One of those giants I
refer to is the Head of Human Resource for Linkedin (9,500 employees) named Pat
Wadors. Pat's resume is pretty long and impressive, and in summary she
was named among the 50 most powerful women in technology.
I was impressed with
her passion to make people great. She had a different approach from the
typical start up tech recruiting philosophies of finding the "gifted"
and most intelligent talent to meet the demands of innovation of highly technical
work. Instead, her philosophy is more about finding people where they are
and developing them from there. She shared some information from Malcom Gladwell's book David and Goliath: 80% of the people say they
are above average, but that is statistically impossible. If employers think
they are only hiring already great employees, they are naive.
In reality great talent appearing at the front door of our organizations is not reality and therefore, it is imperative to develop and grow talent. In order to be
competitive, companies have to create opportunities to take less than great talent and
make their employees great.
Her leadership in human
resources is built on her belief in the theory of expectations, and this in
part is built on something she learned as a young student. She had shared how a teacher did
not give up on her even though she had experienced frustration with reading at a young age. This teacher was relentless (does this word seem familiar?) in spending extra time to see her through obstacles in decoding, and she sent a clear message about how our expectations
determine our growth and development. The same is true in leadership
in a company as influential as Linkedin. She has taken on the philosophy "not to settle" until her company employees become great. Their employees
"can" be great, and that adopted attitude and philosophy can create
that competitive edge in her sphere of influence as a business leader.
It was interesting to
hear also that employee strengths are not limited to or even prioritized toward
intelligence. Virtues such as loyalty, steadfastness and honesty are
valued higher in the hiring and development process more than the individuals
being "fast learners." This perspective also required
leadership to spend more time and provide patience with employees, but the
message was clear on the worth of the outcomes. Spending time with people
to give them voice and confidence were described as important factors in
growing people. Her point was well taken in noting both high and low
performers take a lot of time and attention for different reasons.
She emphasized our need
to be empathetic with people and be crystal clear with expectations. She
made a comment at the end of her conversation that caught my attention, (I had
a chance to converse with her after her talk to clarify):
People change from
either a catalyst due to some pain they have experienced in their life or they
change because the opportunity presented by the change is so awesome.
(Paraphrased). Her work is to help people leverage those motivators to
become great people and employees.
I could not help but
tie in her work with one of our core values: “See students as they could be; not
as they are.” I love the message
that student and adult performance is more about growing, nurturing, developing
and empowering than any amount of talent that all of us may or may not bring to
the table. This work is
mission critical, and this provides hope for all of our kids.
