The Sovereign Career Hub Podcast

This week’s episode with the popular leadership coach, Fay Wallis covers a wide range of ground, from HR practice and coaching to marketing workflows and the realities of AI adoption across teams. As part of this week’s theme, I’ll be deliberately zooming in on just one thread from that conversation: how confidence with AI actually begins. So be sure to come back for the article, the resource, and the reflection audio as we explore it further.Before anyone builds systems or develops deeper expertise, they usually start by simply seeing how someone else is using AI in their day-to-day work. Drawing on her experience as a coach, Fay describes this shift clearly, from hesitation and overwhelm to curiosity sparked by watching, asking, and being shown.I’m looking forward to exploring this with you, and if you’d like these posts straight to your inbox, you’re very welcome to subscribe.Fay Wallis Bio:Fay Wallis is a career and leadership coach who specialises in supporting HR and People professionals to build successful and fulfilling careers. She is the founder of Bright Sky HR, host of the popular HR Coffee Time podcast, and creator of The Essential HR Planner, a bestselling tool designed to help HR professionals plan, prioritise, and make a meaningful impact at work.Through her coaching, podcast, and leadership development programme, Inspiring HR, Fay is passionate about making practical, high-quality development accessible - helping HR professionals feel more confident, credible, and equipped to succeed in their careers. Access Fay's products and services here:Fay's LinkedIn ProfileThe Inspiring HR Leadership ProgrammeHR Coffee time podcast The Essential HR Planner This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carolynshepherd.substack.com

📝 Show NotesA small moment from this week where AI didn’t respond as expected - and what it revealed about intent.In this short solo audio, I share a real interaction with MS Copilot that didn’t go to plan, and use it to explore a simple idea:👉 before using AI, choose the verb that names your 'intent'.This episode is a companion to the Power Verbs Cheat Sheet, designed to be used alongside a real piece of work. Theme - Using AI with Intention.Companion Podcast: https://carolynshepherd.substack.com/p/use-ai-on-your-terms-protect-whats?r=3osjv8Companion Article: https://carolynshepherd.substack.com/p/intentional-ai-users-dont-make-workslop?r=3osjv8Companion Artifact:Power Verbs Cheat SheetI share a different companion family each week to help you navigate the unfolding world of AI in a rewarding, human way. If you’d like these sibling resources straight to your inbox, you’re very welcome to subscribe to my Substack channel here: The Sovereign Career Hub This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carolynshepherd.substack.com

Episode 1Sharon Green is a professional HR interim, coach and consultant - and one of the quieter connectors in the independent HR world. She founded Chiara Consultancy after a career spanning senior people, project and management roles across the NHS, the not‑for‑profit sector, and international law firms. Alongside her client work, she runs a thriving peer community for independent people professionals - because, as she puts it, it gets lonely out there.Long before AI became the story of the moment, Sharon was already watching waves of workplace technology arrive with bold promises, reshape things partially, and settle into something far more complicated than the hype suggested. Earlier in her career, she helped introduce one of the first online graduate recruitment tools at her organisation - and she’s been watching technology promises collide with workplace reality ever since.So when AI came along, Sharon didn’t rush to the front of the bus.She rates herself a 3–4 out of 10 on ‘the AI spectrum’. Not because she’s behind - but because she’s an intentional AI user. She uses AI for specific things. She treats it as a critical friend rather than an authority. She triangulates across tools because she knows hallucination is real. She anonymises client data before it goes anywhere near a system. And she won’t touch platforms where she doesn’t trust the ethics or values of the people behind them.There’s also one thing she doesn’t use AI for at all.Writing.Not because she can’t - but because writing is a craft. It’s something she loves. Something bound up with her professional identity. For Sharon, that isn’t a gap in AI literacy. It’s a boundary.And that raises a question we don’t ask often enough:What are you not willing to give to AI?In this first episode of The Sovereign Career Podcast, we talk about what it actually looks like to engage with AI intentionally rather than enthusiastically - and why that quieter, more considered stance may be the wiser one for people professionals right now.We also get into the messier, practical side of what Sharon sees in her client work: organisations keen to adopt AI in their people function before their processes are clear or their data is ready. Her view is simple - you can’t just drop a tool onto an unprepared system and hope it works. Foundations matter. Context matters. People need to be met where they actually are, not where leadership wishes they were.Throughout the conversation, Sharon keeps returning to the role HR plays in shaping how AI shows up at work. Sometimes she sees AI treated as a tech project and handed over accordingly. But people, technology and experience are deeply interrelated and perhaps because HR is a broad church - AI adoption can be patchy. If HR isn’t part of the conversation early, something important tends to go missing.This isn’t an episode about keeping up.It’s about staying grounded.About making conscious choices.And about protecting the parts of your work - and yourself - that still need to stay human.What comes up in this conversation* Why Sharon rates herself a 3 to 4 out of 10 on the AI spectrum even though she is using AI regularly and comfortable with the tech.* What being “a curious sceptic” looks like in real client work* Why using AI well sometimes means slowing down, not speeding up* The difference between ‘tech-licensing’ conversations and the conversations that actually matter* Why poor data and unclear processes derail AI efforts in people teams* The ethical lines Sharon won’t cross - and why drawing them matters* The one part of her work she consciously protects from AI* Her advice to HR interims wondering whether it’s worth engaging with AI right nowAbout Sharon GreenSharon Green is a professional interim, qualified coach and consultant, and founder of Chiara Consultancy. She has held senior people, project and management roles across the NHS, the not‑for‑profit sector, and international law firms.Sharon specialises in people change and transformation, people technology and people experience. Alongside her interim and consultancy work, she coaches clients at career crossroads — supporting professionals navigating transition, identity shifts and complex decisions about what comes next.She holds a Masters in HRM, is a Chartered FCIPD, a certified change manager, an Agile® and PRINCE2® project manager, and an ICF‑trained coach.As a #payitforward passion project, Sharon also runs a global LinkedIn peer community supporting over 3,000 independent people professionals, including interims, consultants, coaches, contractors and freelancers.Connect with Sharon* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharongreenchiara/* Website: http://chiaraconsultancy.co.uk* X (Twitter): https://x.com/SharonGChiara* Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sharongchiara.bsky.social* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharongchiara/TRANSCRIPTEP 01 The Sovereign Career PodcastUse AI on your terms. Protect what’s yours.Carolyn Shepherd in conversation with Sharon GreenCarolyn:Well, hello and welcome to the Sovereign Career Podcast.It’s the first one.And this is my guest, Sharon Green — the lovely Sharon Green — who was there right at the beginning of my AI journey. And I’m sure we’ll come into that a little bit in a few minutes. But that was three years ago.But we’ve only really bumped into each other occasionally live, haven’t we, Sharon?Sharon:Yes.Carolyn:Mainly it’s been an online kind of relationship, or friendship as well as colleague. I like to think of it as almost friendship now.And because I came from an HR interim background myself, and I know that’s really why I was drawn to you and your amazing network that you’ve got, I wondered if you’d tell us a little bit about yourself and the network.Sharon:It’s interesting when you meet people in real life after you’ve connected online. I always love that.I’m Sharon Green, and I would always say that I’m a professional interim. That’s what I do for a living. I used to have a permanent career and many years ago I stepped off to run my own business.In that business I go into clients to add capacity or capability to their people teams. Usually, not always, but usually their people teams.The three areas of work that I focus on are around people change and transformation. That could be running big projects or smaller projects where people want to make changes.People change and transformation, probably over the last 15 years, usually involves technology. So my second area of work and specialism is people technology, which links very nicely to the AI conversation.And then for me, the third area is people experience — how we learn, how we develop people, how we give them a great experience and put the human into work.Those are the paid elements of my work.My passion project, my side hustle, is running a community for people professionals who work independently. That could be coaches, consultants, interims, freelancers, solo entrepreneurs — whatever they want to call themselves.It’s really about peer‑to‑peer support, networking, learning and sharing, because it can get a little bit lonely when you’re on your own.Carolyn:Can’t it? I mean, I know. And it was your WhatsApp group that I came into quite quickly, although I know it’s also on LinkedIn. It’s a vibrant group.I joined it when I was still looking for work — this was three years ago — but the HR interim work dried up for me. It had to be 100% remote for me because of where I live. I think people looked on the map and thought, “That’s a long way away. What are we going to choose her for?”A lot of other things happened as well. I just thought, like you, a lot of my working life has involved HR tech projects. So it was a natural extension for me.I was fascinated anyway. I started experimenting with people at work and they were very willing to join in.Before we go into more detail about AI and how you use it, can you paint a picture of how you work? Are you working from home at the moment?Sharon:It really depends on the client. I’ve done fully remote work, particularly with remote‑first startups and scale‑ups who maybe started without an office.Some clients expect more in‑person work. When you’re an external person, it really helps to build a cultural picture to see people in their own environment and not just transact through screens.This is my Chiara HQ — the centre of the business.Carolyn:Because meeting in person, a lot of people listening will be thinking they go into work some of the time — maybe a couple of days a week — and there’s a lot of value in that peer‑to‑peer contact. It’s social as well. I miss out on all that. I work here on my own quite a lot — just me and the dog, my German Shepherd.I know you’re all about the real stuff, and I think that’s what people are drawn to. It’s certainly why I’m drawn to you. As much as I love AI, I love what I call the Zone Three stuff — the human stuff. Without that, something feels missing from the relationship.Do you think that’s why CEOs — who often get criticised — want people back in the office? Or do you think it’s about control and suspicion?Sharon:I’ve always had the capacity to work remotely since I set up my own business. The acceptability of that from clients has varied over time.For me, it’s similar to my approach to AI or technology — it has to be purposeful and intentional. It has to serve a use and a purpose.There’s now more acceptability for remote‑first work, but there’s still an intentional aspect to being in an office or with people. Coming back to your question about CEOs and senior leadership teams, there are additional layers — scepticism, concern, and sometimes a darker side around control.Managing a dispersed workforce can test leadership skills. There’s often more going on than what’s presented on the surface.Carolyn:I don’t work much in experience or culture myself, though I see it and hear about it. It’s not something I prioritise in my day‑to‑day work.So here we are: you’re responding to client needs in HR transformation, HR technology and people experience. You’re working as a human‑first person. I know you often say AI wasn’t used in the making of your posts and all errors are your own.Where do you sit on the AI spectrum?Sharon:I remember you asking me beforehand whether to give a label or a number. If I used a one‑to‑ten scale, I’d say I’m probably around three to four in how I think about AI and how it relates to my work.That reflects how much I know, how much I use it, and how much there still is to learn. Lifelong learning has always been important to me.In terms of a label, I’d describe myself as a curious sceptic. That’s quite a complex definition. I think about AI on a macro level — its impact on work, the technology marketplace, how challenging it is for clients to choose AI‑enabled tools, the sales hype around it.AI feels like the latest stage on the technology bus. I’ve always been interested in technology. Early in my career I introduced online graduate recruitment tools and learning admin systems. I’ve always been an early adopter of things like LinkedIn.AI feels like part of that journey, but I’m not first on the bus. It has to respond to a need. It has to have intent and purpose.I’ve worked with a lot of tech and information security professionals, so I’ve learned there’s always more to consider beyond the surface level.Carolyn:I agree. This isn’t our first rodeo. I remember when the internet arrived and everyone predicted paperless offices. A few years later my boss said his paper bill was bigger than ever.That said, I feel this time is different because of the pace. Previously you had an adoption curve — you had to drag people along. Now people are using AI at home and bringing that expectation into work. There’s social pressure when colleagues are producing better outputs faster.That worries me, because employers seem to be investing in training only at a tools‑use level. They’re not focusing on understanding, ethics or guardrails. I suspect we’ll see disappointment later when competitive advantage doesn’t materialise.How do you see AI being embedded into workplaces?Carolyn Shepherd in conversation with Sharon GreenSharon:I was on a conversation last week where we were talking about the use of AI tools within a certain part of HR — looking at development, particularly around assessment and development — and having a kind of Chatham House Rules conversation about how people were using it, what considerations they have, what tools they’re looking at.I felt privileged to be in that conversation because that’s not something that has come up in some of the clients I’ve worked with. What tends to happen is you’re starting with where they’re at.A recent client was talking about wanting to use more AI in their people function. I said I get that’s the goal, but we’ve got to start with where you’re at, which is: at the moment we need to clarify processes, consolidate those processes, and make sure all of the data that your AI tool of choice will feed off is accurate, up to date, in the right place, so that it can work within the system that you’ve created in your organisation.You can’t just plonk a tool on and hope that’s going to work. There are some foundations that you need in place and you’re not there yet.Sometimes clients are further on and they’re looking at experimentation. They’ve got a particular problem they want to solve. They want to go out into the market to work out what tools they can have — whether it’s within their Microsoft suite, for example, or whether it’s a tool of choice — what’s in their tech stack to maximise, or whether they’ve got to go out to market and create a brand new tool.There are people and organisations at varying stages of that journey. You can already see by the thought leadership papers that get published, particularly by the big consultancy companies who are investing money in that, that they’ll be at a different stage to your startup scale‑up, or in my experience, private banks or regulated businesses, which will be totally different.They’re all going to be on a different journey in some senses.Some of the other aspects make sense to me. I do people change, I do people tech, I do people experience — they are interrelated and connected. Sometimes clients won’t see that, or they’re starting with the technology but they’re not thinking about the experience or the change impact of that. Some of that adoption curve might be less for some people and more for others in your workplace.On the surface, it might look like: let’s just use Copilot, how many licences do we have, who gets the fancy licences, who gets the basic. Do we use ChatGPT or Gemini or Claude or Perplexity or whatever other tools are out there.Once you get into it, it feels like a potential for a richer conversation if you’re willing to have it. Some people will be at the surface level of tools. That’s where it’s our job as people professionals, or whatever we’re coming at it with, to start where they’re at and maybe add some additional insights from our experience.Carolyn:So do you think then that HR is doing a good job in terms of dealing with this age of AI? Or do you think on the whole it’s standing back a little bit and saying, well, look at all the problems, guardrails and all that stuff we need to think about?I wouldn’t be on the evangelist side of AI, nor would I be on the other end of the spectrum. It’s there, it’s coming. The rapidity of it — the fast‑pacedness of it and the plethora of it — makes it unescapable, so we’ve got to be in the conversation.Are we as people professionals always in the front of the conversation around technology? Probably not. There’ll be a lot of organisations defaulting to the tech team and thinking about it as a tech project.Carolyn:Is that a mistake, do you think?Sharon:It’s usually a mistake to think of it through one lens.I did a great project where I was the people person in a tech function. They were doing an agile transformation change project and I was in the tech function. It was great — I learned an awful lot about technology. I felt I was pretty tech‑savvy before I got there, but I learned a lot.Carolyn:Because you’ve got your agile background as well, haven’t you?Sharon:Exactly. So I could talk their language and get their trust.I do hear people saying HR is looking to tech to lead it or saying it’s really about the licences and things. If I compare different types of clients — sometimes I’m working with HR, sometimes I’m not — HR seems to be much further behind the general uptake of AI. They want to know how it can work for them, they probably want a quick fix, but I’m not sure they really want to get stuck in.Carolyn:Is that because of the sort of people it attracts, or because it’s fragmented into two levels — senior leadership and operational — and there’s been a fragmentation? There’s a lot in that question, but what’s the flavour you’re getting?Sharon:It’s part of my business and how I get work to be in that space. The projects I’ve been involved in have meant I’ve had exposure over a number of years to the technology side of the people function — interest in data, interest in systems and how they work.I remember a recruiter telling me once: “Why are you not advertising this as part of your service, Sharon? Because I don’t see many HR professionals who are that tech‑focused, that tech‑savvy.”On one level, it’s a broad church, the people function. You’ll get some people for whom that stereotype of “we don’t do this” or “we’re not great at tech” is there. That helps me get work.However, I do think there’s too broad an agenda of what the people function is doing, and there needs to be a consolidation so we can work out what the focus is.Even if you’re not coming at it from a technical perspective, it’s about stepping into conversations where we might not know the answers. You’ve got to be in the conversations across the organisation. This is an organisation‑wide matter.Coming at it from pure tech, or being in the people team and only getting in touch with the tech team when you need something from them — neither is the right approach. Collaboration is better. Co‑creation.Carolyn:It’s very agile, isn’t it? Collaboration, co‑creation — it’s a good thing. You get buy‑in and all the other things you need to get projects like this off the ground.It’s been absolutely fascinating talking with you. It has opened up so many thoughts for me. I’ve made some notes as we’ve gone along. We could go into this again and again — tech stacks, redesigning the HR function — fascinating topics.Before we go, what would your advice be to an HR interim who’s thinking: should I spend time getting to know more about AI? Is it worth it?Sharon:Definitely worth it. It’s not going anywhere. We’re not quite sure what impact it’s going to have on the world of work or our individual workloads, but unless you get curious about it, experiment with it, have a point of view and an understanding of it, we can’t make informed choices.When I use AI, it’s intentional. It’s about what I need it to do. You mentioned I don’t use it for my writing because I like writing — it’s a craft.People feel they should be using it for everything. There’s pressure that they’re going to take the joyful bits away — the bits they enjoy doing. Use it intentionally.The way I use it is for specific things that I need to do quickly. It’s like a critical friend sometimes.I would also say: think about your values, your ethics, which tools you want to use. Pick a few tools. Triangulate because of hallucination.Carolyn:Would you suggest using different types of AI assistants? I heard you mention four or five different assistants. Would you suggest experimenting with ChatGPT plus a Perplexity, for example — with permission, obviously — to get a feel, because they behave differently?Sharon:Not necessarily without permission, but doing that so you get the feel, because they do different things.The key thing for me is whether you’re using them internally or externally. I don’t put my own IP in there. I don’t put client data in there. I anonymise things if I use it. I use it as a baseline. I’m critical of the information I get from the tool. I ask it for references. Good prompting to find good information.There are some tools I don’t touch because I don’t like the ethics of the founders. Other people might not have that point of view, but that’s mine. That’s about my values.It is about being open, but also listening to people who are critical of it and concerned about it, and striking your own point of view. Getting your own point of view is really critical.Carolyn:Thank you very much indeed, Sharon. I’ve really enjoyed this talk with you.The message I’m taking away is that you value intentional use of AI, and you advocate being well informed. It doesn’t matter where you are personally on the spectrum. Join the conversation, be part of things, and then you can decide.I love that. I’ll vote for you at the next election. Great to speak to you again soon. Take care.Thanks for reading! This post is public. Sharing it with a colleague could make their day.Before you goThe Sovereign Career Podcast is a place for thoughtful conversations about work, judgement and identity at a time when roles, tools and expectations are shifting fast. It isn’t about keeping up or having definitive answers. It’s about noticing what’s changing, making conscious choices, and staying human as you navigate it. If this episode resonated, you’re very welcome here.So, explore the Hub's growing resources - take care, and stay Sovereign.END This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carolynshepherd.substack.com