Better People Podcast

Mary Ellen Harris, Kreischer Miller’s Chief Human Resources Officer, talks about the importance of servant leadership and emotional intelligence in employee retention, the biggest challenge for leaders to embrace servant leadership, and the negative impact of annual performance evaluations.

Mary Ellen Harris is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Kreischer Miller, where she leads the HR function for the organization.

Mary is an accomplished leader with experience in all areas of Human Resources gained through working in a wide variety of industries, including software development, accounting/ financial services, clinical laboratory, retail, and legal services. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• The characteristics of servant leadership.
• The biggest challenges for servant leadership leaders.
• The necessary aspects of emotional intelligence.
• The benefits of using model behaviors to create a safe space for growth.
• How to build strong relationships.
• How servant leaders should treat their employees.
• What it really means to ‘value people’.

Resources:

• Kreischer Miller
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Mary Ellen Harris:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 05:26 – “Servant leadership. Just almost a very sort of definition of it, if you will. I think that when you hear the term, some people's minds go in different directions. They're now not quite certain. What does that actually mean, servant? That's an unusual word. And people have different emotional reactions to that word, right? So I wanna just clarify that, and the credit to Peter North House, who is an amazing author and a leadership expert, he really focuses on the defining servant leadership as really putting, it's like looking through the leadership lens of putting the needs of your constituents or your followers first. In fact, his argument is you even put those needs before profit, and his contention is that by doing so, you're going to encourage your people to perform at their best. You're going to encourage things like diversity of thought.”
• 9:08 – “I think people in leadership positions are fearful of particularly letting down, if it's a publicly traded company, you've got looming over you the stockholders. They want a profit, they want a profit, they want a profit. So I think profit, focus on profit, the need to focus on profit, right? Businesses that are for profit need to be profitable. And that's not a bad thing. But I do think it influences people's behavior because of the importance of making a profit in those scenarios. I think that also people are afraid to admit that they don't have all the answers. And I think they're afraid to admit that perhaps relying on their people is a good thing. Because I think it makes them feel like they have imposter syndrome, right? Like that they're, you know, not good enough. So I think that those are pretty impactful.”
• 13:34 – “Give people the benefit of the doubt first, instead of assumptions and jumping to conclusions. And that, I see, is very damaging to relationships when people do that. And I witness that all the time. And some will come into my office and say, Mary Ellen, this person's really, really weak. Well, why do you think that? Right? And it's often because of not facts, it's often because of perceptions and jumping to conclusions. So I think that those are important elements of emotional intelligence from a very pragmatic perspective.”
• 14:04 –  “Biases play a role in that as well. And there's, so, I mean, I've been doing some research into this now, really focusing on it in my coaching practice. And there's, I think, over a hundred biases out there. I mean, that they’ve documented now. So there's so many things that could come into play, and I think you're right, having the emotional intelligence to ask yourself, to question yourself, right? Yes. Am I making an assumption that's not correct here? Yes. And as you said, right, give the person the benefit of the doubt. And when you can do that, you know, the next step is then to start asking those questions”
• 24:35 – “Here's how we do things here. And this is our culture, and these are our values, and these are our guidelines. Absolutely, right? They're our guidelines and this is our pay time off policy, and this is how this works, right. Which is important. You have to have, you know, the handbook so that people know how to navigate the organization, but really looking at it through a very different lens of what I'm going to call servant leadership and emotional intelligence. And so that's a big project that's literally in the process right now.”

This episode, the Independent Community Bankers of America’s Chief Human Resources Officer Valerie Utsey talks about the different aspects that impact employee engagement, the ways to build trust in an organization, and how to onboard staff in a virtual environment.

Valerie Utsey has worked in HR for over two decades and is currently the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Valerie has extensive experience in developing People and Culture programs for emerging small to midsize organizations and has a proven ability to transform Human Resources departments to align with the business strategy and goals. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• The different aspects of HR.
• The process of implementing new HR processes.
• How Covid has changed company cultures.
• How to use technology in performance review systems.
• The role that compensation has in employee engagement.
• Different aspects that impact employee engagement.
• Ways to build trust in an organization.
• How to build relationships with your colleagues.
• How to onboard staff in a virtual environment.

Resources:

• The Independent Community Bankers of America
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Valerie Utsey:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 32:12 - “We send out a care package to their home with a note from our CEO welcoming them to ICBA, we use our manager portal that has a template for managers to use to also send an email to that person welcoming them to their department.”
• 36:34 - “In HR we’re hit with so many different employee relations issues, I think we tend to get numb kind of like doctors they see so many bad things so often they tend to get numb by it, and when we get numb we tend to lose some of that humanity and being able to help manage the process and it’s super important not to lose that grace, you never know what someone is going through outside of work that caused the actions or reactions of an individual.”
• 2:04 - “To be a great human resources practitioner learn all the aspects of HR you can at a later time focus on one area but learn all the aspects.”
• 5:31 - “We don’t have required days that you need to be in the office or required number of days we are doing presence for a purpose and that creates a whole new level of what employee engagement means and that presence for a purpose is both at the organizational level as we celebrate and recognize certain things that we want staff to come in for or at the department level so training managers on how to create those purposeful conversations or meetings with their staff to create that in-person environment and ensure that our culture remains.”
• 10:04 - “The opportunity to coach and grow and develop and keep on track and help achieve the business goals it’s not once a year.”

In this episode, LiveIntent’s Chief People Officer Abby Hamilton talks about the challenges working parents face, the unique initiatives she’s taken to look after working parents, and how HR leaders can build connections with their employees.

Abby Hamilton has worked in HR for over a decade and is now the Chief People Officer at LiveIntent. Over the course of her experience in recruiting and HR, Abby has worked with talented leaders in adtech / martech and pharmaceuticals / medical devices.

Abby’s key areas of specialty include hiring, employee engagement, DEI, mental health in the workplace, cultural transformation, performance management, leadership alignment, learning and development, HRIS, succession planning, and data-driven decision-making. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• How Abby built her negotiation skills.
• The primary responsibilities of a Chief People Officer.
• How to build a connection with your employees.
• What employee resource groups are useful for.
• Different types of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
• The challenges working parents face.
• How HR can take care of working parents
• How to build a brand’s story.
• Ways to improve staff retention.

Resources:

• LiveIntent
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Abby Hamilton:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 9:10 - “Going into the pandemic I realized how much I was hiding of myself and how much I was creating shame about being a working mom that I was hiding some of that part of myself because I didn’t want people to judge me, I didn't want people to put that stereotype of well she’s not going to work hard or she’s not going to be as dedicated or she has to leave because she has to go take care of her kids. It’s true I am going to put my family first however that doesn’t make me less than, I’m still great at what I do, and I can still be dedicated, if anything else I have to be even more dedicated in the hours because I job before work and I have a job after work and that is my family and that is my children and my young children and with the onset of the pandemic I couldn’t hide that anymore.”
• 10:24 - “I was speaking in front of the entire company and my son was four at the time, my older son and he didn’t care that I was talking about something, he needed something from me in that exact moment and all that matters was I need your attention. He interrupted in the middle of it and everybody saw, the entire company saw and I was mortified absolutely mortified this was a part I felt I needed to hide I didn’t want to talk about openly and I was afraid people really judged that moment and then I got such an outpouring of love and support of how cute that was and how great it was, it was the best part of the meeting and it was funny and it was just a pivotal moment for me.”
• 15:22 - “Looking at compensation and making talking about money less taboo, you need to be able to talk about what you get paid and how you get paid more in the future, how do you get to that next level, what does career progression look like.”

In this episode, Celebree School’s HR Director Kristen Masters talks about different ways to reduce staff turnover rates, how to promote wellness in your team in a cost effective manner, and the different benefits of having a culture mentor.

Kristen Masters is the Human Resources Director at Celebree School where she has worked for over a decade. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• The rewarding aspects of working in HR for a school.
• The importance of career growth opportunities.
• How to assess talent to see if they’re in the right position.
• The turnover in early childhood education.
• How providing a career path can reduce turnover rates.
• Different ways to improve employee retention.
• Cost effective ways to promote wellness in your team.
• What to include in a monthly wellness email.
• The benefits of having a culture mentor.
• Diversity initiatives and strategies.

Resources:

• Celebree School
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Kristen Masters:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 13:56 - “For a retention standpoint especially in today’s world, we are really focusing on wellness, wellness, diversity, all of those things. Last year I believe it was our first year we got an EAP which has been a game changer for us, especially with setting up that mental well-being has been huge, fitness challenges things like that so really making sure that our team feels like they’re being nurtured not only from a growth standpoint but also just from a human standpoint, we all have things going on.”
• 20:04 - “Resiliency is a really big buzzword for me right now because of the times that we’re in with turnover and hiring and things being hard. Things are just hard right now and that was one of the things we talked to them about what is resiliency?”
• 20:52 - “Choose your hard. And when I dug a little deeper to figure out what that means, choose your hard. Things are always going to be hard so maybe for example in the workplace scenario you have an interview with someone when you’re really short-staffed and they don’t meet what you’re looking for, choose your hard. Do you hire the body and have to maybe deal with having them be coached out later and cause a negative effect for your children or do you choose your other hard and have your team to continue to work overtime be stressed out you choose your hard. Personally, maybe you're in a bad marriage do you choose your hard to stay with that person whether it makes you happy or do you choose this hard where maybe you’re a single mom but you’re leaving that person to do what’s better for you so everything has a hard it’s just which route you’re going to go in.”

In this episode, The Y in Central Maryland’s Chief People Officer Keisha Sitney talks about the unique challenges HR faced during Covid, the ways Covid changed the HR world, and how HR leaders can properly identify and share the accomplishments they achieved during this difficult time. 

Keisha Sitney is the Chief People Officer at The Y in Central Maryland, where she has been working for over 15 years.

Keisha is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• How to become a Chief People Officer.
• The ways Covid has changed the HR world.
• How HR can help managers understand employee trauma.
• How to reduce employee churn rate.
• The difficulties of working in HR for a charitable organization.
• How to properly identify and share your accomplishments.
• Operational strategies that you can bring into HR.

Resources:

• The Y in Central Maryland
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Keisha Sitney:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 5:11 - “On my 100th day I actually had to furlough 2100 people that was not why I took this role, I don’t think any of us went into HR to do that so my thoughts and dreams of well we’re going to develop people and we’re going to have a great culture and we’re going to do this shifted quickly to furloughs and terminations and let’s try and stay open and temperature checking and Covid testing and regulations keeping people safe so I’m so happy to be beyond that part of the role but as you know Covid has had some lingering impacts.”
• 7:45 - “We really try to work with our managers and our supervisors but you find thought that they are the ones that are dealing with the brunt of it so they’re also holding onto the trauma that their team members are holding onto and then also with the staffing shortages and crisis that we’re in the workforce crisis we’re in many managers are doing the front line roles that they were hired to manage others to do so if you were overseeing a couple of the pools as the swim director now you’re lifeguarding for 8 hours a day you don’t really have the time to do the things that managers typically do.”
• 14:03 - “Write down, track your accomplishments and not just track them go ahead and monetize them what’s the value of that accomplishment, that new system that you put in or that new provider that you brought in that has saved the company this much money or has made your onboarding process more efficient so keeping track of those monetizing them and then communicating them.”

In this episode, bluebird bio’s Chief People and Culture Officer Andrea Walton talks about the different strategies to build and maintain a company’s culture, how to keep your employees mission-focused, and the best practices for achieving a strong DEI strategy.

Andrea Walton is the Chief People and Culture Officer at Bluebird Bio and has over two decades of experience in HR.

Andrea is also the Founder of the Concrete Rose Foundation and has a proven ability for helping provide and support the vision in steering organizations through periods of organizational change and high growth. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Different cultural perspectives between large and small companies.
• How to keep your employees mission-focused.
• Strategies to build and maintain a company’s culture.
• The DEI strategy in the biotech field.
• Best practices for achieving a strong DEI strategy.
• Implementing development opportunities and succession plans for new employees.
• Managing your career while being in an abusive relationship.

Resources:

• bluebird bio
• The Concrete Rose Foundation
• All The Smoke
• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Andrea Walton:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 8:25 - “What I love about smaller organizations that I’ve worked for is that you get to know everyone you get to know who sits where you get to know their names, their families, what motivates them so as much as large companies were really my foundation I’ve come to really appreciate the proximity that smaller companies give you when it comes to culture and culture building and team building with our employees.”
• 13:40 - “We know where we are in BioTech that people of color, that’s an obvious gap, and then when we drill down more African American and LatinX and so what we’ve done is created KPI’s and targets to help us close gaps specifically around those groups so when it comes to talent acquisition we’ve just partnered with a great organization to help us launch our first formal internship program that focuses on people of color because I want us to build an organic pipeline of entry-level folks that can grow into the organization.”
• 17:04 - “There can only be so many people on succession but you can develop everybody and so it’s about creating depth and breadth of experiences, it’s not just succession that's a part of it but what type of developmental programming are you establishing within your organization?”
• 21:53 - “I don’t believe in work-life balance anymore I believe in work-life integration because it’s impossible I think to be able to do both 100 percent of the time there’s just no way.”
• 24:30 - “During the pandemic domestic violence actually increased and we also know when a woman decides to leave and there are men in those situations too but when a woman decides to leave that’s the most dangerous time for her to leave and so to your point the pandemic really bought a lot of that ugliness up to the surface.”

In this episode, Chief People Officer at Optimal, Eloise Lepesqueur talks about the emotional labor involved in HR, the risk of HR professionals experiencing burnout, and how to encourage your team to practice self-care.

Eloise Lepesqueur’s career spans over 20 years of building programs and strategies to support and grow diverse organizations.

Eloise is an accomplished Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer who has worked across mission-driven public and private sectors, focusing on people to build diverse and inclusive teams that repeatedly achieve operational success whether it’s in public affairs, marketing, change management, or digital advertising technology. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• What a Chief People Officer does.
• How to handle different generations in the workforce.
• The importance of self-care in the workplace.
• The emotional labor involved in HR.
• The risk of HR professionals experiencing burnout.
• How to encourage your team to practice self-care.
• The role HR plays in mergers and acquisitions.
• How to show your employees you care about their opinion.

Resources:

• Optimal
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Eloise Lepesqueur:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 4:46 - “How are we working together so that we have safe places to work to be our authentic selves frankly during the work day, we spend so much time at work I don’t want it to be where we take off our hat and become a different person for the 8ish hours that we work that we can actually be our true selves at work as well.” 
• 9:05 - “My experience with the Gen Y and Gen Zs work hard absolutely but I’d say from my experience little better at boundaries little better at setting boundaries and expectations and wanting more clarity and these were all things that were uncomfortable for me.”
• 14:10 - “We as the human resources people we put the human in human resources so we’re the people who really do care about the work we do we gravitate towards this field because of our interest in helping people the best they can be in their work days.”
• 15:31 - “It can be kind of lonely to be an HR professional but at the same time it can be incredibly valuable to know that you’ve been helpful to help someone along in their career or be that person to help them navigate a difficult situation but with that comes all that effort.”
• 17:25 - “When things are going really well people stand by you but when things go bad you stand alone and that’s where it can be a little bit hard.”

In this episode, Mandelbaum Barrett’s Chief Marketing & Culture Officer Lauren Lynch talks about the ways marketing can help HR, how HR professionals can build a relationship with their marketing team, and how to reinforce a company's core values.

Lauren Lynch is the Chief Marketing & Culture Officer at Mandelbaum Barrett where she focuses on employee engagement efforts and establishing a positive culture for employee morale.

Lauren has over 2 decades of experience in the legal service industry, and has taken marketing roles to mean much more than just traditional marketing, with a strive for it to become a force of cultural change impacting both attorneys and staff.Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Why a company’s culture is so important.
• Ways to help employees avoid ‘burnout’.
• How to increase the amount of empathy in an organization.
• How to teach leaders to lead with empathy.
• The ways marketing can help HR.
• How HR professionals can build a relationship with their marketing team.
• The value of focus groups.
• How to reinforce a company's core values.

Resources:

• DisruptHR
• Mandelbaum Barrett PC
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Lauren Lynch:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 4:19 - “It’s no secret that the legal industry is known for burnout and you’ve got high-ranking employees and lawyers who their job is to get results for clients and they’re often working long hours and it’s just really not know as a space, mental health and drug abuse is very rampant in the legal community and it’s something that the law journal has done numbers of studies on over the years and I think finally law firms are starting to wake up and realize wow these are people too and they’re not only your lawyers but your staff and we can’t burnout these people the way we are and while yes results matter so do the people making those results and getting those results to clients.”
• 9:09 - “We survey our employees, not just what can we do better, what can we do differently, how are you feeling, what’s going on in your life right now that relates to how you’re doing the work and I think surveys are so underrated these days but they’re so important and if anything it lets your employees know that you do care, you’re caring you’re valuing their opinion and I think that’s so important.”
• 27:15 - “Companies are starting to look at the recession that may be coming and they’re starting to pull back on things and so I’m looking more at how do I do the cheap little things without having to spend a tonne of money how do I let my employees know that they’re valued and we care about them.”

Mikal Harden is one of the Co-Founders of Juno Search Partners, a women-founded and women-led talent solutions firm that works to connect the right people with the right place.

With an aim to be the ultimate connectors of people, Juno Search Partners have been very successful and won numerous HR awards. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Building a culture that puts employee satisfaction at the forefront.
• Signs that someone isn’t a good fit for your organization.
• How to respond to an employee that doesn’t fit in your culture.
• Ways to embed your culture into your interviewing process.
• The balance between culture and performance.
• How work is changing and the future of the workplace.
• Why remote working is hurting younger employees disproportionately.

Resources:

• Juno Search Partners
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Mikal Harden:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 14:03 - “Trust your gut, it doesn’t get better that’s often what we say because people still surprise you we’re in this game of identifying talent and then sometimes we hire somebody really **** how did we not see?”
• 16:19 - “I remember early on I used to love, I got to hire college athletes, college athletes know how to take direction, be part of a team, they understand what it means to win, they understand what it means to lose.”
• 18:12 - “He said I don’t want anybody from a law firm, and I was like well what do you want? And he said I don’t want to have to reteach somebody who learned it all wrong, and he was a solo practitioner and for sure we can learn some bad habits in certain places and it’s hard to unlearn.”
• 25:51 - “I don’t know that offices are gone forever and I really think, certainly in Juno that the folks that have suffered are often the early career who are not getting the benefit of working shoulder to shoulder with us.”

Alex Tremble is an accomplished executive leader with over a decade of success leading HR functions and culture improvement efforts for high-profile organizations like the U.S. National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• The proactive nature you need towards diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• What an organizational culture assessment involves.
• The importance of focusing on underrepresentation rather than diversity.
• Why you need to identify the behaviors behind values.
• How to create a more representative workforce.
• Ways to increase employee satisfaction.
• How to improve your networking skills.

Resources:

• American Conservation Experience
• The Executive Appeal Podcast

Connect with Alex Tremble:

• LinkedIn
• Email

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 3:24 - “There is a desire to focus on teaching people that different isn’t bad, there is a focus on teaching people to understand and value each other's perspectives, that’s absolutely critical. But the reality is that you and I live in a world where we know the data says that people who are taller generally get put into more leadership positions, people who are more attractive are believed more often, people who are of a certain skin color get this, people who are women or male, the reality is that we don’t live in a fair world so the only way to address these issues is to go into it eyes wide open and say ok it’s wonderful that we have all this great information on why people being different isn’t bad but what are we literally doing to increase diversity in our ranks.”
• 08:24 - “If you live in this fancy world where everything is hunky-dory, then you don’t actually address anything and no one can hold you accountable so having this data and coming out and saying yea this is wonderful that we have done really great in these other areas but over here we need to focus our effort and this is why I personally have moved away from the idea of increasing diversity within an organization to focusing on underrepresentation because representation is much more adaptable.”
• 17:31 - “I don’t care if you like me because I’m black. I’m a black guy by the way, if someone doesn’t like me simply because I’m black I couldn’t care less. If an employee or staff member doesn't like me because I’m black I couldn't care less and this goes for any demographic and the reason not being because I think it’s stupid, I think it’s because I have no control over what you think, I have absolutely no control over what you think but what I can hold you accountable for is your behaviors.”
• 21:06 - “All relationships are based on value, all relationships, even our marriages, our best friends, there’s absolutely no relationship that’s healthy where those individuals from that relationship aren’t providing value to each other.”
• 24:35 - “Many people from underrepresented communities tend to believe in this falsehood, this lie, this propaganda that we’ve all been fed that hard work takes you to the top, it doesn’t I can promise you all right now you all know someone who works really hard and they’re not where they want to be. So hard work is important I don’t want to get  myself in trouble here, you don’t get to the table unless you work hard but it’s not hard work that differentiates you, it’s what you were talking about Holly it’s your network, it’s the relationships you have.”