Janet Parker, an HR veterans guide to your career: overcoming the ‘not ready’ myth, cultivating allies, termination tactics, and taking risks

Unlock the secrets of career success with Janet Parker, a seasoned HR executive who's navigated the corporate landscape for decades. In this eye-opening episode, Janet shares transformative insights that will reshape how you approach your professional journey. Are you ready to discover the hidden keys to thriving in your career?

Guest Bio:

Janet Parker is the Managing Director of Operations at a national nonprofit, where she works with the executive team to implement vision and reach organizational goals. With a rich background in HR leadership at major companies like Time Warner Cable, Nextel Communications, and Starbucks, Janet brings a wealth of experience in supporting corporate functions across sales, marketing, engineering, legal, and operations.

Content Sample:

1. Uncover the vital importance of understanding your company's business dynamics beyond your specific role.

2. Learn the crucial difference between mentors and allies, and how to cultivate both for career advancement.

3. Listen to advice around the best ways to go about dealing with a termination.

4. Discover why taking calculated risks can lead to unexpected opportunities and personal growth.

Key Takeaways:

1. [00:01:36] Understand the business beyond your function to become a more effective problem-solver and leader.

2. [00:04:07] Cultivate allies who will advocate for you even when you're not in the room.

3. [00:08:10] Don't let self-doubt hold you back from applying for senior positions - you'll learn and grow into the role.

4. [00:16:26] When addressing performance issues, be clear about expectations and follow through consistently.

5. [00:20:02] Take more risks in your career - you can always course-correct if things don't work out as planned.

Memorable Quotes:

1. "You really have to understand the business, not just your function, but you have to understand what makes your organization tick."

2. "Allies are going to be advocating for you, even when you're not in the room and you don't know about it."

3. "I wish I had taken more risks. It's helpful to be thoughtful in your decision making and plan things out, but along the way in my career, I could have taken more risk."

Related Content:

1. "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" by Carol S. Dweck - Expand on the growth mindset concept Janet mentions.

2. "This Is Not The Life I Ordered" by Deborah Collins Stephens, et al. - Janet's recommended book for resilience and support.

3. Article: "The Importance of Understanding Business Dynamics in HR" - Dive deeper into Janet's first piece of career advice.

Suggestions:

Subscribe to the Career Wanderlust Podcast for more insightful conversations with industry leaders. Follow Janet Parker's work and connect with her on LinkedIn to continue learning from her wealth of HR experience. https://www.linkedin.com/in/janetparkerhr/

Host and Platform Information:

This session was hosted by Jolie Downs with Paradigm, for more on career evolution and growth you can connect with Jolie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joliedowns/

If you enjoy learning from others, please give us a like, subscribe, and share with a friend. If you are looking to add talent to your public relations, marketing, communications, sales, or business development team with the best talent, and quickly, check us out at paradigmstaffing.com.

Ending Note:

As you reflect on Janet's advice, ask yourself: What risks have you been hesitant to take in your career? How might embracing these opportunities lead to unexpected growth? Share your thoughts with us and join the conversation about career development and personal growth.

Transcript

janet-parker-

[00:00:00] Jolie Downs: Welcome to the Career Wanderlust Podcast, your compass for new career horizons. Today we are talking with Janet Parker. Janet is the Managing Director of Operations at a national nonprofit, where she works with the executive team helping implement the vision and reach organizational goals.

[00:00:19] Prior to joining this nonprofit, Janet was the Director of Human Resources at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Most of her career has been spent at large consumer organizations, such as Time Warner Cable, Nextel Communications, and Starbucks, where she's held senior human resources roles, supporting corporate functions such as sales, marketing, engineering, legal, and operations.

[00:00:40] I'm really excited to learn more. Janet, thank you for joining us on the Career Wanderlust Podcast. 

[00:00:45] Janet Parker: Oh, it's a pleasure. I'm looking forward to this. Thank you very 

[00:00:48] Jolie Downs: much for asking me. Oh, I'm excited to chat with you. Yes. You are an expert human resource professional, I am sure you have seen countless people rise and fall among the corporate ranks throughout these years.

[00:01:04] I'd love to know what's been some of your favorite career advice and why.

[00:01:11] Janet Parker: Several things, but one that really stands out, I had a manager early in my career who said you really have to understand the business, and so not just understand your function, but you have to understand what makes your organization tick. How will they define success? How do they make revenue? How do they generate revenue?

[00:01:36] Who are their competitors? And have a really grounded sense of how the business flows. And he said, that's important to understand because you want to be a solutions person. And it's hard if all you're doing is talking about your space, you've got to really be in tune with what are some of the bigger organizational issues that the company might be grappling with.

[00:02:05] And I felt that was so important, especially going into human resources, because there is the tendency to pigeonhole the function as you only care about employees and how employees feel and almost like the party planners or the administrative side of things. You're the benefits implementer or the payroll person.

[00:02:28] And so it's not a clear definition for some, what the function does, and then if you add into that, you don't really understand the business dynamics. And then I thought that was such good advice. I don't think you can be as effective. 

[00:02:46] Jolie Downs: I completely agree. I love this advice. It's something that you don't always hear either.

[00:02:52] And to me, this is a basis of success in whatever function you have to have that full understanding of how a company works what the overall goals are, what I mean, and how all the different departments work together to reach those goals. I think this is really excellent advice because a lot of people do go into their position and they are fully focused on what it is that they're doing.

[00:03:16] And they're not really paying attention to all of the other things. 

[00:03:19] It 

[00:03:19] Janet Parker: helps you to understand then how your function and even how your specific role is helping the organization to be successful because you've got the bigger picture and where your work output is going to be directed. 

[00:03:34] And then 1 other piece of really good advice was to have allies throughout your career. The individual who gave that advice said allies are very different than mentors. And allies are going to be advocating for you, even when you're not in the room and you don't know about. And being in HR, I've been in those meetings where somebody will say, oh, let's talk about so and you can see the allyship taking place in real time. And so I thought that was really good 

[00:04:07] Jolie Downs: advice. That's really good advice. How would you build an ally versus a mentor? Those are more of your peers would you say? 

[00:04:15] Janet Parker: It can vary. So the mentor is someone you're as I would define it. You're going to maybe for counseling and advice and whether it's overall about your career, it could be about a specific area.

[00:04:32] It could be, they're helping you to problem solve ally. I think you want the ally to view you in a different light that I've got it all together. I'm the problem solver. I can move on to another aspect of the business. I could take on a different assignment. And so the ally sees you as the accomplished someone.

[00:04:57] And so I don't know that I'd talked to the ally about, here's a problem that I'm having... That's better served with your mentor or maybe somebody else within the organization.

[00:05:10] Jolie Downs: And going to the learning about all aspects of the business. I'm wondering, is there any techniques that you used in order to really expand your knowledge of the organizations when you go in them?

[00:05:22] How did you embrace that challenge, if you will? 

[00:05:26] Janet Parker: So I can recall when I started a firm I was providing HR support to the engineering department and the Chief Technology Officer was setting up an offsite and I said, Oh, I'd love to attend. And he just looked at me like, and do what? And I said it would give me an opportunity to meet your leadership team, understand a little bit about their leadership competencies.

[00:05:50] I hear what some of the big problems are. I understand what you guys are trying to accomplish and maybe what you're grappling with. There may be some areas that HR could provide solutions, whether it's around attracting talent or developing your existing team. And it was just, Oh, okay, you can do all that.

[00:06:12] At that point, they attended the meeting. And then after that, I said you guys meet on a regular basis, would love to attend those because you can't just drop in one time, everything. It would be great to be an active part of the leadership team. And it was very well received.

[00:06:31] That's how I learned what new products they were working on. But also equally as important, you had an opportunity to see how leaders engage with each other and there were areas that I could point out to that chief executive and you remember this dynamic and this happened. Here's another way that could have unfolded and maybe here's some things either for you to think about, or maybe we could implement across the department. And so being there I think is very important and sometimes you have to push your way through, but yeah, let's do it. It's worth it. 

[00:07:07] Jolie Downs: I love it. It's great advice. Just to ask if you can go to some of these other meetings, maybe that's not your role to be there, but like you said, by being there, it advances your own role.

[00:07:17] And not only that, you are able to see other ways that you can help make a difference. I love this. So fantastic. Now, what about another story? Cause I love stories. I feel like there's so much we can learn from people's stories. Is there something that's happened in your own career that was impactful? It was something that you learned a lesson from and by sharing it with others, they might help learn this lesson too.

[00:07:42] Janet Parker: I remember the first senior leadership role that I took on, my boss got promoted. She stayed in the organization and she was looking for someone to fill her position and it was at a vice president level and I didn't apply for the job. And I kept thinking, I know a lot about what she does and what's going on, but I don't know that I know all of it.

[00:08:10] And it was almost like almost ready, but not quite ready. And I was talking to a colleague and she's like, why in the world have you not applied for this role? And I was sharing that with her and she was just like, what are you talking about? Some of this stuff you will just learn. You'll learn by being there.

[00:08:30] You'll learn by engaging with others. And when you get to that level, it is far less about your technical acumen. It is more about can you collaborate? How do you work with other senior leaders? How do you engage at a professional level? What solutions can you offer? You're working on very different skill sets, and some people just already have those. But for the most part, for most leaders, they learn that over time.

[00:09:06] And because she's more senior, I asked her about her journey and she said, Oh, yeah, you know what? When I took on the first more senior role, here are the things that I was good at, here are the things that I struggled with. But again over time, you learn what is most important. I ended up applying for the job and I ended up getting it. Good.

[00:09:30] And it was a good lesson in one that I shared with others. What stood out to me is an article that I read years ago. Being in human resources, you always hear about who applies for jobs and that women tend to apply for the job if they know everything. Men apply for the job if they just

[00:09:56] think I know some of the guys got a job. You're like, sure. 40%. That's good enough. I'm sure you've seen that in your profession. I remember that stood out and I thought, Oh my gosh, that's very funny, but I was living it real time. 

[00:10:11] Jolie Downs: It's so true. I was literally giving this advice yesterday to a woman who was talking herself out of this opportunity because she's Oh I don't have this or I don't have that. And actually, she did, but maybe not to the level in her head that she thought it should be. And I shared that exact thing, I said, look, this is what men do. If they've got 40 percent of the job they go for. And women, if we only have 70.

[00:10:36] Oh, it's just not right. 

[00:10:40] Janet Parker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you for sharing. That was good learning. It's an important message. It really is. And 

[00:10:49] Jolie Downs: I applaud your ally or mentor, whichever it was that, that gave that to you and pushed you to do that. We all need people in our lives that do that for us.

[00:10:59] Yes. I appreciate you now doing that for everyone listening. 

[00:11:05] Janet Parker:

[00:11:07] It was a good chance to see sometimes how you perceive yourself might be different than how others perceive you. Because when I shared my reservation, she was like, where is that coming from? And so it was also a good learning on how you show up and how other people are perceiving how you show up.

[00:11:27] And I think that's always very important for everybody to understand that, you need to have people who are sitting around the table with you who can say, oh, yeah, you really did good in that meeting. Oh, here's what you did. Here's where you know what? You made that comment and it didn't probably land the way that you thought it would because otherwise, you're only in your own head.

[00:11:48] You're not, maybe you're not improving at the level that you could, if you're not getting them. 

[00:11:53] Jolie Downs: Absolutely. Cultivating honest feedback from people is so invaluable. In fact, that was a piece of advice that I got a long time ago that I actually didn't follow up on and having this conversation, it makes me want to, and they suggested reaching out to a key people that know your work style that have worked with you, if you will, and asking them, what are the things that I do really well?

[00:12:15] Are there things that I could improve on just to get a holistic, honest, overview, if you will, that's not in your job review or what have you. But asking your peers and asking people that you work with just to get a sense of yourself. So that's always good to do. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

[00:12:31] So that's really helpful. What about a challenge? Have you had a big challenge in your career that you've had to overcome and would you be willing to share that with us? 

[00:12:40] Janet Parker: There's been a lot of challenges early in my HR career, I had to do a termination and it was to let a senior leader go who is behaving inappropriately.

[00:12:56] And it was challenging. Number 1, going through the investigative process and so asking others about incidents that had taken place. But also it was my reputation on the line. I was going to have to make the recommendation, go back to a higher level of leadership and say, here's what we need to do.

[00:13:20] And here's why this needs to take place. Once I've done the investigation, I had the facts, I said, that's going to be part of it. And so you're going to lay that out. But I also had to think about how do you want to present this so that there isn't any question because, you could give a lot of data and people could be like, okay, maybe I could see that.

[00:13:45] But I really wanted to then help them to understand. Here's what came as a result of the investigation. But here's what's going to happen if you don't take results, if you don't take action that it's a reflection of the organization. It's a reflection of you as a leader, but it ultimately is a reflection of the organization.

[00:14:05] And this is what employees are looking for. They can understand that you can have a bad scenario, you could have a bad actor that something can happen, but it's when there isn't any follow up to that. And there isn't any clear path that says, here's what we stand for as an organization. And here's what our values are, and that is more important than whatever other things.

[00:14:34] This was somebody that was bringing in pretty good money to the organization had a big portfolio, but at the end of the day, you have to ask yourself what is most important. So that was very difficult. 

[00:14:47] Jolie Downs: It makes a difference, but needed to be done. It needs it absolutely needs to be done.

[00:14:51] And I don't know what the issue is but I can tell you that even the Navy SEALs, you could give the Navy SEALs the most perfect person for the Navy SEALs, but if they're a jerk, they're not going to take you because it's going to poison the whole organization. It's not worth it.

[00:15:07] There you go. 

[00:15:08] Janet Parker: Sometimes people don't understand that you can say something about, here's the culture that we have. And we have an inviting culture or we have an inclusive culture, but the actions that you take are really what is defining and helping people to see, is that really what you stand for?

[00:15:26] Very important. 

[00:15:28] Jolie Downs: Yeah, it is. It's in making that stand. It speaks to your employees and they're going to, they're watching, they're listening, even when you're not saying anything.

[00:15:40] And it makes that difference. I'm curious because I'm sure many people listening might have to do their own termination themselves, which can be difficult. Is there any advice you give or any way about a termination that you have found is the best way?

[00:16:02] Janet Parker: So to be clear on what the issue is, and so sometimes what I find is somebody might have done something early on in their career years ago. And years later, something happens and it's like you bring the whole history with you and say, oh clearly that person has to leave. 

[00:16:26] I, as an HR professional, what are we talking about? What's the issue at hand? What are we talking about? And then based on that, let's figure out what the next steps are. If it's an event that took place, and when it was something so egregious, that's a little bit easier because you're just gone. But if you're in a scenario where it's performance issues or it might be just how the individual interacts with other people, first thing you have to do is just be very clear with the person.

[00:16:59] Here's what my expectations are and here's what it looks like when you're meeting the expectations and here's what it looks like when you're not meeting those expectations. If that continues for a prolonged period, then here are the steps that we're going to then move into.

[00:17:16] And so it's real clear. Here's what I expect if they don't get and see what I expect. Then here's what's going to happen. And so if you take that approach, there shouldn't be any surprises because you've already laid it out for the individual. The other thing I would encourage any leader or manager who's listening to this is.

[00:17:37] You have to really mean it when you say it. It cannot be we're 2 years into this and we're still talking about performance issues because what you then said is it really isn't that important to you or it's really not that bad. If there's a problem, then address it and then just be very clear.

[00:17:57] It didn't get better and you have to be prepared then that you're going to take the hard step. And then I would encourage you, make sure that you have support from people around you. So you've already communicated this to your boss, you've already communicated it to your HR department and then anybody else that you need to communicate to.

[00:18:18] That's what I would encourage people to do if you find yourself in that kind of situation. 

[00:18:24] Jolie Downs: Very key advice. And you're right. Clarity is key. It really it's a gift. 

[00:18:29] Janet Parker: And not vague terms you have to be good at because everybody's definition of that is different. Define what good looks like so that, the person on the receiving end understands what they're expecting.

[00:18:45] Jolie Downs: Exactly. That's a gift that you're giving to them I believe. Whether or not they take it, that's what you're offering. I think that's fantastic advice. You shared with me that you will be retiring at the end of this year. And I wanted to say congratulations because that's incredibly exciting.

[00:19:01] I love the plans that you have in place. I think it's thrilling. But I was super curious because when you reach in that point in life, I was wondering if you reflect back and if there was certain advice that you wish you were given at any certain or different points within your career. 

[00:19:21] Janet Parker: I wish I had taken more risks.

[00:19:23] It's helpful to be thoughtful in your decision making and plan things out and that's probably the course that I took in life. And it's been rewarding and I've enjoyed it, but along the way in my career, I could have taken more risk. I remember early in my career I had an opportunity to take a job in L.A. and I was like, Oh, I'm not going to move to the West Coast. I don't know anybody in the West Coast. All my family's, in the East Coast area. And I just look back on that and I said, Oh, you know what? At some point in my life, I probably would have liked to have lived in California. And if I had done it earlier, then who knows what that might have meant.

[00:20:02] I just look at opportunities that I might have had and I probably overthought them. As a result of that, didn't necessarily do some things that might have been fun. Even at the end of the day, if they weren't, you could always recover from them. The advice I didn't take for myself, I share with my nieces and nephew. And I had a nephew who was based in Northern California, and he kept saying, Oh, I just want to move.

[00:20:29] I just want to move. And he just wanted to move and see another part of the country. And I just kept saying, you know what, if at the end of the day, it doesn't work out for you, and you want to relocate back then you can relocate back. It's not as if it's the kind of decision that you cannot then change your mind.

[00:20:51] And so I have encouraged them if there's something that you found a little bit of interest in, then pursue that a little bit more. And if it leads to something, that's great. If it doesn't then you tried it and it wasn't for you. 

[00:21:04] Jolie Downs: I love this so much. It gave me a little tingles along my arm because it's so important and it's so right.

[00:21:11] We do overthink things and when we talk ourselves out of things that we really want because we think in whatever, there's so many reasons we can give, but I think this is really important to hear that it is okay. It is okay to take risks. And you know what? If that risk doesn't work out, that's perfectly okay.

[00:21:28] You can always come right back to where you were. But now you know, and who knows, maybe it'll take you into something beautiful. You just never know. But it is that stepping into the unknown, which can be really scary. So thank you for this advice. I'm hoping that someone listening will might have something that they've been a little hesitant about that. Maybe they'll go and take that step forward and do.

[00:21:48] Janet Parker: There's a book out there and I think it's called Growth Mindset. I don't know if it's something that you're familiar with, but they talk about having a growth mindset means that you're always learning. And when you experiment, or you try something, and let's say it's not successful, it just means that you learn from that and nothing is considered.

[00:22:12] It's not necessarily nothing is considered, but it's not considered a failure. It's considered. Okay. What can I then take from that experience and then apply differently? And how did I grow from that experience? And so I thought that was very valuable lesson to understand. 

[00:22:30] Jolie Downs: Absolutely. I haven't read the book Growth Mindset. But I've done a lot of programs around growth mindset, and I find it to be one of the more powerful life hacks, if you will, and making your life successful, making your life fulfilled, just better on all the levels because I used to when things would go wrong, I used to beat myself up about it. Tell myself how horrible and why did I think I could do that?

[00:22:59] It was more of a bombard of negativity on me as opposed to looking at the situation like, okay, this happened. What can I learn from it? How can I grow from it? How can I get better? And now when I make mistakes or have little failures, what have you, instead of beat myself up, I say, Okay, this happened.

[00:23:17] What can I learn from it? How can I grow? How can I turn this into one of the best things that happened to me because I learned and grew from it? So it, it is a magical way to walk through life I have found. So I think this is fantastic. In fact, I was going to ask you if there's something that you would read, watch, listen to that you would like to share with other people. Is that something that you would suggest or there are other things that you would suggest? 

[00:23:42] Janet Parker: The book and I have it right in front of me, it's called, This Is Not The Life I Ordered. And it is so good. It's written by four women and they would get together and they would just talk about what was going on in their life and really became a resource for each other.

[00:24:03] But it was just so good. They talk about here's where I started and I thought I was on this path and then, boom, something happens and their resiliency and how they just learned to take life as it comes, it's not going to always be the way that you planned it. But I just thought it was really good

[00:24:25] because they give very practical things, and they've got quotes in here by very powerful women, but really the camaraderie that you read about and how they have supported each other, it makes me think of my college girlfriends and how they've been such a support system for me. And so I think it's always important.

[00:24:49] Whatever you take from the book or take from anything here, make sure that you have people around you that you can really turn to that are going to be a positive influence in your life. And that's what these women are for each other. It's a really good read.

[00:25:07] Jolie Downs: That's great. It is all about the people, right? Could you tell me the name of it again? Cause it's absolutely going on my list. I'm excited about this 

[00:25:13] Janet Parker: one. Yeah. This Is Not The Life I Ordered and it says 50 ways to keep your head above water when life keeps dragging you 

[00:25:23] Jolie Downs: down. Definitely putting that on my list.

[00:25:25] Thank you. This has been wonderful, Janet. I really appreciate you joining us on the Career Wonderlust Podcast. 

[00:25:34] Janet Parker: I have enjoyed this. And again I hope that there's some pearls of wisdom out there that somebody takes with them at their stage in their career. And I've had such a wonderful career.

[00:25:47] I am just so fortunate. And so appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share. 

[00:25:52] Jolie Downs: I love it. And you know what? That's all our goal, right? Is to feel that way when it comes our time for retirement, that we feel like, This has been a beautiful career, one that I'm very grateful for. So that's my wish for everyone listening.

[00:26:05] And thank you for sharing your story with us, Janet. 

[00:26:09] Welcome.