People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did

but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou

1. I often tell people I accidentally fell into a career in HR - it’s not like I woke up and all of a sudden one day wanted to be Joan.

2. But as I embarked on my career, I realized that if I was going to make a difference, truly make a difference, I wanted to do it from the inside.

3. I became a prefect in high school.. and would spend hours in the house mistress’s office advocating for something I felt wasn’t fair... I joined my kids' school board... it’s easier to be a critic… it’s more rewarding to make a difference.

4. I always sought out the leaders of every organization and question their thinking on why things were the way they were... as a coach, I’m still doing the exact same thing today.

5. It wasn’t until I went to a start-up in 2000 as the Office Manager did I start to take on the HR role... They just didn’t want to hire an HR person, and who could blame them... had anyone ever met one they admired?

6. I was lucky to have had a couple incredible mentors along the way but I mostly figured it out for myself with a lot of intuition, a lot of curiosity, a lot of patience and a very lot of mistakes.

7. It just made sense to me - I could help people be their best selves, which inevitably would help the business... a win win for everybody.

8. At the end of the day, people are just human and most people want to do the right thing.

9. My kids think I have the most boring job in the world... but I genuinely think I have the best one… I truly love what I do...and I have a purpose that has meaning, which I’m enormously grateful for.

10. So was it an accident? Is anything ever really an accident? I dunno.