Deboleena Bose

▶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 Deb to the Built by People podcast. Deb, 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.

▶0:52GuestThanks, Dave. It's good to be here. Thanks for the invitation. You know, I actually went to school to study HR. I have an MBA in human resources. And one of the drivers to do HR was my father. He was an engineer by training, but in the last decade of his career, he was doing human resources for a huge steelmaking company in India. And from him, I saw that is just so important to have the right talent in the right roles with the right environment. And seeing that fulfillment of people's potential and the ability to drive business by talent was what brought me to HR. From school, I was hired by General Electric, the big conglomerate, and I worked with them for over 20 years in different roles, in different geographies, different industries. In early 2018, I left GE and went to Whirlpool in a very regional role. Before that, in GE, I had done a lot of global roles. So it was interesting to go to a regional role and had a lot of experience in manufacturing, union relations, etc. And then again pivoted about 5 years ago to the financial services sector, where now I lead HR for CoBank, which is a bank focused on bringing in credit to rural America. That's what we do. That's our mission. And I'm excited to have been doing this work for the last 5 years.

▶2:43HostDeb, can you tell us about a career-defining moment that you've had?

▶2:48GuestYes, sure. You know, Dave, I've been in HR for 30 years, so there are so many career-defining moments that, you know, just thinking about it, it's difficult to pick one. However, through all these different career moments that I have had, what's been very critical and important is that, you know, there are some beliefs and values that have been reinforced through my career journey. I think the key one is that mentorship and advocacy is very important for your career. And I have learned that don't be afraid to ask for help. The second one is that without a nurturing environment, And without people around you that can help you be successful, even the best person, you know, the most qualified, the most savvy, the most skilled will not be successful. And the third one, which again is part of, you know, what I've learned through all these different career-defining moments, is that people won't remember what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel. And I think that being, you know, transparent, being kind to people, being able to help people navigate difficult situations, and more importantly, treating people as adults is very important. I'll give you an example. In one of the jobs I worked, there was this very brilliant, high-potential lady who had gone on maternity leave and was going to come back. And we had a big project coming up, and they were her leadership team who was talking about that how, you know, as she's a new mother, this may be too big of a project for her to take on. And they were actually coming at it with their heart. They were being kind. And I remember saying that, you know, why don't we ask her? Let it be her choice. And I think that is part of all these career-defining moments that I'm talking about. You know, treat her like an adult. She makes the choice. Lay out what is in there. And that's, you know, those are the kind of different events that have happened in the almost 30-year career that I've had. Which have made me have these beliefs about how can I show up as an HR leader.

▶5:30HostDeb, can you talk to us about a challenge that you faced in your career and how you overcame it?

▶5:35GuestYeah, yes, sure. You know, again, I have worked in multiple businesses, short cycle, long cycle, through different changing business environments. Tremendous growth, tremendous downturn. You know, of course, we should not forget the 2008 recession. I was in a short-cycle business at that time. I've also worked in different geographies with very different leadership teams, organization cultures, all of that. So there's been a lot of different challenges. I think what always stands out is it's never The challenge is truly about how do I react to it? Do I react with a rational mind or do I react with an emotional mind? And whenever there is a challenge, I am a very passionate person. I bring my whole self to whatever I do. So that's been one of the biggest learnings for me, that how do I keep the passion that I have? But still, you know, think with my head in terms of all these different challenges that I have faced. And then, you know, I've always, through all these different challenges, I've tried to focus on why is this the challenge? What is in it? And, you know, things are never black or white. It's always gray. So I've tried to peel the issue and see What is it coming from? Where is it coming from? What is the why of this challenge? And then go back and look at my toolkit to say, have I faced this before? If I haven't, how should I face this? And then, you know, use the values and beliefs that I talked about earlier to then overcome those.

▶7:33HostDeb, what's a legacy you hope to leave as an HR leader and why?

▶7:38GuestYes, it's a great question because, you know, when you start your career, you never think about legacies. So right now, looking back on my career, I think about why did I join HR, right? Why did I go to school to do HR? And the real reason I went to school is really I wanted people to be able to achieve their full potential, to, you know, accomplish what they wanted to be successful at. How do they fulfill their dreams? Because everybody has their superpower, right? And I believe that I work in HR because I fulfilled— I help them fulfill their superpower. Sometimes, it's in the company. Sometimes, it's not. And that, I think, is the way that I think about HR. I ultimately want to help people do what they are best at. And how can they achieve success.

▶8:33HostDeb, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

▶8:37GuestI think being bold, taking risks, leaning into difficult and situations that you've never faced into. And you talked about challenge. Going out and actually bringing forward challenging situations is very important for us in HR because we can get So focused on this is what the law says, or this is what has been done, or this is what the organization wants. So being bold is what is most important as we go into this very uncertain world with changes in technology, changes in our business environment, etc. Because what's the worst that can happen? If you succeed, it's great. If you don't succeed, you learn from it. And move forward.

▶9:25HostDeb, thanks so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶9:30GuestSame here. Thank you very much.