Accelerating Talent with Betty McCormack

We are fortunate to be joined by Betty McCormack, Managing Director in HR for Accenture, to discuss the reinvention of HR. HR’s position from a strategic standpoint is crucial right now in the re-imagining of the workplace and the businesses that we are trying to create. She will share with us some of her incredible insights, strategy and experiences being at the top of her game as an executive. She will also show how her personal life, and personal trauma, has shaped her but has done nothing to slow her down. Join us for a practical, insightful and heartwarming conversation that is also honest and inspirational.

Betty McCormack is Managing Director in HR for Accenture, based in New York. She leads the work of identifying, assessing, developing, and supporting leaders in top positions at Accenture. She is also Global and US sponsor for the HR Talent Accelerator Program (TAP). Betty has 27+ years' experience at Accenture in roles spanning Lead - HR Ventures & Acquisitions Strategy, Chief Talent Officer - Strategy & Consulting, HR Captain for the Next Gen Growth Model, senior executive/leadership matters, North America HR Service Delivery, as well as regional, national and global HR Business Partner roles across all Accenture businesses. 

Betty is member of the Accenture HR Executive Committee, Accenture Global Leadership Council, and on the Board of Directors for the Accenture Charitable Trust. Member of the HR Policy Association’s Future Workplace Policy Council. Fortune Most Powerful Women Next Gen 2018. World 50 Next Leader. Betty is a mother of 3 children and enjoys walks on the beach near her home, spinning and the arts. 

(3:05) Is Betty where she imagined she would be when she was graduating college?
(6:14) She takes us through the genesis of the HR Talent Accelerator Program “TAP”.
(13:09) Were there any doubts about this program getting off the ground and what were some of the biggest surprises of the program over the past decade?
(15:05) What does Betty feel has been a significant shift of HR during her career?
(17:48) What are some of the important attributes that define an HR leader?
(22:10) Betty shares her personal experience about the difficulties & experiences that shaped her.
(27:10) Betty acknowledges leaders who have had an impact on her life & career.
(29:44) Betty talks about asking herself “Why not me?” as she moved through her career.
(32:33) Where does her sense of courage and self-confidence come from?  How did her upbringing influence her own attributes?
(35:54) How does Betty stay attuned and relevant in the ever changing field of HR?
(36:51) Who does Betty follow/find inspiration from and why?
(38:03) What does she share with her family of her career and experiences?
(41:12) Looking a year into the future, what is Betty doing and how is she having an impact?

Connect with Betty McCormack
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betty-mccormack-9421787
https://www.facebook.com/share/DBxpnRTJwvGeSs8A/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
First and foremost. A lot of people would say be
curious because there's so much disruption right now. I would
rather say, be a learner. Be curious, but more so
have a learning mindset around what is happening around me
and is something I can take advantage of in my

(00:22):
work and it's going to help elevate my work and
my own working experience. I also think there's a tremendous
amount of resiliency that HR has to have right now,
and that's riding the wave of all of the disruption
that we have had. And HR was very much relied

(00:43):
upon of help our people understand this, have context, and
in order to do that, you yourself have to be resilient.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Welcome to the Warriors at Work Show. This is Genie Coomber,
your guide and host. This is a show for men
and women in the workplace who want to move from
the predictable to the potent. This is your weekly dose
of inspiration with an edge. I talk with CEOs and Shaman's,
sports marketing executives and therapists. All of us are like

(01:18):
minded thinkers and doers who tell stories, share wisdom, and
challenge each other to have the best life possible. Inside
and outside the office. Welcome to your Warrior Conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Hey everybody, it's Genie. Thank you so much for joining
me here at Warriors at Work.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
I am really excited to bring to you this week's
conversation with Betty McCormack, who is the managing director in.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
HR for Eccenter.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
And this is an insightful, expansive, creative conversation about the
reinvention of HR, the future of organizations, and Betty's personal
talents and perspective on these subjects. But Betty also takes
us on a journey through some personal trials and tribulations

(02:09):
that she has managed through and overcome. So this experience
that you're about to go through with me is also
very very inspirational. And I feel really lucky to have
connected with Betty and to be able to provide her story,
her ideas, and her approach to the future of human

(02:33):
resources in my platform.

Speaker 3 (02:35):
Enjoy.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Betty, thank you so much for joining me today in
this conversation. I've been so looking forward to talking with you.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Likewise, so nice to see you. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
So where I thought would be kind of fun to
start is I'm going to read back some things about
you and then I'm going to take you into your
current state. So you're the managing director of human resources
at one of the most well known global professional service organizations, etc.

(03:10):
You have over twenty five years of experience in HR
strategy and talent development when you graduated college and you
started on this journey. Is this what you saw for
your career? Are you where you imagined?

Speaker 1 (03:27):
I am? Not? Where I am is beyond the imagination
I had when I was graduating school, and I didn't
start here. Right after a university, I went to a
consulting company and I was a business major, and probably
like a lot of people, I thought, let me go
get one or two years consulting experience. I'll figure things out.

(03:51):
But that helps me write my ticket to something bigger.
And I was placed onto an HR consulting assignment, and
I started realizing I love the content of HR and
not as much consulting. And I went to speak to
my lead at the time and they said, you're crazy.

(04:12):
Why would you want to go into HR and not
do consulting. And that was a very early signal to
me of this is not the right environment for me,
and I really don't ever want to be held back
from pursuing what I think is right for me. So
then I found Accenture, and I'm so it was so
long ago. I found Accentric through a newspaper ad helped

(04:34):
content section, and I thought, let me just get my
foot in the door doing HR somewhere, and I started
at the assistant level entry level at Accentric, which was
Anderson Consulting at the time, and we were a partnership
at the time. We're now a public company, but there

(04:54):
was part of our culture early on where partners would
come and talk to groups of employees and talk to
you about why you would want to be ambitious enough
to become a partner, and they would tell stories of
driving through beautiful neighborhoods to the house that you could afford,
and the life you could have and the dreams. And

(05:18):
I was completely sold on what they were talking about,
just the ambition and the life I could create for myself.
And along the way, I have had opportunities and work,
as I said, beyond my imagination. And I'm sure we'll

(05:39):
get into some other things. But now, many many years later,
I like to tell people I'm the story of what's possible.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Oh, I love that the story of what's possible you
because I want to circle back to that because there's
a couple of things about you that I.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Think are really really interesting.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
What I where I first want to start is you
call your yourself a future oriented HR business partner, and
one of your passions in HR has been your vision
and your active participation in the development of the next
generation of leaders. You actually created an HR Talent accelerator
program called TAP, and so what I want to do

(06:20):
is I want to take a step back. Is I
think it's really important for you to walk us through
the genesis of this program and the early conversations some
of the critical moves that you were taking, because it's
going to fit together with some of the other pieces
that we're going to talk about.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Okay, So one of my very early lessons at Accenture,
well before we created TAP, was to be leading in
the market. You have to be one step ahead of
everyone else, knowing the ambition five to ten years from now.
So feet planted in today, but always thinking about the future.

(07:02):
And that is to this day what we tout as
our special sauce at Accenture, and it was a little conditioned,
always be thinking about the future, always be looking ahead.
And about ten years ago, we had a new chief
Leadership and HR officer tape post and as she was

(07:23):
talking about her vision for HR and the future, she
was talking about building the next generation of leaders and
she had the idea of, let's create a two year
rotational program where we find the best in the brightest
and we apprentice them and almost have them get a

(07:44):
mini MBA of sorts in HR leadership. And that was
her idea, and then she gifted me with Betty, this
is the idea, bring it to life. And when she
first gave me that gift, I thought, oh God, this
is going to be hard. How are we to people?
How are we going to structure this? And it was

(08:08):
the best gift I could have received because I had
at that point achieved making managing director at Accenture. So
I had achieved my goal, and I had achieved my
goal through the help of many, many other people who
had invested in me. And I took the mindset of
this is now the pivot of I have stood on

(08:31):
the shoulders of many other people, and now I need
to create the space for me to be the great
steward and leave Accenture better off. And this chief leadership
and HR officer, a legend in HR named Ellen Shook
gave us the license to figure it out and the

(08:55):
proverbial build the plane as we were getting ready to
fly it. And the less I've had along the way is,
of course, how to find those that talent and nurture them,
but also to be making decisions with them, so it's
never for them without it being with them. And it's

(09:15):
a beautiful program. And I'm sure you don't want me
to indulge my entire time on it, but it's a
little piece of my heart at accenture.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Well, I want to tease something out that you talked about,
because what I think is really important is you know,
when I think about all the people that are listening
or watching a lot of business leaders, we're often put
in ambiguous or abstract situations with very little direction, great
idea great concept, maybe even a vision of something, and

(09:44):
it's put at your feet to actually execute, which you
just gave that example. What I want to do is
really look at what were some of the critical moves
that you made early on. So you've been given this task,
you realize I do have some skills and attributes to
be able to to do this, But what were some
of the things that you had to deal with or

(10:06):
make decisions around in order to get this launched.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
So first and foremost, you have to have a framework,
so the idea only comes to life by you being
able to articulate this is how we'll do it a framework.
And as we started out, we built the outline, as
I like to say, but then we walked around to

(10:33):
different and influential leaders at Accenture to get their input.
And I think, what's so important when you're given that
ambiguous thing you have to build it, you have to
shape it, you have to execute it. Is you should
never do it alone. Of course you should do your
part to develop the content, but why not take advantage

(10:57):
of the very very smart people around you to give input.
And by giving input, they're buying into what the program is.
And they became sponsors, people who hosted assignments for the
people in the program. And the program is now ten
years old, and we have been really careful as we

(11:20):
have gone through the last ten years to say the
frame is always the same, it's two years. It's a
rotational program. The experience is going to change all the time,
reflecting our market. What are our strategic priorities. Who are
the people who will spend the time to shepherd the

(11:40):
experience and development of people in the program. And a
lot of people love to have one time be a tradition.
You know, it ran this way once, so it's just
going to replicate over and over and over again. And
to me, that's actually the kiss of death, because if
I was running it with exactly the same experiences and

(12:02):
exactly the same people as ten years ago, it would
be irrelevant. So it's a matter of build it, get
the buy in, and get the input, and don't be
so confident that you can't accept input as maybe we
do need to iterate and change some things or adjust.

(12:26):
So the last part is always being agile. When we
went through the pandemic, we had to change the entire
makeup of things. We were all at home anymore. So
you have to be agile to receiving input from everyone
involved with a program that you want everyone to love,
not just you, And you have to be agile to

(12:46):
change with the context, the environment and the people who
are around it.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
I'm curious, as you were building this, did you ever
have doubts or concerns about it coming to fruition and
had you manage through that.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
I didn't because this was the idea of the chief
Leadership and HR officer at Accenture at the time, So
an extremely influential person who gifted to say, I want
to do this, so can you have it come to life?
And I thought, how amazing that I'm in the virtuous

(13:21):
position of making someone's wish come true. Who is not
going to love that? Yeah? So I never and I
allowed that to just be the confidence that I had
as well. This person wants it, is going to sponsor,
is going to pay attention to it, is going to
help me if I need it, but has also given

(13:41):
me the rope to be responsible and make it happen.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
What has been some of your biggest surprises since the
ten years of this program being in existence.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
My biggest surprise has been I spend very little time
on the structure and the operation of the program, and
I spend the vast majority of my time with every
individual who steps through the program. And when I say that,
that's deep care that we show to each person to

(14:18):
show up as themselves, to understand their ambitions, to be
shaping for them as they go through the program. What
they want their experience to look like the credential that
they want to grow, and that hyper personalization is what
makes it very special. Running it isn't hard. Making it

(14:41):
relevant and meaningful and special for people is what I
really spend my time on.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
Oh, I love that.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
You know what I want to do now is I
want to take a broader step.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Now, let's go into the world of HR.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
You've been a part of many business cycles, world events,
human resource centric experiences that really have impacted the world.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
What do you feel has been.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
The most significant shift to the structure and or philosophies
of HR in your tenure?

Speaker 1 (15:17):
There have been two seismic shifts for us in HR.
The first was the pandemic, and that was really significant
for HR because we had to figure out how to
do HR from our homes. But the first thing that
everyone was worried about in the pandemic was people and

(15:42):
their safety and their wellness and their ability to continue
doing their work and helping in the case of excenture
us continue to be a profitable business. So HR was
thrust very much into the center of the survival tactics,
the pivot that we needed to make and really caring

(16:05):
for our people and keeping them engaged and interested in
working during that time and through the pandemic and the
massive disruption that we're still seeing today. Is the second
seismic shift, which is the impact of technology in our work.
And you may say, isn't human resource, It's only about people,

(16:28):
but actually human resources is so much about people that
if we can take advantage of all of the digital
data AI opportunity, we can have our HR professionals spending
less time on administrative operational matters so that it opens

(16:51):
up more capacity for us to really be doing the
human touch, the highly elevated kind of work around to
development and experience and what people want and need from
their employer, rather than me summarizing data or running information

(17:12):
through systems. So that's been an incredible unlock to move
from I would say a bit more of maybe the
back end view that people would perceive of HR over
the years, to much more in the front line of
we impact experience and productivity of our people.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
And when you think about the attributes, so remember when
you started on Anderson Consulting and the attributes that got
you that job, And over the course of your twenty
five years, will you think about the attributes of an
HR leader. What are the ones right now that you're
seeing are just the most important attributes.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Oh that's a great question. I would say, first and
foremost you A lot of people would say, be curious
because there's so much disruption right now. I would rather say,
be a learner. So I didn't know how to do
a chat GPT prompt a year ago, but now I

(18:15):
can do chat GPT prompts to summarize a four page
document in less than a minute for me, and I
used to spend an hour on that. And I'm using
that as an example of be curious, but more so
have a learning mindset around what is happening around me
and is something I can take advantage of in my work,

(18:37):
and it's going to help elevate my work and my
own working experience. I also think there's a tremendous amount
of resiliency that HR has to have right now, and
that's riding the wave of all of the disruption that
we have had. You know, we can go back in

(18:58):
time and talk about Financial crisis nine to eleven, really
big events, But then we had a period over a
long time, over about ten years, and we had two
generations enter the workforce that never experienced a downturn. So
when the pandemic happened and a downturn happened, it was
a huge shock to the system and HR was very

(19:21):
much relied upon of help our people understand this, have context,
and in order to do that, you yourself have to
be resilient. And since that downtime downturn, we're still totally disrupted.
It's technology, which we've just talked about, all the social issues, political,
what's going on in the world. It's like a poly

(19:43):
crisis by any given day. So HR has to be
super resilient to work through that and help our people
work through that.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
And the other thing that you're touching upon is well,
I mean, and this also goes back to the TAP program,
you also have to embody a sense of.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
Curiosity be at the future.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
How do I build myself, my attributes and my capabilities
so that I can influence the future state of HR
so that it becomes less reactive but much more of
a visionary, much more of the strategic mindset, not necessarily
being so focused on where we are today, but where
are we trying to get to?

Speaker 1 (20:27):
And even for your own preservation, it's how do I
need to be reskilled and that's a big buzzword right now.
But maybe I had certain skills that served me really
well over the last ten years, and now it's a
new set of skills that I have to be conversant
or more in. So again that's that learner mindset of

(20:52):
not to be too complacent and comfortable where you are
always be plugged into what are the skills that are
going to keep mere marketable, important, relevant, pick your.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Word, yeah, and not be afraid to say, Okay, that's
what those might have been the skills that were necessary
for me two three years ago or pre COVID, here's
the skills and attributes that I need to have now
as I'm changing positions or I'm more involved with something

(21:22):
that's going to impact the organization.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
I think it's just being honest and.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
Courageous in the evaluation of yourself because you're a lot
of the examples that you're providing, it's it's HR's position
from a strategic standpoint, is absolutely crucial now in the
in the reimagining the workplace and the organizations that we're
trying to create, and I think it's really important to

(21:48):
be self reflective.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
In that way I do.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
I have that right, absolutely?

Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, Okay, So I'm also kind of curious about something
that I read about you. It was a beautiful tribute
and I'm going to go a little personal here. You
posted on your Silver Eccenter Anniversary anniversary, and I would
love for you to explore some of the things that

(22:13):
you've shared. First, you talked very honestly about a near
fatal brain tumor you had and how this has shaped you.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
So what would you like to share there?

Speaker 1 (22:27):
I very openly share this now, and it has been
a journey for me. But I was a very healthy
twenty eight year old and I thought I had an
ear infection. So I went to the doctor and the
doctor said, we're going to have you go get a
hearing test, and it was all very mysterious. I wasn't
getting a diagnosis of something. I thought I was going

(22:48):
to get a moxacill and be out of there. Five
minutes later and a couple of doctors' visits later, I
was told I had a brain tumor the size of
a golf ball. And if you think of the size
of your brain, and then if you think about the
size of a golf ball, that's a very disruptive thing
to have in your brain. And I was told we

(23:13):
need to have surgery to try and extract as much
of this as possible or it is fatal. And the
size of the tumor and the reason that I was
told we'll try to extract as much of this as
possible is it had grown in a manner that I
had a bunch of nerves wrapped around the tumor. And

(23:35):
it was a very tricky and intricate surgery that needed
to happen. So I found the right doctor, had the surgery,
and an outcome of that surgery for me was I
lost my hearing on my left side and I have
some balanced compromise, and I also have facial paralysis, which

(23:58):
if you just meet me and I'm normally regulated, it's
a non apparent disability. You wouldn't know it by looking
at me. But maybe as I talk and I'm getting
more animated, you may notice I have a most Bell's
palsy type of symptom. And there is something about meeting
the word fatal that changes your perspective in life. You know, like, hey,

(24:20):
what's your emergency? Because I can tell you about emergencies,
but more so, I was different after that surgery than
I was before I had no apparent disabilities. I had
things that I had to do differently in terms of
taking care of myself, the environment that I worked in,

(24:41):
even where I am in a room, to be able
to maximize what I can hear and see and experience.
And it has now become a superpower of mine. And
I will tell you why, because I learned that in
order to have things suit me, I had to be
vulnerable and share my disability with people. So I walk

(25:01):
into a room and maybe somebody's sitting in the perfect
chair for me in the room. I will go up
to them and explain, I have a non apparent disability.
This would be the perfect chair for me to sit in.
Would you mind if I took this chair? One hundred
percent of the time, people are more than happy to move,
and in fact, they get really clumsy and they feel

(25:22):
like they have to do it fast. But I have
been met with so much kindness, and I also learned
I have this responsibility as someone in the disabled community
to share and have people be aware that maybe you
look at me, I'm not in a wheelchair, I don't
have an apparent disability. Maybe you don't look at me

(25:45):
and know, but you are learning that there's something about
me unseen. And everyone has this. It's the old adage.
Everyone has a struggle, so be kind. It reminds people
to be kind, and it reminds people to react when
someone shares something vulnerable about themselves. So I do it

(26:07):
for myself to take care of number one. I also
do it to be responsible for the community that I'm
now a part of. And I do it so that
others see me doing it and feel comfortable to share
about themselves because that sparks beautiful conversations between people.

Speaker 2 (26:27):
That is a beautiful, beautiful story. And I think what
you just said was so powerful. And talk about having
powerful attributes as an HR leader and innovator. I think
this power of vulnerability and sharing your heart, sharing your
story gives other people permission to be so honest and

(26:49):
vulnerable back.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
I think that is just so so beautiful.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
The second thing that you acknowledge, well, one of the
things that you acknowledge in your anniversary, I also want
to talk about you acknowledge leaders who mentored and guided you. You
made reference to it just a moment ago. Can you
share some insights on how those individuals had an impact
on you. There's any stories or examples that come.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
To mind, tremendous impact on me. It has informed the
way that I lead and show up every day because
I had more than one leader who did this for me.
So luckiest girl in the world who have multiple leaders
who spent time with me and had what we would

(27:38):
call a teachable point of view with me. So rather
than just answering my question, they would explain things. Sometimes
they would even get involved in a debate of sorts.
If I'm giving you the answer, but maybe you don't
agree with the answer, and I'm going to have that
conversation with you and we'll tease it out. I think
that young kids today call that riffing. But I had

(28:01):
people really invest and spend time with me, and I
would maybe I would have learned those things on my own.
But that virtue of learning talk dialogue is so important
because you only learn by reading and also by doing

(28:26):
to a certain degree. To have someone who is willing
to talk to you about like what went really well
on that, what didn't go really well on that? What
should we do the next time? That's actually the richest
learning and that's feedback that you get, but it was
always in a very safe space that I got that
feedback from leaders. So that was most influential to me

(28:50):
and also gave me a lot of courage in letting
people know what I expect of them, and that's relationships
that I have up and that's also relationships that I
have down. Let's have conversations, tease things out, talk about

(29:10):
the right way to do things, but also the best
way to do things. And that's very nuanced and very subtle,
but it's something that has served me well. And I
have also delighted in learning that way.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
Which speaks to the last point I'm going to make
on what you shared on your anniversary.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
I love this.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
In your anniversary mentioned you were talking about your career
climb and you were guided by courage, and you were
always asking and for anybody listening that's needing a moment
of inspiration, just take note of this.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
You said, why not me?

Speaker 1 (29:55):
Why not me? So it has not been the easiest
client for me, Just oh, absolutely, absolutely no disappointments. I'm
the story of what's possible. Because the story of what's
possible is it's not always perfect. And I have had

(30:18):
multiple experiences of going after something in accenture that was
either a progression or a bigger role and not getting
the job and getting rejected. And I mean, thankfully I
then still had the job that I had at the time.
But my parents instilled in me when I was very

(30:40):
young a certain amount of self assurance. And this is
going to sound negative, which also why not Me might
sound negative, but it was the reminder that in life,
the person who is going to look out for you
the best is yourself, and have strength in yourself to
when you don't get what you want, ask why, because

(31:05):
that is an opportunity for you to hear what else
you need to do, what you can learn from it,
and maybe even some of your blind spots that you're
not aware of and or people don't want to tell you.
So why not Me was very much on Okay, maybe

(31:25):
you've changed this to this for me in the moment,
but how do I get back to that and just
share with me? And it's a little bit like once
I tell people the chair I need in the room,
they kind of fuddle around and it's a little awkward.
Once you ask somebody why not me, they are accountable
to tell you something they how to tell you something

(31:46):
and even if you don't like what you hear in
the moment, you're getting something that's going to make you
better tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
And it crystallizes the gap between where I am versus
where I want to be. And I think that that
idea of when there's lack of clarity and you're left
to your own devices, you create a lot of story.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
So I think it's really really important to just pause
and ask that question.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
I absolutely loved it, and I'm so glad that you
brought up how you were brought.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Up because the question of that I was curious.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
I'm like, where does that sense of courage and self
confidence come from? And it sounds like that was very
much how you were brought up.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
That was instilled in me as I was growing up.
So thank you very much, Mom and dad. And I
also want to quickly tell you the story of one
of my biggest disappointments at Accentrire was I we have
a very big process around becoming managing director at Accenture

(32:51):
because it's kind of a big deal, and I was
put into the process for the first time and I
did not make empty. I was passed over for the promotion,
and I was heartbroken and I needed to kind of
wipe off my wounds. But in the spirit of why
not me, I asked for time with the person who

(33:12):
made the decision, and I was put off for a while,
but I was not willing to let that meeting be canceled.
I was fine with it being moved seven times before
I finally had that meeting, and I went in and
asked why not me? And I got the answer why
not me? In fact, it was crystal clear what I

(33:34):
did not need to be doing. But then that leader
also expressed me, there is something that I do want
you to keep doing because it is different about you,
and you are very courageous, and you will speak the
truth and you will do it in a productive way.
And as much as I didn't like everything that preceded

(33:55):
that comment, in the conversation about why not me and
the things I had to do, even though it was
crystal clear and thank you, it was awesome to get
the validation of in some respects it is who I am,
but I value that I want you to keep doing that,
and it is going to set you apart, and in

(34:17):
my years sense, then I do believe my courage is what.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Sets me apart, and what a thoughtful way to deliver it?
So that you are very clear and what are the
things I need you to keep doing. While you're working
on the things that you need to get stronger at,
we still want you to continue this. What a thoughtful
way to deliver that. So the world of human resources

(34:43):
and talent development is constantly changing and evolving. You made
mention of it numerous times about all the disruption. How
do you stay attuned and relevant?

Speaker 1 (34:54):
So you have to listen, want to read the news
us and stay current. It's really important. Even if your
job supports one location and a certain group of people,
it's really important to understand what's going on in the world,
especially right now. There are issues that may not be

(35:17):
happening in our country but run very deep for individuals
and how they feel, how they are perceived, how they
may even think they're marginalized. So to best support people
and be nhr, you have to know what's going on
in the world. You have to be attuned to current events,
and you have to be reading in whatever industry you

(35:40):
work in the periodicals around that industry. So what is happening,
where are investments being made, Where companies deploying cash because
it will tell you technologies or skills or certain types
of people or product that they're looking for. So smart
in the world, smart in your industry, and then we

(36:02):
have such an interesting cross generational workforce right now. I
also think stay really current on pop culture and lot
events because it kind of is the way that we're
all having fun in the world right now, because the
other stuff is very, very heavy. So being able to
speak to what matters to gen z as much as

(36:25):
the generations in the workforce for quite some time, or
even bring them into the fold, is a lot of
the fun of the job.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Which I am curious. Who do you follow and why
do you follow them?

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Okay, I follow I'm going to start with where I
just ended. I love Andy Cohen, which probably depicts my
gender and my age. I think I am like the
archetype for who loves Andy Cohen and the Bravo TV channel. Yes,
but I find him to be charming and simple about

(37:04):
pop culture and a lot of fun, and he can
be a little unconventional, which I like as well. I
like to follow a lot of the typical inspirational people,
and then I have a few podcasts that I listen
to just to get my daily news, and I think
this is very personal for people. There's I know a

(37:25):
lot of people like things like the Daily where it's
like very consumable quick. I like to listen to some
news outlets like Wall Street Journal is a favorite of
mine where you get a little bit more of a
global view, but it is a bit more time to
go through it all. So news inspire and pop culture.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
And I would be remiss if I didn't highlight the
fact you're also a mom of three children. Yes, what
do you share with them about your career and your
experiences as an executive at Accenture.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
I take a lot of pride in showing my children
how to work and provide and afford yourself a certain
lifestyle and way of living. And I work very hard

(38:23):
and I have worked very hard to earn and achieve
what I have. But I especially my children now are
sixteen and thirteen, and of course in the younger years
are just trying to rear kind people who know how
to learn and things like reading and cutting your own food.

(38:44):
But we've graduated now where I think it's really important
to talk to them about money and very real considerations
in life. So we want to take a trip. A
trip costs this amount of money, and in order to
take this trip, these are trade offs we make in
our life away from either savings or fun other things

(39:05):
we would do. We talk very openly about what things
cost and the size of the wallet and the budget,
and we also speak really practically. My husband and I
do this together. We speak really practically about how we
make decisions and what's involved in that. Because I want them,

(39:28):
just like we all need in our work. I want
them to have context around why we do the things
that we do. And sometimes I'm having a lot of
fun with my kids and the context is we're just
having a lot of fun, and then thirty seconds later,
the context needs to change that I'm going to be
a real deal parent to them, and I make sure
they understand. My message to you is I'm your parent

(39:51):
and i'm your writer, die, and this is why I'm
going to give you this lesson. So honesty is the
best policy is one of our our models, but so
is transparency. And I want to teach them to be
responsible adults who don't go out into the world and
don't know how to take some decisions.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I think it's everything you said, totally agree. And the
other thing that I and I'm sure you do this
as somebody who's so attuned in the human capital conversation,
is this importance of being honest and true to yourself
and talking openly and honestly about our feelings and our

(40:32):
assumptions and our opinions on things in a safe space.
I think is just really really important. And I love
the financial management part because I think it'll serve them
for the rest of their life, especially when they go
off to college, if they know how all of that works.
And I just think that's just really really beautiful what

(40:55):
you said.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
So here's my last question.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Okay, look out twelve to eighteen months. What are you
doing and how are you having an impact in the world.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
Betty. This is a timely question because I have so
many years at accenture. I still have a lot of
runway ahead of me, so I'm not done working. But
at the beginning, in particular of this conversation we were talking about,

(41:31):
I've achieved more than I ever could have imagined. So
as I think about my next horizon twelve eighteen more months,
to me, it's really important for myself to be really
excellent at whatever I do. I work hard on that.

(41:51):
I want that. I want that to be my legacy. Wow,
she was really good at whatever she did, and I
wanted to be purposeful and meaningful. And for me, I've
learned I love to build and grow things. I'm not
really a person who likes to take things apart or

(42:12):
deconstruct them and tear them down. So I hope twelve
to eighteen months from now, I am being excellent at
building up it, maybe people or an area of the
business that I'm working in, and setting it up to
grow well beyond me.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Thank you so much for sharing your heart, your story.
It's been an absolute pleasure having this conversation with you.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Thank you for fostering it with me, and I love
that you're having these conversations. What a fun forty minutes
and best time of my week.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
If you are interested in learning more about what we
do at the Warriors at Work show and platform, be
sure to go over to my website, Geniecoomber and subscribe
to my monthly Warrior Playbook newsletter. I share everything that
I'm up to month by month, as well as some
lessons and insights that I've learned I'm also interested in

(43:16):
hearing any feedback you have about this conversation or future topics,
so reach out to me directly on JC at Geniecomber
dot com or on LinkedIn.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Be sure to tell your friends and your colleagues.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
About this Warriors at Work conversation, Subscribe, review, and rate us.
It's the best way to get this message out into
the world.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
Be well,