Human Resolve

Human Resolve

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Human Resolve episodes

  • Dr. Lisa Penney | Why You Feel Stress and How to Prevent Burnout

    Feeling stressed? On the brink of burning out? Worried about the pandemic or your never-ending work from home situation? Dr. Lisa Penney is exactly who we all need to hear from in 2020. 


    Dr. Penney is an award-winning researcher who received her doctorate in industrial-organizational psychology and has spent almost 20 years studying job stress, counterproductive work behavior, and burnout. In her current position as a Professor of Management for USF's Muma College of Business, Dr. Penney teaches undergraduate business courses while also researching strategies to help people improve decision-making skills during stressful situations. 


    Growing up, Dr. Penney felt that she didn't have someone to talk about her stress and anxiety with. She was taught that the world is a scary place, and you have to protect yourself, keep your head down, and be careful. While this mentality helped her survive, it created a state of anxiety that left her in fight-or-flight mode far too often. 


    When Dr. Penney found her way into the field of organizational psychology, what resonated with her most was "that if you're actually nice to people, then you see an ROI in terms of hard numbers and both lower theft, lower turnover and things like that." She found it fascinating that, by paying attention and taking actions to genuinely help and understand employees, there was much less negative behavior. 


    According to Dr. Penney, employers need to determine what's upsetting their employees and why they're acting in irrational or harmful ways. Then they must solve those problems — or as Dr. Penney says, "understand, predict and control."


    "Burnout's like a slow leak in your tires or you're running at a deficit in your budget over time — you might be fine for the first couple of months but if you don't do something about it, it becomes a problem," Dr. Penney says. 


    HR professionals need to consistently check in with their employees, even if everything seems fine on a surface level. Ask employees how they're really doing and acknowledge any changes in workload, whether they're doing a good job or seem to be struggling. 


    "We live in a comfort culture that says we want to only see the shiny, happy things. It's almost a tyranny of positivity in some ways," says Dr. Penney. While it's important to be grateful and positive, it's still necessary to acknowledge and discuss struggles, stress, anxiety, and pain. 

    Featured Leader

    Name: Dr. Lisa Penney


    Title: Professor of Management


    Company: USF Muma College of Business 


    Noteworthy: Dr. Penney's work has been published in major academic publications, including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Leadership Quarterly, Human Resource Management Review, and the Journal of Organizational Behavior. 


    Where to find Lisa: LinkedIn



    Human Resolve Episode 04 Highlights

    Highlights from the transcript.


    💡 Early studies show being nice to employees directly impacts ROI

    [7:55] "When I found my way into the field of industrial organizational psychology, what resonated with me the most, as I was reading up on these things, were injustice, actually, and organizational justice and how that impacts people. I read this amazing paper by Jerald Greenberg that looked at the relationship between organizational justice and employee theft. And the bottom line with that paper was — it was a field experiment — is that if you're actually nice to people, then you actually see an ROI in terms of hard numbers and both lower theft, lower turnover and things like that. And I thought, 'Wow, this is really fascinating.'"


    💡 Making a real impact on employee burnout 

    [17:30] "Burnout, historically, was looked at — at least in the field of industrial-organizational psychology — in the service profession, or the people who are working with other people. That was seen as the most demanding. Over time, these people — service workers — would become burnt out. So looking at things like taking time away, how do you recuperate, but then immediately you go back into a situation where you're still running at a deficit over time, you're going to get burned out."


    💡 Ask your employees how they     really are 

    [21:20] "Something that HR folks should be aware of is that the ones that you're starting to see results now that are checking in — even if you're not seeing that, it's important to check in with people. [Ask] ‘How are you really? I see that you're managing, and I think that's amazing — how are you really, because that's a lot for anybody to do.’ I know there's other things and just acknowledging the extra life that's on their plates would be helpful."


    💡 Don't default to the way you've always done things 

    [24:55] "The way our brains are hardwired is to make fast decisions, not necessarily good or accurate ones, just to hurry up, come up with an answer and go about your day. Most of the time, that works just fine for us. But we run into problems when we're in a new situation or new territory. Then our brains are still going to automatically just assume this is the same as it was before. … What I've seen is, a lot of managers when COVID first hit, defaulted to what they already knew — we're going to do things, we're going to proceed as if everything was fine."


    💡 Acknowledge pain and struggle first, positivity second 

    [29:10] "We live in a comfort culture that says we want to only see the shiny, happy things. It's almost a tyranny of positivity in some ways — oh, let's make everybody happy, and we don't want to hear about the negative, it's all good! And it's not to say that those things — being grateful and counting your blessings — aren't helpful. Of course they are and they have their place but in my experience, until we acknowledge the struggle and the pain first, then we have to talk about that before we can get to the other piece." 


    💡 Always show your human side — don't become an emotionless robot

    [31:46] "We've all lost something. There's been a shift, like you talked about, and [participants in a recent training] asked, 'What is the role for leaders? How do you create space [for grief]?' … I said, in order for that space to be created, a leader has to create that psychological safety and really take off their own armor and say, 'Look, I'm human, too.' If all I — I being the employee — see is a robot, somebody that maybe is trying to keep it all together because they think they need to, I then perceive it as I'm not able to then show you how I'm feeling or have the ability to feel it myself."


    💡 Emotions are energy that need space to move around 

    [33:04] "Emotions are transient things. They are — as I heard someone put it poetically — emotions are energy in motion and we need to let them move. If they don't move, they get stuck and it is not benign, it is harmful. So creating the space where people can move through those places and through, as Kristen mentioned, modeling that yourself."


    💡 Talking about your emotio...

    39 min
  • Ashima Kapur | Balancing Data and Emotions while Defying Cultural Norms

    Episode Summary

    Ashima Kapur has a deep-rooted faith in people — and no doubt has it played a pivotal role in her success. 


    “I believe that ultimately we all want to do a good job,” Ashima says. “I can't think of a single person that's walked in and said, ‘You know what, I really don't care.’”


    As an immigrant from India, it took Ashima awhile to break into human resources in the U.S. But her first American bosses at The Morley Group helped her get to where she is now: Vice President of Human Resources at Allied Solutions.


    “I would pick up the phone and call a company because I was trying to get them to hire us for whatever work we needed to hire for … and people would hang up the moment I said my name,” she recalls. “But I also believe that for every single person that might have been negative, that might have discriminated or been mean, I found three or four other people that were very supportive.”


    After 26 years in the field, she understands that employees are human beings who, though they want to work hard, don’t always have human resources at the front of their mind. There are spreadsheets, calls and meetings to attend to, and sometimes the HR element gets lost in the mix. That’s where she and her team come in. Ashima leads a group of HR professionals who remember to listen to employees, respect varying backgrounds and work as a unit to get the job done. 


    At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, that job was to help transition nearly an entire office to work from home. She’s proud to say her team was able to make that happen within just a day. 



    Featured Leader

    Name: Ashima Kapur


    Title: Vice President of Human Resources


    Company: Allied Solutions


    Noteworthy: When Ashima first moved to the U.S., she wanted to get into HR but believed nobody would hire her because she didn’t understand American laws and regulations yet. To help put “a stamp” on her resume, she immediately worked toward getting her PHR and SPHR certifications.


    Where to find Ashima: LinkedIn 


    Human Resolve Episode 03 Highlights

    Highlights from the transcript. 


    💡 Leaders must understand their employees aren’t on the clock 24/7 

    [03:48]

    “We've always had a recognition for the fact that people have lives outside of the four walls of the office or the environment. And we've always been very open to working with employees on that. … As a manager, I have a life, so I know that my employees have a life, too. So I think that, for us, at least I believe, as an organization, it was easy [to adapt to the pandemic].”


    💡 Remember that everyone has a different life experience 

    [12:22]

    “Not everyone's experiences are the same. So I have to be very careful going in and not say, ‘Because this is how this was for me, therefore, it is this for you.’ And that opens up the dialogue to ‘Here's how I think, what do you think, what's your experience?’ And then let's bring something together, talk about how we are going to build whatever we're going to build. My big thing is I want to be known for the work I do. I want to be known for the quality of things, whatever that might be. I don't want to be known for ‘Oh, because you're a woman’ or ‘because you're a pretty face’ or whatever else.” 


    💡 Great managers are capable, committed and clear on expectations

    [14:17]

    “Everyone wants to do a good job. … I call it the three C's: the capability, the commitment, the clarity, and then empowerment. The first thing is, are the people capable managers? Are they capable? If they're not capable, can you train them? Yeah, there are some things that just come to innately, but I think capabilities are a big focus — they're either committed or not. ... And are they clear on what's expected? And then ultimately, are they empowered? If we can do those things with the managers, if we can focus on any one of those things and work with them on where they might need help, I think most of the time we can get to what we need to get to.”


    💡Human resource departments rely entirely on effective communication

    [15:42] 

    “Our most valuable resources are the humans, the people that we have there. So how do you then make sure that every day that an employee walks in, you're going to be able to get the best from them? You can't do that every day. So to me, mindspace becomes important. … They're not thinking from the perspective of human resources everyday. What they know is, I have to get this accounting thing filed. So their brain, their mindspace, is filled with whatever the accounting pieces are. How do you then get them to pause long enough and also think of the human aspect? That's kind of when I think the training, the education, the development, all of those things become important to make sure that whenever they're doing something, they can pause long enough and say, ‘How am I doing it? Is this the right way to do it?’ Ultimately, the question I ask everyone is, ‘if you were in that person's shoes, how would you like to be treated?’”


    💡 Maintaining a team mindset is vital

    [21:18] 

    “You want to make sure that you're taking care of as many [people] — and all, if you can. Every single thought, every single decision you make, you have to pause and say, ‘Am I doing this right?’ … None of us can do this in silos, we have to rely on each other, we have to rely on the resources we have. So I appreciate the partnerships I have not just with our outside partners, but even internally with the managers, with our other leaders, because it's those partnerships and those resources that get us to the right decisions.”


    💡 It’s important to balance the hard data and the quantitative insights that you gain

    [22:52] 

    “That balance can be hard sometimes, because sometimes you can be so prone to just looking at the data that you want to just do something. And you have to remind yourself that no, I need to also look at the softer side. … It's great to have a team that kind of uses their left side of the brain and the right side of the brain both so you can balance the quantitative and the qualitative. I think with years of experience, as you grow up in HR, there's enough things that are completely data-driven, and there are enough things that are all qualitative data. So you learn to also then take those anecdotal things and create some kind of data or pattern out of it. … You can still kind of say we did this this way five times and it didn't work, or it worked great. Or we've done it this way with this person’s style.”


    💡 Good leaders know when to sit back and listen 

    [27:17] 

    “That's the biggest mistake you can make: if you start talking without listening to what everyone else has to say. Because then all you're doing is talking from what you think, not talking from what they might need or want. So it's important to listen and understand, which is why we talk about business partners, which is why we ...
    35 min
  • Adam Weber | Discovering Freedom and Clarity as a Leader

    Former pastor Adam Weber practices what he literally preaches, both as an author and the co-founder and Chief People Officer of Emplify, an employee management software and consulting firm based in Indianapolis. Since leaving the church and venturing into the business world, he’s pushed  for authentic leadership, a catalyst for unlocking people’s true potential.


    "It's not about your product, it's not about all these other things. As a leader, you can truly create a high-performance culture when you simply get to know yourself in a way that you can actually lead from your authentic, whole person," Adam says. 


    One leader changed Adam's entire career — a leader who didn't care what time Adam came to work or where he worked from. Since then, Adam has sought freedom to unlock his true potential and helped others do the same. 


    Leading authentically means continual self-awareness and self-reflection, which is one of the "beautiful parts" about being in leadership, according to Adam. "If you're willing to let people tell you the truth of who you are, you'll actually get to learn about how you show up in the world and how you show up in your team.”


    Growing as a leader, or even as an employee, requires consistent constructive feedback. Adam experienced this early on with his business partner Santiago Jaramillo. While launching their first business together, they communicated openly about each other’s potential areas of improvement. Though the founders sometimes struggled to accept criticism, the dialogue perpetuated an honest feedback loop that's helped Adam to this day.


    According to Adam, the key to building a more human workforce is "acknowledging that transition from administrative HR to strategic HR.” The first three steps of the process include: 

    • making sure your company has a clear, activated purpose that's brought to life by your employees every day,
    • checking that each employee understands how their role ties into your company's larger mission,
    • and ensuring your company's values are lived by each and every employee, from individual contributor roles up to the CEO.


    Featured Leader

    Name: Adam Weber


    Title: Co-founder and Chief People Officer


    Company: Emplify


    Noteworthy: Adam just released his first book, titled Lead Like a Human: Practical Steps to Building Highly Engaged Teams, which helps business leaders get the best out of their staff and lead as their authentic selves.


    Where to find Adam: Twitter | LinkedIn



    Human Resolve Episode 02 Highlights

    Highlights from the transcript.


    💡 Discovering freedom sans micro-management 

    "One leader changed my whole career. The very first day I showed up at his company — his name is Michael — he says, 'Hey, I don't care when you show up, I don't care where you work. What I do care [about] — I actually think you're talented, and if you could set your mind to it, I'm curious what you could do for our business.' That unleashed in me this freedom to actually unlock my true potential."


    💡 The importance of becoming self-aware within leadership roles 

    "I've had thousands of conversations with new leaders who basically burn fields in their wake only to look back at that charred field. Truly growing in leadership means gaining awareness of when that's happening. Candidly, I don't think any of us can get away from burning a little bit of the field during the process, but you can stop it if you're growing your self-awareness. You can give yourself space when those moments are happening." 


    💡 How a lack of ‘centeredness’ wreaks havoc on companies 

    "My favorite part of the book is on what I call ‘centeredness’ and it is tied to leading as your whole authentic self but, at the root of it, is if you think about a traditional manager, what happens is they're the top performer on a team. They haven't likely displayed skills that would actually show them that they'd be good at management — they just happened to be the best person and they naturally get the job and that's happening all across the country and it's wreaking havoc on companies." 


    💡 Find out the truth of who you are from your teammates 

    "One of the beautiful parts about being in leadership is you get to grow so much in your own self-awareness. If you're willing to let people tell you the truth of who you are, you'll actually get to learn about how you show up in the world and how you show up in your team. Growing in that will really unlock your own development, but also how your team performs as well."


    💡 Feedback from leadership is necessary, but it must be consistent 

    "The reality is to actually grow, you have to get feedback. But leaders often aren't consistent with feedback. So what makes feedback feel heavy is when it's inconsistent. There's nothing worse than getting feedback from a person who doesn't normally give your feedback — it feels so heavy and it's uncomfortable, but employees are craving it. The way to do it is to create safe containers with steadiness."


    💡 Bridging the gap on psychological safety in a remote workplace 

    "I think the challenge [with COVID-19] from a leadership perspective that I've seen is that — I already was convinced of this before COVID — the number one issue between managers and employees is psychological safety. That is the manager playing that role with the puffed up chest and not creating environments where the employee feels like they can bring things up that are sincere: I don't know how to do this task, whatever it may be, or here's a broken thing I'm not talking about. Physical distance has not made that better … so there's going to have to be new intentionality on how you create safety inside of environments, how you resolve conflict, all of those things." 


    💡 Empowering employees to take advantage of unlimited PTO policy

    "We recognized that, yes, we've always had this unlimited PTO policy, but it's not unlimited if people don't feel comfortable or encouraged to take it. … It's flexible, but we have some mandatory minimums. So we're doing mandatory minimums and Emplify's average. So we share what we expect the average person [to take] — here's the range and here's the minimum, which I'm eager to see. It's too early to know how it will go, but I think it's a step in the right direction."


    💡 How to start leading authentically 

    "If I were to say how to get started [to lead more authentically], it is really acknowledging that transition from administrative HR to strategic HR. The bones are the first three steps: Do you have mechanisms in place to develop the self-awareness of your leaders? Does your company have a purpose that is clear and activates it — not one that's sitting on a shelf, dusty — are you celebrating that purpose? Do you bring that purpose back to life for the employees? Does each employee — even the ones who hav...
    38 min
  • Karen Mangia | Salesforce Exec on Leading 50,000 Employees through Change

    “Success is as much about what you divest as where you invest.” Author, big tech leader and amateur climber, Karen Mangia says that accepting opportunities often requires declining others, an important step in progressing toward your goals.

    With over 20 years of experience engaging with customers and growing revenue at Fortune 50 companies, Karen is now the Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce. Recently, she’s helped more than 50,000 employees around the world adapt to a remote work lifestyle during the pandemic, a way of life she’s been accustomed to for almost two decades.


    In the past, Karen’s formula for success was to say yes to everything – “make it look easy and then deliver the results.” But that formula only scaled to a certain point in her career. After suffering from a major medical crisis, she felt a sudden urge to redefine success.

    Realizing everyone has “finite time and energy,” Karen faced a pivotal moment in her life: She now urges listeners to put their energy toward the things that really matter while removing those that don’t advance them toward their larger goals.

    While recovering from a mysterious yet major medical setback, Karen’s executive coach encouraged her to take a vacation where she didn’t check any emails or return any missed calls – something she had never done before. The pause was a chance for Karen to bask in silence and understand the importance of her mental health.

    When she returned to work, she joked that the organization was shockingly still operating just as before. However, she recognized how her “always-on” behavior and goal of perfection slowly devastated her team over time. It made them believe that to get ahead, they also needed to portray her same “perfect” image.

    Recognizing the power of vulnerability and authenticity in the workplace – whether virtual or in-person –, Karen now guides leaders through her books and speaking engagements. She hopes to instill the same valuable lessons of clear communication to her thousands of followers and employees around the globe.

    Karen’s call for business leaders to be true to who they are is massively important now. Rightfully nicknamed the “Great Reset,” this period of time in which many organizations are working from home requires managers and employees to establish a mutual trust and understanding, only molded by a strong bond.

    Karen sees 2020 as an invitation for leaders to show authenticity. “That authenticity, just like we were talking about [with] vulnerability, is uncomfortable, but it’s also a skill that can be taught.”

    To hear and learn more from Karen at RESOLVE Increments on October 28, get your virtual pass at resolveindy.com.


    Featured Leader:

    Name: Karen Mangia


    Title: Vice President of Customer and Market Insights


    Company: Salesforce


    Noteworthy: Karen has authored three books. Published in August 2020, her newest book Working from Home: Making the New Normal Work for You helps business leaders and employees find success while navigating a remote work lifestyle.


    Engage with Karen: Twitter | LinkedIn | Website



    Human Resolve Episode 01 Highlights:


    💡 Defining success for yourself and putting your best energy forward

    “When I hit a major medical crisis and I couldn’t say ‘yes’ to anything else, for the first time, I was forced to confront that we literally have finite time and finite energy. You have to get really clear about defining success for you so that you can put your best energy toward what matters most, but also so that you can take the obligations, people and experiences out of your life that no longer serve you or move you closer to that goal.”


    💡 Pausing deliberately — and feeling empowered

    “Success to me, at that point in my life, was I want to be healthy enough to enjoy my life. When I chose to pause saying yes to everything and people-pleasing, I felt empowered because I chose the pause. It kind of energized me and I felt different because I took that pause in order to put energy toward what mattered most.”


    💡Meeting crisis with compassion for every employee 

    “Meeting crisis with compassion is always the first step [in helping employees cope with difficult situations]. I have so much respect for HR professionals and people who are really in the position of meeting employees, literally, as a whole human being. Every aspect of fear, uncertainty, worry and hopelessness — all of those feelings — and what it takes to be present in that moment for each person is a very special gift and a very cultivated discipline and we need more of that.”


    💡 How struggling with vulnerability manifests as a trust issue

    “When I came back from [my two-week vacation], this is what stuck with me to this day about how powerful vulnerability is in the workplace and how critical it is to make space for people to show up as real and authentic. My team said, ‘We are so glad you finally trusted us enough to take a break and leave us here to be in charge.’ It had never occurred to me that my struggle to be vulnerable and show up as real showed up to them as a trust issue.”


    💡 Establishing new leadership norms in this period of authenticity 

    “This time’s being called ‘the Great Pause’ or ‘the Great Reset.’ What I think is this time is an invitation to authenticity. Every leader is now being invited to show up as your authentic self because you can no longer pretend like you don’t have kids, or you don’t have a pet, or you don’t leave to get your haircut, or whatever that looks like for you. That authenticity, just like we were talking about vulnerability, is uncomfortable, and it’s also a skill that can be taught.”


    💡 The call-to-action for HR professionals to be business partners 

    “There’s really a strong call to action for our HR professionals to be business partners and help senior leaders, especially, and all people managers. Think through what training they need about crisis communication, connection, vulnerability, because — if your organization has largely functioned on being a go-to-the-office culture or where people can be in person frequently — this is a really significant shift.”


    💡 The middle layer of managers is critical to success 

    “I’m very passionate that that middle layer of managers is critical to the success or failure of work from home or a distributed workforce at your company because they’re under pressure to deliver up. They’re also intercepting the reality of how employees are really feeling and what they’re needing. So if you’re going to start somewhere, with thinking about the training or being the HR partner that steps up, I really think that middle layer of managers and how you help them feel seen and heard, how can you make some purposeful investments in elevating them, and gifting them and equipping them with ...
    33 min
  • Introducing Human Resolve

    Your organization relies on you and your HR team now more than ever. An unsung hero dedicated to the employee experience, you’re entrusted with casting a vision for the culture and grappling with sudden changes all while engaging your colleagues.


    Human Resolve, a new podcast from FirstPerson Advisors, explores the modern challenges that HR leaders face, as well as their creative, human-centric solutions. 


    Join host Mark Minner as he speaks with everyday human resources leaders to uncover their highs and lows, so you can learn to succeed as an effective yet compassionate workplace superstar.


    Links and Resources:


    • Connect with host Mark Minner: LinkedIn | Twitter
    • Learn more about FirstPerson Advisors
    • Learn more about RESOLVE and RESOLVE Increments

    Subscribe to FirstPerson’s weekly newsletter, The Boost

    3 min

About Human Resolve

From the publisher's feed

Is there a more turbulent terrain than the HR department these days? Human Resolve goes behind the scenes with HR leaders to discover real human solutions to real human challenges. We’ll celebrate together. Laugh a lot. Sharpen our minds and might even shed a few tears. But that's fine. We’re HR. Nobody will ever know.