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The best HR advice comes from people who’ve been in the trenches.
That’s what this newsletter delivers.
I Hate it Here is your insider’s guide to surviving and thriving in HR, from someone who’s been there. It’s not about theory or buzzwords — it’s about practical, real-world advice for navigating everything from tricky managers to messy policies.
Every newsletter is written by Hebba Youssef — a Chief People Officer who’s seen it all and is here to share what actually works (and what doesn’t). We’re talking real talk, real strategies, and real support — all with a side of humor to keep you sane.
Because HR shouldn’t feel like a thankless job. And you shouldn’t feel alone in it.
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A little over a year ago, I was speaking with a C-Suite leader about how one of her team’s key initiatives was progressing.
She paused for a moment, then said something that caught my attention.
“We’re three weeks in… why are we still talking about this?”
When a decision returns to the room
We were reviewing a product shift her team had already agreed to.
The decision had been made. The direction was clear. Work had started across engineering, product, and go-to-market.
On paper, everything was in motion.
She continued, measured but precise. “I’m hearing it come up again in different places. Not as pushback. Just… slightly different versions.”
“I thought we had settled this.”
What it sounds like in practice
As she walked me through what she was seeing, something started to stand out.
In one conversation, someone said, “I just want to pressure-test this one more time.” In another: “Before we move forward, can we revisit one assumption?” In a third: “That’s not how I understood the decision.”
None of these were objections. No one was resisting the direction, and no one was trying to derail the work.
And yet, the same decision was now being explained again… in different rooms… in slightly different ways.
What makes this easy to miss
From the outside, everything still looked intact.
The roadmap reflected the shift. Teams had picked up their workstreams. Milestones were still being tracked.
If you asked anyone on the leadership team, they would tell you the same thing. “We’re aligned.”
And in many ways, they were.
But as she described how the work was actually moving, something else was happening at the same time.
The decision was starting to require more conversations to keep it moving.
A pattern that shows up across teams
I’ve heard (and lived) versions of this more than once.
A decision is made. The discussion is thoughtful. The direction is clear. And then, as execution begins, it starts to show up again.
Not dramatically. Not as a reversal.
Just… quietly.
It gets revisited in a follow-up. It’s reframed in a cross-functional check-in. It gets re-explained in a team meeting to keep everyone aligned.
Each time, the intent is reasonable. But over time, a pattern forms.
Some decisions move forward once they’re made.
Others return… conversation after conversation.
Where this shows up in execution
You can see the difference most clearly once the work gets underway.
As decisions move across teams, they encounter real-world conditions. Engineering priorities shift as new constraints surface. Product decisions start to affect timelines in ways that weren’t fully visible before. Go-to-market plans adjust as new dependencies emerge.
Nothing unusual. Just the normal complexity of execution.
But this is where the distinction shows up.
In one case, teams move forward, adjusting as needed and building on what was decided.
In another, the same decision begins to require more coordination to stay intact.
It starts to show up in small ways:
A weekly product sync adds ten minutes to revisit a decision that was already made.
A Slack thread grows longer as teams clarify what they’re solving for before moving ahead.
A go-to-market plan pauses for a day while two leaders reconcile slightly different interpretations of the same direction.
Nothing breaks.
But the work no longer moves cleanly.
What it does to momentum
Over time, that difference becomes visible in how the work actually moves.
In one part of the business, progress compounds. Conversations build on each other. The team spends its energy advancing the work.
In another, the work continues, but it takes more effort to sustain.
Energy shifts quietly. Time gets reallocated. Attention shifts from pushing forward to keeping everyone aligned on what was already decided.
No one calls it out.
But the pace changes.
A subtle but important distinction
As we wrapped our conversation, she said something that stayed with me.
“It’s not that we don’t know what we decided,” she said. “It’s that we keep needing to make sure we’re still saying the same thing.”
That distinction is easy to miss in the moment.
But once you start noticing it, you begin to notice it more often.
Some decisions move forward once.
Others need to be carried… conversation by conversation.
What this looks like in your own work
If you look back at the last few weeks, you’ll likely see it.
A decision that translated cleanly into action. Another that kept returning to the conversation.
Not because it was unclear.
But because it didn’t stay settled the same way once the work began.
That pattern is often visible before it’s fully understood.
And once you start noticing which decisions return to the conversation, you begin to see something just beneath the surface.
Until Next Sunday,
Shawnette Rochelle, MBA, PCC
Founder, Excellence Unbounded
Executive decision alignment for faster strategic execution
If you’re curious to learn more about my work with executive teams, you can find it here.
If you want to have a conversation to learn more, schedule it here.
