When Janey Piroli was the director of organizational development at PepsiCo 15 years ago, something her boss said during a performance review changed the course of her career.
There was a massive restructure, and people were tired and overworked. Morale was low. She thought she’d weathered the storm like a pro but was surprised to receive feedback that she needed to work on her resilience. Normally an upbeat person, she realized she was wearing her heart on her sleeve, unable to hide her emotions.
When she told her career coach, she was asked if she ever focused on her breath as a way to stay calm and centered. Once she started to understand mindfulness, she quickly realized how important being present with your thoughts and emotions is, especially at work. Today, her mindfulness practice is the foundation for the work she does as vice president of global talent management for McCain Foods.
We chatted with her to learn about her unique approach to “regenerative leadership,” the science of shifting corporate consciousness and how a coach-type approach can turn a difficult performance review into a catalyst for global change.
SUCCESS®: You were a part of a major transition early in your career at PepsiCo. Most people would have crumbled under the pressure, but you said the experience taught you some powerful lessons. What did you learn?
Janey Piroli: There’s a saying, “what you resist persists.” So I became more aware that [during the transition at PepsiCo] the emotions were there, but I was trying to push them away so that they didn’t show up at the boardroom table.... I think it was only two years as a director, so early in my career. So you’re definitely wanting to show up, be credible and prove that you deserve to be at the table. But as a female, also getting the feedback that you’re emotional... it took a little while to accept the feedback.... I’m grateful for it now because it just opened up this whole path. And now I teach mindfulness in the workplace.
S: Do you think a mindfulness-based way of coaching has the ability to change corporate culture and shift how we view business?
JP: I have a coach [named] Giles Hutchins, and he’s written this book called Regenerative Leadership.
I was always fascinated because regenerative agriculture is something at McCain that we’re known for.... I was curious about regenerative leadership: how might it resonate with our employees and bringing the two concepts together.... His perspective is you shift the consciousness in the organization by shifting your own consciousness. He reinforced: “You become the catalyst internally, because as you start to shift your behavior, your consciousness, your being, it impacts people around you.” And so that’s kind of how I think about it [having] the ability to impact corporate... one person at a time.
S: Many people think coaching is something you bring in only when there’s a problem. How do you help shift that mindset?
JP: It always drove me crazy that in our progressive discipline policies, which everyone associates as negative, the first step of that policy is labeled coaching.
We had this coaching manager program [at PepsiCo], and it was this two-day program and, especially in our manufacturing environment, it took a lot of unlearning and really getting them to understand the difference between coaching skills versus the progressive discipline policy. Because people then heard that when they were getting coaching, it was a negative thing. So we had to continue to educate what [coaching was].... And as people came through the program and we helped them understand what these coaching skills look like, we started to shift it.
S: Are there things managers can do preemptively to engage employees when they see them going down the wrong path?
JP: I think a lot of organizations promote people into manager roles, and we don’t support them with the training.... If we can teach the coaching skills to a manager early on... their ability to give feedback or to coach people through [something that comes up] and their approach to that can be different. And I’ll go back to when my manager walked into my room at that office that day and said, “Can I give you some feedback?” And I said, “sure,” but I closed off. The vault went down.
Now I use that story to explain that, in a coach approach... It’s just using questions to begin the feedback conversation. You’re still having the conversation, but pulling it from them first. Rather than you go in and start telling them what they did wrong, just let them coach themselves.
“Tell me two things you think you did really well. What’s one thing you would do differently next time? What was tricky about it?”... As a manager, it’s so much easier because often they’re going to tell you the thing you probably were feeling really anxious about telling them. You’re like, “you know what? You’re right. You know what, you fumbled a little bit, maybe you talked too quickly,” whatever it was. But now it’s just easy. And they feel supported differently than you coming in ready to just tell them.
Featured image courtesy of Janey Piroli
This article was first published in the March 2026 issue of SUCCESS® digital edition. Get your free copy here.
