Ever since Teresa Tanner entered the workforce at the age of 16, she knew things were different for women. 

This understanding led her to found Reserve Squad, a business that helps companies retain employees who pause their careers to take care of family or other obligations. 

“We've lost about two and a half million women from the workforce,” Teresa says of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are at the lowest workforce participation rate that we've been in 33 years, so basically, my entire career has been wiped out for this pandemic.”

Teresa started her career at McDonald’s, where her higher-ups told her they wanted her to take on an HR role. She was wary. As an operations manager, Teresa thought HR was administrative, bureaucratic and, at times, a barrier. She agreed to do it for a couple years, saying she eventually wanted to go back to operations. 

Spoiler: Teresa never went back to operations. Following her time at McDonald’s, she went on to join Fifth Third Bank as an HR leader, eventually rising to the C-suite. 

Throughout her career, Teresa knew that she had to position herself differently and overcome barriers many of her male co-workers did not face. 

“As we look forward 10, 20, 30 years, what are the things that we can do today to change some of those outcomes? Some of these barriers have been in place for for many, many decades, and we have to think differently if we want to pivot away from that,” she says. 

Teresa’s experiences over the years, including a shooting at Fifth Third and the COVID-19 pandemic, have highlighted for her the importance of a human-first approach to management. As companies move forward from the pandemic, she explains why leading with empathy is a must. 

Featured Leader

Name: Teresa Tanner

Title: Founder and CEO

Company: Reserve Squad

Noteworthy: Teresa has a two-year-old granddaughter, and she dreams of a world where her granddaughter will have less barriers than she did. 

Where to find Teresa: Twitter | LinkedIn

Human Resolve Episode 14 Highlights

Highlights from the transcript.

💡 Reflecting on being a woman in the workforce 

[8:11] “The minute I entered the workforce, I understood that things were different for women. It was just so obvious in so many different ways. Whether it was the unconscious bias, whether it was the overt sexual harassment, and things like that, the language and things you were exposed to in the in the work environment, you noticed it right away. I've known my entire career that as a woman, I needed to be aware of things. I needed to posture things differently. I needed to position myself differently. I needed to overcome certain barriers that other people didn't have, so it was very obvious even at a very young age, and I saw it manifest over my career in a lot of different ways.”

💡 Giving employees a space to speak up 

[18:32] “We have to lead with empathy. We have to really sometimes just take our business hats off and connect as humans, and we have to put ourselves in other people's shoes, to sit with them, hold space with them and listen. I think going back to the shooting, that's what we tried to do when there were so many employees that were afraid. I mean, this happened in the lobby in which people swipe their badges and come into work every day, and we had so many employees that were just so afraid to re-enter that space. And there were no words, nothing we could say, to inspire them to fix it. There's no policy we could put in place, and so we just held space.”

💡 Evolving work policies after COVID-19

[20:15] “I think that as employers, we just need to take time instead of saying, ‘OK, here's our new flexible work policies’ — right, that's the easiest place to go — is make sure we're listening to our employees and saying, ‘What do you need?’ and creating that space for them to speak and then leading with empathy, and I'm encouraging people all the time. Everybody's rushing back with their plans to get back to work, and how you're going to do hybrid, and how you're going to do vaccines, and whether you're going to have masks and distancing. All of those are important elements, but don't rush to that without really listening with empathy to what your employees need. Because if we do, we are going to rush past and people aren't OK yet, and infrastructure isn't back yet, and we have an opportunity to lead in a human way that really meets the needs of our people.”

💡 If you’re going to be flexible, adjust performance reviews to match

[23:35] “This is a huge effect and impact on the women, and so I worry that even as the jobs start coming back, the infrastructure for women is not going to be back, and so disproportionately more men are going to be taking those jobs. Then for companies even that are offering these flexible work arrangements — which I love, and I'm encouraging companies to do — we have to be careful that there's not an unintended consequence around how performance is viewed and access to promotions and access to special projects and visibility. We already knew that that was a problem with women before the pandemic. This could get accelerated. So we have to really be aware of what's happening. What will be the long-term tail consequences of this pandemic? So many people think, ‘OK, we're gonna get vaccines, and everybody's back to normal, CDC restrictions are lifted, we're cool.’ We're not. There are long trailing impacts.”

💡 Recognizing the changing work environment post-pandemic

[26:11] “We are built to manage employee engagement and manage culture and feeling of belonging. We are built to manage that in a very onsite type of work environment. I don't think we're ever going to go fully back to that. I feel like 2020 has forever changed that employer and employee expectation around office hours, remote work. Well, how are we going to shift to do that? We can only figure those things out by really looking at the data and seeing how our new policies are affecting diversity and then listening to our employees.”

💡 How structural policies play into equality 

[28:02] “I think from a corporate perspective, we're constantly working on unconscious bias, which is good, we need it, and there is a lot of that going on. But there's also just structural things that get in the way from women being able to be successful, and one of these is how work is structured. We have been working in this traditional framework of kind of part-time or full-time schedules for over 100 years, and there are times where women want to stay engaged, they want to stay contributing, but they need more control of how, where and when that happens, and we just don't have structures for that.”

Top quotes from the episode:

Teresa Tanner:

Quote #1

“We talk about people being our most important asset, but most people don't lead that way. Behaviorally, they don't lead like they believe that.”

Quote #2

“Women talk amongst themselves, but we don't feel free to v...

Featured Leaders

Name: Jessica Lopez 

Title: Chief of Staff

Company: U-Haul International, Inc.

Noteworthy: Jessica was a finalist for 2018 Business Leader of Year and a 2020 Health Intelligence Hero.

Where to find Jessica: LinkedIn 

Name: Monique Harty

Title: Wellness Program Manager

Company: U-Haul International, Inc.

Noteworthy: Monique was on azcentral.com’s “Who’s Next” list for emerging health experts.

Where to find Monique: LinkedIn

Human Resolve Episode 13 Highlights

Highlights from the transcript. 

💡 Maximize your current medical plan’s potential before considering a switch

[11:10] “You should start with utilizing what you’re already paying for. … There were a ton of chronic conditions programs that lived within our medical plan already, that we really weren't using. So we focused — and we're still focusing on — promoting and marketing those, and building incentivized plans to get more people engaged. And, I think that sometimes you're so inclined to go see a vendor that has all the bells and whistles, and sometimes that's great. But, you have to start with what you already have. And you can't really go and focus on every single aspect of every vendor, you have to narrow it down.”

💡 Buy-in from the top makes new programs work

[15:15] “With the Healthy Living seminar that we did in front of all of our presidents with Monique up on stage and myself, [U-Haul CEO] Joe actually introduced us, so that just sets the tone for the program. … He is constantly evolving and bringing ideas and endorsing and supporting. He travels every other week, and he'll say, ‘More people in the field know you and Monique, so it's working. People want to be healthy, no one wants to be unhealthy.’ So with his leadership, and his buy-in and his commitment, this has to happen. If not, it will not be a successful program.”

💡 Quit trying to fix things that aren’t broken

[16:16] “We talk about measuring what you have so that you can see what programs are working, what are not. And then at that point, when you see the gaps, you can reach out to companies [and] vendors to bring on because you already know the gaps that you're missing.”

💡 Employee testimonials as a testament to a program’s impact

[18:01] “I know that when someone comes up to share their story with me, I am honored that they trusted me and confided in me. And, you know, I've had people say that I motivated them or explain something that Monique did for them, whether it's creating a meal plan. … I mean, she goes above and beyond, nobody even knows. So the fact that we actually can see the fruits of our labor and see that we're actually saving lives is everything for me.”

💡 Wellness programs take many shapes and forms

[18:38] “Sometimes they don't see the full aspect of what a wellness program can really bring to a company and to its team members. … For the corporate cafe [we have] 500 calorie meals under $5. What a benefit that is. We have Wellness Wednesdays when salads are half off. So there's people that buy salads for everybody in their family and have dinner that night. You’re making their lives easier, providing them with healthy food, or at least options that they can take home to make their lives easier.”

💡 Employee Assistance Programs are more important than ever as the pandemic’s end nears 

[24:02] “I have chills just now because this has been something that we know that we've needed since the get-go. This was actually one of our goals, like we need an EAP program because we hear from everyone and everyone trusts us. So we know we need an EAP program. We implemented it at the perfect time, like Monique said, but utilization through 2020 is tripled. People need it. ” 

💡 Managers must be able to identify when an employee is struggling so they can offer help 

[25:25] “Having a manager feel empowered to have training to understand a sign or a symptom around stress and anxiety, and then how to support an individual going through that challenge. Like you said earlier, we're not expecting them to be a clinician, but just understand how to best support them and what resources are available and point them in that direction.”

💡 The first three steps to creating a wellness program are all about leaders and benefits

[34:40] “I would say leadership buy-in, hiring a genuine person that truly cares about people. And then looking at your existing benefits and seeing how you can utilize all of that — those three things are key, that's how we started. And from there, you'll just blossom because at the end of the day, you're going to start a wellness program for the people. For the team. So your intentions are amazing from the get-go. So, if you have those three things, you're off to the races.”

Top quotes from the episode:

Ryan Bojrab:

Quote #1

[13:13] “There's amazing resources available through the carriers today. And there's a lot of vendors out there that have shiny objects and shiny pennies from a communication and PR standpoint, but most maybe aren't producing the outcomes that an employer is looking to achieve. So one thing that we focus on is really getting into the research, like looking at their clinical trials. … What are the outcomes?”

Jessica Lopez:

Quote #2

[20:06] “It’s about giving back to our team. Because if you take care of your team, they take care of your business. And our team members are our biggest asset.”

Monique Harty:

Quote #3

[28:47] “One of the things with the leadership buy-in is also getting the leadership direction of what they want out of this program so you have clear expectations. I think that's huge. And then one of the things we did later on once we kind of reevaluated the programs we already had is we surveyed our team, and we asked what they like and what they don't like. So you're legitimately getting the people that you're trying to help’s feedback.”

When Angela Smith Jones was Deputy Mayor of Indianapolis, she set the tone as an inclusive leader by extending a hand to people who normally don’t get one – people like herself.

“I took an intern every single quarter that we were able to get interns and the people who ran the internship program knew we're going to pitch the people to Deputy Mayor Angela Smith Jones that other people might not take because I was all about access,” Angela says. “I was like … I'm going to give you access because I wanted somebody else to give me access when I was your age.’”

On this episode of Human Resolve a year after the death of George Floyd, host Mark Minner speaks with Angela about how her parents raised her to appreciate diversity, and why it’s crucial to lean into uncomfortable conversations and use them as an opportunity for human connection. Although they’re far from easy, she stresses why having these discussions in the workplace are crucial and gives advice on how to navigate them. 

Angela also shares how her background in public policy and economic development helped prepare her for her current role as Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion at Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, and offers advice for individuals working on DE&I in their own office. 

“The business argument is it’s actually increased profitability and saving of money,” Angela says. “And then the human perspective is I want to feel welcome, too. And I want my kids and my brothers and sisters to feel welcome wherever they're going.” 

Featured Leader

Name: Angela Smith Jones

Title: Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion 

Company: Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County

Noteworthy: Angela helped her best friend’s mother go from being an openly racist, close-minded individual to loving and accepting Angela, a Black woman, like a second daughter. 

Where to find Angela: LinkedIn

Human Resolve Episode 12 Highlights

Highlights from the transcript.

💡 Education is the foundation for all D and I initiatives 

[04:36] “[In school,] we were able to really live in a diverse world and out of all of our teachers, I would say maybe two teachers were American. The remaining teachers were all immigrants, born and raised in their home countries and had their original native accent. So my parents really embraced that. And we talked all the time about the value of embracing people from different cultures and backgrounds. … My parents have always said, ‘The only thing I can give you that no one can take from you is your education.’ Because if you think about historical Black America, the government could take your land, they could take your home. So even property wasn't something that you could keep, but an education is in your mind.”

💡 Inclusion starts with an intention to comprehend someone  different from you

[09:23] “It is true that Black women, we don't like people touching our hair. … [At Miami University] one of my dorm mates was a white woman and she was watching me wash my hair and she was so curious. She was looking at me, and kind of like ‘Can I touch your hair?’ So she asks, so right there, she's winning. And I was feeling like I was winning and I linked in and I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And so I let her touch my hair. … I've had people ask me in the last 10 years about that as well, but at Miami, for me, that was an opportunity where I said, ‘You know what? This is an opportunity and occasion to educate, like what if she grows up and she marries a Black man and she has biracial babies? Now she'll understand their hair more because she and I had this conversation.’”

💡 Lean into discomfort by asking difficult questions respectfully

[12:43] "That little kind of nervous hitch that you get in your gut that makes you kind of like, ‘Oh, I don't know if I want to do this, I kind of feel uncomfortable’ — you gotta lean into it. And you just have to ask whatever that question is. And just know if you're being very sincere and genuine, that the person who's getting the question will more than likely respond with great kindness and great generosity. … I think having just a sincere approach like ‘I know I don't know, but I want to know. I want to understand.’ If that's your heart, from where you're coming, then it will make it easier for whomever you're engaging to continue to engage with you and say ‘I know you don't know. I know you're asking out of sincerity and it's OK. We can go on this journey together.’” 

💡 Improving inclusion and diversity in the workplace starts with the heart

[18:18] "It's important enough for me to understand you, understand that other person, that other culture, whatever it is, it's important enough for me to respect people and from where they come from. So if you think like that and you lean into that, you can really dig deep into your heart and soul and realize I can go a little further, I can do a little more. This journey of D and I at corporations — it's not just a box check. It's really an internal journey and it's hard.”

💡 Why companies should care about diversity and inclusion 

[20:22] “Part of the conversation sometimes is if we have a more inclusive and diverse environment, we're going to have a greater attainment and retention. And at the end of the day, that saves the company money. When you're also able to attract really sharp talent that feels welcomed and included and appreciated and valued, then they stay, they want, they decide to come and then two, they stay and then three, you get the benefit and the value of their talent, and it makes your organization overall a better organization and therefore more profitable. And then when you look at it from the human perspective, if you flip the mirror on yourself, it’s like — don't you want to feel welcome wherever you're going? So you flip it and you're like, ‘Well, I want other people to feel welcome.’”

💡 We have to be there for our team members, even if we can’t relate to their struggle

[24:02] “The best thing is that so many of my friends who are very senior white male leaders, and I mean very, very senior and/or very wealthy, reached out to me to check in on me and see how I was doing [after the death of George Floyd]. And I took it as an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, I'm not OK.’ I was very honest with them. I told them exactly how I felt. My heart was broken as a mother of a Black male, a sister of a Black male, the Deputy Mayor of Economic Development. … And then now with this verdict, I continue to see opportunities to lean in in the business space and continue to talk to those leaders who are saying ‘I'm committed to this’ and kind of challenging them saying, ‘Are you really committed? What are you really doing? Who's your DE&I person?’”

💡 Every new job is a new opportunity to learn and grow from new people 

[29:50] "Being at the city as Deputy Mayor allowed me to see why, from a completely different perch, I worked with not only economic development, but also talent development and certification of diverse businesses. So whether it was ethnically diverse, women, veteran or disabled-owned businesses,...

When Sally Hornick Anderson’s 13-year-old child came out to her as non-binary, wanting to use the pronouns “they” and “them,” they went to the right person. 

Sally remembered the story“The therapist that they were working with said ‘Hey, how did your parents respond?’ And they said, ‘Well, my mom works in diversity. So of course, she was OK with it.’”

Sally, Google’s Workforce Diversity Director, believes it’s every HR professional’s duty to make employees feel accepted and comfortable. And developing an open relationship with your team requires being genuine about your own experiences.  

On this episode of Human Resolve, host Mark Minner speaks with Sally about the importance of HR professionals being allies, the power of uncomfortable conversations (especially around race) and why it’s crucial to check in on employees regularly, especially during a time when mental health issues are a growing problem in the U.S.  

Sally also shares how her work at Google has been affected by recent racial inequity protests and the COVID-19 pandemic. Spoiler alert: it’s made work much more challenging but also that much more important.

“I always try to be very conscious and … check in, like ‘How are you?’” Sally says of her one-on-one meetings with employees. “I think sometimes when people ask that question, it can come across as inauthentic because it's like ‘How are you?’ and they’re already thinking about the next topic — but just holding the space to say, ‘How are you?’ and ‘How can I support you?’”

Featured Leader

Name: Sally Hornick Anderson

Title: Workforce Diversity Director 

Company: Google

Noteworthy: Sally is an avid cook who enjoys cooking Indian dishes — not only because of how delicious it is, but because it offers a range of tasty options that comply with her food limitations due to dairy and gluten sensitivities. 

Where to find Sally: LinkedIn

Human Resolve Episode 11 Highlights

Highlights from the transcript.

💡 Don’t be afraid to have uncomfortable conversations if they help you grow

[06:15] “I know my identity as a white cisgender heterosexual female. And so because I know who I am, I know how I present to others, I know how I identify, it helps me understand the importance of being curious about others’ gender or diversity identities and how they prefer to be acknowledged. … We are now in such a society where diversity equity and inclusion stories are on the news. So there's always something to talk about, and actually sit in that discourse with each other, which can be really uncomfortable. But that's how we actually help educate each other on these topics that are so critical today, especially around racial injustice.”

💡 The importance of asking, ‘How are you?’ intentionally

[09:35] "I always try to be very conscious in one-on-ones or in group meetings, just checking in, like ‘How are you?’ and just really holding that space. … I think sometimes when people ask that question, it can come across as inauthentic because it's like ‘How are you?’ and they’re already thinking about the next topic — but just holding the space to say, ‘How are you?’ and ‘How can I support you?’”

💡 Employees value when companies take a stance against injustice 

[12:29] "I think it's important to say something. I found where organizations really struggle is because they don't say anything, or they're afraid to say something or get it wrong. And I think there's an element of like, I might not be getting this right, but we're trying, we're trying to do the right thing. And we're trying to support our communities. And I do think employees really value having that humility, especially when leaders — they try, and they're trying to get it right.”

💡 Don’t shy away from mental health issues happening internally

[15:04] “I don't think we're prepared. I don't think there are enough professionals for what's about to come. Nor do I think people are comfortable asking for help. There's such a societal stigma around mental health in this society. So that's one thing coming out of what I'm living through personally right now that I'd like to bust is: how do we remove that stigma so people can get the help and talk about it?”

💡 Encourage employees to take care of both their mental and physical health

[18:34] "How do we … create that safety umbrella for everyone to check in and say sometimes it's OK not to be OK. Or if you need to take a well-being day. I don't think we're all doing a great job with self-care, self-love — whatever you want to title it. And so that mindfulness is even more important. And that doesn't mean just meditation. … It's really thinking about the foundation. Are people getting enough sleep? Are they eating right? Are they really hydrating?”

💡 Address diversity issues by looking at trends and asking around

[20:48] “What data do you have available? Do you do self ID data? Do you understand your population? Do you understand trends when it comes to staffing or retention? So just taking a look at data, but also looking at your strategies … and enlist others, there's a great opportunity to have listening sessions to listen to your affinity or employee resource groups and what they're looking at. A lot of times, if you ask, you have team members that have some really great ideas about how you could increase representation at your organization.” 

💡 Challenge your employees to identify their core values 

[23:33] “I love using this exercise, actually, with any of my coaching clients. I ask them what their core values are, and I'm always surprised because I would say a majority of the time, they have no idea. And so it's a great way where we’ve tried to distill what those are, because a lot of times, that's what's holding them back. My core values are around honesty and integrity, trust, fairness, service to others and family. … I started seeing that when I was feeling uncomfortable or very triggered, it's because one of my core values was triggered.”

💡 A flexible HR professional is a successful HR professional

[31:17] “What I shared with this rising HR professional who's still in college is that the world is going to look a lot different coming out of the multiple pandemics we're living in right now. So not just COVID, but the racial injustice, socioeconomic, geopolitical, and I've added a fifth one, which is the mental health crisis. … What I shared with them is to take a grain of salt with all the advice that people are giving you and just know, it's going to look different … Be willing to shift into things and try different opportunities that on paper, you might not be interested in, but really give you a full-rounded career in HR.” 

Top quotes from the episode:

Sally Hornick Anderson: 

Quote #1

“I would define allyship as being someone that is committed to learning about what i...

Even three-time Indianapolis 500 pole winner Ed Carpenter was once told his dreams were too big. 

“One of the first assignments we had was to write a five-year success plan,” Ed says of his time at Butler University’s Andre B. Lacy School of Business. “I obviously wrote a paper largely based around my racing career, and kind of tied in my time at Butler and how I was there to complement that as kind of a plan B. … [The professor] told me that it was nice to have dreams, but you need to be more realistic.” 

On this episode of Human Resolve, host Mark Minner speaks with Ed about how he went from a rookie to eventually co-owning his own race team, Ed Carpenter Racing, and why naysayers only motivated him to work harder to achieve his goals. 

Ed also shares what he’s learned as the leader of a 40-person team, including the importance of compassion, transparency and a clear mission shared by all employees. He describes how, in the small community that is IndyCar racing, it’s extra important to show respect for your competitors. 

After the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ed is extra grateful for a team that knows how to think on its feet and adapt. 

“I'd like to think that's one of the skill sets that we're very good at — just being able to deal with change and drama and unforeseen circumstances,” he says. “But I don't think anyone was prepared for what we went through last year. Fortunately, we were able to keep our people on through the whole time.”

Featured Leader

Name: Ed Carpenter

Title: Co-owner of Ed Carpenter Racing 

Company: Ed Carpenter Racing 

Noteworthy: Ed didn’t start racing until his mom remarried and suddenly he became the stepson of Indy Racing League founder Tony George.

Where to find Ed: LinkedIn

Human Resolve Episode 10 Highlights

Highlights from the transcript.

💡 Surround yourself with a good team and you will succeed

[20:07] “The first thing we really had to do — outside of spending money and putting deposits down on equipment — was to find a shop, a home location, home office. From there, it was really finding the right person to help us run the team and kind of their foundations and put an architecture together for how we wanted to build the team. I didn't want to have the sole responsibility of doing that, especially being in a dual role, still driving full time. So we hired Derek Walker, who had been a team owner, and kind of been through the same thing, similar experience and has had a successful team. … That was a great person for us — he definitely helped us lay foundations for what we are now.”

💡 Clearly communicate your mission so that people will want to work for you

[22:19] "There were challenges convincing people and selling people on what our vision was for the team, and that it wasn't just about my driving career — it was about building a business that would hopefully take me into the rest of my career as an owner once I am done driving. So there's complications on that side of things, on top of just balancing kind of having two jobs and two careers. One is the race driver, and one is the owner.”

💡 Remember that as a boss, you can make a huge impact on your employees’ lives 

[24:06] "Managing our people and what's going on, whether it's in the workplace or in an employees’ personal situation, whatever it may be. … One of the things that I really enjoy about being in this role is the team aspect and working with our people and providing them with an experience and an opportunity to feel comfortable in their work environment and feel like we're not only giving them a professional experience, but something that benefits their whole family as well.”

💡 The best leaders want to see their team grow professionally

[25:43] “Seeing people achieve their full potential and become empowered to take a project and run with it and really make an impact — it's fun to see people develop. We have people here that came in at an entry-level position that are key employees now, who really have a large role. So that part's enjoyable, and on the driver side, working with young drivers and helping them become better professionals — I enjoy that side of it, too.”

💡 Rolling with the punches was the best skill to have going into 2020

[27:44] "It's a volatile industry to begin with, in a lot of ways. I think it prepares us to manage years like 2020. And still dealing with it in 2021, it’s probably a little easier because we're so used to plans changing and making last-minute decisions. Everything's fast paced that we do and the car has to be on track when it has to be on track.”

💡 Transparency is key as a leader, especially in times of peril

[28:56] “There's a lot of trust within the team, I really try to keep our people informed, especially when things are changing fast like they were last year. Just letting them know what's going on. At times, that seemed like it was hour to hour last year, let alone week to week, but just keeping them informed of what I knew, whether it was schedule changes or government changes, protocols that we had to adopt to get back open again, etc. But the biggest thing for me was just communicating with them. There's so much nervousness that can happen in times like that.”

💡 Respect your competitors and you shall receive respect in return

[31:50] “I really don't like hiring employees away from another team, especially right before the season's getting started, especially when it's a team and people that I have a lot of respect for. So I just picked up the phone and called one of the owners of the other team and kind of told them what was going on. … And he was like, ‘Well, I hate to hear that, but I really appreciate the call and you being above board with me. I understand how hard it is to find people, I know how hard it is to lose people. If you ended up doing something, making a move on him, can you just give me a heads up, let me know so I have a jumpstart trying to find a replacement? I'd appreciate it.’ That's just an example of something that comes up and it goes the other way, too, we’ve had people leave to go to other teams. It’s such a small community.”

💡 A prepared team is a successful team 

[33:27] "We do so much work in the off-season to try to turn weaknesses into strengths and not lose the strengths that are your strengths. And every off-season, you feel like you've done a good job, you feel confident in the work that you've done, whether it's work you've done in the gym training, work we've done with both research and development and engineering. … It'll really take us that first three weeks of the season to get through each of the different disciplines that we race at to understand how we've done for each of those types of venues.”

Top quotes from the episode:

Ed Carpenter: 

Quote #1

[12:47] “I probably didn't realize the lessons I was learning at the time, but as I got further down the road, be...

Elliott Parker isn’t perfect, and he’s happy to admit it.

As some become more advanced in their career, they feel they're not in a position to make a lot of mistakes. As a result of that mindset, Elliott believes people "actually render [themselves] fragile. We benefit from learning and from making mistakes.” And, a certain degree of risk and variability are central to this mindset.

After studying finance at Brigham Young University and then earning his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, Elliott wanted a career that would allow him to learn, grow and help others. He started as a consultant, then a manager, and after six years, he became an entrepreneur. 

Then in 2020, Elliott became the CEO of High Alpha Innovation, a venture capital and private equity firm that focuses on scaling software companies.

Now, 20 years into his career, Elliot’s focus is fostering a positive environment with growth opportunities for his employees. 

“I want a place where people feel secure,” he says. “Everybody's been hired onto this team for a reason because of things they do exceptionally well. They're going to help us all be better in different ways. That's why they're here. I don't want people to feel like they need to be perfect at everything.”

On this episode of Human Resolve, Elliott discusses the importance of leading with love, learning from mistakes and combining the traits of a team and a family. He also reflects on High Alpha Innovation’s values, how his team has gotten through COVID-19 and why helping others get their job done helps him do his own work.

Featured Leader

Name: Elliott Parker 

Title: CEO at High Alpha Innovation

Company: High Alpha Innovation

Noteworthy: Elliott volunteered for two years as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris. 

Where to find Elliott: Twitter | LinkedIn 

Episode Snippets

Highlights from the transcript. 

💡 Good managers have the potential to change lives 

[5:17] “That last day of class, Professor Bryson got up and gave a lecture on how management is one of the most noble things you can choose to do. Because number one … your objective is to figure out how to make more with less and how to adopt an abundant mindset and figure out how to create more in the world to make the world a better place. Number two: one of the byproducts of building companies and forming organizations, coming together with others to collaborate, is that we enable people to reach their potential to learn. And isn't that kind of the whole point of us being alive? I came out of that thinking, ‘Boy, maybe I don't need to go be a doctor or something to do something noble.’”

💡 Lead with love rather than with intimidation 

[10:07] “My parents did a good job of leading through love of our family. I didn't want to disappoint them when I was growing up. I certainly wasn't afraid of them. I knew they loved me and I loved them, and I wanted to do my best for them. And that was a first kind of lesson in leadership that I've carried. And I think that that applies in business, too — that good leaders earn the respect and love of those that they work with. And I've worked for bosses that similarly I did not want to disappoint because I so admired them and wanted to do whatever I could to either help them or to impress them.”

💡 The best company culture has traits of both a family and a team 

[14:26] “I want a culture that is somewhere between a family and a team. … I want people to feel secure, but also to know they were chosen in a family. You don't choose your family, you’re with those people forever, for better or for worse. That's not true in a company. People will come and go. So it's not a family, but I also don't think of it as a team where we're trading players out year in, year out, to optimize for getting first place. There are other objectives in running a business beyond just being in first place.”

💡 In the COVID-19 era, companies must find creative ways to bring employees together

[15:16] “One thing that's been hard for us this year, and I think this has been universally true, is how to cultivate a connection in this environment. And that's not just true in business over the last year, everybody's been kind of trapped in their homes to a great degree. And we all miss that connection. We've run experiments at our company and none of it really replaces that face-to-face interaction you get and the bonds that you build that way. Zoom just doesn't quite cut it all the time for that. But we have had to think about how we deliberately create those interactions that will foster some types of connection. We're still small enough, 18 people, that we can do a 30-minute kind of open Zoom every day where people can jump in or out and just shoot the breeze, have conversations, have those random collisions that lead to good ideas. So we do that. That's something that we've been practicing in our company, but it’s not perfect.”

💡 Helping others will help you get your own job done

[24:21] “When I walk into a meeting with people, I'm walking into a room sometimes for a difficult conversation, I am actively thinking about people around the table. What are their jobs to be done in this meeting? And I know that if I can help them satisfy their jobs to be done, there's a better chance that I'm going to be able to satisfy my jobs to be done over the next 30 to 60 minutes in this meeting. And it's an amazing trick to think about the situations you find yourself in that way. You find that you're able to get a lot more of the things done that you want to get done when you are looking at the objectives of the people around you and what they're trying to accomplish.”

💡 Focusing on eradicating variability only erases ingenuity

[28:22] “Jack Welch … his goal in GE was to eradicate variability from the system, to make it as predictable as possible. … To do that, you put in place hierarchies and rigid systems designed to eradicate variability. And what that does is it squashes human ingenuity. People are not designed to operate and function well in those environments. You're not getting the best out of people. One of the jobs of a leader, especially as organizations grow, is to understand how you balance those two different objectives. Number one: we have to make sure this thing endures and continues to grow and do well, which means we have to run it efficiently. We have to get rid of a great deal of the variability. We can't take on all the risks we did when we were a 20-person startup, but at the same time, you have to let in a certain degree of risk and variability, you have to let in a certain degree of human ingenuity. And that builds resilience over time.”

💡 Mistakes are learning opportunities, and they come in unexpected moments 

[34:03] “Fortunately, I'm in a position to make a lot of mistakes. I’m running a company that's growing fast, and I have a lot of pe...

Summer Crenshaw grew up in poverty, teaching her the importance of education and hustle at a young age.

“What motivated me to make an impact was knowing that so many of my friends and my family struggled because they couldn't get jobs in the standard sense,” she said. “My dad got a great job at a steel company because he showed up at the HR office and sat for hours on end until somebody in HR was willing to talk to him. … I just was horrified that really good people, regardless of their aptitude, just couldn't get employment.”

After graduating from Miami University with a degree in communications and public relations in 1999, Summer went into marketing and consulting before co-founding her second startup, tilr. tilr was essentially the Match.com of recruiting and eventually led Summer to her current position as CEO of TalentNow, “the first unified marketplace connecting employers to talent, free from constraints of source, location or engagement model.” 

With more than 15 years of experience as a self-described “serial entrepreneur,” Summer’s big focus is helping underserved and underrepresented populations find employment. She’s spoken at everything from Techstars Startup Week to DisruptHR, and she has a strong passion for supporting military members/veterans, women entrepreneurs and the Midwest startup ecosystem.

On this episode of Human Resolve, Summer discusses how the future of work supports and even benefits underrepresented folks in all industries. In her eyes, technology has the power to lift everyone. Workers must adapt to the ever-changing tides, which is why empathy is your most important tool. She also touches on the unique needs of women, veterans and other traditionally underserved individuals and what value they bring as employees.

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Featured Leader

Name: Summer Crenshaw 

Title: CEO at TalentNow 

Company: TalentNow 

Noteworthy: Summer has received several prestigious accolades, including Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2018 40 Under 40 Honoree, Cincinnati Business Courier’s 10 Women Who Mean Business Honoree and Cincy Inno’s 50 on Fire Honoree.

Where to find Summer: Twitter | LinkedIn | Website

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Episode Snippets

Highlights from the transcript. 

💡 Adapt your back-to-the-office approach for different generations’ needs

[8:54] “A lot of the generational values are starting to come to fruition. So I have seen or noted that a lot of those that are in the older generations are really wanting to try to get back to exactly the way it was. And I don't think we all understand that we're not going to go back to exactly the way that it was. And so how do you care for those that might have the value of wanting full-time back in the office Monday through Friday, the eight to five — that world? How do you support them so that you don't run into issues with things like age bias? I think that those are things we all have to be very thoughtful of as we're emerging back into the new world.”

💡 How the pandemic has forced us to learn new technology

[10:43] “COVID accelerated our technology adoption rate. You have 80-year-old grandmas getting on Zoom so that they can see their grandkids. So if there's nothing else, that’s a picture in our own mind of how fast we just accelerated technology adoption, to me, that's the perfect picture. … We know that AI and machine learning are going to be vast disruptors for us. But, what AI and machine learning bring is an opportunity to elevate the human, right? The goal is to eliminate the menial tasks that technology can take care of. So for us as an employee or just a person in general, we're going to have to think differently about how our aptitude needs to evolve, and we need to always be leaning into our ability to obtain more knowledge, and it's going to look a little bit different than going to your local college or university.”

💡 Employers must identify the needs of women and other underrepresented workers

[14:13] “I think that this is also something when we look at 2020 — what it did to women in the workforce has been really unfortunate, and the latest statistic I read [said] … we have the lowest female participation in the workforce since 1988. That is appalling, to say the least. But this goes back to the way that employers are gonna have to start to think about the way that they work with women and the way that they work with any underserved or underrepresented group as a whole.”

💡 Remind your employees their skills can be used in many ways

[16:55] “You're always able to look at the skill set that you have, and it absolutely will transfer to other opportunities. So, for me, thinking about transferable skills is something that's really important. It's something that, in my previous startup, was kind of part of the ethos. … I think that part of that mindset is really helping people change a bit more to a growth mindset and having the ability to say, ‘You're never too many steps away from your future opportunity.”

💡 Technology is both a blessing and a curse for low-income job seekers

[22:48] “When the job boards came up, to me, it was revolutionary. It was transformative because it kind of evened the playing field. Anybody could apply to a job. You didn't have to know somebody. … It was democratized in a way. But very soon after, we saw the challenge of resumes becoming the barrier — like, did you have the previous job title that the company is looking for? Was your resume written in a proper manner? Do you know how to use the internet in a way that's meaningful? So all of a sudden, something that did open doors for so many in the underserved or underrepresented populations … started to become the blocker.”

💡 Think twice about how a veteran’s skills could fit your company’s needs

[26:14] “Having those conversations with the guys that came home and like writing their resumes and just watching their expressions and their body language when they felt so defeated because they didn't feel valued at all in the civilian workforce is heartbreaking. So many of the guys came home and could not find work. … In the employment space in the civilian sector, civilians don't speak military. They don't understand the direct value that service members can provide to our workforce. That doesn't mean that they aren't absolutely perfect for roles. It's just, they don't understand that a military occupational specialty that looks like what my husband did have … detonating EDS, that doesn't seem to apply very well to the civilian sector outside of a bomb squad.”

💡 Practice empathy when interacting with underserved individuals 

[31:49] “Those that are in the underserved population, what does their life truly look like and how do we as leaders — whether it be from an employment perspective or just leaders in our community — how do we start to look at ways to reduce that friction? What are those friction points? … It's that empathy to say, ‘OK, your life might not look like...

Martha May, the Chief Human Resources Officer at academic apparel company Varsity Brands, realized something was up several years ago while working for another firm. While setting goals for a new year, Martha felt she couldn’t move forward professionally without confronting a long-hidden truth: she’s attracted to women.

So, she separated from her then-husband and eventually married her now wife. 

“I'm so grateful for the acceptance — and in particular, my wife's mom and my daughter's ability to see the strength of our love and just what that's done to even further my authentic self in all relationships, in all aspects of my life,” Martha says. 

On this episode of Human Resolve, host Mark Minner speaks with Martha and The Performance Lab’s Managing Director, Rebecca Ellis, about Martha’s biggest takeaways from 2020, how her passion fuels her work and the importance of putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. 

Martha also shares why it’s important to learn from our mistakes rather than run from them. She describes one such experience from 2009, while in the middle of labor negotiations during the nation’s longest strike that year. 

After six months of working long hours and missing quality time with her 5-year-old daughter, Martha received nothing but criticism from her boss. She was at a breaking point — but rather than leave her job, Martha chose to stay and reflect on what had gone wrong. 

“I could leave and go out and go around the problem, or I could go through it and be changed by it. Only when I got through to the other side did I feel like I was kind of released to take on and consider other opportunities,” she says. “That, I think, has been probably the most pivotal moment in my leadership journey.”

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Featured Leader

Name: Martha May

Title: Chief Human Resources Officer

Company: Varsity Brands

Noteworthy: Martha’s journey to becoming an HR leader started at American Airlines, which she originally wanted to work at for free airfare to visit her long-distance boyfriend at the time. Ironically, she broke up with him before that perk kicked in.

Where to find Martha: LinkedIn

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Human Resolve Episode 07 Highlights

Highlights from the transcript.

💡 Successful HR professionals want to band together to have a positive impact 

[4:55] “Whether it was in sports or even in the rare circumstances where we actually had snowfall in North Carolina, where I grew up, it was me that kind of rallied the troops in the neighborhood. We figured out how to build an igloo — by the way, it didn't work so well at the top part, but we just put a sheet on it and kind of called it done — so I would just say I love the ability to pour into other people and help them dream bigger than they ever maybe thought possible and realize those aspirations. So this is the perfect role for me.” 

💡 Whenever possible, put yourself in the customer’s shoes

[6:36] "One of the things that I often talk about when I'm mentoring others around their career path is how valuable it was for me to sit in the chair and in the shoes of my customer. So I spent as many times and had as many roles as a general manager or frontline supervisor, ultimately running terminal B and then terminal C at DFW. … When you do that, and then you come back to HR, those are your customers. And having a chance to sort of sit in their shoes gives you a really different perspective on the job that you have to do. And so I think I've benefited and probably approached HR very differently as a result.” 

💡 Mold your leadership style after the leaders you look up to 

[9:54] "I figured out what kind of leader I wanted to be based on what kind of leaders I had. And as I started growing in my scope of responsibilities, influencing skills became so much more important than domain expertise. That was important and kind of a ticket to entry, but more about ‘How do you convince and influence others’ decision-making?’ because in most instances in HR, the decisions really aren't yours. They're yours to influence, but they are other people's call — typically the P and L owners.”

💡 Never move forward without looking backward first 

[10:56] "I tried to, at the end of each engagement, … reflect on what about this person's approach can I take away and embed in my mind? Can I learn and kind of take that tool and put it in my toolbox? And what do I not want to repeat? What didn't work for me or for the people I was supporting that I want to make sure I'm intentional about doing? By the way, I did that when I changed jobs, too.”

💡 Learn from your mistakes instead of running from them

[20:53] “There were still moments after that [six months of tough labor negotiations] that I imagined it would have been easier to just leave. Just go somewhere else. I had plenty of job opportunities. Search firms were calling me. But then I remembered a quote that I heard Marshall Goldsmith say, which is ‘You take you with you wherever you go.’ And I thought there's something in this I'm supposed to learn. There's something about the way I approached this that needs to change in order for me to not have to make the same mistake again.”

💡 Monitor your happiness both inside and outside of work 

[23:49] “I remember in that moment, deciding that it wasn't OK to not be as fulfilled at home as I was at work. I’d made all this impact in the organization, I felt like I'd really built great partnerships, but why did I not feel like that at home? And so I made the difficult decision to separate from my then-husband and only in doing that, and kind of expressing that intention did a whole other sort of set of realms open up for me to realize that since I was little, I've always been attracted to women. I never saw that as like a physical charge, I always saw it as admiration, until I met my now wife. … I don't think, if I had not taken that step, that I would have ever even let myself be me.”

💡 Cultivating an inclusive environment doesn’t happen overnight — but it’s worth the time

[29:06] “You have to first create an openness for a mindset shift to happen. And so that's happening in our company through dialogue and discussion. So we've had three or four sessions with the executive team really accelerating the dialogue around inclusivity. What does it mean to be an inclusive leader? And we're not measuring your leadership skills and then your inclusion skills. You have a responsibility and an obligation to be inclusive because we get the best outcomes for our people and for the organization and the communities we serve when we do that.. … It's not going to be overnight that we change it, but it's one conversation and one person at a time.”

💡 Find a company that fuels your passions

[31:38] "One of the reasons I joined this organization is not just because of our mission around elevating student experiences and how relevant that was personally for me with a daughter in high school — but because I think all of us remember those moments in middle sc...

Twenty years ago, Seth Morales made a fateful move. Playing as a wide receiver for Purdue University, he scored a touchdown against Ohio State and won the 2000 Big Ten Football Championship.

Seth’s football days are long gone, but he learned a lot playing at Purdue. For instance, he discovered the importance of listening, coaching and never settling for complacency. Seth regularly applies these lessons to his role as CEO at the Morales Group, a recruitment and staffing agency based in Indianapolis. 

Originally founded by Seth's father, the company is more than a staffing business. Its mission revolves around building communities. 

"My father felt like he could make a difference by providing a job," Seth explains. "My dad knew nothing about staffing and recruiting, but he knew that it made an impact on not only the individual who is making money and getting a job, but their family.

Given this mission, diversity and inclusion have been at the core of the Morales Group since its founding. "For us, we saw it as a core differentiator," Seth says.

Seth emphasizes the importance of avoiding complacency, listening to employees and actively looking for ways to improve. In fact, it was an intern who suggested that the Morales Group start to build houses for underprivileged communities at home in Indianapolis, not just Latin America.

On this episode of Human Resolve, Seth discusses how to incorporate diversity and inclusion within a company in an impactful way, rather than simply paying lip service. He also shares how  playing football helped him become a better leader and different ways in which HR can improve a company's culture.

Megan Nail, Vice President of Total Rewards Practice at FirstPerson, joins as well.

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Featured Leader

Name: Seth Morales

Title: CEO at Morales Group, Inc.

Company: Morales Group

Noteworthy: Seth was a football star at Purdue University in the early 2000s, and some of his toughest life lessons happened on the field — like when he botched a big game against Notre Dame. The lesson: Never become complacent. 

Where to find Seth: Twitter | LinkedIn

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Human Resolve Episode 06 Highlights

Highlights from the transcript.

💡 Putting diversity and inclusion into action in the workplace

[8:56] "There were a lot of companies that thought that diversity was kind of a buzzword, but that didn't really live it out. And for us, we saw that strength. … And from an early stage of building the business, there was a natural draw with diverse communities, especially communities from around the globe that needed an opportunity, needed a job, but also needed a voice and not just a transactional relationship. They wanted somebody to be an advocate for them."

💡 How to begin a change-making diversity and inclusion initiative

[13:58] "I think the first step is just go do. You're going to make some mistakes and you're going to feel awkward, but the fact that you take action and move forward with it, I think is really important. I think leaders are fearful and they don't take that first step or have that conversation."

💡 The connection between coaching and effective leadership

[23:08] "[Coaching has] been a big part of 2020 with a pandemic and lots of empathy demonstrated. [You should be] making sure that people aren't isolated and that your communication is up. So whether it's through a video, [like] a weekly video that I sent out to the team, or just texting people on teams, or just call them and talk to them — it's important that you make that time to communicate and have some of those coaching moments."

💡 Ways HR can make a real, tangible difference at businesses

[26:51] "HR isn't a thing we do — it's the thing that runs our business. How do we make HR more impactful? How do we have our HR director as a leader? How do we have a chief human resource officer? How do we create a cheap empathy officer? How do we create a chief people officer? Those are the ideas that we're contemplating. … I wish more businesses would invest in their HR department and their people strategy, but a lot of businesses don't get that. And so I think they're missing an opportunity."

💡 Investing in people and company culture makes a difference

[27:32] "Our business has really grown a lot when we started to invest in our team and our culture. And we realized staffing is not very sexy and it's not very innovative. We're helping fill job orders and finding people jobs. But if you have a better set of team or teammates and you have a healthy culture, then you're going to have success."

💡 The danger of neglecting an HR department 

[30:32] "I think there's a real responsibility and opportunity for the HR suite and leaders to take hold of [this time] as I think the game is changing. … There's just going to be a ton of goodness and opportunity for leaders in the HR suite to step up. … But it's really kind of scary to see some of these businesses that don't get HR and still use it as an admin function. It's like, man, you just don't get it and you're going to be left behind."

Top quotes from the episode:

Seth Morales:

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Megan Nail:

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R. J. Talyor likes to keep it real. He doesn’t pretend 2020 has been easy, and he tries to let his employees know that he’s struggling just like anyone else — so why not let loose a little during the workday?

“From a remote work perspective, we've made a little bit of fun of it,” R. J. says. “We did ‘Pattern89 Cribs’ like the MTV show where people if they were interested, could volunteer to give us a tour of their home. I went first and I showed our disgusting, dirty toy pit basement where my four children just make forts, and Legos are everywhere. … [This has helped] drive some cultural connection when we can't be connected in person.”

R. J. is the CEO and founder of Pattern89, a startup focused on helping e-commerce retailers understand what paid social ads work and why. Like most companies, his workforce went remote when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and he says that experience has led him to trust his team and stop worrying about people not getting their work done. 

This time has also led R. J. to reflect on the company’s five core values, which have guided him and other leaders since Pattern89’s inception. These values have also helped to create a workplace culture that R. J. is especially proud of after spending nine years at ExactTarget, where he was part of the world-renowned “orange” culture.

In this episode of Human Resolve, R. J. discusses why a company culture molded by core values is crucial, how you can use it to recruit exceptional talent, why having a workforce “representative of the country” is important to him (especially in the tech – and more specifically, artificial intelligence – space), what future workplaces may look like, and why hard work will always best talent.

“Proclaim something at the beginning, or if you're not at the beginning, proclaim something anyway, and then you've got to do the hard work to live into it,” he says. 

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Featured Leader

Name: R. J. Talyor 

Title: CEO and Founder 

Company: Pattern89

Noteworthy: R. J. is a former national champion swimmer and sees a lot of parallels between the hard work he put into athletics and the hard work he puts into his startup.

Where to find R. J.: LinkedIn 

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Human Resolve Episode 05 Highlights 

Highlights from the transcript. 

💡 A good work culture and core values are key to a successful company

💡 It’s OK to value progress over perfection 

💡 Diversity in all forms is a strength when developing a team

💡Don’t take it personally when people choose to leave the company 

💡 You’ll never know for sure how focused remote workers are, but trust is essential

💡 Lean into remote work and be an example for how to make the best of it

💡 Just like in sports, in startups, talent won’t take you nearly as far as hard work 

R. J. Talyor:

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