Marci Rogers
Chief People Officer
GSD&M
Episode 247
Ignite Your Team: Master Strengths, Engineer Unforgettable Employee Moments
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleApril 2, 2025 · 15:55
Thesis
“By focusing on and leveraging individual and team strengths, and by deeply understanding employees' motivations and life stages, organizations can create impactful 'power of moments' that enhance the employee experience and drive collective success.”
Show notes
Exploring HR Journeys and Strengths-Based Leadership with Marci Rogers
In this episode of the Built by People Podcast, host Dave welcomes Marci, who shares her fascinating career journey that began with aspirations of becoming a surgeon but transitioned into a fulfilling career in HR.
Marci talks about finding her passion in learning and development, her extensive experience in advertising, and her role as Chief People Officer at GSD&M.
She delves into the significance of the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool in her career and personal life, providing insightful anecdotes on how focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses can lead to greater effectiveness and team dynamics.
Marci emphasizes the importance of creating impactful moments in the employee journey and offers practical strategies for enhancing team performance and employee experience.
She concludes with advice for using the Gallup StrengthsFinder to improve both professional and personal growth.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:58 Marci's Career Journey
01:33 Discovering a Passion for HR
04:29 Embracing StrengthsFinder
07:02 Applying Strengths in Real Life
09:52 Strategies for Team Dynamics
11:28 Creating Impactful Moments
12:52 Key Touchpoints in Employee Journey
15:08 Parting Advice and Conclusion
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What you'll take away
- 1Prioritize focusing energy on developing and leveraging top strengths rather than attempting to significantly improve lesser strengths, as this yields better results.
- 2Utilize tools like Gallup StrengthsFinder to gain deeper self-awareness and understanding of teammates, enabling more effective collaboration and resource allocation.
- 3Cultivate 'power of moments' in the employee journey by thoroughly understanding individual employee drivers, motivations, passion projects, values, and life stages.
- 4Recognize that the employee experience begins at the very first outreach during recruitment and extends through comprehensive onboarding and critical life events.
- 5Strategically leverage insights from team strengths assessments (e.g., identifying high influencers) to enhance program rollouts, focus groups, and problem-solving initiatives.
What most organizations get wrong
- •The guest asserts that the natural human tendency to focus on improving weaknesses is counterproductive; instead, one should amplify existing strengths.
In Marci's words
“If you focus that, if I were focusing that same energy on my top 5, the things that come naturally to me, my gifts and talents, I would have seen such different results.”
This quote highlights the core philosophy of strengths-based development and its counter-intuitive nature.
“It's not about trying to limit anyone. It's not about that. It's about what are you great at and how do we leverage that? How do we bring it out within teams?”
This explains the purpose and benefit of strengths assessments for individuals and team dynamics.
“To create moments that matter to your organization, the first and most important step is really knowing your employees. What are their drivers? What are their motivations? And even what are their passion projects?”
This provides a clear, actionable first step for leaders to create impactful employee experiences.
“Our employee experience starts with the first reach out. So our recruitment process, our Day Zero site, welcoming them the moment that they hit accept to their offer and building that excitement and engagement during that time of that 2-week resignation or whatever timeline that they have.”
This emphasizes the breadth of the employee experience, starting well before the official first day.
“If you haven't already, I would really encourage people to take the Gallup StrengthFinders. You learn a lot about yourself, but you can also learn a lot about the people that you work with and know how to lean into them, it will not only improve your effectiveness, but also your energy level and how work feels.”
This serves as a strong parting recommendation that encapsulates a key theme of the episode.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Employees often struggle with the natural human tendency to focus on improving weaknesses rather than leveraging innate strengths.
- •Individuals may resist personality or strengths assessments due to perceptions of being 'put in a box' or labeled.
- •Organizations need effective strategies to enhance team dynamics and performance beyond traditional management approaches.
- •Leaders require methods to consistently create memorable and impactful employee experiences at critical touchpoints.
- •HR teams face challenges in supporting employees through diverse and significant life events, such as family-forming journeys or becoming caretakers for aging parents.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
You're chief people officer at an integrated advertising agency in Austin
What's Your Career Journey?
Marcie uses Gallup StrengthsFinder to help foster growth
Gallup StrengthsFinder
Marcie says identifying your strengths can lead to significant breakthrough or success
Identifying your strengths led to significant breakthrough
Marcie recommends using Gallup Strengths Finder to enhance team dynamics and performance
How to Leverage Gallup Strengths Finder
How can leaders create impactful moments to enhance the employee experience
How to Create Impactful Moments
GSM focuses on creating lasting impressions with its employees through onboarding
What Makes a Lasting Impression?
Arcee, what parting advice would you like to share with our community
Arcee On Her Strengths
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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