Moving from the "Kiddy Table" to C-Suite Conversations with Anthem's Aysha Alawadhi

Welcome to the Talent Empowerment podcast where we lift up people leaders so you can lift up your organizations!

My guest today is Aysha Alawadhi, an HR and Organizational Effectiveness specialist, with a decade of international experience that cuts across various HR and operational functions, with a focus on diversity, culture, development, and people analytics. She prides herself on being industry agnostic and is a huge believer that HR can be done right in any industry if people are the true focus of the strategy. She currently works for a large healthcare organization, Anthem.

Talking Points: 

• Aysha's experience growing up in Dubai
• How wanting to make a difference led Aysha to HR
• Takeaways as hire No.2 at a startup - helping it grow from 2 to 2,000+ employees
• How HR can move from the "kiddy table" to a C-Suite and stakeholder conversations
• Recognizing and overcoming misaligned incentives for employee engagement
• The importance of understanding the core business over specializing in HR
• Identifying key barriers preventing employees from performing their best
• Don't do culture for the sake of culture
• Aysha's two major lessons from her mistakes
• The importance of understanding your stakeholders
• Effective tactics for change management
• Effectively communicating with the CFO and stakeholders
• Harnessing your power as an individual to make real change // step into your power -- end is good clip with disability and keeping up to date with incentives

Resources/Links: 

• Connect with Aysha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aysha-alawadhi-ms-gphr/
• Connect with Aysha on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealayshaalawadhi/
• Connect with Aysha on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aysha_alawadhi
• Connect with Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomfinnleggup/
• Connect with Tom on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tomfinnleggup
• Follow Talent Empowerment on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talent-empowerment-podcast/