On Wednesday, March 3rd, Star Staffing hosted our spring HR Summit: “Strategic Leadership for Ultimate Success.” The half-day event took place from 9:00 am – 12:30 pm PST.
We were happy to arrange an opportunity for major figures in the HR industry such as Garry Ridge and Tracie Sponenberg to share their perspectives on the joys and challenges that come with the HR industry, and an overall discussion on how to best cope with virtual working during a pandemic. Our other valued speakers, Lisa Lichty and Kate Gibbons, represented Star Staffing and shared their expert advice about performance management strategies and opportunities to analyze metrics.
Ultimately, we felt that this summit was appropriate for all business leaders as the content was geared towards how to lead change, measure metrics, leverage networks, and more – skills that every professional can benefit from having and learning about.
Key Takeaways From Our Guest Speakers
Tracie Sponenberg
Tracie Sponenberg, Chief People Officer of The Granite Group, opened the Summit by sharing her personal journey. She shared her down-to-earth story about realizing her true potential and gave us words of wisdom for how to “get comfortable out of your comfort zone.”
In the spirit of being our authentic selves, Tracie encouraged us to start developing a personal brand online. If there’s anything we learned on this topic it’s that we all need to get active on LinkedIn ASAP (especially if we’re looking for a new job!). Tracie clearly laid out her personal experience about the power of networking, especially through social media, and shared that her online presence has been vital to making the relationships and impact that she has in the HR industry today.
Another key takeaway is Tracie’s assertion on the visibility and equity of HR professionals in an organization. Having HR professionals in executive positions is just as important as other roles: “If you have a CFO at your company, you should also have a CPO [Chief People Officer],” she said.
Thank you, Tracie. Your stories really spoke to us and gave us the motivation to aspire to greatness in our lives too!
Garry Ridge
Garry Ridge, our keynote speaker, and chief executive officer of WD-40 Company started off his session by comparing company culture growth to a bacteria culture in a petri dish – the more you nurture your culture, the stronger and more present it becomes.
Garry encouraged us to build upon this culture starting day one. All we need to do is do right by those we manage and work with: “Good managers applaud employees when they need to be applauded and redirect employees when they need to be redirected. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that,” he said.
The important thing to remember when managing others is that “everyone is on their own hero’s journey” meaning that communication and empathy will always be important in how we conduct ourselves in the business place. Garry shared that as a leader, you need to “Communicate – not just for ‘what,’ but for ‘why,’ always.” Garry reminded us to let employees know how they can make a difference and why their work matters every day.
Starting a new employee relationship? Start your new relationship off right by offering a robust onboarding experience (including an onboarding checklist) to build a rapport and align on expectations so that everyone is set up for success.
Thank you, Garry, for encouraging us to reach new heights in how we show up for our team members and ultimately, “our tribe.”
Missed the Summit? We Have Recordings!
If you weren’t able to make it to our event, we have recordings for you to access! Click here for more info.
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