🗞️ Here’s the Tea:

😬 Fired Kohl’s CEO Said to Have Had History of Mixing Relationship With Work

The TL;DR: Kohl’s terminated CEO Ashley Buchanan after an investigation revealed he directed business to a vendor with whom he had an undisclosed personal relationship, violating company ethics policies. The relationship reportedly spanned a decade across multiple companies, raising questions about conflict of interest oversight in executive vetting processes.

My POV:

• Vetting gaps matter – Even “thorough” background checks may miss longstanding personal and professional entanglements
• Policy enforcement is critical – In a nutshell, this demonstrates why conflict of interest disclosures exist
• Culture audits help – When relationships are “open secrets,” it signals cultural compliance issues

Bottom line: Policies feel pointless if they’re just PR fluff. It shouldn’t take a scandal for boards to care about ethics enforcement!

🎙️ Mic Drop Moment:

“Capitalism has such a chokehold on us, we think a time-based bonus is revolutionary.”

On the mic this week: Kim Minick is the founder of CoTraveler HR and your go-to fractional People Ops partner. She’s known for building zero-to-one HR systems, designing human-first performance programs, and having a comedic streak that’s frankly unfair for someone that good at comp strategy. Also: proud dog mom, frequent LinkedIn firestarter, and low-key your HR therapist.

Pin this: 

• Stop Overengineering Everything: Just because it looks great in a deck doesn’t mean it works in real life. Simpler is sometimes waaaay better. 
• Comp Philosophy ≠ Comp Clarity: If your employees don’t understand the ‘why’ behind pay, they’ll make up their own version, and it won’t be kind.
• Performance Reviews Are Not a Personality Test: Most feedback is biased. If it’s not actionable, it’s not useful!
• AI Can’t Fix Bad Managers: Automating reviews doesn’t solve your people problem, it just adds electricity to it.

My H*ly Sh*t Moment:  Divorcing compensation from performance might actually be the key to building a fairer, more human workplace…and I wish I questioned it sooner.

▶️ Press Play

📊 Data Is My Love Language:

Stat: Nearly half of emerging leaders say they struggle to manage workplace conflict

My spiral: EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE TRAINED ON CONFLICT. 

Sry didn’t mean to yell at you, I just feel so passionate about this topic. 

Oftentimes how we handle conflict in the workplace is reflective of how we saw conflict get resolved growing up. So if you’re a child of the “fight in private” parenting style era you may have NEVER seen conflict get resolved and you may be uncomfortable around it in the workplace. 

But workplace conflict HAS TO be resolved because it can quickly escalate and turn your culture toxic if left unsettled. 

And when managers guess motives instead of clarifying issues, avoid tough conversations, and let conflict fester you can end up dysfunction, turnover and a lot of wasted time!  

The Fix? Boy oh boy I could write a novel on this. My dream?? Make conflict resolution training required for every employee. Everyone should know how to address conflict, manage through it and come out with better outcomes. The reality is that’s harder than it sounds. So maybe a quicker short-term solution is to train your managers OR don’t promote anyone who doesn’t seem like they can handle conflict. Just some food for thought!

🛠️ In Your Toolkit 

This week’s folder  ✨ Impress my Boss ✨

The brilliant Liz Clark led a Mastermind session for the Safe Space community on Workforce Planning Strategies. 

Those of you who are already thinking about 2026 might want to peep this resource! 

Why is this going to impress your boss? Because workforce planning isn’t a simple feat! And being strategic about talent is impressive.