Release Date: June 5
Are your leaders helping you retain top talent—or accidentally driving them away?
In this episode of The Learnit Lounge, HR leader Courtney Stevens and host Mickey Fitch-Collins explore how intentional leadership development fuels stronger culture, deeper engagement, and better retention. If you're an HR or L&D professional looking to boost impact without burning out your budget, this conversation will give you real-world insight into what works—and what undermines your efforts. From inclusive onboarding to pre-leadership pipelines, Courtney shares candid stories, concrete actions, and one vital truth: your leaders shape the employee experience more than any slogan or poster ever could.
What You’ll Learn:
- The “wheel” model for ongoing leadership growth (and how it prevents one-and-done learning)
- How pre-leadership programming helps avoid promoting someone who’s great at tasks but not ready for people leadership
- The biggest mistakes organizations make in leadership development—and how to avoid them
- Why authenticity is a leadership superpower—and how Courtney learned this the hard way
- One question you can ask your team today to immediately deepen engagement
In This Episode:
- 00:00 – Welcome & intro: Why leadership development is key to culture and retention
- 01:50 – Courtney’s leadership background: from education to HR
- 02:15 – The impact of revamping leadership development five years ago
- 03:30 – Creating a shared language across all leadership levels
- 05:00 – “The smartest person in the room is the room”: Learning from each other
- 06:40 – Ego-free leadership: leading with humility and curiosity
- 07:30 – Connecting leadership training to organizational values and goals
- 09:10 – “Values aren’t words, they’re actions”: Bringing company values to life
- 10:25 – Why bad leadership—not bad companies—drives turnover
- 12:30 – The employee experience lives in the leader-employee relationship
- 13:50 – Leadership programs as visible proof of internal investment and growth
- 15:00 – Including executive career journeys in new hire orientation
- 16:30 – Making learning continuous: The “leadership development wheel”
- 18:00 – Keeping training relevant with blog posts, pulse checks, and peer cohorts
- 19:55 – Designing inclusive, personalized leadership experiences
- 21:50 – The dangers of one-and-done training and inauthentic leadership
- 23:40 – Misalignment between stated values and lived experiences
- 25:00 – When a performance issue needs a conversation, not a class
- 26:40 – Launching a “pre-leadership” track to prepare future leaders
- 28:00 – Pre-leadership as a testing ground: “Is this path right for you?”
- 30:40 – Courtney’s biggest leadership lesson: authenticity beats imitation
- 33:30 – Why trying to be someone else as a leader never works
- 35:00 – “These are the hours I have on this earth—I’m going to enjoy them.”
- 36:45 – Uncomfortable truth: Not everyone who’s good at their job should be a leader
- 38:30 – Leadership is getting results through others—not doing it all yourself
- 40:40 – Action tip #1: Reflect on your conversations—are they about tasks or growth?
- 42:00 – Action tip #2: Start with one conversation focused on someone’s future
- 43:30 – Final takeaway: “Investing in leaders changes everything”
- 45:10 – How to connect with Courtney on LinkedIn
- 45:50 – Outro: subscribe, review, and share the conversation on LinkedIn
About Courtney:
Courtney Stevens is the Director of Human Resources at CoServ, where she leads talent development, aligns HR strategies with business goals, and builds culture through intentional leadership programs. With 15+ years in leadership, training, and org development—and nearly two decades in education as a school principal—Courtney brings deep experience and a people-first approach to growing leaders at every level.
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