039: Building Cultures Founded on Authenticity and Self-Awareness with Elicia Banks-Gabriel
It is now more important than ever before to lead with empathy. 2020 has pulled us in all directions and, in the mad scramble to gain a sense of normalcy and productivity in our lives, many of us have busied ourselves with work at the expense of our mental health. Leaders in every department need to avoid micromanagement and have open communication with their teams. They must keep the bigger picture that is the vision of the company in mind while managing expectations in a time when resources and capacities are limited.
The cultures that have been thriving this year—and will continue to thrive into the future—are those whose teams live on the foundation of self-awareness and emotional intelligence. For today’s guest, this foundation starts with how she refers to the individuals in the organization. By using the term talent as opposed to other monikers, she strategically looks at the management, development, growth, and, ultimately, the affinity for creativity within each and every single one of her people. “Our talent is our culture,” says today’s guest. “The more we focus on our talent, the more our culture cultivates itself.”
Elicia Banks-Gabriel and Steve Chaparro discuss how she leads clients at One & All, why we all need to look back at 2020 as a season for major growth, and how to stay productive amid this year’s challenges while staying flexible and empathetic toward your team.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Encouraging an agency-wide culture of selflessness
- How we can reframe pervasive negative attitudes toward 2020
- Creating joy in your personal and professional life
- Leading with empathy to create more trust in today’s workplace
- Considerations around the length of a workday
- Lessons learned in 2020 to take into the post-COVID world
Resources Mentioned in this episode:
About the Guest:
Elicia Banks-Gabriel is the VP of Talent & Culture at One & All, a creative agency which helped raise $4 million for the world’s most important social causes every single day. Previously, she served as the Director of Talent Management Strategy at Publicis Spine. But, at her core, Elicia is a creator of joy. Her passion for people, collaboration, and culture, has led her to this point in her career, focusing on developing talent and culture at One & All.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising/PR and Marketing at Marietta College.
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Announcer
Welcome to the Culture Design Show where we feature conversations with leaders and thinkers who are passionate about culture and design. Now, let’s get started with the show.
Steve Chaparro
This podcast is brought to you by Culture Design Studio. This is where I help creative organizations transform their cultures, from being controlling to being collaborative. Now, here are some of the things that I’ve learned. Your creative talent demands a co-creative culture in order to produce their best work. But there’s a problem. So let’s see if we can recognize some of these signs.
There’s no framework to move your culture forward. You have high turnover and low morale. There’s increasing toxicity across all levels. There’s team engagement and satisfaction that are on the decline. There’s a misalignment between the employer brand and the employee experience. And there’s poor communication about expectations, and values. So if you want to learn more about how I provide facilitation and coaching for your creative team, reach out to me at CultureDesignStudio.com.
Our guest today is Elicia Banks-Gabriel. She is the VP of Talent and Culture at One & All a creative agency, which helps raise $4 million for the world’s most important social causes every single day. Previously, she served as the Director of Talent Management Strategy at Publicist Spine. But at our core, Elicia is a creator of joy, her passion for people, collaboration and culture has led her to this point in her career, focusing on developing talent and culture at One & All. Elicia, welcome to the show.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Thank you so much, Steve. So happy to be here.
Steve Chaparro
Well, I’m glad to have you. We met about a year and a half ago, we were both at an event. And there was I don’t know what it was, but there was a response that you gave to one of the questions that really intrigued me about your perspective. And we had a good conversation after the event there, then we’ve had some good conversations thereafter.
And I really was intrigued by you know, the things that you said and the way you think about culture and talent, especially in the creative world, which is the world that you worked in. So I’m really excited to have this conversation.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Oh, thank you. I’m super excited to be here.
Steve Chaparro
Well, one of the things I’d love for the folks to hear about is your professional journey, I’d love to hear about that sort of narrative arc, whether it was intentional or not, in terms of how you, you know, we’re how you’ve arrived, where you’re at, but I think, you know, if the stories of guests in the past have, you know, set somewhat of a precedent, I would imagine that it’s been somewhat of a discovery the journey of self-discovery. So what does that look like for you?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yeah, absolutely. So I started my career at Anomaly, which is one of the most creative ad agencies in the world. Not to brag, you know, and big shout out to Anomaly, one of the most creative and disrupting ad agencies, they had changed the business model from, you know, timesheets to let’s talk about revenue share. And I just found that fascinating.
And so as a 21-year-old, during a recession, I walked in it with all the energy and positivity and, and just motivation, I could and I said, I have to work here. And they put me to work and they liked me. And after freelancing for some time, they hired me on working in the account, the account area, and from there, you know, social medias started blooming for brands, Twitter, Facebook pages, and things like that. And I ended up finding myself teaching the CEO of Coca Cola how to tweet from a Blackberry.
Steve Chaparro
From a Blackberry? I didn’t realize they had access to Twitter on a Blackberry.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
I know right back in the day. But yeah, it was a very interesting time to be in creative in Creative Advertising. And being able to then apply some strategy frameworks and things like that and start building a strategy capability within the ad agency was more of a focus and so I found myself doing that more.
And from Anomaly, I then moved to a fragrance brand called The Cloudbreak Group, where we would get license is from like the New York Yankees and Isaac Mizrahi and we were just create, from fragrance to bottle to campaign to selling to Macy’s and things. So I had an account foundation strategy interest, and then began really doing some sales merchandising full campaign strategy there, and then went to Berlin, Cameron for more account management roles. But the common theme through all of this was none of those agencies had an HR department.
Steve Chaparro
Are you serious? Wow.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yeah, not a single one. You know, typically the CFO or the finance team would really lead, you know, payroll, and anything related to employees. And so I found it really interesting when Avast called me to join their global talent team, because I said, What the heck is a talent team, what is this and finally became aware of the shift in the industry to focus on people, investing in people understanding how people best work, to get the best work out of them for, you know, the clients, and in the day, the consumer.
So I jumped at that opportunity and had the best time we created some of the most incredible global campaigns or programs for talent, including Avast locks, where we would send a group of high performers to a new city and set a new team for a new perspective, culturally, and, and workwise.
And so that job really sparked within me an interest in needing to help people be motivated and engaged in their job. And on the company side, making sure that you’re providing career growth and opportunities for people to realize their dreams because the more that you can individualize talent, the more that people will appreciate, and be loyal to your company. So just like anything in life, the more you put in, the more you get out. So I’ve put all my heart and soul into caring about people so that they can care about the work that they do for our incredible clients.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, that’s pretty, pretty awesome. And I think that’s a very similar thing that I’ve heard from a lot of whether you call them people or talent leaders in the industry that a lot of times they didn’t start in HR like they weren’t the master’s degree toting HR folks that they came into it because of a have a passion for people.
Or even if it wasn’t necessarily an intentional move, it was an opportunistic move, that people just fall in love with the role, especially as you said, if this wasn’t something that was very prevalent in the industry at a certain point, but then there was a shift in even the use of the word talent, versus a people or HR is a very decisive move in my opinion because it’s also in, you know, kind of given omaze to the creative folks in the industry, saying, you know, what, you deserve a different moniker, or you deserve a different perspective. What can you share about that? Because I think that’s very distinct, that people would use in the creative world, that term talent versus another term.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yeah, absolutely. Um, so, so many thoughts on this. First and foremost, you know, you’re hitting the nail on the head, and you know, especially in Creative Advertising, our people, they certainly deserve a different moniker as you mentioned. So I think that largely as a part of it, but also just, you know, HR in general, we have so many hats, we wear hats, that it’s just it runs the gamut.
And being able to then focus your strategy on talent and culture helps you and anyone who may read that title, or understand that department would then be able to understand, oh, they’re much more taking on much more strategic approach to how they view their human resources. Right.
So it’s, it’s much more about strategically looking at the management, the development, the growth, and ultimately the appreciation for talent that title of the department lends itself to. And I always, well, our, our current position at One & All is our talent is our culture. And so the more that we focus on our talent, the more that our culture cultivates itself.
Steve Chaparro
So how do you think for yourself? Because I think your example of having come up through account leadership or account management doing strategy? Some other guests who are saying your similar role at other firms have kind of taken that path? How has that helped you? Do you feel in your role of understanding what it means to lead clients lead accounts, understand the strategic side of things? How has it helped you in your role?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yeah, absolutely. Um, specifically, on the account side, I would say that I directly apply it to my role in the sense that I believe I have over 200 clients. I have a few hundred employees at one and all I have over 200 clients, I need to check in with them, I need to know that they’re doing okay, I need to provide tools and playbooks and really break them up into segments to understand, you know, their, their experience and their journey so that we can find different, you know, resistors, or points of enjoyment and how to amplify or take away those resistors.
And so, I certainly apply, you know, account management in the sense of building a relationship as much as possible with every single individual, and then strategically, looking at the relationship and different tools and things that we can help to improve their experience overall.
Steve Chaparro
So I love that perspective. And it’s a very much of a multidisciplinary, almost perspective of just HR or talent. The danger, though, I think, in some cases is that the VP or the head, people in talent person is the champion and in some ways the soul nurture of that perspective. How can we ensure that that perspective is adopted by all senior leadership in an agency and then flows down? Or if it goes from the bottom up? How do we ensure that that perspective is agency-wide?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yeah, absolutely. It’s certainly, in our case starts with our executive leadership team. And, you know, to be honest, and not to brag, but we have some of the greatest leaders on Earth. In our time of living on this Earth at One & All. I have never met a greater group of servant leaders who just every day consider everyone’s thoughts, feelings, lives before they consider, you know, other aspects of the business.
So for example, you know, Denise Wong, our CEO, she is in constant communication, leading with transparency, and helping people know that the ELT is there, we’re on teams, we’re on email, we here’s our cell phone numbers. You know, please, if you have any concerns, or need anything ever, reach directly out to us at any point in time. And because we on the executive leadership team embody that spirit on a very consistent basis, then it drives or motivates our team leaders to do it as well.
So especially during this work from home and in COVID experience, we’ve been really focused on flexibility and making sure that everyone is focused on their, their mental health and wellness during this time, and, you know, obviously, we have our time off and our sick pay and all of the elements and benefits and resources that people have to use and so we constantly communicate that and I’ve heard from so many employees that they’ve been heard.
And they’ve been able to work out individually their own schedule with their managers and, you know, workarounds with children, school schedules, for example. Think that so it’s true. I have certainly been at places where that has not happened that way. And so I am so grateful to be a part of an organization where it truly the leadership truly walks the walk and that and talks the talk. Yeah.
Steve Chaparro
Well, that’s great to hear. And I think we need to definitely bring those stories to light those sort of agency leadership stories, not too light, but to share those to celebrate those in the industry as hopefully shining examples of how things can be. Yes, how things should be, but let’s just say how they can be. Because I think, in these tough times that we find ourselves in, I think that leadership, that cream of the top, the cream of the cream has definitely risen to the top in terms of leadership.
So maybe let’s take a shift in our conversation. I know if we look back over we’re in the middle of October right now. And, you know, we look back at the last seven months, and we say, Oh, my gosh, it seems like seven years 2020 has been an eventful year, and that’s to put it mildly and and others would maybe use the stronger term, say 2020 has sucked and maybe even stronger than that.
So what have you seen as kind of, like, sort of pervasive attitudes about the year and perspectives? And and and what are your thoughts about that? And how can we maybe reframe that?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yeah. I love this question. I think there is a lot of groupthink happening, right? Someone says, oh, I’m tired, or Oh, you know, yet another thing has happened, right? And then it just snowballs. And I have noticed here and there leaders from, you know, all facets of the organization and outside of our organization, who have taken a different twist on it, and saying things like, well look at how much we’ve overcome. Everyone that I’ve spoken with that at One & All there is a resounding theme, which is there is literally nothing we cannot do if we do it together.
Steve Chaparro
That’s awesome.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
And I just, it’s a rallying cry, it makes you feel so supported, so motivated, so you know, bring in on money 2020. You know, there’s still 11 weeks left in this godforsaken year, but let’s stay positive and think about all the good that has happened, let’s not forget about that, you know and let’s not dwell on the things that, you know, we don’t have control over. Realize that it’s our attitude that gets us through day by day. And that makes our character who we are so that we can literally overcome anything.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, I think it’s been somewhat of a journey if you think of almost like, I mean, I had a couple of guests on a while back, and we talked about sort of, maybe all of mankind, going through this season of collective grief, you know, grieving the old and I think that there was, you know, in a sense, we could even adopt the adage of misery loves company in terms of when something bad happens, you know, the fact that we can get together on a group zoom call, and kind of just vent there is something cathartic about that, but after, you know, seven months of that, I think, man like I get that we’re in this tough spot. But can we actually find something good? Like I’m tired of just wallowing in pity? Yeah, let’s dive in.
So I think that perspective of, you know, let’s be grateful for the things that have happened well, and I definitely look at my own personal and professional life and can think of a ton of things that have gone well, and I almost think of it maybe to your maybe using it even a different language of like, how can we reframe our relationship with 2020?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yes, exactly. And I’ll tell you two, my favorite thing. That is a very easy thing that anyone can do. And that’s to give someone a compliment. People need encouragement right now. Even if it’s just, you know, Oh, I like that blouse that you’re wearing on this, you know, 7000 teams zoom call that we’re on, you know, or, wow, that email was really great, you know? Well, very well put together and communicate, you know, the smallest bit of compliment, go the longest way right now.
Steve Chaparro
I think we need to hear that message more. I mean, I think even, you know, even for you a three-sentence purpose statement of I create joy, you know, is a wonderful thing. You know, regardless of whatever profession you’re in whatever role you’re in, whatever kind of conversation you’re a part of, to find ways to create joy. And I’ll be honest, like, there have been seasons in this long season of the last seven months. Or I’ve said, I do need to recapture that joy in my life,
Whether it’s spiritual, whether it’s mental, whether it’s physical, emotional, recapturing that joy has been, you know, a real desire, and sometimes I get there and I feel I’m there right now. But there has been some really low points.
So I mean, let’s let’s use that as maybe another kind of topic, like how can we, you gave an example of just you know, complimenting people, about emails, or different things that they’ve done, what are some ways that you sought to either create joy in your own personal life, or in your professional life?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Well, in my personal life, I clean my house constantly. Makes me feel a lot better. And professionally, these moments where I get to connect with people who I highly respect and care about and love, you know, discussing theories and, and thinking about things that is so joyous to me, because, you know, so much of the day is emailing, video calls, you know, it gets to be wearing, and especially when, here’s, here’s a big tip, too, if you have a ding on for, you know, your emails or phone calls and things like that, turn that noise off. You don’t need that sound every time an email comes in, it’s just it shocks your system, you know? And sometimes, you just immediately go to this negative feeling like, oh, what now? You know.
And so if you can control as much as possible, those things that make you feel like oh, what now? And save them, you know, block time in your calendar for “Oh, what now?” things the more you have control over your feelings and your well being?
Steve Chaparro
Well, I mean, I think a topic for me that has come up even in some of the groups that I’m a part of like, say a church group that we get together, we call it a life group. And it’s just basically a support group that we get together every week. And one of the themes that has come up there is been this theme of manage your energy, manage what grabs your attention, manage what grips your heart, managed a lot of those different things.
And so to your point about notifications, I’ve definitely I’ve had to turn those off. I’ve even I’ve turned every single notification off on my phone, I have deleted certain social media apps that if I really need to go to that particular account, I do it on my desktop, so that I’m not constantly getting stuff like LinkedIn, and Instagram or my like, I got to stay away from those things, because I’m constantly on those things. And I actually heard a stat that said something to the effect of any time you get some sort of notification, it takes you like 20 minutes to get back on track.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yes.
Steve Chaparro
And so I mean, those notifications, it they are some really big things. And so I think managing your attention manager, your emotions, there’s a lot of things out there in the world that could grip your heart in probably justifiably so. But in some cases, we need to, this is not my time to think about that. It’s not that it’s not important. I just cannot think about that. I will allow myself a different part of the day to focus on some of those things, whether it’s global, political, familial whatever.
We have to really manage our energy because there’s so much that is grabbing at us right now and drinking every single one of those things. is like a tap into our energy. And we have to look at him to turn that off. Turn that off. Turn that off for now. Yeah, it’s been a really interesting journey of understanding that.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Right…
Steve Chaparro
Well, one of the things I also want to talk about is, when I talk about trust with leaders. I’ve had some folks that are, you know, some leaders, some executive leaders at some of these creative firms that, you know, they run the gamut in terms of how they approach trust, one hand, they have no problem, you know, trusting folks that they’re going to do their work.
On the other end, you’ve got some of these micromanagers that were used to peering over the shoulder of their teams, making sure that they did the work. And now that you know even at the beginning of this whole thing, though, the anxiety and the mistrust that was revealed by saying, oh, man, I have, like how do I know that they’re pulling in eight hours of billable work in their day? or whatever it was? What has been your approach to trust and the ramifications? Or what does that lead to in work?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yeah, absolutely. I, I also love this question. You’re making me recall the HR hackathon that the disrupt HR group put on a few months ago, and in that hackathon, my team, we were trying to think around, you know, mental health in the workplace, and the conversation led to well, the expectations haven’t changed. So we’re still expected to deliver, deliver, deliver.
Now, with layoffs, with client budgets being slashed, we are asked to do more with less. And when your constraints are that tight, there are bound to be mistakes. And so I always try. And I like to think that I deliver lead with empathy. And so what that means is having open communication, specifically with my direct team, and making sure that they know what my expectations are, you know, I need this at this date, but then also letting them know, you know, why I need it?
You know, making sure that I’m communicating the full picture to them. And letting them know, and in on, if you will, what the grander scheme is so that they have some skin in the game as well. So they know the impact that they’re driving with what it is that they’re working on.
So there’s a piece of that and then when it comes to you know, the constraints as well, there are obviously risks when you’re doing the same, if not more, with less people and less budget to deliver it. And those risks tend to result in mistakes and so you have to have that conversation of you know, this was a mistake, and that’s okay.
You know, I do not believe in you know, there are certainly some attitudes and some heightened emotions during this time that we find ourselves in, but the more that you can be understanding the more your team will be able to understand to not do it in a certain way like that, again, in the future. One of my favorite sayings, and this is by an unknown author is “Look at how much we failed. That’s how smart we’ve become.”
So I like to buy that all at the same time, by the way, that you know, if things get lost, balls get dropped and you have to find the best way for your team to feel comfortable and not micromanaged while also staying on the same page. And they’re enormous amounts of information out there from objectives and key results you know, very formalized frameworks for you to use. You know, a kanban graph, you know, to do later done, you know, whatever it is that works best for your team so that they know that you trust them and that you can see work getting done as it’s getting done without having to check in on them every second of the day. I think is a successful way to go that?
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, I think I think one of the things that we’re seeing is that, you know, people are working have different ways of working, you know, especially now that we’re from home. And you know, we’re the work typical workdays, eight hours, but did we really get even before COVID, eight hours of solid work, and even more so now? I think, you know, some people work better in the morning, some people might want to divide up their day into two chunks, because they have kids, and they want to, you know, do some, you know, take care of those things or have other commitments.
And, you know, I’ve heard stories of, you know, even the idea of Oh, yes, on zoom calls, we would prefer to have everybody have their cameras on. But did you know that person who has her camera on has an epileptic dad, who may have you know, you don’t know what’s ever going to happen? So she would rather just, and so there’s all these different things that I think having compassion, as well as trust, is something to think about, what is something that you guys have done to kind of account for that? Or what is something that you’re exploring?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
One way, and one of the biggest ways that we’re approaching this is a flex plan that our executive leadership team has introduced in the last few weeks. And this was spearheaded by Denise Wong, our CEO. And so she introduced a flex plan that will go through June 2021, at the very least, and we will be reevaluating it throughout the next few months.
But in this flex plan, there are certain questions that managers and employees are having around you know, what your best schedule, how do we best work together? Again, you know, what’s that kind of stat sheet that we can stay on the same page, without you feeling like I’m micromanaging you. And all of this right is, is open communication.
And so we’re just providing the guidance or facilitating that conversation between managers and employees to get at an agreeable place where folks can feel trusted and be trusted to deliver on their work, regardless of what their home situation or their COVID situation may be. And a large part of this too is, you know, in our business, we talk a lot about self-awareness, right. And a large part of self-awareness is actually awareness of other people.
And at your experience is not by any means the same experience from other people. And so the more that we can have self-awareness and emotional intelligence and lead with that, the better our people, the better the work, the better the business. So that’s was the antithesis, if you will.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, no, that’s great. I mean, it as far as that date of June of 2021, is that something that you’re seeing echoed or, or as kind of, like an industry-wide sentiment of like, we think that, or is it just something, a decision, kind of like a pin in the calendar that has been placed by leadership?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Yeah, well, we’re, we’re so lucky to have Denise she’s, uh, she’s working from home with a young child. And so she picked June because it’s the end of the school year.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, that makes total sense. Absolutely. Yeah, no, that makes total sense from, from a parent perspective, everything revolves around our children’s calendar. I mean, my daily calendar is basically based on when I have to take my young son, my young new high schooler to cross country practice every day. So yeah,
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
That’s awesome.
Steve Chaparro
Well, I wanted one to get your maybe as a last topic to talk about is, what are your thoughts about the length of the workday?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Hmm. So the length of the workday is super interesting, especially now, you know, we’ve seen a lot of reporting come out right from Harvard Business Review, Deloitte, PwC, all of these wonderful consulting companies if you will, and so they’re releasing reports that are focused on you know, how work is getting done during this work from home experience.
And they’ve noticed that the workday has extended by at least 45 minutes on average. And they’ve also pointed out that in, you know, survey surveying folks, they responded saying, Well, I don’t feel like I’ve gotten as much work done. So my day is longer, I’m not getting as much work done. And they dig even further and found, well, emails are a lot more emails are being sent, and they’re a lot longer. And obviously, video calls and phone calls, those have taken over.
And so it’s, it’s interesting when you pull this information together, because you realize, Oh, well, we’re not side by side anymore. And so when we’re not side by side, it’s difficult to communicate an email, and video and phone calls. All of these are pieces of communication. And so what we’ve been doing with this information is focusing on our managers, and helping them you know, either revamp or re-understand communication skills, effective communication skills, you know, do you actually need to have that meeting?
Are you writing the email in a way that everyone can understand? Are you focusing on the audience that is receiving the email, you know, these certain elements of communication, because the idea is the more effective that our managers are communicating, hopefully, you know, the more efficient we will be, the more effective their work will be?
And so to kind of meet the moment of this data, if he will, to try to bring that day down, try to make sure that people are delivering on their goals for that day. And having it focused on their communication skills, is how we’ve been trying to address.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, that’s a very important insight. Like, I wouldn’t have thought like, I definitely understand the extended workday, and I understand that output, just on average would be down even despite that extended workday. But I never would have gotten the insight that you just shared about it’s really about ineffective communication, because of emails, you know, whereas before, if we are side by side, you can ask a quick question, get instant reply.
But now we’re writing emails, and we’re waiting, almost like refresh, refresh, refresh, waiting for that response back. But if someone’s on a zoom call, they can’t necessarily do that. So that’s very interesting, if like, what are some ways for us to hack, not just hack and make it quicker, but more effective, more effective communication?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
And to you will, you’ll find a lot of reports out there well, over I believe 76%, something 98% of stats are made up on the on the spot, right? Wide majority of people who are multitasking, right, and so instead of being in a room now in front of each other, and you know, it’s a very obvious if you’re on your computer, rather than paying attention to being in the room.
You can sit here and write emails and texts and tweets and things just from your computer. And I’m just looking at the screen and you sit you think nothing of it. And so the multitasking happens, multiply. And and, of course, that takes away your attention when you’re doing 50% on one thing and 50% on the other. Your, you know, only half a** it.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah. And it’s so true. I mean, I’ve been guilty, definitely. Because I’m a person that type that wears his thoughts on his face? And if I’m like, you know, kind of bantering back and forth with someone on slack during a meeting, it totally shows on my face. And, you know, whoever’s leaving me is like, Steve, like, share with the group like, yeah, in you know, in so that definitely happens, I can definitely see how our attention is bifurcated, if not more by different things that multitasking.
Yeah, some very interesting thing is I think those are all interesting dynamics that we’re all facing, I think, but these are, to your point earlier. I think with all the challenges that we have faced and are facing in 2020. We have definitely learned a lot. And I guess maybe the last question, even though I didn’t have it planned. The last question might be like, what are some important lessons that you’re going to take from 2020 that you are going to or that you are determined to say we’re going to take those into the post COVID world.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
First and foremost, bring your authentic self to work. I think it’s so easy to say that and so hard to actually deliver on that. I am in a very serious position, right. But I’m also a very joyous person.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah. Yeah.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
And I think in the past had a lot of feedback if you will, you know, well, why are you laughing, you know, at this or, oh, you need to be more serious and you know, different types of feedback like that.
And it’s somewhat disheartening to get those pieces of feedback because you can’t change something like that, if you change something like that, that changes, you know, the core of the person.
Obviously, I’m very serious when I need to be serious. But I like to always try to inspire and encourage and help people through their problems. And a large part of that is joy. And that is just who I am. And I bring my authentic self to work every day. And I do everything in my power to encourage my team to bring their authentic self, to work. And I will do everything in my power to continue that post COVID.
You know, because we can imagine, right now we can imagine a world where we just go back and just revert how things were before but, you know, if you want to wear some, you know, leopard leggings, you know, as an HR, go for it.
Change the dress code, you know, change dress code, change the you have to be butt in the seat at 8:30 am, five days a week, you know, that it’s not realistic, you know, if you want the best talent, doing the best work, you need to learn from the moment that we’re in and apply the things that have been successful. In the post COVID world for sure.
Steve Chaparro
Yeah, I think that’s the lesson for sure that, you know, obviously bringing your authentic self and I think there’s different facets to that is bringing the good, the vibrant, the beautiful parts of our being in our personalities, but I also think being authentic is also being vulnerable. Right?
It’s about you know, here are some things that, uh, that I’m struggling with and being able to ask for help and, and seeking and giving compassion in those kind of like, weaker moments, but that’s also bringing your total self to the table as well.
So I love that I that definitely something I do hope that we will take, you know, our learnings into this new post COVID world, whatever that looks like. So I’m looking forward to that.
Well, thank you so much, folks, we’ve been speaking with Elicia Banks-Gabriel, VP of Talent and Culture at One & All, Elicia, if people want to reach out to you to learn more about your work or the work of One & All, where can they do that?
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
LinkedIn would be best. I’m on there as Elicia Banks-Gabriel. So feel free to find me on LinkedIn. Also, [email protected]. That’s my email address. Feel free to ping me there. Apologies for the hyphenated name my parents fight so much. They decided to give me both of their last names.
Steve Chaparro
All right. There you go. That’s awesome.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
But yeah, I would love to hear from anyone and everyone. You know, just picking brains or looking for jobs or wanting to discuss anything I I love meeting people. And I just I love hearing people’s experiences and trying to work through the challenges that they find themselves in.
Steve Chaparro
Well, thank you, Elicia. It’s been an honor to have you on the show.
Elicia Banks-Gabriel
Oh, it’s been an honor to be here. Thank you so much.
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