Catalyze

Besides being a partner at KardasLarson, what was your favorite job? Why?
My years at Brooks Brothers allowed me to learn about manufacturing and expand my human resources expertise. I was able to leverage my operations experience from earlier in my career to create programs that advanced employee development and retention throughout the organization. The operations experience that I gained early on with big box and specialty retailers provides a solid background when I’m recommending solutions to our clients.

How do organizations align their people strategy with their business strategy?
In my experience, every business or organizational pain point is a people issue. Oftentimes random people are placed on a team and everyone hopes for the best. Taking the time to understand the leader, the team composition and the work you’re asking them to do, allows for better results, more harmony on the team and increased retention of team members. Leaders can spend years understanding the needs and motivations of their employees or they can leverage technology to understand this critical information at the point of hire, as they’re curating a team or when a team is struggling to achieve its goals. Consulting with software makes a big difference in my work with clients.

How can a leader best support a hybrid workforce?
The key to leaders supporting their workforce is to understand what each employee needs in their job, and what motivates them to do their best work. Taking the time to uncover this information and ensuring that the employee is in the right role, is the foundation to be built upon. Increased and more effective communication is essential for the hybrid workforce to thrive. Finding ways to maintain the culture in a hybrid world takes patience, genuine caring, creativity and inviting employees to participate in the shaping of their work experience.

What can managers do when employees feel threatened by change?
Understand what their hopes and fears are. Often this dialogue includes anticipation for meaningful change and apprehensions around how the change will affect them personally. Getting this feedback early on and staying focused on the “why” may help employees more readily embrace change. Keep the communication lines open – provide information and ask for ideas and feedback around the change.