Understanding human behavior has always been a fascinating topic for Yaelle Candolfi, which as it turns out has been one of the defining purposes in a career that has enabled her to work in lots of different functions across a multitude of companies, ranging from multinationals to start-ups.
By her own admission, her professional journey has been rather squiggly, something Candolfi prides herself on. Each of those experiences has enabled her to dig deeper into why humans behave the way that they do, and more importantly, how to then apply her learnings to help others find the solutions to the problems they want to solve.
“The first 13 years of my career weren’t directly linked to what I had studied at university,” said Candolfi, who is the Chief People Officer at Explore Learning an EdTech business and leading tuition provider in the UK. “I was working in consumer insights, strategic planning, and operations. But what I was really doing was understanding human behavior – whether in customers, teams, or organizations.”
These experiences helped Candolfi to connect the different dots of her career into supporting companies and organizations during leadership transition, ensuring that they do so in a way that is unique to them. Her time at Philip Morris, a multinational corporation where she worked for a decade, provided an in-depth experience in global leadership. Working across diverse teams and cultures, she developed a keen ability to synthesize multiple perspectives and find common ground – a skill that continues to define her leadership today.
But she knew there was more to discover. “I had seen the world through one lens: the large multinational. I wanted to accelerate my learning and broaden my view of business.” That realization led her to IMD’s MBA program.
Her biggest takeaway from the program was how it increased her self-awareness, helping her to examine the relationships she created with others as well as her relationship with herself.
After IMD, Candolfi launched her own business, worked in consulting, and honed her expertise in change management – a space where she truly found her niche. “I’ve found my space in scale-ups where the growth is strong and fast, which can be slightly overwhelming for some people,” she said. “My area of expertise is really around leadership transitions and getting people to figure out whether they are the right person or team to be taking a business forward.”
Today, Candolfi is leading at the intersection of people strategy and business transformation. In a fast-growing organization, where the workforce needs to shift rapidly, her ability to balance immediate operational challenges with long-term leadership development is critical.
“One of the biggest challenges in a scale-up is ensuring leadership keeps pace with growth,” she said, explaining how her approach to leadership development is deeply personalized.
“My philosophy is that everyone is amazing at something,” she said. “There are lots of different ways to be a leader. For me, it’s about making sure we’re clear about what we think good looks like, in real tangible ways, for example; what sort of behaviors does that translate into? What actions?
For Candolfi, effective leadership is not one-size-fits-all. She champions the idea of a company’s unique “leadership DNA” – a set of values and behaviors that define what great leadership looks like in that specific organization. “We are shaping Explore Learning’s leadership identity, ensuring it’s not just aspirational, but tangible and actionable.”
The future of work
Reflecting on how she sees the future of work and leadership evolving, Candolfi sees a significant shift happening in the balance between where humans and technology add the most value.
“There’s so much happening with AI at the minute that is so exciting, in terms of taking away some of the cognitive load from our brains,” she said. “How much can we delegate to technology so we can focus on the things that add the most value?”
“Some people fear it because they’re thinking that they will lose their jobs,” she noted. “But if you look at important shifts like the Industrial Revolution, we evolve, we transform, we change, and we find a way to do better things.”
“We used to value knowledge – how much someone knew,” she continued. “But today, with AI and access to unlimited information, leadership is about pattern recognition, adaptability, and the ability to connect ideas that seem unrelated.”
As for her own role, Candolfi remains laser-focused on impact. “My job is to make sure leadership at Explore Learning isn’t just functional – it’s exceptional. That means helping leaders find their place, ensuring teams work efficiently, and embedding social value into how we do business.”
It also means helping organizations to mature effectively. “Seeing the organization grow up, and not just grow in terms of number of people, but grow up in terms of what sorts of conversations are we having, and what are the depth of those conversations? Are we staying a bit superficial and very short-termist, or are we growing up to become this, this business that asks itself more questions?”
Her advice to aspiring HR and people leaders on how to make a meaningful impact in their roles? “Be authentic. Build trust. Change happens when people believe in you, not just because you have the title.”
