Your Voice and Vision May Be Your Most Important HR Leadership Tools

The future of careers and organizations is engineered long before final decisions are made — it is created in the initial conversations that set the tone, direction and culture. A main stage session at WorldatWork’s Total Rewards ’26 conference in San Antonio, Texas, explored this topic, unpacking how deliberate language and creative conversations can shape reality and mobilize action.

The address on Tuesday, April 21, titled “How to Speak Your Preferred Future Into Existence,” featured:

• Andrew Sykes, an entrepreneurship professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the CEO of corporate training firm Habits at Work;
• Angela Cheng-Cimini, the chief human resources officer of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a news organization serving nonprofit leaders;
• Shaun Mayo, the chief people officer of the National Football League’s Arizona Cardinals; and, 
• KeyAnna Schmiedl, the chief human experience officer of HR software company Workhuman.

Through salient insights and compelling stories, the experts illustrated that leadership is about:

• Identifying and championing potential before proof exists;
• Building trust and influencing professional outcomes; and,
• Listening differently, speaking more deliberately and understanding how your daily words shape tomorrow’s possibilities.

Check out Workspan Daily’s on-site coverage of Total Rewards ’26:

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The Power of Conversations to Further Ideas

Northwestern’s Sykes (shown in the above photo) laid out a compelling introductory narrative on the creative power of human dialogue, stating every business and product that exists today was once just an idea — an invention of what might be possible. He shared these inventions are formed and proliferated through the stories we tell and the conversations we have.

While conversations are generally regarded as dialogues between two or more people, they are often misunderstood in their capacity to create change. Sykes conveyed they aren’t merely descriptions of the world as it is, but rather the creative force out of which every aspect of human reality is built.

“The idea becomes a conversation, a story about what the future is,” he said. “And if that story inspires people to act, they will take the matching actions that quite literally create the world.”

Sykes shared there is a practicable art and science to sharing these stories and having these conversations.

“The people who actually create the future have conversations, and they’re not conversations that describe the world as it is or complain about the world as it was,” he said. “They are the kinds of conversations that have people lean in and ask questions like: ‘What can I do?’ ‘How can I help?’ ‘How can I be a part of this?’”

Sykes referred to these as “enrollment conversations.”

“Enrollment is a state of excited readiness where [those you are conversing with] want to be a part of it,” he said. “They want to add their discretionary effort to create a vision that may belong to someone else but they have taken as a part of their own, and as a result, they will put in time, effort, blood, sweat and tears to bring about this future.”

Sykes explained it takes more than mere words to get to enrollment.

“It’s not just buying people’s energy and effort — it’s inspiring their hearts and minds,” he said. “Telling people what to do builds resistance. Showing people what to do is a little better. By sharing your story, your vision of what’s possible, and not just telling a story but involving people in its creation, real growth can occur.”

In the discussion that followed, Sykes’ fellow panelists explained how they have put these principles into practice.

Using Your Voice to ‘Speak Truth’

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Cheng-Cimini called on the HR and total rewards (TR) professionals in the audience to evolve from strict compliance enforcers to stewards of organizational culture and conscience.

Declaring the outdated stereotype of HR as bureaucratic and brusque (as portrayed in movies and TV sitcoms) is “infuriating,” she challenged practitioners across all levels — from entry-level to executive — to wield their voice, vision and influence to “speak truth.”

Reflecting on her personal journey, Cheng-Cimini stated, “I was always on the outside looking in. So, I became a student of the human condition. I wanted to understand how powerful people move through the world. ... It is our obligation to use our power to speak truth in the rooms where we have a seat. It is how we keep that seat.”

To direct the true change that the profession needs, she advised the audience to advocate for designing a superior “human experience” that also enables the business to meet its profit-and-loss goals.

Through ideas, vision and subsequent conversations, she said you can pursue and achieve:

• Culture stewardship, where HR is the organization’s conscience, responsible for driving culture regardless of job title or tenure.
• Courage over tenure, where HR pros find “the power to speak truth” and challenge executive assumptions.
• A human-centric approach, where HR is about designing employee experiences that empower people to be successful, not just policing them.

The Vision to Build an Organization’s Culture

The Arizona Cardinals’ Mayo used his voice and vision to help establish the organization’s first “true and dedicated HR function” after being hired in July 2021.

“I was presented with essentially a blank slate,” he said. “I’ve never approached HR as HR. I really am a business leader that happens to work in HR.”

He set out to not just bolster, refine or create HR practices and procedures. He used his voice and vision toward something higher.

“We decided to design what we call the ‘Cardinals Way,’” Mayo said. “It’s about three years old now. … We had an opportunity to work with ownership and really take the intentional time to develop this process, bringing everybody together in the organization to say, ‘What have we been known for? What are we great for? What are some things we want to change?’ So, we went to work. We ended up with a new vision, a new purpose.”

He doesn’t take the challenge or his leadership role lightly.

“I think the beauty of life is that you get an opportunity to go in and try things,” Mayo said. “I’ve been put in a situation to be able to make a difference, so I’m going to give it my best to try to make a difference.”

Elevating Ingenuity in a Tech-Driven Work World

Workhuman’s Schmiedl has used her voice and vision to underscore the presence and power of human workers in an age of escalating technology. As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes ubiquitous, offering similar tools to businesses worldwide, she has championed the idea that the true competitive advantage occurs by shifting from tech access to human capital.

Schmiedl said that for companies such as Workhuman to thrive in this new work era, they must focus on elevating human contribution, turning the AI-driven workplace into an environment where tools and human ingenuity work in tandem.

“If everybody has access to the same tools, your humans are going to be that differentiator,” she said. “So, how can we actually do what we’ve always wanted to do [as HR leaders], which is elevate the level of human work and human contribution in the workplace?”

Schmiedl explained the shift requires a reevaluation of daily working experiences. Instead of focusing solely on automation, HR and business leaders should consider how technology can empower employees to perform more meaningful work. Key to this transformation is encouraging them to take ownership of their professional development and discoverability within the organization.

What Is Your Idea and Purpose?

Northwestern’s Sykes capped the conversation by telling the audience of more than 2,000 HR and TR leaders, “The people in this room collectively have the power to create the cultures, environments, the vision for what it looks like for people to unite, to breathe life into the vision of your founders. I challenge you to notice that your voice is as powerful as [any business or world leader], and keep that conversation going and create the kinds of conversations that inspire action. ... And so, you need to ask yourself, ‘What is my thing to do in my organization or in life, and why do I feel like I’m uniquely placed to do that?’”

Editor’s Note: Additional Content

For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:

• Career Growth
• Organizational Performance
• Total Rewards