Manage HR Magazine: Specials Magazine

Letendre & Associates: Your Excellence Advantage: Building Organizations That Excel, Year After Year

What separates organizations that talk about excellence from those that actually live it? According to Kathy Letendre, it comes down to one thing: the willingness of leaders to define what excellence truly means for them—and then do the hard, disciplined work of turning that vision into reality. Kathy Letendre is the founder and president of Letendre & Associates, a consulting firm built around a simple but powerful idea: that every organization has the capacity to create what she calls its excellence advantage—a distinct edge that emerges when leadership, strategy, and execution align around a shared, deeply owned definition of what it means to be great. “My best clients are humble leaders with ambitious visions for their organizations. They understand they don’t have all the answers, and they want to involve their teams and community partners in achieving their vision,” says Kathy. Those clients are typically CEOs and senior executives in healthcare and human services organizations—leaders operating in complex, resource-constrained environments where the stakes are not quarterly earnings, but the wellbeing of the communities they serve. For them, organizational excellence is not a luxury. It is an imperative.

Digital Magazine

Letendre & Associates: Your Excellence Advantage: Building Organizations That Excel, Year After Year

Executive Search

Driving People-Centered Leadership for Organizational Success

Jules Gianneschi, Chief Human Resources Officer, America’s CAR-MART, Inc

HR Compliance

A Modern Approach to HR Leadership

Diane Hanratty, Director of Employment Compliance & Field HR, Mattress Firm

Employee Benefits

Building Stronger Organizations through Strategic Talent and HR Leadership

Tami Bajema, Director of Staffing and Talent Development, Belt Power, LLC

Executive Search

Driving Business Success through People-Centered Leadership

Arlene Domries, Human Resources Director, BYLT Basics

HR Strategy

Strengthening HR Operations through Strategic Leadership

Michael Rodney, Director Human Resources Operations, WIN Waste Innovations

HR Strategy

Navigating Workforce Change through Strategic HR Leadership

Candy Gerace, Vice President, Human Resources, Hunt Forest Products

Leadership Development

From Programs to Ecosystems: Rethinking Leadership Development for a Changing World

Jamilla Greely, Sr. Director, Learning and Leadership Development, Target

IN MY OPINION

Talent Management

From HR Support to Leadership Ownership: Coaching Managers to Lead with Clarity and Confidence

Yasmine Chebicheb, HR of Business Partnering and Operations Continent Director, Eurostar International

LAST WORD

Leadership Development

When your Team Out-Learns you: How to Continue Being an Adaptable Leader

Mary Cooper, Director of Learning and Development, P.F. Chang's

IN FOCUS

Leadership Development Consulting: Supporting Long-Term Organizational Growth

Leadership & organizational excellence consulting firms improve workforce alignment, strengthen leadership capability, support operational adaptability, and enhance long-term organizational performance.

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Empowering Employers: How Smart Screening Enhances Hiring Decisions

Background check practices are becoming faster, more accurate and privacy-focused, helping organizations make confident hiring and verification decisions with greater efficiency.

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EDITORIAL

Leading with Excellence, Building Lasting Impact

Organizations are now faced with challenges of change, shifting organizational requirements and an increasing need to turn leadership into something measurable. This edition of Manage HR explores how organizations are strengthening leadership, aligning strategy with execution and creating workplace cultures that sustain long-term performance.

At the center of this issue is Letendre & Associates, recognized as one of the Top Leadership & Organizational Excellence Consulting Firms 2026. By providing assistance to organizations in converting their lofty goals into reality through the alignment of leadership, strategies, and execution under one common definition of excellence, the company provides assistance to organizations make the shift from dreaming to creating lasting results through its combined approach of leadership, organizational, and performance excellence.

This edition also highlights leadership perspectives that reflect the changing nature of talent development. Jamilla Greely, Sr. Director, Learning and Leadership Development at Target, explains why leadership growth should be viewed as a continuous ecosystem rather than a collection of programs. She emphasizes personalized learning pathways, business-aligned development and shared ownership across the organization, enabling leaders to build the capabilities needed to thrive in increasingly complex environments.

Diane Hanratty, Director of Employment Compliance & Field HR at Mattress Firm, discusses the importance of balancing compliance with employee experience through continuous learning, active listening and data-informed decision-making. She also highlights how AI, changing workforce expectations and business knowledge are reshaping the role of modern HR leaders.

Together, these perspectives reinforce a common message, exceptional organizations are built through intentional leadership, persistent learning and disciplined execution. We invite you to explore this issue of Manage HR and learn how today’s leaders are creating resilient organizations prepared for the prospects and challenges ahead.

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