MEL #041 | From Project Plans to People Strategy through Cross-Functional Trust with Chris Whaley

In this episode, I speak with Chris Whaley, founder and principal consultant of Escape to Expand, where he brings together people from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to unlock their full potential. Chris fell in love with engineering after seeing Star Wars. He started his engineering journey in aerospace at UT Knoxville, pivoted to industrial engineering, and developed leadership through a decade in the volunteer fire service. He moved into project management at Phillips, earned a PMP and Six Sigma Black Belt, led large reorganizations, and advanced to VP of HR with a global assignment in Amsterdam before launching his consulting firm. In our leadership segment, Chris discusses how, as a new HR business partner in a multi-billion dollar medical device business, he faced inconsistent talent perceptions among senior leaders. He accelerated an externally calibrated leadership assessment program, shifting his mindset from optimizing HR timelines to serving the business need. Chris's advice for engineering leaders,Build trust by delivering and collaborating, seek cross-functional projects for visibility, learn fast by pairing immediate strengths with targeted mentoring, and use storytelling to connect data to meaning. Explore the full episode summary, including guest bio, key takeaways, transcript, and recommended resources, in the show notes at drangeliqueadams.com/podcast.