Brian Baker

▶0:00IntroWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce.

▶0:42HostI'm excited to welcome Brian to the Built by People podcast. Brian, thank you so much for joining us today. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:51GuestWell, thanks for having me, Dave, and thanks for inviting me into this great community. You know, I, I kind of have an odd, background, though I think it's probably built and meant for the time right now. I say I spent about half of my career inside of companies changing, transforming, setting them up for growth. And then the other half of my career, I've actually spent serving clients. So, on the line, helping drive change and transformation, which is really, really relevant to our world here at Jineo. Professional services organization really focused on board and CEO advisory, or what we call the CEO Agenda.

▶1:32HostBrian, I want to jump into it by asking, how can leaders cultivate a lifeguard mindset, knowing when to observe, when to coach, when to step in decisively to drive both resilience and progress?

▶1:45GuestYeah, thanks for the question. You know, I think because I've had this background at really some amazing organizations that have really invested in leaders. I spent a decade at IBM. I was part of transforming Walmart into a digital company. I've worked at Accenture, just some really, really amazing organizations. I think that coupled with growing up in Ohio, I was actually a lifeguard myself. And I think about the role of a modern leader, a lot like what it was like to be a lifeguard and how you spot people who are engaging in maybe a behavior that could pose a risk, how you keep a watch over people in a way that is humane and human, but not necessarily intervening, if you will. And sometimes that role requires you to spot people who are in trouble and If you're either lucky or unlucky enough, it requires you to jump in and save them. And I think about leaders today as having to have this range and spectrum and ability to do all of those things. And it really does require leaders to be, I think, really fantastic coaches who show up and give productive feedback in a really consistent and high-quality way. Very frequently. And that's a lot of things to be able to get right. And so, as we think about what's ahead for people out of COVID navigating constant change and disruption, a world that is more prone to destabilization geopolitically, socially, local safety, all these things are at play. And not to mention just the sort of normal human things that every one of our people are encountering on a daily basis, whether it be at home with their family, with their spouse, with their children. And so, as leaders, we've got to have this ability to observe and view and do it really, really carefully and empathetically. But we also have to know how and when to engage, how to do that in the best interest of our business, our clients, and our people. And sometimes we have to save people. And we have to help them in ways that are more defining, and I think that are really in their best interest and in the best interest of our business.

▶4:18HostI want to dive into a very important topic today, and that's AI and digital tools. What does true inclusion look like when we expand beyond people to include AI and digital tools? Ensuring both humans and machines can work together to create better outcomes?

▶4:36GuestYeah. First off, I have to say I am a wild optimist around how AI is going to help us be more productive and probably more human if we're open to that. So, and when I think about inclusion, I think about sort of where inclusion was kind of the end of last year, beginning of this year. A lot of the work that we as organizations were doing in that space was over-programmed and under-outcomes. And I think, while I'm not thrilled and happy about the assault that DE&I has taken, I remain steadfast in the criticality that inclusion has in our future and in the importance it has in the success of our people and our business. So I think we have this huge opportunity now not to necessarily anchor or wallow in some of that frustration and challenge, but instead to reimagine and redefine inclusion. Because in the past, it was really all about sort of counting people, and it was sort of a human-only exercise. I think we have this future where we can reimagine inclusion and ask ourselves, how should our cultures and our organization and the work work when inclusion includes not only humans, but how we work with agentic AI, robots, and automation, and how our organizations and our cultures plan for the work to work more seamlessly across all these different facets and the opportunities for new thinking, agitation, productivity, challenge, solutions, ideas, all these opportunities that I think technology allows us. When I go back to this, I think about something Susan Podlagar, who was the CHRO of MetLife, said to me years ago, and it's really stuck with me and it's really, I think, inspired me. The organizations that are going to win are going to be organizations who are really good at knowing what work can and should be uniquely human, what work can and should be uniquely machine, and knowing about where those two things should mix and intersect with each other and making sure that the culture and the skills of the organization exist so that that can be possible.

▶6:52HostBrian, how can HR leaders intentionally build networks that not only sharpen their own thinking, but also spark collective global change in the world of work?

▶7:02GuestYeah, I think first off, it's a really big priority for me to spend time with other people who have my role and hearing and listening and learning about what they're conquering, what they're challenged by, what they're inspired by. So I think number one, really build a purposeful, deliberate network and spend time. You know, we were talking about some of the conferences that are really great, that are disruptive by nature, showing new technology, this blend of places where you've got venture capital, startups, disruptors in the space, you know, really making sure that you're paying attention to that. And I think also in an organization like Teneo, We're so lucky because our client is the C-suite, the CEO, and our work is so anchored in that. So, I try to make sure that I'm spending time understanding our business, the work we do, and making sure that that's a really big priority. I think, you know, making sure that everything that you're doing has some disruptive element to you so that you are being challenged, you're listening and learning about new ideas. I think it's super important.

▶8:15HostBrian, what steps can leaders take to ensure their teams feel challenged, supported, and connected to work that makes a difference?

▶8:22GuestYeah, I think first off, I just believe, and I think this is shaped by some of the people who influenced and inspired me, who have been mentors to me, but I just really believe in something super simple. If you grow your culture and you grow your people, you'll grow your business. And so I think That for us at Teneo has really, really worked in a way that is quantifiably and measurably proven and valid. And we spent a lot of time really thinking about what is the culture we have to design and keep designing and updating and evolving to keep up with where our business is going. And we're a company that's done a lot of acquisitions, huge expansion. We've grown very quickly. So we've been really deliberate around the kinds of things that must be true. Around how our work gets done and our ways of working, which I think about as really the definition of culture. The second thing is we are deeply invested in more than ever and continuing to add more investment in how we're growing our people. And we're growing our people not just at one level, at every level. So at any given time, I talk to our people that there are at least two things you should be doing to grow yourself, whether it's your skills the kinds of experiences you're after, whether it's a deep specialty or expertise you have—investor relations, crisis, insolvency, forensics. We've got really deep expertise inside of Teneo. And then also inside that growth thing, we are deliberately growing and building better leaders. Now, I think about the opportunity to be a leader at every level, but also when you have the responsibility of leading people, we are really updating those tools. And updating the caliber of our leader, whether it comes to well-being, coaching your people, setting effective goals, or things like even experimenting with AI and how it's going to change your work and being in front of that and inspiring those ideas. And finally, I'll close out on this sort of growing our people. We just completed our second senior managing director accelerator, which is all about how we accelerate people who have been promoted and matriculate to the most senior level of our company. And it's all about being clear around the reset expectations, what's expected of you, what you're expected to deliver, and not only about the business results that we need you to deliver consistently, but how you actually role model what we define as leadership effectiveness within the firm. And throughout our clients. So, if you grow your culture and you grow your people, you will grow your business. And I think we've seen that play out quantifiably, measurably inside of Tuneo.

▶11:13HostBrian, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

▶11:16GuestYeah, I think the number one thing I'd say in this role, whether you're the chief people officer or whether you are in another part of the function, Something that's going to be really critical for us in the future as we stay relevant and effective in advising the business about the way forward is balance and know when to be a disruptor and when to be a diplomat. And I think knowing those two things and having both skills, seeing when there's an opportunity to disrupt something, whether it be because of technology or your business or your clients or are demanding it is huge. But also, the skill of diplomacy, building coalitions inside the organization, galvanizing, and I think uniting energy to go win together as a team, being able to do both those things and knowing when is a piece of advice I would have as a skill to build and something that is highly valuable inside the organization.

▶12:17HostBrian, thanks so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶12:22GuestThanks for having me, Dave. Great to see you.