The clever thing about clever people

I love getting older! I am fascinated by all the people I have connected with over the years, the guidance and mentorship I received, and how that has impacted my life. I am going through an incredible journey of reconnecting with ex-colleagues and clients at the moment and it is lovely to reflect on what I have learned from them.

In this week’s Performance Cafe I am joined by Caryn Schalit, she was my HR lead when I was a training and development manager. We had a blast working together as she has an openness to new ideas, while at the same time never dropping her standards and keeping an eye in the bigger picture.

Caryn taught me many things, but three things stand out for me:

1. There is always time to innovate and do things even better. I remember us hashing out a Performance Management System that was so innovative at the time. And my ultimate reward was when, after the implementation was completed, an employee thanked me for the clarity and purpose the system created. That would not have happened had we rushed the process.
2. Caryn also always said that if two people always agree, one of them is redundant. I believe this is a Ben Bernanke To me it will always be a “Carynism”. On the back of that belief, she always took the time to listen to ideas, to provide feedback and to help evolve ideas to next level of thinking. Essentially, she did this by challenging me, but not once do I remember us arguing. To this day I wonder how she managed that.
3. My last lesson, for the purposes of this post, was that Caryn always claimed that she only brought people into her team who are cleverer than she is. While I strongly doubt the statement, as she has clever to spare, it made me feel that my ideas where always appreciated and she never expected anyone to kowtow to her. The interesting part about this is that it was invaluable when I started my own business. I have been able to collaborate with some very clever people who do amazing work and outshine me by far. Without Caryn’s view on this I would have felt insecure and my ego would have spun about like the Tazmanian Devil. Now, I use my energy building more connections with exceptional individuals in order to provide my clients with the best solutions possible.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to present a webinar on Employee Engagement to the Enshrine Placements team’s community. The majority of the focus was on Employee Engagement and how to create that in a business context. The message was clear (i) win over hearts and minds and ensure people feel they belong, (ii) allow employees to have some autonomy in their role and (iii) allow employees to feel appreciated and respected in their role which will motivate them to higher levels of mastery. This creates engagement which will see employees rise to achieve and do more than is asked in most cases… Oh wait! Caryn taught me that too!

And so, that is the clever thing about clever people like Caryn. They allow you to shine, while challenging you and making you feel valuable. What an amazing journey.

Caryn grew up in HR & Talent Acquisition and more recently, managed the global People function of a growing mid-size enterprise for 7 years. She embraces non-traditional HR thinking and believes passionately in helping shape people practices, talent acquisition and talent management to ensure they are relevant and designed with the future of work in mind.