Leading with Curiosity and Vulnerability with Crunchyroll’s Barb Bidan

If you’ve spent time with kids, you know “because I said so,” is rarely a satisfactory answer. The same is true with our teams. We’re independent people who question top-down mandates. We want to understand the logic behind a request. This simple truth has been a guiding principle for Barb Bidan, Chief People Officer at Crunchyroll. When she jumped into her role, she knew she wanted to lead with curiosity and vulnerability. She’s chosen to admit what she doesn’t know, stand firm on her convictions, and honor the needs of her people. Listen to hear how she’s applied her curious approach to creating a return to work plan, bringing people together after acquisitions, and designing leadership development curriculum. Join us as we discuss: [03:30] Co-creating a healthy hybrid work strategy [09:00] Communicating a clear “why” [12:00] Designing for both flexibility and certainty [20:00] Intentionally bringing people together [24:30] Fostering a “first team” mentality [31:30] Creating a leadership development curriculum [38:15] Learning from variety For the entire interview, follow HR Superstars on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher. Or tune in on our website. Original podcast track produced by Entheo. Want to connect with thousands of other strategic HR leaders like you, join the HR Superstars Community! Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for HR Superstars in your favorite podcast player.*