Using tough-to-hear feedback to boost your career with Debbie LaPinska

February 5, 2026

Debbie LaPinska has been chief people office of CabinetWorks Group, based in Michigan, since November 2024. Prior to CabinetWorks, she worked at Venice-based window and door manufacturer PGT Innovations for 31 years, rising to chief human resources officer, and after that, chief customer officer. She joined several other former PGT executives at CabinetWorks Group. On this episode, Business Observer Managing Editor Mark Gordon and Debbie talked about the shifts in her career and she dealt with what she thought, at the time, was a major setback. They also talked about how she won over a group of 50 truck drivers in one leadership role, partially by meeting them as their day started at 3:30 a.m.

3 Takeaways

(08:15) Sometimes you have to make unpopular decisions as the leader
(11:20) Being honest and transparent is key in hard decisions
(15:50) If you are good with people, you can lead any function

Timestamps

(00:00) Introducing Debbie LaPinska, Chief People Officer, CabinetWorks Group
(03:45) What is CabinetWorks Group?
(06:30) What did you learn from Jeff Jackson?
(08:45) How did you work through letting people go in the recession?
(10:10) Building trust with teams and communicating challenging messages
(13:30) Defining leadership
(16:30) Don’t have to know everything, just need to know enough to be dangerous
(19:20) Valuable feedback
(22:40) What is coming in 2026?

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