Conversation with Angela Zentefis
Early in her HR career, Angela Zentefis had to bring up a contentious topic with a senior leader. She hadn’t even finished her sentence before her voice and demeanor gave her away. The leader stopped her cold. She was told that her voice and demeanor had shifted, and that she had given away all of her power.
Angela doesn’t remember what the topic was, but she remembers everything else about that moment. And it shaped how she walks into every hard conversation since.
In this episode of Conversations with Peacock Voices, Margaret sits down with Angela, Associate Director for HR Business Partners at Northwestern University, to talk about what it actually takes to lead people through conflict, change, and crisis, and why so much of that leadership lives in the voice.
About Angela
Angela Zentefis has built a career across hospitality, gaming, higher education, and the arts, from Arlington Park Race Course and Churchill Downs to Calder Casino, the University of Miami, and the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Today she supports the Chicago campus at Northwestern, working across the Feinberg School of Medicine, the School of Professional Studies, and Pritzker Law School. Across every role, she’s learned that authentic HR leadership takes more than expertise. It takes mastering how you use your voice.
What we talk about
- How COVID pushed HR out of the “party planning” stereotype and into a central, strategic role
- The skill of leading a hard conversation, not just having one, and what Angela learned from the ones that went wrong
- Why the stigma around HR exists, and why it’s “incredibly heartbreaking” for the people who show up every day trying to do right by employees
- Reading a room in real time: how Angela tracks an eyebrow lift or a shift in posture and adjusts her approach mid-conversation
- Why she’s more patient at work than at home by the end of the day, and what that says about how much empathy a role can demand
- Generational conflict, social media misinformation, and what Angela calls “the denial of expertise” in today’s workplace
A few moments worth sitting with
“It’s not about the policy. It’s not about even the law. It’s like, how are we gonna do the right thing? How are we gonna do the right thing for the organization, and how are we gonna do the right thing for the people?”
“The skill set is being willing to learn from those moments, being willing to be flexible, being willing to take accountability and swallow your pride, and keep being willing to keep moving.”
“The denial of expertise is a huge issue, and I see it a lot in the workforce.”
Takeaways
- Check in with yourself before a hard conversation starts. Your hunger, fatigue, and stress will leak into your voice whether you plan for it or not.
- Read the other person as you go. Small shifts in posture or expression are information. Use them to adjust in real time.
- Empathy and firmness aren’t opposites. You can hold a boundary and still make someone feel heard.
- Growth after a mistake requires humility. Staying defensive is the only way to actually get stuck.
