Unlocking the Potential of Non-Exempt Employees: Strategies for Growth and Development

Dr. Jim: [: 00:00:00

You have to have a plan that everyone is in alignment with. That's what Kenny Valespin, VP of HR at Texas Partners Bank has to say. So let me give you a little bit of background on Kenny and his story. One of his core values is to act with integrity and be highly focused on serving people. And that service mentality started all the way back when he was in the Army Signal Corps and achieved the rank of Sergeant.

He spent another four years after serving in the army with the active Texas National Guard overseeing human resources in the U S army South. After his military time, he pursued higher education, received his associate's degree.

m Southwestern assemblies of [: 00:01:00

He's currently the VP of HR at Texas partners bank, . Kenny also serves on multiple nonprofit education and professional business boards around the city.

Not to brag, but he considers himself the. Voice of his generation when it comes to HR and HR leadership. So Kenny Velasquez, welcome to the show.

Kenny Vallespin: Thank you, Dr. Jim. Appreciate you and thank you for having me on the show.

Dr. Jim: I know that we covered a lot of ground in your bio but I still think there's an opportunity for you to fill in some gaps. So what I'd like you to do is get the listeners up to speed Things that you feel is important about your background and experience.

That's going to help inform this conversation.

up in HR, to be honest with [: 00:02:00

And they said, in order to do so, you have to reclass into what is called a 92 Alpha. I really didn't know what that was. Come to find out when I go to school, it's an HR specialist. And after that I spent four years active duty there, go into the private sector and start to, to begin my career.

As I continued to grow really got into different aspects of serving on different boards. And as I served on different boards, it really got me. To, to thinking about my community a lot more. And so I became the president of one of the nonprofit organizations on the board. That is, and I served on a few other boards here in San Antonio.

ork, but also, bringing what [: 00:03:00

Dr. Jim: You've referenced it several times just in this little bit. And that's this this habit of service and giving back from your military experience, from the nonprofit boards that that you're a part of where does that come from?

Kenny Vallespin: So what drives me actually is my faith, growing up I've been Really rooted in church and in church Obviously, we served a lot of the homeless people. We fed those in need we provided for children during the christmas season with gifts and just being raised in that kind of culture Has really got me into to that heart of servant and also, really helping me as a leader being a servant leader, but going back to, where did this come from?

ll these different things to [: 00:04:00

And I might have ever really wanted to serve in some of the capacities that my mom drugged me along serving in the church, serving with the homeless people, serving at the food banks and everything like that. But when I got there, man, after serving and Seeing the people's faces light up, it really did something for me, and that's the foundations of what drives me today to serve people and that's actually where a lot of my heart to serve has come from, and as well as my servant leadership.

others in the world of work?[: 00:05:00

Kenny Vallespin: It's really interesting because in the military being a sergeant, you have to be a little bit stringent, you know Get the job done but what my faith really did for me is it laid a foundation for me to really love people Treat people as they want to be treated But also look at people as somebody with purpose And that person that's filled with purpose that has a purpose Is going to do something great and if you can just pull that out of them whether they can see it In themselves or they can't say to themselves if you can pull that out of them or you can help them grow in their purpose or grow in their strengths, that's something that really drives me, but it all is rooted in my faith and has really helped me to blossom.

especially as a leader, I'll [: 00:06:00

Dr. Jim: I really like that last bit that you mentioned where you've never asked anybody to do something that you're not willing to do. That's actually a foundational principle of how I've actually come up as a leader as well. I call myself a player coach where I'm going to lead from the front.

I'm not going to just like armchair quarterback and tell you what to do. I'm going to actually probably tell you, ask some questions and show you and work alongside with you. That's a really good philosophy that of not asking.

Anybody to do something that you're not willing to do. You've been at texas partners bank for almost 10 years So i'm gonna limit you in your answer to this question. When you think about the 10 years that you've spent in this role, what's the accomplishment that you're most proud of?

, everything just blossomed. [: 00:07:00

What that means from an HR standpoint, point is growth, so that means people growth. That means growth and training. That means growth and development. That means growth and leadership. And so I've been really proud to see or to be on this journey with the bank, starting from where they were humble roots, very young bank, a de novo bank.

That means a startup bank. And then growing to being over 2 billion. And it's been a really great ride. And I've been able to see so many people blaze their own trail. When people first start at the bank, I tell them, treat your position as your own small business. Now grow your business.

eing, a startup to more of a [: 00:08:00

And in principle, I like that co comment and I like that advice. It's it's something that I've often used when when I've had people on my team, but there's a line for that. And I think one of the things that gets people into trouble, we're talking about ownership mentality. And in theory that sounds great, but in practice.

Sometimes leaders can demand more than what's acceptable for that person on the team when it comes to that ownership mentality. So tell me a little bit about how you struck the right balance. Between what's reasonable and what's acceptable.

ut this prior to the show is [: 00:09:00

And do I have the bandwidth to meet my own personal goals in this role. And as an organization, we strive to provide this for people. Obviously, I'm excited when people Find out this revelation for themselves and potentially find another job, but we want to be able to provide for people as they grow in our organization as well.

We talked about being paid fairly. We talked about the ability to grow. And we talk about the ability to, Hey, look, I want, I have goals and I have dreams and I have things that I want to accomplish in my career. Can I do it here? And so those are conversations that we continually have.

, not just manager, but your [: 00:10:00

And this also is an organization where you feel you can, from a career standpoint, continue to advance and fulfill your goals and dreams that you have set out for yourself as well.

Dr. Jim: The interesting aspect of what you're described, if I'm putting that on a bumper sticker, it sounds like you've from a, from an organizational culture perspective, put a strong emphasis in development and retention. And you're talking about that from a growth perspective overall. So when you look at that from a theory perspective, how has that shown up in practical terms in your ability to retain people compared to other.

Organizations that are in the same space as you?

the things that I really see [: 00:11:00

And what I've really come to see from an HR perspective, at least as if we continue to focus on the employee and make sure that they're having like that Maslow's hierarchy of needs, getting their needs met. They're going to continue to do well. They're going to continue to thrive.

And so one of the things that we really do is we talk about disc and I'm not sure if a lot of the people out there do disc, but it's like that personality thing just to see how you're hardwired. Also, we also do EQ emotional quotient. That's my bread and butter at the bank. I'm Mr. EQ. I teach that class.

But that's really important to me because, a lot of the studies they talk about, it's not IQ or CQ or AQ that, that make you successful. It's really your EQ because that's the thing that your ability, that you have the ability to change and really manage. And I really think.

Those two things coupled [: 00:12:00

And I think some of those classes, we have real conversations. We talk about being radically candid in those conversations. And not shying away from, hey let's be kind. But let's also make sure that other people know how we feel. And we don't shy away from it, but the way that we tell each other that is through psychological safety.

We're in a safe environment to have a really strong conversation if we need to.

Dr. Jim: I think that sets the stage really well for the main part of what we're going to talk about.

ed you build high performing [: 00:13:00

Kenny Vallespin: Yeah being here for 10 years and also being in HR for a total of 18 years now, obviously I've seen a lot of resumes. I've seen a lot of people come into the organization. I've seen a lot of people leave the organization. I've seen successful people and I've seen a lot of people that were not successful in their roles.

And there's three things that, that really stick out to me and three things that I like to focus on as an is the first, I want to make sure that people are in the right seat. If you're not in the right seat, I don't believe that you're gonna, you're gonna thrive. You might be okay, but you're not gonna be happy.

The second thing is that your strengths are magnified in the thing that you're doing on a daily basis. And the third thing is that you have the manager that's a leader. To be able to lead you and the team in the right way to get a high performing team.

seat. And I think if people [: 00:14:00

Dr. Jim: So you mentioned something that's interesting, you want to magnify your strengths. That's one of the responsibilities that a manager has is to magnify your strengths. How do you practically create a scenario where you are intentional about playing to the strengths of your team - how do you identify those strengths and how do you structure it in such a way where you're playing to each team member's strengths?

Kenny Vallespin: To answer the first part of the question from a leadership standpoint I think a lot of leaders they want to be fulfilled themselves and they want their employees to fulfill them. I don't think that's real leadership. I think leadership is filling the cup of your employees and having their cup filled and their cup running over.

are you doing? Let's have a [: 00:15:00

In the first 30 days. I would like you to meet with your managers and map out all of your goals, right? And obviously they can change as time goes on. And 60th day, I want you and your manager to, to meet up and make sure that, Hey, based on the goals that we set, how am I doing? How are you doing?

Let's have that real conversation. And the 90 days, I think if everything's going good, you'll really know, but you'll also really know in 90 days. After you've had these, this 30 day, this 60 day and regular check ins, You'll really know how they're going to do in their position.

when people come to me about [: 00:16:00

So if you're coming to me as a manager and you're telling me you're frustrated, one of the first things that I'm always going to ask you and every manager at the bank will tell you this. If you come into Kenny's office and you tell me there's a problem, one of the first questions is probably going to be, help me understand.

But the second question is, did you set clear expectations based on what you're asking me about? With the employee.

Dr. Jim: I like your point about setting clear expectations. When you hear the phrase, everybody's Oh yeah, that makes sense. So I want to dig a little bit deeper. That can mean any number of things to any number of people. And then your typical manager might be sitting there thinking yeah, I set clear expectations.

ectations look looks like so [: 00:17:00

Kenny Vallespin: When you're talking to people in general when i'm in all my eq classes or any of my training classes I always tell people if they're listening to me the for the first time I always tell everyone tell me that you're a lifelong learner And I'll look at you and I'll say, cool, that's nice.

But if you tell me you're a lifelong re learner, you go to another level for me. And how does that relate back to what we were talking about? When we talk about Hey, how do you set that foundation is? Hey are you how's the training? Let's talk about the training were they properly trained?

In what they were supposed to do if they were that's good Now that you have some time with them after time has gone by now that you're looking at some of the things are you fine tuning it? Are you letting it go one of the things that we talked about and I mentioned it a little bit earlier was Being radically candid.

of the biggest foundational [: 00:18:00

You have a safe environment for communication. I think a lot of communication breaks is because I don't trust you enough to tell you the truth or I don't trust you enough to tell you really how I feel. But if you have this environment of trust and you build that foundation. Now, if something's wrong, I get to talk to you about it.

You're not going to get hurt, . We always talk about, hey, if I give you feedback, walls come up, especially if it's bad feedback, walls come up. But if you really truly have a psychological safe environment and people trust each other in that environment, you really open the door for great communication.

e better,. If I fail forward [: 00:19:00

I have a growth mindset. Those people seem to thrive. And those that really don't have that growth mindset or those that can't fail forward, you tend to see them make their own way out the door.

Dr. Jim: I really like a lot of what you said there, and it's connecting with me with the exception of one little element. So everything that you're describing from a psychological safety perspective, a radical candor perspective, all of that stuff makes sense. And I can see how that can be executed across an organization, and especially if you're talking about exempt employees.

reate the space to have that [: 00:20:00

So how did you bake that into that context as well as your exempt employees?

Kenny Vallespin: I think it goes back to, Hey, are you bought into the mission vision? And values of the bank or the organization if you're bought into the mission vision and values and obviously we talked about Loyalty before that's not necessarily something that is really huge anymore, but is that okay?

stion, what are you going to [: 00:21:00

What have you done for me? And what have you done for me lately? A non exempt employee is typically the employee that clocks in and clocks out. They're typically the employee that is some of them are the lowest paid employees in the organization. So as a leader, you have a responsibility to paint a really great picture for them.

And this picture should show, hey look, In this organization, I have the ability to grow by doing X, Y, or Z, and as they start to fulfill X, Y, and Z, they trust you enough to be a leader of your word, or a manager of your word, to actually grow them into their next position. I think some organizations, they can say, Hey, look, you have to accomplish all this to get to this next step.

hat they're in right now and [: 00:22:00

I don't get it. The trust is gone for a non exempt employee. But if you are an organization that says, Hey, look, we have we have these, we have a mission, we have a vision and a value. And so as long as you're aligning with our mission, vision, and value, and in your position, you're doing everything you need to do.

And maybe let's just say a one position, then we're going to grow you to a two. And if you do everything as a 2, we're going to grow you to a 3. Or if you're not in a position with 1s, 2s, and 3s, maybe you're just sent, you're just an analyst. But I've done everything that I've needed to do to accomplish, to be accomplished analyst.

hown you that I can do this, [: 00:23:00

That the manager and the leader, or the leader, really paints that picture on what their expectation is in order for them to grow, and when they meet your expectations, you actually grow them.

Dr. Jim: The big linkage that I take away from what you just described is that if you want to build this type of organization where you're serving the entire employee population, not just your exempt population, you have to not only talk about what you're going to do.

ink there's a lot of meat in [: 00:24:00

What are the things that they need to watch out for? How do they get started?

Kenny Vallespin: Yeah, I think my biggest advice because I went through it is when you're talking about growth. Growth of the organization, growth of people sometimes we want to go too fast and sometimes you just got to slow down and say, Hey, look, did I set the right expectations? Do I have all the right I'm sorry.

Do I have the right job description for the people? Do they have role clarity in, in that job? And if they have role clarity in that job, do I have the ability to continue to grow them, right? And if I don't, you've got to figure out how you're going to roll with it. One of the big takeaways that, that I would like to tell everybody is that you can't put Everybody in a box.

l this to leaders and I tell [: 00:25:00

And when we say that, we also need to understand that you can't put people in a box. There's going to be people that are going to be introverted, people that are going to be extroverted, people that are going to learn in different ways. And you have to be an organization and you have to be a leader that knows how to Hey, this person learns this way.

ogical, psychologically safe [: 00:26:00

And the way that it's conducive to getting the best work out of people. And the reason why I say it like that is because communication is just not me and you talking, right? So it's a dialogue, two people talking, not a monologue. And so communication is not just having this dialogue where we're just talking to each other, talking to each other with clarity.

And you understand what I'm saying. And if you don't understand, you have the psychologically safe environment. And you trust me enough to tell me what's really on your mind or no, I really didn't get it

Dr. Jim: If people want to continue this conversation, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

t conversation with me, I am [: 00:27:00

So I would love to learn from you, but I would also like to help you if I can in any way.

Dr. Jim: Kenny really great conversation. I appreciate you hanging out with us and spending time with us.

When I think about this conversation, there's a few things that really stand out, and one of the first things that you mentioned that struck a chord with me is that. People in your organization need to know their value. And the gap that exists is that oftentimes the individual that you're dealing with probably doesn't recognize their value in any true sense.

ect that dot paint something [: 00:28:00

And that's how you actually get them to the places that they need to go so that everybody is raising their game. The other thing that stood out to me, Is when you're looking at high performance organizations, you need to have leaders who are playing to the strengths of their people.

And that requires you to spend the appropriate amount of time in understanding who they are at an individual level. And you talked about don't look at people and put them into boxes. You need to connect with them at an individual level so you recognize what their strengths are and play to that, versus constantly having to put people in a position where they're trying to shore up their weaknesses.

Play to the things that give people energy versus take energy away from them. I thought that was really important. And the last thing that stands out about what we talked about is that organizations have a habit and leaders within those organizations have a habit about talking about all sorts of stuff.

ace to paint the vision. But [: 00:29:00

For those of you who have listened to the conversation, we appreciate you hanging out. Tune in next time where we'll have another great leader on the program talking to us about the game changing realizations that help them build a high performing team.