Melissa Lloyd
Chief Human Resources Officer
Ozarks Technical Community College
Episode 225
Beyond HR: Why Your Professional Growth Is Truly Your Own Responsibility
Current chapter: This podcast is presented by Previ. Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern among employees
Built By PeopleApril 18, 2025 · 15:41
Thesis
“Effective employee development is a continuous, self-driven process that HR leaders must strategically align with organizational goals, leveraging data and fostering a culture of lifelong learning, even when starting small or imperfectly.”
Show notes
Perfection is the enemy of innovation — and in HR development programs, it's also the enemy of getting anything launched. Melissa Lloyd, CHRO at Ozarks Technical Community College, has spent her career building learning and development programs in resource-constrained environments, and her core conviction is as practical as it gets: start imperfect, iterate constantly, and never let the absence of a perfect program be an excuse for the absence of any program.
Melissa's path into HR was shaped by the constant reality of doing more with less — reporting to non-HR leaders, lacking formal mentorship within her function, and building supervisory development programs from scratch in organizations that had never had them. That experience made her resourceful. It also gave her clarity about a truth the profession often resists: your own professional development is your responsibility. Not your company's, not your manager's — yours. Conferences, certifications, free webinars, reading, mentoring others — these aren't luxuries. They're the discipline that keeps HR practitioners relevant in a rapidly changing environment.
Her approach to L&D design is deeply iterative: use available HR data (turnover trends, employee relations issues, recruiting failure rates) to identify the real supervisory capability gaps, build a program that addresses them, gather feedback, and rebuild. She's also discovered something counterintuitive — that teaching others is one of the most effective ways to deepen your own understanding. Adults learn from each other, and the facilitator often learns most of all.
- Building supervisory development programs from zero — practical approaches for organizations that have never had them
- Taking ownership of your professional development — why waiting for your company to grow you is a losing strategy
- Launching imperfect and improving — why iteration beats perfection in development program design
- Using HR data to identify L&D needs — connecting turnover, ER trends, and recruiting failures to supervisory training gaps
- Teaching as a development strategy — why training others accelerates your own growth faster than almost anything else
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What you'll take away
- 1Individuals are responsible for their own professional development; don't wait for your company to create all opportunities. Seek out conferences, certifications, reading, and networking proactively.
- 2Learning through teaching and mentoring is highly effective. Training others, such as supervisors, and engaging in mentorship roles deepens your own understanding and development.
- 3Development programs must be customized to fit the organization's unique needs and challenges, and continuously evolve based on feedback, organizational changes, and the external environment.
- 4HR leaders should strategically align employee development initiatives with broader organizational goals, using available HR data to identify and address pain points like turnover and employee relations.
- 5Embrace an iterative approach to professional development programs. Don't let the pursuit of perfection prevent you from launching initiatives; be willing to start, gather feedback, and continuously improve.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Perfection is the enemy of innovation: Many leaders feel programs must be perfect to launch, but Lloyd advocates for jumping in, getting started, and iterating, rather than waiting for ideal conditions.
- •Professional development is primarily personal responsibility: She challenges the notion that companies are solely responsible for employee growth, stressing individual initiative and advocacy.
- •Building programs from immediate need, not just formal needs assessments: Rather than strictly following textbook needs assessments, she started by addressing immediate project needs for supervisors, building reputation and scale from there.
In Melissa's words
“I often say that I'm really a facilitator. Adults learn best from one another. So although I might be sharing concepts with them and helping them learn new things, I'm actually also helping them learn from one another at the same time.”
Highlights an effective, collaborative approach to adult learning in professional development, emphasizing peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.
“I think that it's really important for us to realize that our own professional development is our own responsibility. You can't wait for your leaders or your company to create opportunities for you. You need to find them yourself. You need to advocate for them, and you need to lead others by being an example of why professional development is important.”
Emphasizes individual accountability and proactive self-advocacy in career growth, departing from passively waiting for employer-led initiatives.
“I think perfection is the enemy of innovation. So many times, I feel like leaders feel like if it's not a perfect program, if it's not a perfect training event, then we shouldn't do it yet. I think we need to be willing to jump in to get started. We don't have to have everything in place to be able to move the organization forward with professional development.”
Advocates for an agile, iterative approach to professional development rather than waiting for ideal conditions, promoting proactive action.
“We also have a responsibility to develop others regardless of whether we have permission to start a formal program or not. So again, no excuses. You mentor others, you coach your own employees, you create discussion, you make sure that professional development isn't just sending someone to a class.”
Stresses the continuous, informal nature of development and the leader's ongoing responsibility to foster growth in others through various means.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Many organizations lack established supervisory development programs, forcing HR leaders to build them from scratch.
- •HR professionals often report to non-HR specialists, resulting in a lack of specific guidance or mentorship for HR career growth within the company.
- •Budget constraints often limit access to external training and development resources, requiring creative solutions like leveraging free webinars.
- •Ineffective recruiting and hiring decisions stem from supervisors lacking proper training, leading to downstream talent issues.
- •High turnover and common employee relations issues indicate a critical need for targeted supervisory training and coaching to address underlying problems.
- •Difficulty in gaining buy-in for new HR initiatives, especially development programs, requiring HR leaders to build a reputation and demonstrate value gradually.
- •Stagnant professional development programs that fail to evolve with organizational changes or participant feedback become ineffective and disengaging.
In this episode
This podcast is presented by Previ. Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern among employees
Built by People
Ozabb has been in human resources for 27 years
Career Journey of an HR Director
Melissa started as a director at the age of 25, learning on her own
Melissa's journey to self-development at 25
You've mentioned working with smaller companies where supervisory development wasn't established
How to Build Supervisory Development Programs
What are the most critical elements of an effective employee development program
What are the most critical elements of an effective Employee Development Program
How has your approach to professional development evolved over your 26-year career
How has professional development evolved over the years?
What role do HR leaders play in driving employee development initiatives within organizations
How to Drive Employee Development in the Workplace
Melissa says professional development is everyone's responsibility, no excuses
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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