AdAge 40 Under 40 - CEO at Growth Skills - Fractional CMO - Search Engine Land SEO Innovation Landy Award Winner - 2022 U.S Search Best Campaign Winner - 2nd Degree Black Belt - Bare Knuckle Karate Champion

I’m a performance driven Growth Marketing expert. I help brands acquire customers and increase their value over time. I have a deep speciality in SEO & Content Marketing. I made AdAge's 40 under 40 for innovating in these areas. I'm a self taught marketer so I can talk theory but also do hands on execution. 

Philosophy: There are only two relationships in Nature. Symbiotic and parasitic. Humans and corporations can chose to be either. I’ve chosen to grow and nurture symbiotic relationships with friends, family, coworkers and clients. I also help connect people who I know would thrive together. 

Kyokushin Karate: I’m a bare knuckle Kyokushin Karate champion. I equate bare knuckle Karate to growing a start up. You have to embrace the suck, be fearless and stare the problem in front of you right in the eyes and solve it. I’ve learned that martial arts has very little to do with kicking and punching but everything to do with life.

Specialties: Business and Team Growth, SEO Management, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, SEO Product Development, Social Media Marketing, PPC, Website Development, Video Editing, Video Production, Project Management, Partnerships, Negotiation, Sales, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, PR, Brand Building, Brand Positioning

Lavall Chichester

I'm speaking Digiday  Digiday Media Buying Summit Monday, March 2nd 2026.    My topic: Navigating the zero-click frontier towards an integrated search practice: 🎓 

In this session, we’ll unpack the shift to zero-click search environments and the emergence of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Discover what’s actually affecting sales and search performance, what to do about it, and how it might affect paid media.

I hope to meet you IRL there.

#aio #geo #aeo #seo #chatpt #cladue #perplexity #llms #searchengineoptimization #asnwerengineoptimization #ppc #googleads #digitalemdia

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

AdAge 40 Under 40 - EVP, BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media - Search Engine Land SEO Innovation Landy Award Winner - 2nd Degree Black Belt - Bare Knuckle Karate Champion

ChatGPT has invested heavily in SEO & Content Marketing. 💸 
I did an analysis for Search Engine Land of ChatGPTs SEO & Content marketing efforts and potential ROI. I showed how Perplexity and Claude are also using SEO, but not doing it as well as they could. ☠️ 

The Summary: 🎓 
-ChatGPT built a brand and amazing product. They cash in on that with 45 million searches for “ChatGPT” for their brand name.
-They built SEO into their user generated content creating content that drive traffic and conversions at scale
-Perplexity and Claude mess up basic SEO. Basic SEO works and should never be overlooked.

Read my article at the link below and watch the video in this post.

I hope you copy what ChatGPT is doing and take it to the bank. I’m rooting for you. 🥋 

#contentmarketing #seo #chatpt #cladue #perplexity #searchengineoptimization 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

I made Claude, say”Holy Sh!t” out of excitement because of some results
from my short form video experiments on social. 📽️ 

I’ve been learning to tell short form stories using video on Instagram and TikTok. It’s a skill I think all marketers should know, so I’ve committed to learning it.

-I took a social media video course online 
-Applied what I learned
-Kept optimizing with length 6,12,30 and 60 second videos.

I write the concepts and scripts. Then use Claude to edit them to specific time.
Then readjust them to make sure that I can read them well. I’ll post one on LinkedIn tomorrow.

A few videos recently went wild with views, shares, comments, reposts and saves. I got over 200 new followers on Instagram in a few weeks. 📈 

I love SEO but this is way more fun. Making Claude curse is the cherry on top. 😂 

Follow me on TikTok and Instagram. @mrchichesterog let me know what you think of my experiments.

#socialmedia #videomarketing #instagram #tiktok #claude #contentmarketing #careergrowth 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

Great day one. Don’t burn your house down with AI. 🥋

”What I say about AI is, it's very much like fire – it can be used to cook food or to burn your house down," Chichester said onstage during the session. Digiday

The Digiday Media Buying Summit kicked off today in Nashville, TN 🤠 Here's a recap of Day One ... 

➡️ In our 'The view from the top' session, Ralph Pardo of Omnicom Media joined Michael Burgi to discuss how the media unit is moving forward armed with Acxiom, as well dealing with fee pressures, AI acceleration, consolidation and evolving client expectations.

"The pace requires us to constantly evaluate. The service will change; the models will change. We’re going to have to stay quite nimble for the next 18 months," Pardo said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Navigating the zero-click frontier towards an integrated search practice' session, Lavall Chichester of BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media chatted with Sam Bradley about the shift to zero-click search environments and the emergence of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), as well as what’s actually affecting sales and search performance, what to do about it, and how it might affect paid media.

"What I say about AI is, it's very much like fire – it can be used to cook food or to burn your house down," Chichester said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Have we reached peak retail media?' session, Jared Belsky of Acadia examined whether we’ve seen the retail media wave crest, and what might hold back further investment growth in this area – and how agentic and AI developments might alter strategies.

"There is friction, but here's why I'm not negative. This is the shape of [retail media] today. This is a better friction than the old friction," Belsky said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Transparency and independent strategy' session, Kaitlyn Mcinnis of CROSSMEDIA joined James Cooper to discuss how to use AI for media orchestration without surrendering the transparency that independent agencies are built upon.

"I think as marketers, we're overestimating AI as a feature and underestimating the trust factor with consumers," Mcinnis said onstage during the session.

Here is one of the videos that has taken off on Instagram and TikTok via me learning a new skill with video testing. It’s me expressing the philosophy of Kyokushin Karate and why I’m excited to have started training in it again. It’s taught me more about life than it  has kicking and punching. Any success I’ve had in my career is because I learned about focus, discipline, sacrifice and hard work; in Kyokushin. 💪 

Some of the best people in business are Martial Artists and probably have a similar story. 🥋 

I often stay that I do Full Contact Search for my clients, because the mindset is very similar. The fighting in the SERPs is fierce, there are great competitors and you have to always level up your skills.

Any fellow martial artists out there? Let me know in the comments. Osu!

#contentmarketing #seo #careergrowth #martialarts #karate #kyokushin

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

Most people sleep on Bing for website traffic and revenue. I highly recommend you change that. Bing Web Masters Tools even gives you customer service. They fix issues and actually reply. Google and Google Search Console has a lot to learn from them. My client had a problem, I summited the ticket, it got a reply and a fix. Fixed in under two weeks. Bravo. 👏 

#bing #google #bingvsgoogle #contentmarketing #seo 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

As New Yorker, I must confess that I'm in love with the midwestern work ethic, mindset, and manners. The magic in the middle made Frontier Airlines stock jump. Let's go! 

#advertising #agency #advertisingagency #work #barkleyokrp #missiononemedia
                                                          -------------
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

CEO at BarkleyOKRP | recovering CCO | Mom

Everything about our industry is evolving. Including the belief that you have to be on one of the coasts to be one of the greats. 
At BarkleyOKRP, we call it "the magic in the Middle."
And that magic is featured in today's The Wall Street Journal.
Thank you Katie Deighton for including us in your story and for shedding light on the momentum in the Midwest.
Sean Corcoran Nathaniel Swift Brenda Vaske Donahue Chris Cardetti Brad Jones Stephanie Parker Rahul Roy Asad Husain Demian Brink Reshma Karnik Jason Parks Lindsey DeWitte
Check out the full story here:

Open article: Madison Avenue Is in Crisis. Midwestern Ad Agencies See an Opportunity. by wsj.com

Madison Avenue Is in Crisis. Midwestern Ad Agencies See an Opportunity.

I had the pleasure of speaking at Digiday Media Summit last week. The conference was amazing. I met some brilliant people. ❤️‍🔥 

My quote "AI, is like fire. It can be used to cook food, or burn your house down." Resonated with the audience because of how real it is. 🔥 

Three real examples of AI burning your brands house down: 🧑‍🚒 
- Media: You use AI to pump out creatives on social and AI granny shows up and creeps your customers out. You got off easy with 1st degree burns. But damage to your brand was done because people documented the sightings.
-GEO: You buy that shiny new GEO/AEO monitoring platform and you realize it's useless. Worse you chase synthetic prompts to rank for things on ChatGPT that still won't drive traffic and revenue to your site. AI gives you 2nd degree burns.
-SEO/Content: Use AI to write and pump out articles that work in the beginning but then tank your organic search performance and it takes a year at least to recover. AI gives you 3rd degree burns.

The most insightful thing I noticed at the conference was the AI fatigue. 
To a lot of the agency folks AI seemed to be this heavy blanket they were
carrying around in the middle of a desert. It get it. AI is every where and overwhleming.

However, now is the time to learn and embrace it beyond the simple prompting.
There are people vibe coding multi-million dollar SaaS products right now.
AI is a life changing gift and most of us are getting paid to learn it.

Shake it off. Get your reps in with the AI tools and do the work to level up.
In, a year you will be glad that you did. If you need help, reach out. I'm rooting for you. 👏 


#digidaymediasummit #business #careeradvice   #ai #seo #sem  
#contentmarketing #seo #chatpt #cladue #perplexity #searchengineoptimization 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol changes the game for e-commerce brands. Nelson Sarco who leads SEO and AI Optimization delivery for us explains it. Read his article on Search Engine Land and learn what brands need to do to use it. #seo #geo #ecommerce #google

Digital Marketing Leader 🔹 Collaborative Problem-Solver 🔹 Effective Player-Coach 🔹 Technology Enthusiast 🔹 Motivated Self-Starter

Most commerce leaders are still thinking in terms of channels.
Search. Paid media. Marketplaces. Owned channels.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol forces a different question: What happens when the “channel” is an AI agent making decisions on behalf of your customer?

If that question makes you pause, it should.

In my latest Search Engine Land article, I unpack what this shift means for enterprise growth, commerce, SEO, and AI leaders. Link below.

#AICommerce #UCP #AgenticCommerce #DigitalStrategy #SEO

VP of People at Gorilla | In the pursuit of employee significance | Leadership & Career Coach | Illustrator | Corporate Hippy - views expressed here are my own

I’m a tech executive who believes the future belongs to companies that combine AI capability with human intelligence.

Not AI as a silver bullet.
Not people strategy as soft culture work.
Not simplistic “do more, faster” productivity narratives.
But practical systems that help organisations make better decisions as they scale.

I’ve spent my career building and operating those systems across people, performance, operating models, and now AI. 

The work only matters if it shows up in reality; how leaders lead, how teams decide, and how companies change without losing trust.

Most recently, I led the global People function at a Series B energy tech company and co-led our early AI rollout across governance, ethics, enablement, tooling, and experimentation. 

Alongside this, I work with founders, executives, and investors as a fractional leader and advisor. I help organisations roll out AI responsibly, navigate change, and build people systems that compound growth rather than create drag.

If you’re a founder, COO, CPO or leader trying to:
- adopt AI without breaking trust or momentum
- lead change without drowning managers in process
- scale people and operating systems that actually work in the real world.

I write and speak for you.

Things I write about:

- Practical AI adoption without hype or harm
- Where human judgment still matters in everyday AI decisions
- Leading change that creates clarity and engagement, not chaos
- People systems that support growth instead of getting in the way
- Why culture breaks during scale-ups, and how to fix it

Vanessa Monsequeira

I quit my 9-5.

Over the past 6 years I helped startups and scaleups scale from Series A to Series C, building teams of 350+ across multiple markets.

I loved the buzz of building high-performing teams and managing chaos through stages of growth.

But a few things didn't sit well with me.

Often, I was the only woman of colour in leadership teams.

I was pigeonholed into HR, and my years in tech and business consulting were discounted.

And after leading a recent company-wide AI adoption and presenting to portfolio companies at our VC firm, I saw just how many opportunities were being left on the table.

I’ve seen many of my best people leave to ai driven companies like Lovable and Conveo.

I got TIRED of it.

— I want more freedom to build
— I want to choose WHO I work with
— I want to OWN my voice on LinkedIn
— I want to show that women of color can and should lead more business in the AI space.

And for me, the only way to do these things is...

STARTING MY OWN BUSINESS 😱

You see, most Series A-D founders KNOW they need AI.

But they (and their managers) often have no idea how to lead this change.

— How do we move from pilot to scale?
— What are we trying to achieve with AI?
— What should we automate/keep human?
— What happens to performance/productivity?
— How will employees know this works for them?

And when you don’t deal with those, you see your competitors move ahead, your best people leave, and your board starts asking questions.

This is exactly what I do:

Help tech leaders move AI from board mandate to measurable results without burning out their managers or losing top talent.

If that’s you - I’m open for business (DM me “INFO”).

And for all my peers in the ai adoption and eduction space:

Let’s connect, support, grow, and build together.

Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

AI Transformation and Change Leadership | Fractional VP People | Building Work as a Product | Corporate Hippy

No alternative text description for this image

It's been a big week, folks

I'm hopping on a plane to Australia for a workation. 

On the agenda:
🌞 Surf - Sun - Seafood.
☕ A proper flat white (finally).
💜 Laughs with family and friends.

Also on the agenda:

Customer calls with Europe from my laptop .. beachside. 

Coffee catch-ups and lunches with Aussie legends. Megan Trotter Matt McFarlane Mark Lewis Mohit Midha Careen Matthews Adam Axon 

to have lots of conversations about AI, People Experience and HR Tech. 

Basically defrosting before tulip season drags me back.

See you on the flip side.

A woman with dark curly hair and gold-rimmed glasses grins broadly at the camera, holding up an Australian passport. She's wearing a colourful plaid scarf and a red jacket, photographed in an airport terminal.

2 months ago, I had to decide to stay in-house or bet on myself and go solo.

I knew which direction pulled at me.

But I was about to play it safe: positioning myself in a category that felt comfortable, familiar and small.

I told myself I didn't have the right to play in AI.

Even though I'd led AI adoption in my last organisation.

Even though our VC asked me to present best practices and pitfalls to their portfolio companies.

The doubts were loud:
↳ “I'm not technical enough”
↳ “What about the financial risks?”
↳ “Who am I to claim this space?”
↳ “What if I am no good?”

Then I met Frans van Loef in January. 

A busy executive coach, author and former CEO. The kind of person whose calendar you don't expect to make it onto twice.

We had a mentoring conversation over a year ago.

But when we sat down at the same café, same table, it felt like no time had passed.

Like catching up with an old friend who wasn't going to let me shrink. And someone who could show me what it actually looked like to back myself.

He didn't let me get away with playing small.

Frans didn't give me a pep talk. He held up a mirror.

Not just to the last 15 months of AI work, but to 15 years of leadership, change, transformation, tech and business consulting.

The pattern was right there. I'd been doing this work all along, I just hadn't claimed it.

That conversation shifted something.

I stopped waiting for permission and started building.
(more on this every week)

Last week, I launched my business.

I help tech leaders close the gap between AI ambition and AI outcomes, without burning out their managers or losing top talent.

Since then, I've had multiple enquiries and calls.

That's what happens when someone helps you see what you've been too close to see yourself.

Building a business will never be easy.

But if there's a "shortcut", it's having someone who can reflect your capability back to you when self-doubt is doing the talking.

Then it comes down to backing yourself. FULLY.

Frans, thank you for being in my corner!


PS. I’m about to launch my newsletter on How AI is rewiring thinking, leadership, and the workforce. Get it for free: https://lnkd.in/eh_aYrzw

Close-up selfie of two people smiling warmly at the camera indoors. On the left, a man with short light brown hair and blue eyes wears a navy collared shirt. On the right, a woman with shoulder-length dark curly hair wears a light knit top, gold necklace, and colorful earrings. They are standing close together in a cozy space with exposed brick and soft natural light in the background.

Recently, a VC told me the #1 trait they look for in founders:

The ability to reinvent themselves and their business.

Last night, I watched Emily Firth and her co-founder Rhiannon Stroud do exactly that at the launch of the new TruthWorks

Formerly a people and culture agency, their clients loved the customization and authenticity. It was a refreshing change from the cookie-cutter models of big consultancies.

But it wasn't scalable.

Drawing on Emily's experience at Booking. com, they've pivoted to create a global marketplace for People and Culture providers. 

Think Booking. com, but for People and Culture professionals.

Having been on both the buy side (as a VP of People) and the sell side (as a consultant), three things stand out:

1️⃣ Simple and intuitive user exerpeince 
2️⃣ Verified consultants only, no automatic approvals.
3️⃣ Built with procurement teams in mind, making it easier to engage single or multiple freelancers.

What I love most about this pivot:

→ Proper user-centered design process
→ Building and launching despite the funding challenges female founders face
→ An ambitious product roadmap ahead

Also their branded Tony's Chocolonely is a definite highlight. 

Folks, get stuck in:

✔ Business leaders: Book a demo and platform is free to use
✔ People and Culture contractors: Apply to become a verified expert
✔ People & Culture professionals: Join the broader Truthworks community

Congrats Emily, Rhiannon, and Sophie on the launch! 

What a privilege to be at the launch event in Amsterdam yesterday. 🚀

Two women smiling at the Truthworks launch event in Amsterdam. They're standing in front of a branded wall displaying the Truthworks logo and tagline. Both are dressed in black professional attire, with one wearing a statement white beaded necklace.

Anthropic dropped their AI fluency report this week.

Two findings made me curious and hungry:

1. AI Fluency is strongly linked to iteration and refinement, not just output volume.

2. When creating outputs (e.g. documents, code), users get more directive but less evaluative.

AI is making us better but only if we use it to augment our thinking, not delegate, deliver and forget. 

I believe the answer isn't to stop using AI to create outputs.

It's to use it with critical thinking:
↳ Structure Problem Solving
↳ Analysis and Critique
↳ Decision Making 

The problem is that critical thinking is rarely taught in schools, universities, or businesses.

So we're handing people a powerful tool with no framework for how to actually think with it.

That's why I built the The Critical Thinking Sandwich:

Your thinking is the bread: Thick, sturdy, holding everything together.

The filling (meat or veg) is where the real work happens: The iteration, the critique, the refinement.

AI is the cheese: Essential, delicious, sticks things together, but never the main event.

AI is the cheese but it doesn't make the sandwich.

Your thinking does.


#criticalthinking #AI #cognitivedebt

"How to stay sharp when AI does the work" showing The Critical Thinking Sandwich — a five-layer framework for using AI without losing your edge.
Layer 1 (orange, thick): Critical Forethought. Frame the problem yourself before you prompt.
Layer 2 (yellow, thin): AI Output v1. Raw material. Not the answer.
Layer 3 (green, thick): Critical Analysis. You interrogate first, then ask AI to challenge it from multiple angles.
Layer 4 (yellow, thin): AI Output v2+. Refined and pressure tested.
Layer 5 (orange, thick): Critical Readiness. Can you defend this without AI? If not, go back into the filling.
Footer: "AI is the cheese. It doesn't make the sandwich."

It's been 7 months since the WEF dropped their Future of Jobs Report. 

As a VP of People, I'm going to drop some spice. 🌶️

We all know AI as a core skills will be top of the pops. Rightly so.

But look at what else employers say will grow in importance by 2030:

→ Analytical thinking (69%)
→ Resilience, flexibility and agility (67%)
→ Leadership and social influence (61%)
→ Creative thinking (57%)
→ Motivation and self-awareness (52%)
→ Empathy and active listening (50%)
→ Curiosity and lifelong learning (50%)

I keep hearing from tech experts across talks, webinars, and podcasts: Emotional intelligence is THE skill of the future.

Yet here's what I'm seeing on the ground:

✅ Large spend on AI tooling and larger AI budgets
✅ Some AI-enabled learning programs

What I'm NOT seeing:
❌ Investment in the critical EQ skills that take YEARS to build
❌ L&D teams, instead, jobs are getting cut and collapsed into ops roles
❌ Human-designed, AI-enabled training for empathy, critical thinking, and connection

The same WEF report found that 69% of skills show "very low to low capacity" to be replaced by GenAI. 

These skills rooted in human interaction, empathy, active listening, sensory processing, show ZERO substitution potential.

Yet we're cutting budgets and the very teams that build these capabilities. (the spicy convo with Lavinia Mehedințu the other day).

Make it make sense.

The very likely future based on research and my POV:

1️⃣ Cognitive outsourcing epidemic
A workforce that reflexively outsources thinking to AI rather than using it as a thought partner.

2️⃣ The critical thinking crisis
Declining ability to think systemically, question assumptions, and connect disparate ideas, precisely when these skills become most valuable.

3️⃣ Connection deficit
Remote work + AI reliance + reduced face-to-face interaction = struggling with collaboration, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence.

__

I believe the next 5 years are a critical bridge.

Can people do self-directed learning? ABSOLUTELY.

But there's an important role for human-guided, thoughtfully designed programs that help people develop these skills in psychologically safe environments with expert facilitation.

More importantly, we need multiple voices from multiple demographics shaping that content  on these skills that AI learns from.

__

I'm very curious, if you're a founder or head of people:

What portion of your AI budget or L&D budget is going toward training the critical non-tech core skills for 2030?

Drop a number or percentage below or an opinion below. 

Let's see where we really stand! 🎤

#ai #futureofwork #emotionalintelligence

Chart showing core skills for 2030 by current importance and expected growth. Top-right "core skills" quadrant includes: Analytical thinking (69%), Resilience and flexibility (67%), Creative thinking (57%), Leadership and social influence (61%), Motivation and self-awareness (52%), Empathy and active listening (50%). AI and big data shows highest growth at 89%. Skills color-coded by category. Source: World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Survey 2024.

The leadership landscape is asking more from women in HR than ever before.

All while navigating power dynamics that weren't built with you in mind, you're being asked to: 

→  fix culture during cost reductions.
→ boost morale while managing layoffs.
→ lead AI transformation while automating broken workflows
→ and to "be strategic" whilst being tossed firefighting work that doesn't belong to you. 

Here's what I know:
 — The cost of self-silencing is showing up in every "yes" you didn't mean.
 — Every compromise that felt like betrayal.
 — Every moment you dulled your voice because the room wasn't ready for it.

But I also know this:

Finding your boldest voice isn't about being louder.

It's about knowing when to say yes, when to say no, and when to negotiate the space between.

It's about leading in a way that's true to who you are, not who they need you to be.

That's exactly what Ruth Penfold and I are exploring this Wednesday.

We're creating space to talk about:
→ How the current climate is shaping leadership voice and visibility
→ What actually holds women back from speaking with full authority
→ The difference between being strategic and self-silencing
→ How to navigate power dynamics while staying aligned with your values
→ What courageous leadership looks like in real organizational contexts

This is a safe, confidential space where you can raise your voice and let your shoulders down.

#womeninleadership #womenintech

Alt text:
"Webinar announcement graphic with dark purple background. Title reads 'Find your boldest voice' with subtitle 'Cultivating and claiming your boldest voice in the current climate.' Description states this is an intimate roundtable for women in People and Culture leadership roles about speaking with courage in complex systems. Event details: Wednesday February 18th, 8am EST/1pm UK, on Zoom. Hosts are Ruth Penfold (Founder + ex CPO) and Ness Monsequeira (VP People), shown in circular headshot photos. Branded 'powered by bloom' and 'women who lead LIVE' in top corners.

IT teams are about to become everyone's problem.

Most leaders haven't realised it yet.

At a hackathon last month, Debora Gallo shared an example that I haven't stopped thinking about. 

People teams are starting to build their own tools. 

Personalised, scrappy and iterative is exactly what the business needs. 

And IT's response was awesome, but we can't maintain that. 

I've seen this movie before. 

Years ago I was brought in as a tech consultant because a company's manufacturing engineering team had started building their own systems rather than waiting in the IT queue. 

They would "dev all the way to core systems" and then throw it over the fence to IT. 

IT was getting frustrated: 
→ Those systems needed to talk to central infrastructure. 
→ They needed someone to maintain them post development. 
→ They needed security sign-off. 

But nobody had planned for it because they went around IT.

They thought IT was too slow and always said no.  

And the whole thing became an expensive, political mess to untangle. 

That was considered an edge case back then. 

"Shadow IT" was the awkward anomaly everyone quietly complained about. In the age of vibe-coding, it becomes the default. 

And the People team won't be the only ones building. 

Finance, Ops, Marketing, Sales and any function with a problem and a bit of curiosity can now ship something. 

That's genuinely exciting! 

But it's also a structural time bomb if no one is asking the harder questions. 

What leaders need to start doing: 

1️⃣ Map your org design for a world where every function can build, not just request. 

2️⃣ Set the rules now: maintenance, governance and security can't be an afterthought when every team is shipping. 

3️⃣ Audit your future roles and skills. Agentic AI and vibe-coding are rewriting what every job actually requires. 

Keen to hear if you've been doing or observing any of the above. 

#aiadoption #orgdesign #futureroles

Black background with large white serif text reading "In organizations when everyone is vibe-coding......." with the words "vibe-coding" highlighted in purple, followed by "Who will maintain our apps?" with the word "maintain" highlighted in coral orange. Vanessa Monsequeira and Intentional AI Adoption appear in small text at the bottom left and right corners.

Are you team OpenAI or Anthropic?

For me, it's Anthropic for the win. 

I love:
🧡 Claude Chat
🧡 Claude Cowork
🧡 Claude Code (still WIP)

I appreciate a tool that doesn't optimise for dopamine.

No endless suggestions designed to keep you hooked.
(Worth a listen: Lenny's Podcast with Edwin Chen, CEO of Surge)

I support co-founders who:

a) Give away 80% of their personal wealth
b) Don't donate $25M to oppressive political regimes

I support a CEO (Dario Amodei) who writes real thought leadership:

→ The Adolescence of Technology
→ Machines of Loving Grace

Are any of these founders perfect? No
Is the wealth amassed insane? Yes

But the AI bubble isn't bursting anytime soon.

And what that means for employees is non-negotiable:
Upskill on tooling, critical thinking, and ethics.

In my opinion,  🧡 Anthropic for the win on all three.

Video credit: Reuters at AI Summit India

#aiwars #techbrodisputes #AI

Most companies scale fast. 

Few are scale well.

And a lot of this comes down to change leadership.

I've spent my career at the intersection of that gap,  and it's where I do my best work.

So when Anitta Krishan invited me to be the first guest on Human at Work, I didn't hesitate.

We'd connected on LinkedIn and I immediately felt a kindred spirit.

She was scaling at TikTok during the pandemic. 
I was in the hypergrowth trenches at Miro.

Both breathwork obsessives. 
Both convinced that leading self is the non-negotiable foundation of leading organisations through change.

🌱 We went deep. Here's what we covered: 

→ Leadership is a verb, not a noun - stop chasing the title, work the craft
→ Leading self first - inner work is where the real leadership happens
→ Spotlight vs sunlight - your job is to help others grow, not stay centre stage
→ Slow productivity in a fast world- fewer things done better
→ Keeping humanity alive in the age of AI -  critical thinking and real conversation are your edge

💬 Two quotes I stand behind

"When you're an individual contributor, you are the spotlight. When you're a leader, you need to become the sunlight, where others grow under you."

"A longing to be somewhere -  that's belonging. But true belonging is when we disagree intensely, and after that conversation, you still know you are accepted."

🙏 Thank you Anitta Krishan for creating a space where the real conversations happen. The kind where we talk about ego needs, shadow behaviours, breathwork, and why every senior leader probably needs therapy.

And for travelling to Amsterdam for the day to meet me.

To Hoogly AI and Mohit Midha for making Human at Work possible. You're building something special.

Honoured to be your first guest!

#ChangeLeadership  #LeadingSelf #ScaleUp

A promotional graphic for the Hoogly Human at Work Podcast Episode 1, marked as Live. The dark green graphic features the Hoogly logo on the left alongside the text: Host Anitta Krishan, Guest Vanessa Monsequeira. On the right, a photo shows two women seated in light grey armchairs facing each other with podcast microphones on boom arms between them. The setting is a cosy, warmly lit studio with plants and shelving in the background. Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube icons appear at the bottom left.

People professionals are saying it louder every week.....

AI transformation in organisations is a people and change management challenge, not just a tech rollout.

And yet most organisations are still treating it like a software upgrade.

The result is:
→ Pilots that quietly die.
→ Mega bucks spent on tools nobody uses.
→ Teams that are anxious, confused, or left behind entirely.
→ And the ethical conversations are often happening after the fact ... if they're happening at all.

When you skip the people side of AI adoption, you don't just slow things down.

You break trust and you burden your managers. And we know when manager are burdened it is always a people and change issue.

The key comes in imagining what you actually want beyond productivity, tooling and cost cuts, for example:

→ Leaders who know exactly what to delegate and what to own.
→ Clear guardrails that make ethical use the default, not an afterthought.
→ Real "productivity gains" because people actually know how to use the tools well.
→ Teams that are excited and playful, rather than resistant about working with AI.

One of the best models I've come across for getting there is Anthropic's AI Fluency course and their 4D Framework:

🟣 Delegation - Deciding what to hand to AI and what to keep.  
🟣 Description - Communicating clearly so AI actually delivers what you need.  
🟣 Discernment - Knowing whether AI output is actually good.  
🟣 Diligence - Taking responsibility for how you use AI.  

Check out the infographic for more details. 

I'd urge every leader and people professional to take their free course. 

It's bite-sized, extremely well taught, and one of the most practical resources out there.

Yes, I 🧡 everything Anthropic and Dario Amodei right now.

More to come on this soon.

#AITransformation #PeopleAndChange #AIFluency

"How to reach AI fluency" by Anthropic, illustrating the 4D Framework as a continuous cycle. Delegation: understand your goal, know what AI can and can't do, decide the human-to-AI split. Description: define the output you want, how AI should approach tasks, and how it should behave. Discernment: verify output is useful and correct, ensure the right approach, confirm AI is behaving as desired. Diligence: honesty and transparency, accuracy and responsibility, ethical use and critical awareness. By Vanessa Monsequeira, Intentional AI adoption that sticks.

Have you every attended a 'conference' that changes the way you think, learn and experiment?

For me that's been PX experiences by SapienX.

Every year I learn things from fellow speakers and peers that keeps me coming back. 

Every single time I've been able to put what I've learned into action immediately.

Key highlights:

🗓️ 2024 - London

➟ How to launch people products using best practices from marketing 
➟ UX to PX applications and north star and meaningful metrics 
➟ Deep dives into service design and the double diamond, and interactive icebreakers I still steal to this day. 
➟ Everyone comes to the game of work with the same set of cards but a different set of rules from past workplaces... and we expect everyone to play the same game 

🗓️ 2025 - London and Amsterdam

➟ PX in action for performance design 
➟ PX and service design deeper dives 
➟ Practical applications of agile for people teams 
➟ The culture card game and a touch of wizardry 
➟ Experiment Design canvas - integrating all our learnings into action 
➟ Purpose at work interactive session and preview of Jessica Zwaan's new book 
➟ The future of HR turning into the future of design of work, workforce, and workflows 


🗓️ 2026 What will we see next? 

Join us at PX Live to find out.

It's going to be a cracking line-up:

Alicia Grimes
Dart Lindsley
Glenn Martin
Chris Metcalfe
Luke O'Mahoney
Thomas Forstner
JooBee Yeow, PhD (OOO)
and me Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा

If you're: 
👉🏽 A Head of People trying to drive real impact 
👉🏽 A PX leader building capability beyond admin 
👉🏽 Someone who believes the People function can be more strategic

come join us for the fun, to learn, and to be part of the movement to redesign the future of HR and work.

It's on March 20 and it's limited to 100 practitioners.

Discount code - VANESSA-10

#peopleexperience #pxlive

Promotional banner for PX Live London featuring a diverse audience smiling and seated at a live event. Overlaid text reads: “Work is broken. Product can fix it.” Event details: “PX Live — London | March 20th.” “Limited tickets available” appears alongside a QR code. Supported by hownow, Humaans, and huggg. Sapien logo in the top left corner.

taplio

The Battle

Lavall Chichester

Vanessa Monsequeira

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreLavall Chichester's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreVanessa Monsequeira's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Lavall Chichester

Vanessa Monsequeira

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Lavall Chichester's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreVanessa Monsequeira's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreLavall Chichester's LinkedIn Performance