I’ve had the privilege of knowing Christine Deputy as a colleague and friend since 1999.
Throughout her remarkable career, Christine has served as a senior executive and HR leader for some of the world’s most recognizable companies, including Expedia Group, Pinterest, Nordstrom, Barclays, Aviva, Dunkin’ Brands, and Starbucks.
But here’s what I’ve always appreciated about Christine: She’s not simply an HR executive. She’s an executive who happens to lead HR.
She’s a leader of change. She understands that changing structures, strategies, and organizational charts is one thing. Helping people navigate those changes, grow through them, and become more effective together is where the real work of leadership happens.
And she’s never been afraid to examine her own leadership along the way.
In our recent conversation, Christine openly shared lessons from both her successes and the moments she would approach differently today. That kind of honesty and vulnerability is one of the things I value most about her. She doesn’t just learn from her experiences. She shares them so others have an opportunity to lead even better.
One of those lessons was the shift from being the person with the answers to becoming the leader who develops capability in others.
As Christine put it:
“It became more about how do I facilitate this growth rather than how can I be the star.”
That’s a shift every leader must make. Our expertise may earn us greater responsibility, but our effectiveness as leaders is measured by what we’re able to develop in others.
Christine also shared a principle that I couldn’t agree with more:
“Clarity is the #1 thing we can do to help our teams perform their very best.”
I’ve often said that leaders are in the seeing business. Our responsibility is to help people see clearly what success looks like, how their contribution connects to it, and what it will take to get there.
Before we question someone’s execution, we need to ask whether we’ve given them a clear picture of what effective execution looks like.
And clarity isn’t measured by what we intended to communicate. It’s measured by what people actually understand.
Here’s a question worth asking yourself:
Are the people around me getting stronger because of my leadership, or simply getting better at depending on me?
Christine, thank you for your friendship, your candor, and your willingness to share what you’ve learned. Your leadership continues to make a difference because you’re committed to helping others become more effective.
