Pause, Reflect, and Redirect - How to Reset Your Organization and Drive Elite Performance

Dr. Jim: [: 00:00:00

That's what Nicola Kennedy. Has to say. She's the current chief people officer at the American college of cardiology. That's an association focused on transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health.

She's been in the organization for almost 17 years and has played a key role in the growth of the organization. Now, further back in her career, she's a reformed accountant. She has a master's in human resources development from Bowie State, and she's also got an MBA from the University of Maryland, Nicola

welcome to the show.

Nicola Kennedy: Thank you, Jim. It's glad to be here today. It's happy to be able to speak about my passion of helping people.

to add an interesting layer [: 00:01:00

I'd like you to flush that out for the listeners and add anything else that you feel is important for the listeners to understand and know about your background. That's going to add texture to this conversation we're about to have.

Nicola Kennedy: I am a reformed accountant, but I use my accounting skills every day because HR professionals, not just about processing, we also need to be thinkers. We need to be analytical. We need to be details. So actually knowing the numbers is my superpower. Because I am that HR professional that could talk the talk with the finance team.

And then one little correction about my bio. I am working on my MBA at the University of Maryland, not completely finished yet, but almost there. And I went back to school for that just because I had not had a lot of business classes since I graduated undergrad. So I wanted to focus on taking some of those marketing, some of those finance classes again to enhance my business.

My career as I had [: 00:02:00

Part of my background too that people don't see on my resume Is that i'm involved in a lot of organizations outside of ACC or my professional career that allows me to build on my leadership skills So i've been president of my local chapter sorority I've been able to be a programs chairman where I plan events.

Actually last year 22 I planned though a regional conference for over 6, 000 attendees. So that was a great accomplishment for me to be able to use my skill set a little differently to be able to show that I could come in and do multiple things

Dr. Jim: Even in that bit of context, there's something that I'm curious about. Now, you're pursuing your MBA and you mentioned that you wanted to shore up the business side of your knowledge and skill set.

Why is that important for HR leaders to build that side of their business? I would have just automatically assumed with your accounting background, you would have already had that back baked in.

e, right? We are now at that [: 00:03:00

Yes, accounting was a lot of accounting classes. You have one economics class, you had a marketing class, but honestly, an undergrad, I was like, let me just get through. I'm just trying to graduate. And really, a lot of my focus was on the accounting classes. I said, when am I going to use that economics class?

When am I going to use that marketing class? But I realized where my shortfalls were. And I said, Yeah. I need to go back and freshen up on these things and really be able to be tangible in the conversations that we're having. My CEO thought I was already accomplishing a lot, but I was like, I am still a lifelong learner. There's more than I can learn. So let me do this.

Dr. Jim: So it looks like you're going to be collecting degrees like I am. Not the worst thing in the world to be a nerd.

nedy: I'm gonna collect some [: 00:04:00

Dr. Jim: You've been at the American college of cardiology for almost 19 years. If you had to pin down the accomplishment that you're most proud of during your time there, what would that be?

Nicola Kennedy: It will probably be that I have evolved HR with the team to be more business partners. We are taking not the HR that we process and we just do your benefits. We just do your payroll. But we are actually forming and partner with our leaders across the organization to talk about our talent, how we develop our talent, how we engage our talent.

lf right now, I've stepped in: 2018

like how you mentioned that particular accomplishment. What I'm curious about is there a right time [00:05:00] to make that pivot? If you had to do it over again? When would you have started that transformation from being an admin oriented group to more of a strategic oriented group?

Nicola Kennedy: You also have to have the right CEO in place. You have to have the right CEO who's accepting that the role of HR is changing. That really values what HR brings to the organization. And that is what I have currently is the right CEO who's all about people. She is a people person. She used to be the chief people officer of the organization, and she has many years of experience at the American College of Cardiology.

But I will say right now, for anyone following behind You have to have that relationship with the person at the top to make sure they value what HR brings to the table in support of the transition you make.

he most senior layers of the [: 00:06:00

So that's a good distinction that I love how you call that out you've started this process or you're well on the way of transforming HR to a people focused strategic organization. When you think about 2024 and down the road.

What are the initiatives that you have on your radar that you want to check off next?

Nicola Kennedy: So our next thing is going to be really focused on, and it's similar for this year. We set some goals to metrics that matter, right? Because metrics tells your story. We're learning that storytelling is how you get your point across. So we have to tell our story, the metrics. What does it look like for us as an organization?

What does our people look like? And using those metrics also to talk about our people development. So that is a big focus for us going forward. Do we know who we have in the organization? Could you hire somebody to do job a But you as an organization evolve. So where do you know the talent you have an organization?

So [: 00:07:00

So we're trying to really assess our talent. to make sure our talent is moving forward with us as an organization.

Dr. Jim: That's an interesting initiative. It sounds like the emphasis is going to be more on people, development and career progression versus talent acquisition. Am I understanding that

Nicola Kennedy: is. It's gonna be a combination looking at the skills that we need. We may have to hire some outside, but we may have some inside. I want people to not forget about the talent that you have within your organization. We forget about those talents and start looking outside before we say we have some talent inside the organization.

ls? Cause they may be really [: 00:08:00

Let's tap that person. for this position, opposed to always looking externally for things.

Dr. Jim: I'm definitely going to come back to this when we get into that development and coaching conversation that we're planning on having a little bit later on. So last thing what's the most fun aspect about the job that you're in?

Nicola Kennedy: get to learn about so many people every day and I love it. In my shop, I have people resources, which is which is typical in HR, but they do all of the business development of people operations. They do the business partner aspects that I have people development, a culture, and then I have people safety, which is our team that oversees the building.

do I get to know the person, [: 00:09:00

And so I think that's the great aspect that I love about my job. And that's why I'm a perform accounting because accountants only looked at numbers. And I knew after a few years, I couldn't do that for the rest of my life. I needed to be able to talk to people and help people. .

Dr. Jim: I like the emphasis you put on getting to know people from an employee lifecycle perspective. I think that's important. And mapping out that journey, but I want to tie it back to that development mindset that you mentioned in earlier in the conversation.

I want to bring those two together through an accounting lens, because what I'm getting so far in this conversation is that it seems that you're putting more emphasis in keeping the people that you have and developing them throughout. Why is that important? Compared to a talent attraction, heavy approach to your talent strategy.

akes a while to get somebody [: 00:10:00

But I think we lose in HR professionals if we don't focus on the talent we have. There's going to be some talent that you're just going to be like, I can't do anything else with that person. There's no further. This person can go. I'm not gonna be able to help them maybe for certain different circumstances, but we do need to invest in the talent.

If we keep saying that people are our greatest assets, why are we quickly ready to not invest in them? And that's why I think that it's really about knowing your talent. and focusing on them and developing them in all stages of their career. And I think that helps with the career development and the career progression for them, right?

person for that role we were [: 00:11:00

Dr. Jim: I like that emphasis on that development over that life cycle P piece, because it's cheaper to keep the people that you have and the reality of it is for those CEOs that still don't connect the dots for every person that you lose off of your organization, that's a voluntary turnover that you have, you're going to spend up to 250 percent of their first year salary in trying to replace them.

So it, it makes a lot of business sense to just focus in on that.

Nicola Kennedy: But remember, not every person is a valuable person to keep, right? Because some people you are going to get some bad actors along the way that you just need to know when to cut it and when to say it's time to cut ties.

Dr. Jim: I opened the show by saying that. If you're looking at building an elite organization, you need to leverage your skip level meetings as part of that career development and coaching culture that you're looking to build.

What's that got to do with the game changer that really helped you build elite teams throughout your career?

Nicola Kennedy: I [: 00:12:00

I want to be able to understand what they're telling me or what they're not telling me. And I use these is to get to know what do you like and what do you don't like about your job? Because it helps me to understand what excites them. Yeah. And what part that I may be able to use as a development for them, right?

Or how to be able to coach them differently or help their manager to coach them differently.

senior leaders do a good job [: 00:13:00

Walking the talk, but where we have problems is at the manager level and at the individual contributor level, where oftentimes our individual contributors are saying I don't really know how my work is connected to the big picture, so I just punched the clock and then oftentimes managers are struggling with getting individual contributors performing at a high level.

And I want to pull on something that you said, the reason why you like talking to people at the line level and getting, what they like, what they don't like is because it gives you line of sight into what can be changed. How are you marshaling your managers into those conversations so that they could be more intentional about connecting those dots that are often missed at the line level, ,

I do a stand up every month,[: 00:14:00

We come together and I help to bring the connections of how the teams are working together, why we all work together, what's important about we working together, right? And I've been having the meetings monthly meetings with my leaders and we all connect and talk about why their jobs connect. And now And I think maybe a year ago, people was like, I don't see how my job connects to this, but we make it that it's intentional to explain the connections,

I'm gonna give you an example. My people safety team, they work with, they are just as important to any other organization. I tell them if the building is not up and running. Every day, the systems are not on. The lights are not working. The heat or the air is not working. We're not functioning. So you are our first line of defense in the organization.

ou're part of our safety. So [: 00:15:00

So that's how you get more people involved when it typically would think it. So people would say, Oh, people safety and operation. That's your facility teams. No, they're about safety and they're about operating the building and you've got to show them how they connect. to the mission of the organization and connecting to getting us all working.

So that's just an example of how you take a typical job that you wouldn't be able to connect it, and you have to make the connection to the organization.

Dr. Jim: When you look at that specific example, how did you build the capacity for the leaders of those functions to take the ball and run? Because that's not an easy connection to make.

So what did you do from A leading by example perspective that created the space for them to do that.

er. And where are there some [: 00:16:00

So let's talk about that. And all of the leaders under my division had to come together and read that and at least take a chapter to talk about and go over. And that helped us all. Even if you weren't involved. Like I said, my people safety director, he has a chance to be able to say, I get the connection, so you have to make sure that everybody understands it. So we had a reset. And for people operations and we reset and we came out and we're stronger because we were able to step back and really talk about issues from that standpoint.

very quarter or half a year, [: 00:17:00

And I want to see that list of things that you would change, because if you're not regularly doing that, you get stuck in a rut and what you're describing. That you picked up from reset the book and what you actually put into place. It's it struck me as a similar concept. I really like everything that you've talked about here and especially. The point about leveraging skip level meetings to facilitate a reset get more ownership at the manager level and at the individual contributor level. What did you learn in the effort of that transformation that you weren't expecting that other people that want to do the same thing should be watching out for?

st what they're telling you, [: 00:18:00

What's going on? What do you need to share? And I think for me, most people, if I was to read a lot of my comments back, it would be. They trust me. They trust that I am really listening, that I'm really taking action, and that I will try my best to make sure if there is an obstacle in their way, like how do I get them to network with other people?

How do I make connections? How do I go? And I just had an interview today with one of my employees and I said, okay, last time we talked, you said this, what have you done towards that? And actually asked me for more work and more challenging. I said, okay, you got it. I need you to know. And he asked us to trust him more.

I said, okay, then you have to trust that we are working on the right process to develop as well.

it because they take it down [: 00:19:00

How have you combined listening, action, trust into an accountability culture that's really effective in bringing about change? How do you thread that needle where you're doing all of those things without turning it into just micromanagement central?

Nicola Kennedy: For anyone who's coming up and trying to do that in your culture, you have to hold people accountable. So all of those things lead to accountability. You have to hold them accountable. You have to say, this is what I expect to see. This is how it will look when I see it. And.

And if a person is open to hearing a feedback, that's a win. But if they're not open to hearing a feedback, you have to figure out how do you go back in and maybe start the steps all over again because something didn't happen, right? But if , they trust that you're giving them good feedback and you're always honest with them, they're going to take the feedback.

on holding you accountable, [: 00:20:00

Maybe I missed it in my mailbox. Maybe you forgot to send it. But if you never did it, that meant you weren't even taking the steps to even be accountable

Dr. Jim: that's good stuff. And that feeds into some of the ownership concepts that we're talking about as well, because if you haven't made progress towards whatever you agreed to, you should be asking questions about, or at least saying, Hey, these are the things that I've tried. None of it's worked.. that Should be a part of that equation. Nicola I like the accountability piece that we've been talking about. One of the things that I'm worried about, and this is something that new managers struggle with, is having the right balance in accountability.

t are the things that you've [: 00:21:00

Nicola Kennedy: Being too nice sometimes is a downfall in an organization because you're not, you're always so nice. I don't want to hurt someone's feelings. I don't want to say this, but I'm always like, if you don't give the right feedback, that's not helping you nor the person,

because they're going to be surprised when somebody new come along and give them some feedback. I'm like, I've been doing this all along. Somebody just didn't give you the feedback, . You don't just start a habit. You already have that habit, . So I believe in being honest and not in being fair and that person will accept that feedback.

If you're honest and you're fair and you're always making sure you put given examples, I think people understand that. So I'd say hold them accountable. Make sure you get the right feedback and you got to be nice, but there's a level of niceness that goes along with it,

Dr. Jim: I

delivering feedback and you [: 00:22:00

Without any sort of roadmap, you're you're not being nice. You're not being kind. You're being derelict in your duties as far as what a leader is supposed to do.

We talked about how skip levels can be a game changer in building the type of coaching and development culture that you want. We talked about accountability and why that's important and some of the things that you need to be doing that helps you build high performing teams.

When you think about all the things that we've talked about. And there's somebody out there that wants to build this culture where skip levels are being leveraged to build that coaching and development culture. How would you advise them on what to focus on and how to get started?

e you looking to do coaching [: 00:23:00

And also you want to make sure you have goals that set there and you are able to help your team understand what those goals are and how their job impact those goals. So you want to make sure you have that. For example, I have a five year strategic plan just for our division that talks about what we're going to do, but also talks about the skills of our team and what skills we need to develop on our team.

And then you want to make sure that you are always taking a chance to reset and understand if you're going in the right direction. The world of HR is ever changing for lots of different reasons, but you need to make sure that you can pause, reset and redirect the team if it needs to be. But if you don't have a pulse, You won't know when to reset because you're just steady trying to get down the road.

to take a pause, reset, and [: 00:24:00

Dr. Jim: Awesome stuff, Nicola. I appreciate you sharing that with us. If people want to continue this conversation where, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Nicola Kennedy: They can find me on LinkedIn. I'm under Nicola Kennedy. You can find me there and I would be glad to touch base with anyone who looks forward to having a conversation. I'd love to continue this conversation.

Dr. Jim: I appreciate you hanging out with us. Maybe next time when we have you on, you can have your two dogs on either side being cool guests. There's.

lding alliances and building [: 00:25:00

So the concept of building that relationship first stood out to me is something that people need to focus on when they're looking at executing any sort of change. The other part that stood out in the conversation was the theme of connecting The big gap that we see in a lot of organizations is a disconnect between the strategic vision and the line level execution.

So for leaders to build high performing teams, they should be focused on how can they connect? Those two sides of the organization and that's where effective managers need to really occupy space. And then the last thing that you mentioned was this idea of reset. You should be building alliances. You should be connecting the dots, but you should also be taking the time to reset and reevaluate and redirect. What's happening so that you're constantly moving forward instead of just repeatedly doing the same things over and over again.

le for those of you who have [: 00:26:00