The Meg and Amy Show

Why hasn't AI showed up in the P&L yet? Heidrick & Struggles CEO Tom Monahan joins Meg and Amy. His one question that reveals your real capability gap: If you just told your team to go do that, what wouldn't happen? Tom unpacks why the CEO job is now a two-way ambassador role, and why moving AI from the CEO story to the CFO numbers is the real test. He also makes the case for managers in an age of flat org charts, and why AI should mean better work sooner — especially for junior talent. Featuring Tom Monahan, CEO of Heidrick & Struggles, in conversation with Meg Bear and Amy Wilson. TIMESTAMPS 00:15 - Meet Tom Monahan, CEO of Heidrick & Struggles 01:19 - Lessons from a family carnival business 02:42 - Most businesses are all about the people 04:20 - Why the CEO job is getting more complex 05:49 - The CEO as two-way ambassador 12:18 - The one question that reveals capability gaps 17:51 - Move AI from the CEO script to the CFO numbers 19:02 - Using AI for immersive candidate scenarios 25:39 - Why demanagerizing has not worked 31:06 - When build costs go to zero, advisory value rises 35:52 - Better work sooner for junior talent 39:19 - 4 qualities of leaders who win now Subscribe to The Meg and Amy Show for bold takes on AI leadership, CEO leadership, and the future of work. 📚 RESOURCES: Show Up to Win by Jeff Sanders and Kelly O. Kay (Heidrick & Struggles): https://www.heidrick.com/en/pages/show-up-to-win-book "Finding the Human Core of Competitive Advantage in the AI Era: Avoiding the Pygmalion Trap" by Tom Monahan and Les Csorba: https://www.heidrick.com/en/insights/frontier-tech/finding-the-human-core-in-ai-era Route to the Top 2025 (Heidrick & Struggles research): https://www.heidrick.com/en/insights/chief-executive-officer/route-to-the-top-2025-the-ascent-redefined "From Hierarchy to Intelligence" by Jack Dorsey and Roelof Botha (Block): https://block.xyz/inside/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence Level 5 Leadership (Jim Collins): https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/level-five-leadership.html Jevons paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generally_Accepted_Accounting_Principles_(United_States) Survivorship bias: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias "The Future Is Interdisciplinary" by Meg Bear: https://www.megbear.com/post/the-future-is-interdisciplinary Heidrick & Struggles: https://www.heidrick.com/ 🔗 CONNECT: Tom Monahan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlmonahan/ Jeff Sanders: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsanders2/ Kelly O. Kay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kokay/ Tobi Lütke: https://x.com/tobi Website: https://www.themegandamyshow.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show https://www.linkedin.com/in/megbear/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-wilson-insight/ #AILeadership #FutureOfWork #ExecutiveLeadership #MegAndAmyShow #EnterpriseAI #AIStrategy

What Every Executive Woman Should Know About Perimenopause with Dr. Jessica Kassis OB-GYN Dr. Jessica Kassis missed her own perimenopause for a year - until her primary care doctor caught it. She joins Meg and Amy to explain why high-performing women miss the signs at work, how to talk to your doctor, and what actually helps with brain fog, rage, sleep, and burnout. We cover #perimenopauseatwork ,  #brainfogperimenopause , hormone stabilization vs replacement, birth control in early perimenopause, advocating for care, leaving a hospital system to build Radiant Women's Health at 46, plus Leadership Corner on leading with candor when a strong performer slips. Featuring Dr. Jessica Kassis, OB-GYN and co-founder of Radiant Women's Health, with hosts Meg Bear and Amy Wilson. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro to Dr. Jessica Kassis 02:25 Her personal perimenopause story as a GYN 05:58 Why doctors avoid menopause care - RVUs and 20-minute visits 07:52 I don't feel like myself - the key symptom 10:29 Brain fog, estrogen receptors and sleep 1 3:34 Early vs later perimenopause explained 16:25 Stabilizing vs adding - birth control pill option 20:09 Rage, misophonia and hormones 26:12 Finding care beyond concierge - telehealth options 28:28 How to advocate with your doctor 31:33 Leaving the system - burnout and loss of empathy 37:27 Energy alignment and North Star 39:27 Building Radiant Women's Health and partnership 44:01 Growth, marketing and community 47:21 Leadership Corner - when a high performer slips Subscribe to The Meg and Amy Show for weekly conversations on AI, leadership and the future of work. Full episode out Friday. #AILeadership #FutureOfWork #ExecutiveLeadership #MegAndAmyShow #WomenInLeadership #LeadershipWellness

HubSpot CEO Yamini Rangan shared a layoff memo for 660 employees. As longtime operators, Meg and Amy break down what she got right (and wrong) about leading with clarity, humanity, and accountability in a hard moment, and what other leaders can learn from it. What we cover: - Why this memo stood out from most layoff announcements - What Yamini got right on principles, focus, and severance - What was missed on market pressure, cost structure, and investing better Timestamps: 00:00 Why this HubSpot memo stood out 00:56 What Yamini got right up front 01:44 It's not about AI - but it is about AI 02:34 First principles before cuts 04:01 Flattening and the leadership bar 06:46 Severance transparency 08:17 What she got wrong and close About The Meg and Amy Show: Former tech executives Meg Bear and Amy Wilson share bold takes and real expertise on AI, leadership, and the future of work. #AILeadership #FutureOfWork #ExecutiveLeadership #MegAndAmyShow #WomenInLeadership #ChangeManagement

AI won't fix a broken process — it makes outcomes worse. Stacey Harris shares new results from the 29th Annual HR Systems Survey on what actually drives better outcomes. Former tech executives Meg Bear and Amy Wilson sit down with Stacey Harris, Chief Research Officer at Sapien Insights Group, to break down 29 years of HR tech data and what it means for leaders working on AI, HR tech, and the future of work. Stacey explains why companies that fix processes and HR data first see better business outcomes, why less than 50% of enterprises have an enterprise integration strategy for HR data, why HR is uniquely equipped to lead AI oversight, and why putting a chief AI officer in charge lowers HR's strategic standing and hurts results. Plus practical advice on how to raise burnout and cost pressure without sounding anti-AI. Timestamps: 00:00 Intro with Stacey Harris 01:11 Why 29 years of survey data matters 11:15 Why AI won't fix a broken process 15:01 Less than half have an HR data plan 30:14 Why a chief AI officer hurts outcomes 32:14 Why HR must lead AI oversight 33:14 Treat AI like employees? 38:58 Agent costs and rehiring after AI layoffs 53:36 Leadership Corner: Raising burnout without sounding anti-AI 65:14 Closing 📚 RESOURCES: Sapient Insights Group: https://sapientinsights.com/ Stacey's HR Tech 2026 session, 29th Annual HR Systems Survey key findings: https://www.hrtechnologyconference.com/seminar-programme-2026/voice-customer-sapient-insights-group-29th-annual-hr-systems-survey-key-findings "Introduction to HR Technologies" by Stacey Harris: https://sapientinsights.com/introduction-to-hr-technologies-book/ "Introduction to HR Technologies" on Amazon: https://a.co/d/060S7PXs Lexy Martin, founder of the HR Systems Survey: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexymartin/ Josh Bersin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bersin/ Leighanne Levensaler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leighannelevensaler/ Aashna Kircher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aashna-kircher-75657b34/ W. Edwards Deming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming Meta to record employee keystrokes to train AI (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/21/meta-will-record-employees-keystrokes-and-use-it-to-train-its-ai-models/ Our AI transformation framework (Ep 24): https://wrkdefined.com/podcast/the-meg-and-amy-show/episode/episode-24-24-episodes-of-learning-our-ai-transformation-framework-for-getting-ahead "You Can't Redesign Work With a Team You Haven't Designed" (Amy): https://www.themegandamyshow.com/p/you-can-t-redesign-work-with-a-team-you-haven-t-designed "The End of the World Is Just the Beginning" by Peter Zeihan: https://a.co/d/0gEr0JTC HR Tech 2026: https://www.hrtechnologyconference.com/ HR Tech taps WRKdefined as official podcast network: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/09/29/3370653/0/en/hr-tech-taps-wrkdefined-as-official-podcast-network-for-next-month-s-event.html 🔗 CONNECT: Stacey Harris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceyharris/ Website: https://www.themegandamyshow.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show https://www.linkedin.com/in/megbear/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-wilson-insight/ About The Meg and Amy Show: Former tech executives Meg Bear and Amy Wilson share bold takes and executive expertise on AI leadership, HR tech, and the future of work. #AILeadership #FutureOfWork #ExecutiveLeadership #MegAndAmyShow #EnterpriseAI #HRTech

People analytics has spent years analyzing people. Now it needs to analyze the work.  Recorded live at People Analytics World, Meg Bear and Amy Wilson make the case that as AI changes how work gets done, the function has to move past studying humans and start studying the system of work itself: how humans and AI share it, where it gets stuck and how it should be designed. They also discuss why the bottleneck in software was never the code, and why AI should change how the whole engineering organization works, not just the engineers. They also cover why "learn it, train it, deploy it" breaks down when AI keeps improving this fast, and why leaders need to keep learning too. From there, they get into what it takes to lead right now. It takes a special person who's willing to unlearn and relearn, and a special organization around them. They talk about why the manager job just got a lot harder and is likely to be split into separate roles. And they make the case that you can't start a movement alone. If you work in people analytics, lead teams or design how work gets done, this conversation is about the questions you'll face next. Subscribe for more from The Meg and Amy Show. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Welcome: Live from People Analytics World 02:14 David Green Keynote: A Teams vs B, C, D Teams 04:17 AI Use Cases Still Stuck in HR Topics 05:09 Work Design Goes Mainstream: From Evangelism to Urgency 06:44 DRI vs Dynamic Team: Prasad Setty and Amy's Debate 09:20 Why Committees Fail and Movements Need Co-Creators 10:40 Intel's Kelsey Klein: Real Work Redesign Use Cases 12:04 Changing the Organisation vs Changing the Individual 13:26 Software Dev Bottlenecks Are Not the Code 17:49 Bundling and Unbundling: Roles, AI Tasks and the Manager 20:06 Jack Dorsey's Model as an Extreme Provocation 22:12 Human-AI Systems: Measuring What Makes Humans Better 25:35 The Special Person and the Special Organisation 28:36 The Future of the People Analytics Role 30:56 Context Engines, Strategy Alignment and Sense-Making 34:25 Storytelling as a Core Analytics Skill 35:33 Dashboards Are Dead, Long Live Interactive Data Spaces 📚 RESOURCES: People Analytics World: https://home.paworld365.com/ PAWorld26 New York: https://home.paworld365.com/events/26nyc/ Ikona Analytics, our podcast stage host: https://www.ikonaanalytics.com/ Richard Rosenow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardrosenow/ "The End of People Analytics As We Knew It" (Ikona): https://www.ikonaanalytics.com/insights/the-end-of-people-analytics "Context Is All You Need" (Ikona): https://www.ikonaanalytics.com/insights/context-is-all-you-need Insight222 People Analytics Trends 2025/26 (David Green): https://go.insight222.com/insight222-people-analytics-trends-report-2025/26 Prasad Setty: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/prasad-setty Siobhan Savage, Reejig: https://www.reejig.com/company/siobhan-savage "You Can't Redesign Work With a Team You Haven't Designed" (Amy): https://www.themegandamyshow.com/p/you-can-t-redesign-work-with-a-team-you-haven-t-designed "From Hierarchy to Intelligence" (Jack Dorsey & Roelof Botha): https://sequoiacap.com/article/from-hierarchy-to-intelligence Jaya Gupta on unbundling intelligence: https://x.com/JayaGup10/status/2101799427145183571 Our episode with Jason Cohen: https://wrkdefined.com/podcast/the-meg-and-amy-show/episode/hidden-ways-to-grow-without-more-hires-or-funding-jason-cohen Kieran Snyder: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-snyder-60572987/ Morgan Depenbusch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgandepenbusch/ Bill and Morgan's Dashboard Confessionals: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/bill-yost/ 🔗 CONNECT: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megandamyshow/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-meg-amy-show https://www.linkedin.com/in/megbear/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-wilson-insight/ #AILeadership #FutureOfWork #ExecutiveLeadership #MegAndAmyShow #HRTech #AIStrategy