productive multigenerational work environment!

Tim at InspirEdu

We’re proud of our CEO, Tim Huff, for delivering an inspiring "Going First" presentation at Tech Empowerment Day, hosted by Inspiredu in partnership with the Knowledge House!

Tim shared insights from Turknett Leadership Group’s Leadership Character Model, focusing on the importance of leading with integrity, courage, and humility—qualities that are just as essential in technology as they are in leadership.

We're thrilled to be part of initiatives like this that help expand digital skills and build brighter futures for Georgia’s community. A huge thank you to Inspiredu and the Knowledge House for making this event possible!

What We're Reading

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

A president who governed a divided country has much to teach us in a twenty-first-century moment of polarization and political crisis. Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity, and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations.

This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination in 1865: his rise, his self-education, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end. In a nation shaped by the courage of the enslaved of the era and by the brave witness of Black Americans, Lincoln’s story illustrates the ways and means of politics in a democracy, the roots and durability of racism, and the capacity of conscience to shape events.

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A New Kind of Diversity: Making the Different Generations on Your Team a Competitive Advantage

The past few years have brought an endless cascade of social media movements that left many of us . . . well . . . scratching our heads. Regardless of how we feel about the gaps between us, there is one we cannot avoid. One of the largest gaps remains an “elephant in the room.” We know it's there but we don't know how to talk about it. There is a new kind of diversity that only eight percent of U.S. companies even recognize: diverse generations on teams.

For the first time in history, up to five generations find themselves working alongside each other in a typical company. The result? There can be division. Interactions between people from different generations can resemble a cross-cultural relationship. Both usually possess different values and customs. At times, each generation is literally speaking a different language!

How can we hope to work together when we can't even understand each other?

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