Meet Cindy Elizabeth

I have a very relaxed personality. In most situations this is okay; but not in the working environment. I tend to build great relationships with my managers (who are my customers) by being this way and making jokes and being, well, I don’t know, human. Weird concept, I know. This works with my customers because that is how they operate out in the field. I support a sales force, it’s just a different apple than what I deal with when I hang up the phone or press “send” on an e-mail.

At the end of the day, I work in a corporate environment and sometimes (in my experience) it does not lend itself to the same laid back attitude that I work so well with.

That being said, I’ve started leading a team. YIKES, right? I have to find my balance between being myself, but being more decisive and willing to be more serious and set goals. Now, it’s not to say that I haven’t done these things before. I mean, come on, I work in HR. I have to enforce policy and keep people in line. Leading a team feels different.

I’ve spent the last four years learning from the best and observing the best. There are people in my life (and they know who they are) who have been a constant ear and have given me great advice in terms of the HR world. And my community of HR pros on twitter has leant itself greatly in learning, too. What I actually find interesting is that I am more of the norm versus not. People want to work with people who are like them. Not to get cocky or pretend I am the best thing since sliced bread, but my customers like to work with me because they trust me and they know I will do what I say I will do. And if I can’t, I also tell them.

Now that I’ve sufficiently gone off track – back to what I was talking about before. I was really nervous about leading a team because of the fact that I am naturally laid back. Maybe a middle child thing? Regardless, I’m using this opportunity to lead an endeavor that is important in every aspect of the organization (culture and inclusion) to redesign myself in a way. What I am leading is visible to the entire HR organization and I’m really excited to see the results because it will be a huge success and could lead to bigger things.