Carolina Terrazas

▶0:00HostWelcome 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. I'm excited to welcome Carolina to the Built by People Podcast. Carolina, 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.

▶0:54GuestYes, thank you, Dave, for having me over. I've been really looking forward for this conversation. And to say a couple of things about myself, my name is Carolina Terrazas, and I'm originally from Spain, but I have the privilege of living and working across different countries. From Spain, we moved to Honduras, then to Mexico, and now to the US. I've been here for the last 15 years. My entire career has been in HR, and more as a coincidence than as a plan originally. Originally, I wanted to study marketing, believe it or not, but my first My first job was in HR, and I very quickly fell in love with the work that happens in human resources. And very early in my career, I had someone who saw something in me that maybe I didn't even see in myself. And I was thrown to the water without knowing how to swim and be given this big role that I had— I was not prepared for. That tested me in so many ways and helped me realize that this is where my passion lies, that this is what I like to do. It's a passion, and I've decided to embark in this HR journey, and I've spent my entire career in HR now for 20 years already.

▶2:13HostCarolina, you talked about a, a key person having influence and impact on your trajectory and the direction that you decided to take. What was it about that person that motivated and influenced you?

▶2:27GuestI think it was what I said, the fact that he saw something in me that I couldn't even see in myself at the time. He trusted me and he gave me this opportunity. Just to give you a little bit of context, Dave, I was out of school for 2 years, have worked in this company for 2 years. So imagine very fresh out of school and all of a sudden one day they tell me you're going to be the head of HR of this big manufacturing operation with 4,200 employees, and you're going to have a team of 35 people. And you're going to be responsible end to end for all and everything under HR. And definitely I was not ready for that opportunity. And that's why I say I was thrown to the water without knowing how to swim, but this person believed that I could do it and believed in me so much that I could borrow his belief to convince myself that even though I didn't have the experience or maybe all the knowledge that I needed, I did have something that would make me successful, and that is the belief that I could figure things out. And that experience to date has been the one experience that has marked my career the most. And I would say also personally and as a leader, it taught me that growth happens when we're trusted to rise to the occasion, not when we feel ready. And that leadership is about not having all the answers, but rather developing the empathy, the listening skills, and creating an environment where people matter. And that has been a philosophy that I've carried throughout my career since.

▶4:16HostCarolina, can you tell us about a moment in your career where something was on the line and the decision you made to, through that process?

▶4:28GuestWell, I think I can think of many things related to the businesses that I've been privileged to support, but I think for me, when I talk about my career, probably the decisions that were everything was in the line was the times that I decided to move to a different country as part of my career journey. You know, I moved, as I mentioned, from Spain to Honduras, then to Mexico, then to the U.S. And every movement. Basically starting over, rebuilding my own credibility, building a new community, a new network, building my own confidence in myself that I could do whatever I was set to do. And it wasn't easy, but those moves taught me resilience and humility. And I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, is choosing to move forward despite the fear. And that's something that I learned through experience every time that I move from one country to the next. And I know it's a quote that we say a lot of times, but it resonated a lot with me because it's so true in those moments. Those transitions made me more empathetic, more a better leader, and made me realize that those were the times that I probably have felt the most uncomfortable in my career. Where the stakes were really high for me personally, but also for my family, and that those were the moments that made me grow the most.

▶6:05HostCarolina, I love that. Most people would struggle to make the decision to move their family to another country. There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of unknowns, a lot of change, a lot of fear. I'm curious what advice you would give to someone who's in that state of contemplation. They're thinking about making a career change and moving to a different country. How do you prepare for that decision? And what have you gained from leaning into that fear and having the courage to transcend the boundaries of where you are today and going somewhere new?

▶6:48GuestSuch a great question, Dave. And I think it's all about the mindset. There's not enough preparation you can do in terms of learning about the place or the thing. Sometimes that piece can become quickly overwhelming when you want to learn everything in the distance before even arriving to the place. For me, it was always working on building the confidence in myself that I could figure anything that comes my way out. And I think that is what allowed me to build that resilience every time that, that we got to move. And I think it's, it's about realizing that growth happens when you step outside of your comfort zone. And if that, if it's uncomfortable, means that it's helping you grow and that it's all that pain that might come, pain figurative speaking, it's temporary, right? And there is a learning curve, like with anything new, but those are the experiences that are worth living from a career standpoint, but also from a personal standpoint.

▶7:58HostI love that. Carolina, what's one of the most meaningful changes that you've made in a company as an HR leader that you see employees still feeling today? And how did you make that change happen?

▶8:12GuestWow, that is a big question, and there's definitely a few things that come to my mind, but one thing that I would gravitate to is a time when I was working in automotive, and it was at the beginning of the transition between internal combustion and electrification. Not that that journey is over, it's just starting, but this was the very early stages of that, and I was actually working in internal combustion engines, in powertrain. And I had to partner with our regional president at the time, I remember, on how are we going to tackle this from a people standpoint. At the time, we were also making decisions about investing in Mexico and expanding our footprint there, building maybe an engineering center in Mexico. And to navigate all of that, I had to work on a combination of strategic workforce planning combined with talent risk assessments and trying to identify what were the critical roles and assess our talent gaps and the skill gaps that we were going to have to make possible this transition. And then aligning all the people actions around that, whether it was compensation or retention efforts or attracting different kinds of talents or reskilling training, training talents that we already had. And it was such a fun time. I would say the approach was very people-centered. We were thinking about, you know, the impact that this change was going to have in all the people. And there was a lot of resistance, right? Because it was the unknown. There was a lot of uncertainty and people were questioning how these changes might impact their roles. At the time, we were thinking that it was going to be like flipping a switch, which we realized very quickly that was not the case. It was a slow transition, but it was such a laying the ground kind of exercise that we did that today has been the foundation of what has happened since in terms of building those skill sets and capabilities to drive that transformation, to serve the customers, but also to drive the growth and the innovation that is required in such a big transformation in, in the auto industry, like its electrification.

▶10:43HostCarolina, what's a leadership move or HR initiative that you've repeated in more than one company because it just works?

▶10:53GuestYou know, I don't have any. I don't think I've ever copy-paste something, but I have used something that has worked in the past as inspiration to bring into a new space. I don't believe in copy-paste because I think every company is unique. Every culture is unique. The needs are unique. Most companies have a lot of things in common that we're all trying to solve the same problems. We bucket them differently. We label them differently. Labeled them differently, but there are very unique aspects about every organization that I think, at least the times that I've tried, and I have, copy-paste something, it has not worked. What has worked for me is, as I said, use it as inspiration, but then start with listening and understanding what the needs are and building solutions along with the rest of the team. Like you might bring the idea of a practice that has worked before, but how do you inject the perspective of the new place and the new circumstances and then adapt it with purpose, right? So it serves the purpose for which it is created. And in that way, I have used a lot of practices for inspiration, whether it is talent management practices, whether it is this risk assessment. That I was talking about a minute ago, those are ideas that I carry over from place to place, but always not from a place of it worked there, so I'm just going to copy it here, but let's use that as an inspiration to create something new and better that is adapted to the needs that we have now and the circumstances that we're in now.

▶12:40HostIf you could leave one piece of advice for our community, something you wish you had known earlier in your career, what would it be?

▶12:50GuestOh, I think with everything that is going on in the world today, all the uncertainty, we definitely live in a VUCA world. Now we have AI coming as well. I would say is staying curious and adaptable. You know, early in my career, I thought success meant mastery, meaning you need to know all the answers. Maybe it's because I was thrown to the water without knowing how to swim, and I thought I needed to learn everything and have all the answers. But what I've learned is that what is most important is the ability to unlearn, to evolve, to stay open, and to relearn. And I think that is something we need today more than ever before. Again, with all the changes that are happening and they're happening so fast, being adaptable and keeping that growth mindset, I think it's something that is going to help all of us to stay current, to continue to grow, and to continue to make an impact no matter what your role is or where you are working or what your, your purpose is.

▶14:00HostCarolina, thank you so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶14:06GuestThank you so much for inviting me.