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Creating a Healthy Corporate Culture with Hema Crockett · Authentic Living

• 0:01
  Welcome to authentic living with Roxanne, a place where we have as conversations about
• 0:08
  things that really matter in our lives.
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  And now here's your host, Roxanne Derhodge.
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  So, what we find today is that most of us are trying to find I would say what what I would
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  say would be the sweet spot around culture.
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  And today, I have, a subject matter expert on that Hema Crockett.
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  And, Hemma has done, a lot of amazing work, in lots of realms around culture.
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  She is she calls herself a recovering HR executive.
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  So that I wanna talk about.
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  And, Emma has, recently, written two books one around designing exceptional cultures, and that
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  was released in February.
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  And she sued to be released the everyday leader, and she lives in San Diego with her
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  husband.
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  So, Emma, thanks so much for coming on today.
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  Roxanne, thank you so much for having me.
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  I'm excited about our conversation today.
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  So let's talk a little bit about, now and Emma also owns a, HR I would say it's not an HR
• 1:35
  consulting firm, but it's a recruitment firm for, some HR capacity, but also a lot of
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  coaching.
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  And it's called Geek Talent.
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  So let's talk a little bit about kind of your path and what brings you to here today and,
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  doing the kind of work that you do, Hema.
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  Absolutely.
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  And this will tie in a little bit with that recovering HR executive you touched upon
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  earlier, but my background, I'd been an HR for about 18 years in a whole host of industries,
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  mainly startup, but I had my fair share of much larger companies, that were in different stages
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  of their life cycle, but tech, biotech, fintech, financial services, was fortunate
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  enough to spend some time overseas as well and working with the state department and
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  department of justice on different aspects of of culture and human rights overseas as well.
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  And, came back to the states in 2013 after having lived over for about three and a half
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  years and went right back into the thick of things, picked up my career.
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  Although I told myself I was going to take it easy, not work 75, 80 hours a week, not jump
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  right back into it like I did, and that lasted for all of about 4 months.
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  And I was right back in it.
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  I loved the work that I was doing, helping organizations really build these amazing
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  cultures, whether they were going through times of information or whether it was internal
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  growth or acquisitions or post acquisitions.
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  And, decided along that path about 3 years ago that I wanted to branch out on my own and
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  really create or curate a life that allowed me to focus on my passions, do what I love doing,
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  really being authentic how I was living my life and intentionally designing it.
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  But still being able to do the work that I love to do and give back in that capacity.
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  And so went out on my own and, stayed in touch with a close friend and former colleague, Jamie
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  Jacob, And that's how we got together and formed, gig talent, which you had touched upon
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  earlier.
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  And gig talent really is a, a modern talent agency.
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  So we're a collective that allows others who are on that journey that I talked about myself
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  being on as well, going from, whether it's in house work or corporate work to really being a
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  consultant and creating the life that they wanna live, doing the work that they love to
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  do.
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  And we focus on HR consultants, business consultants, we have some operations
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  consultants as well, and then a lot of leadership coaches, all designed in the vein of
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  helping organizations achieve that amazing culture have really strong leaders, in the
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  process as well.
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  So it's, it's definitely a journey and one that I, I write about actually a the, the beginning
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  chapter of, of the, designing exceptional organizational cultures.
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  It's one of the first chapters that Jamie and I wrote with our own story our own journey to get
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  us to this point in time.
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  So let's talk a little bit about, with organizations and, ultimately, organizations
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  are, a culmination of their people and with a set set of guidelines.
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  And when we talk about corporate culture and developing a corporate culture, tell tell us a
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  little bit about what's involved in that.
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  For anyone listening.
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  That's either they have a culture that they inherited, or there may be starting off and
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  they want to ensure that they're taking the right steps to to lay the proper foundation
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  for, I would say a healthy culture.
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  Absolutely.
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  And you're spot on.
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  Regardless of whether they know it or not, there is always a culture, right?
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  Good or bad, there is a culture that exists.
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  And the way that we define culture is really thinking about it as the intersection of
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  values, actions, and behaviors.
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  Right?
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  Think about it as the rules of engagement how do you want employees to interact with each
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  other, to interact with customers and clients as well?
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  And so one of the foundational elements, at least in our opinion, of any culture, are your
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  values.
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  Right?
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  I think of them really as the foundation of a house, if you build strong values and if you
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  have a strong foundation of a house, then you can continue to build up, up, and up.
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  And if there was ever a change that came across your way as we know, take the pandemic, for
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  example.
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  Right?
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  If it's built on a solid foundation, anything can happen to those Four walls, that's okay.
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  But who you are, your core stays the same.
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  And so, we really take those values and infuse them throughout all aspects of culture so that
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  you're living them.
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  You're making decisions based on those values.
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  And that's whether you're at an employee level or at a CEO level.
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  Right, how you are leaning into those values is really key.
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  And then how you pull that thread all the way through how you compensate employees, how you
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  recognize employees, your leadership development opportunities as well.
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  In addition to values, I would say leadership is really important when looking at culture and
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  wanting to build a strong culture.
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  One of the things we talk about in the book is starting with self awareness as a leader.
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  Right?
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  How are we showing up?
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  And as we think about our impact versus intent.
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  That is saying something whether we think it is or not, and our teams are taking cues from us
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  and employees are watching.
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  And and we're, we're very deliberate in making sure we started out with, with, leadership and
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  self awareness in that aspect because it's one of the areas we have routinely seen derail a
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  culture.
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  This whole concept of do, as I say, not as I do.
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  It's when you talk about awareness and I, you know, that's a big part of my book.
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  I often talk a little bit about the beginning, you know, and I often say you know, our
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  leadership story sometimes begins well before we realize it.
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  So I think about myself and, my kind of sweet spot is talking about authenticity, being
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  connected to yourself, having awareness.
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  And I think about where that came from and culturally, I'm from Trinidad and Tobago and
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  grew up in a little small village, with a lot of really fundamental, some Eastern in values,
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  some a combination of a small little unit and very, very interconnected extended family.
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  And one thing that I noticed quite early is that when people were disconnected, how it
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  impacted me and my capacity to be able to kind of function within that cyst them.
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  So what I'm wondering with you is what what's your leadership story?
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  Exactly.
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  As you said, I think it starts long before we actually recognize it.
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  For me, my background is East Indian as well, and and my parents came to the US when I was 2.
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  My dad you know, had a job here in Arizona is where I grew up.
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  And really, for me, it was watching how I grew up, which was very different from those around
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  me.
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  I mean, there was this push pull to a degree, right, of East Indian values and the
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  traditional aspect of an East Indian culture.
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  Living in America.
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  And, and what that really looked like.
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  And we had a close knit group of family friends that I grew up with.
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  Their values and ideals, much the same way.
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  And I think for me, that's where it started.
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  And then watching my parents, right, my dad go to work every morning.
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  My mom wore to get another degree and then go to work and have a career, take care of the
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  house, take care of the kids, and, and really be there for us when we needed it, watching my
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  dad start his own company, even when he was working full time, right, have an employee come
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  over to the house in the evenings and really work to make his other company a success.
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  And, and I think for me, that's where it started.
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  Really, this concept of, it's never easy, but it's always worth it.
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  At the
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  end of
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  the day.
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  Right.
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  Absolutely.
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  And and I think it also, for me, happened when I lived in Nepal.
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  I was fortunate enough to live in Nepal for 2 years.
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  And living in Kathmandu in a city where you see, I think, the harsher side of life in many
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  regards, but in people who are so loving and so caring and will give you the shirt off their
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  back and and how you show up in that environment and and who you are.
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  I think I learned a lot about leadership in, in that environment as well and brought that back
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  to who I am today because I was an adult when I went through those experiences.
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  Do you find that a lot of leaders that you work with?
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  Or that you've been exposed to a willing to go back that far.
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  Like, what we're talking about is rudimentary elements that started well before we were aware
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  of what we were gonna do for a living, right, before I be decided to become a psychotherapist
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  and you decided to go into HR consulting, you know, values get formulated.
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  Right?
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  You know, so they whether it's, watching your dad work really hard and start a business and
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  myself, with my my dad, for instance.
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  So my my history is that was, from the Caribbean, Indian, the a lot of Indians went to
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  Trinidad as indentured laborers.
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  Right?
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  And then I saw my dad kind of go up the ranks, to become a CEO.
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  1 of the first East Indian men at that level in the islands because they were still obviously
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  and still exist a lot of colonialism at that time.
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  So again, formulating at a child, not realizing that by osmosis, I was kinda taking these
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  things in and, you know, started to kind of implement a lot of things because my dad is
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  probably as as authentic as you can get, but but he could you know, he could lead just by
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  his presence with something that I felt very, very fortunate to have grown up around and also
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  colleagues and things like that.
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  With leaders that you may have interfaced with or even people that are going through, I mean,
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  we're we're still in the thick of it in 2021.
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  Do you find a lot of leaders are trying to create the space to go to that depth or are
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  they being reactive?
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  To the space of 2020 2021?
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  Yeah.
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  I I would say a little bit of both.
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  Right?
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  I would say pre pandemic There was a lot of reactivity.
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  There was a lot of this is the situation that has happened.
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  Let's just focus on this.
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  And I think there was less about, less intentionality.
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  Let's put it that way.
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  And I think early pandemic, we probably saw quite a bit of that as well.
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  And, but I definitely think that there are leaders.
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  There's always going to be exceptions, right?
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  But, but there are leaders who have really taken this last year and a half to figure out
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  who they are and how they want to show up.
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  And I think what's forcing a lot of those discussions are the employee base today.
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  Employees have options.
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  There's a lot of opportunity out there.
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  I mean, we've all seen the articles even recently stating things like you know, there's
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  a, a feeling that about 40% of employees will resign or calling it the great resignation.
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  Because there are opportunities available.
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  There are, people have realized they wanna work differently.
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  And I think in that, we're forcing leaders to gain a level of self awareness that they may
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  not have had before, to really look at how they're showing up as a leader and how those
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  early experiences or even just a a catastrophic experience, even if they don't wanna go back
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  all the way to childhood, but how an event in their life has sparked who they are as a
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  leader.
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  And, honestly, it's never too late to change that.
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  It's never too late to add new tools to that tool belt at the end of the day.
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  But I am noticing an uptick in coaching and executive coaching.
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  And I think that's where a lot of it is stemming from.
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  How can an individual show up differently or as a better version of themselves, in this
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  environment?
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  Not when quarterly when you're attending the the board meetings to report to the board, but
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  really, how does that translate out day in, day out?
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  And, you know, looking at values, right, because we started the conversation about
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  looking at like you said, values and how that translates into the behavior.
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  What I love about what you're saying, Hema, is that, you know, we used to believe that you
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  know, it's, you know, it came one way.
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  It either came from the top down to flow through, but you talked a little bit of a, you
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  know, a lovely concept, which is if I if we truly really live within our values, it doesn't
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  matter what level of the organization you are because you understand the core fundamentals
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  that create the foundation.
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  So whether you're the person that's answering the phone, or even your if you're external
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  facing and you're, the one that's the first person that the customer sees all the way up to
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  behind the house kind of ends of things.
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  If you're working from the same value system, there's an affinity regardless if you're the
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  the CU suites or all the way to the front line.
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  And what it also allows is for a difference of opinion.
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  Right?
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  And that's okay because we're showing we're bringing diversity to that table.
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  We're showing diversity and thought as well.
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  But what we're really saying is you don't always all have to agree, but we're doing it
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  from a place of the same values in a very respectful way, in a very honest way.
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  And I think that is also what employees are looking for.
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  Today in a leader in an organization.
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  What I'll also add to that is I don't think that it matters what your title is to show up
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  as a leader.
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  I think that's often a misconception for so many people.
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  I don't have manager in my title or vice president or director or countless other
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  versions of this level or this arbitrary title that anybody at any level within an
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  organization can show up as a leader.
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  It is all about not only those values, but those leadership traits that you bring to the
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  table, and making sure that your actions and behaviors are really aligned with what you're
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  saying.
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  That doesn't that has no bearing on your level within an organization.
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  So I gotta play devil's advocate for a second and say, I completely agree with you.
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  Yeah.
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  The title of my book is called ROR return on relationships, which I completely believe that
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  if you focus on that, the bottom of the ROI takes care of itself.
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  So I would say that the level of awareness really would be indicative of, the the culture.
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  So if I've if I'm coming from kind of the old autocratic top down perspective on leadership,
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  I gotta be a bit diametrically opposed to that perspective But if I'm coming from an, you
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  know, an authoritarian, authoritative kind of open, values equal actions and equal alignment,
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  you know, so those are 2 completely different worlds.
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  I think you're right.
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  I think we're kind of seeing, and I think this time, it was there before, but the the last,
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  obviously, I would say fourteen months has put it that the first one of the core fundamentals
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  that us as consumers, regardless, is that we want to feel trusting of the companies that
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  we're dealing with.
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  And I think that's what's why we're seeing, like you said, a lot more executive coaching, a
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  lot more leaders say, Wow.
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  I'm I'm held to a higher standard now.
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  I always knew I should achieve it, but now it's not it's not like I almost can't negotiate with
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  it because people can go elsewhere because, you know, like you said, there's so much
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  opportunities for the talent out there today.
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  Absolutely.
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  And I think the other thing we've really noticed, I mean, it was always there.
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  But, again, these last, you know, 14, 18 months have brought it out people are always watching.
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  Right?
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  They're taking their cues from leadership.
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  So how an executive behaved over these last fourteen six 18, 18 months is indicative of
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  their behavior going forward.
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  And I think employees are are really starting to say, is that who I want to be associated
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  with, is that who I want to learn from and and develop, you know, other skills looking at them
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  as a, kind of a model or a role model.
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  And I think as leaders, we're starting to say, oh, man, people really are watching.
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  And I think it's time that I evolve who I am, you're always going to have the outliers, a
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  100%.
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  And in in some instances that has worked for, for those individuals that has worked for their
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  organizations, and there's always a place for that.
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  I think it's about how who we want to be not only as an individual, but who our company
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  needs to be in order to continue surviving and thriving.
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  Because while, hopefully, we won't see another pandemic, there will inevitably be another
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  crisis.
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  Right?
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  Our business will face something along the way.
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  And how much how prepared are we to handle that moving forward?
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  And that relies on our leadership abilities.
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  So I wanna, you know, and I know we're almost a time, but I wanna talk a little bit about the
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  the new book.
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  Yeah.
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  Because I think that's important.
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  I love the title.
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  First of all.
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  So I I think I know what it's about, but I would like to know what is an everyday leader.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So so the book is called the everyday leader.
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  And the premise behind it is my husband and I wrote it together, which let me tell you about
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  a testament to a relationship.
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  If you can get through writing a book together, and, looking at public
• 19:30
  Is it as bad as, do wallpaper together?
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  Wall paper may win, actually.
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  I think wallpaper wins as do remodels in the home.
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  But but it was such a fun project for us to do together.
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  He had retired from the Marine Corps a few years ago.
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  And last year, we as everybody else was thinking about leadership, and it was really
• 19:50
  top of mind, and we see it a lot, especially in the work that we do with our clients.
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  And we just started talking about how the Marine Corps right from day 1 when you go into
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  boot camp they talk about the 14 Marine Corps leadership trait and how they're further
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  instilled throughout the rest of your time in the Marine Corps.
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  For him, he had been in for 23 years, as I said, and how that showed up every day in every
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  way, regardless again, of where you were in your own leadership journey.
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  And we just started thinking about that concept.
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  And for me, what brought to mind for me is 18 years in business, thinking about how I wish I
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  would have thought about leadership in that same way when I had started out my career
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  versus thinking about it, I need to get that title because then people will see me as a
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  leader.
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  And really thinking about how do we bring that concept to light for so many, especially in an
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  age where I think we're craving leadership.
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  And I think we're showing up as leaders in everything we do.
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  And so that is the everyday leader.
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  The everyday leader is somebody who whether you're in the boardroom, whether you're running
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  an organization, or whether you are president of your PTA, your kid's soccer coach, You are a
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  leader in every way, and how you show up is just as important in that boardroom as it is on
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  that field.
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  Absolutely.
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  And that, you know, it's so funny that you'd say that because I would say that the most of
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  the authentic leaders, and I I I interviewed a fair amount of them from my book, Hema, they
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  said, that they are the same person regardless of where they are, whether they're up in the
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  boardroom, whether they're out at the, like, the hockey rink or the soccer, a pitch with
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  their child, or whether they're, you know, volunteering at an organization, they are
• 21:43
  Hemat, they are Roxanne.
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  And, you know, whoever they are as a leader, it's not they're not different in different
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  systems within their life.
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  So that's that's, fundamentally, it's not it sounds like an amazing book So I would love for
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  people to be able to get a hold of it.
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  I know it's coming, soon.
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  So tell us a little bit about where they can get it and where people can get ahold of you if
• 22:07
  they're interested in knowing more about gig talent as well.
• 22:11
  Absolutely.
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  So in terms of gig talent, our website is the best place, which is www.govgigtalent.com.
• 22:19
  Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn as well, and follow our gig talent page on
• 22:25
  LinkedIn.
• 22:26
  And in terms of the books, both the everyday leader and, designing exceptional
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  organizational cultures.
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  Both are available wherever books are sold, and the everyday leader will be released in August
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  the end of August, but is available for presale on Amazon today.
• 22:44
  Amazing.
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  Well, thank you so much.
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  So what am I walking away with?
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  I'm walking away with the fact that think of your story and think of the fundamentals, you
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  know, like, there were so many very different variables for her and be in in Kathmandu just
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  witnessing, certain things she came back and she implemented or, you know, kind of
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  integrated that into her leadership.
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  So as a leader, think about it, if you feel like I don't feel like I'm in alignment, start
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  to think about why is it that I wanted to lead.
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  Whether it's to be the best soccer coach, there is for your kids' soccer team or the best
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  volunteer, at, you know, the boys and girls club that you are.
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  Whatever it is, think about why am I leading the way I am, And is it in line in alignments
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  with my values?
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  And I why is that not translating out into my actions?
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  Spend that time.
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  Just a bit of awareness gives you a sense of where you are, and then in turn it, it gives
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  you some next steps.
• 23:51
  So again, thanks again, Emma, for being here.
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  And if you're needing any information on authentic leadership, please, connect with me
• 24:00
  at Roxanne.
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  Take care, everyone, and we'll talk to you soon.
• 24:05
  Thanks for tuning in to authentic living with Roxanne, creating the space for positive health
• 24:11
  the change.
• 24:12
  Roxanne is a keynote speaker, psychotherapist, and coach to work with Roxanne, visit Roxanne
• 24:19
  DurHub dotcom/blueprint.
• 24:22
  We'll see you next time.
• 24:24
  An authentic living with Roxanne.