In this week's episode, I am joined by Ashley Herd! Ashley Herd is a former Chief People Officer and General Counsel, leadership speaker, and podcast host who has trained more than 250,000 managers through LinkedIn Learning and live corporate programs.

Throughout her career, she has helped professionals navigate leadership challenges with greater clarity and confidence, translating complex workplace dynamics into practical tools leaders can actually use.

After leading HR and Legal teams at McKinsey, Yum! Brands, and Modern Luxury, Ashley founded Manager Method to bring better management training to organizations of all sizes.

She is a top LinkedIn Learning instructor and co-host of the HR Besties podcast. As CEO of Manager Method, Ashley equips managers with proven frameworks that strengthen accountability, communication, and team performance—because better managers build better workplaces.

Her forthcoming book, The Manager Method (Feb 10, 2026), delivers a simple, repeatable approach for real-world leadership moments—hiring, feedback, conflict, and leading through change—grounded in her signature Pause–Consider–Act framework.

Key Points

• Culture is shaped by direct managers.

• High performers can face accidental punishment.

• Leadership involves feedback, conflict, and change.

• "Pause, consider, act" enhances management.

• A 60-second reset makes tough conversations easier.

Best Quotes

03:15 - 03:25

• "I say to people often, it's hard to have this company culture. There's often manager cultures. If you're gonna look at Glassdoor for example, I mean, I've done this at places I've worked, and I will look at Glassdoor and I will see comments."

04:43 - 05:00

• "Well, you know, what's, what's kind of funny to that point? Such a great point. And what I, what I find is the bigger an organization gets, the harder culture becomes at a, at a grander scale. The the, and to your point, the more micro it becomes, who is, who is directly responsible for you?"

07:58 - 08:10

• "I remember my first day of my corporate job or my first week I was, I was doing in sales, I did this before I went to law school. I was cold calling chief financial officers for the like fortune 1000 Chief financial officers."

18:21 - 18:36

• "Because one thing I say is, as a leader, something that's important to know is nobody on your team should feel like they have to share things about them, especially personal things. But too often people feel afraid to share the real parts of, of themselves and their lives outside of work."

Learn more about Ashley's book "Manager Method", click here: https://www.managermethod.com/book