Episode 2 - Making it Human Again - AJ Kruse

Wouldn't it be nice if we all had jobs that were driven by a deeper passion from within? Today I talk with an amazing person that inspires me to do better and be better, simply because I can feel the passion that he has for the work he does without compromise to his personal life, AJ Kruse, The Concept Illustrator at humanworks.

 

Leighann Lovely  0:15  
Let's Talk HR is a place for HR professionals, business owners and employees to come together and share experiences, to talk about what's working and what's not. How we can improve best practices so that companies can better attract, train and retain all generations of workers. We all know that there has been a huge shift in what people want, generations are coming together, more than ever, on what's important. Mental health has been brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Let's humanize these conversations. Let's talk about how the economy has been impacted, and what needs to happen to find a balance. I'm your host, Leighann. Lovely. So let's get this conversation started. And remember, if you enjoyed this episode, follow us like us and share us. 

Leighann Lovely  1:05  
I am so excited to have you here with me today. AJ, why don't you tell me a little bit about your background, you know, personally and with humanworks?

AJ Kruse  1:17  
Sure. Well, I'm really excited and grateful to be here talking with Leighann I really appreciated getting to know you just a little bit since we've met but my background, I always tell people, when it comes right down to it, I'm just I'm a teacher. I'm an educator, that's really kind of where I come from, in a way. It's where I've been sort of professionally since I got started. So my career started in the classroom with kids. So that's proof of being an educator right there a little bit. And I grew up around it. My mom was a teacher, my dad, my dad is a teacher. Now he's sort of teaching, you know what he did for his life. So I grew up and I've continued to sort of grow up around education. And that's what I've gotten to do started in the classroom with kids. But then I sort of made this jumper transition, I got involved with some teacher training, helping some other teachers be better teachers. And I got really excited and interested in working with grownups, I guess. So I made that jump over into the corporate world and corporate training. That was the path that I took into being a teacher not just for students in a classroom, but for grownups at work, and then human works happens. So that was a really exciting evolution in my career.

Leighann Lovely  2:29  
AJ Kruse is The Concept Illustrator at humanworks. AJ needs to make things make sense not only for himself but for you as well. This quality along with his knack for joining backstage design and front stage presentation has guided him through his dynamic professional career that began in elementary education and has continued in organizational development. After making the leap to corporate education. He led Learning and Development at two Milwaukee area businesses before embarking with three remarkable colleagues to launch humanworks, what else makes AJ tick, Faith family and Friday night pizzas. humanworks is a Milwaukee based consultancy, that elevates organizations through a people-focused lens, crafting custom-tailored solutions around core values and people touchpoints strategic planning and leadership development,

AJ Kruse  3:25  
I think human works really started with a lot of success that happened at a company that I was working with. So 25 years of success working with people at the company that I was working for, in Milwaukee, really all began with the founder of humanwork, who led human resources there for about 25 years, slowly but surely, he built a team and built-in people practices into that business with that team that helped that company be really, really successful. So when I tell people, humanworks really came from success, you know, I don't know, if every company starts that way. Sometimes I think companies might start because something isn't working or something's broken, and they want to make it better. Well, humanworks really came from a collection of learning a lot of really excellent approaches to what you know, what people need at work. And those approaches were so helpful are so successful, that company positioned really well and was was merged and purchased. And after that, the question became sort of a now what for Shawn, who leads our team? And then for a handful of us who are looking in the future sort of going, I'm not sure now what Shawn sort of said, I want to go over here and keep doing what we've been doing with people and invited a handful of us to go with them. So that's sort of where humanworks came from. In a nutshell.

Leighann Lovely  4:39  
Wow. And in humanwork started, right before the pandemic, correct?

AJ Kruse  4:45  
We did, yes, in October, officially October of 2019. So that's where human works began. And let me tell you a lot changed since October of 2019. Right? As we all know, right. So It's kind of a, it's kind of incredible timing, if you really think about it, at least to me, the timing is kind of incredible, because I feel like everything that happens since October 2019, in the last two years, for me personally, it feels like everything that's taken place has accelerated or sped up some things. So I don't care what it could be work, you know, the working from home and working remotely and, you know, flexibility that sped up pretty dramatically. So I don't know, if two years ago, I could have pictured, you know, working and doing almost everything I'm doing from home. But I, I can now of course. But the other thing that got sped up so quickly, to me, was this kind of focus that I'm seeing from business leaders and companies that we work with this focus on people in their relationship to work to me the thinking around that, the attention on it, that all got accelerated and sped up, you know, tenfold I think we were started, we were sort of starting down that path. There was a conversation going, but it really it really, I mean, it accelerated so quickly over the last two years, that everybody reevaluating so much about that relationship that they have with work, right, I mean, but employers in that spot to go, oh, my gosh, we have to be part of that conversation, too. We have, we have to really look at our relationship with the people that we employ and their relationship with work. So that's I guess why I would say timings kind of been incredible, in a way, because that's what human works is so focused on is the relationship that people have to work.

Leighann Lovely  6:28  
Wow, right before the pandemic, you come out with a business who is that is focused on the people. And all of the sudden there is a massive shift in the world of people focusing on what do I want to do? How do I want to how do I want to work? How do I What is my relationship with my employer, my job really my life? So you talked a little bit about the concept of this coming from success of doing this with businesses already. So the the founder, invited your your team in and explained to me how each one of you kind of fit into the different roles at your at your company? Yeah, absolutely.

AJ Kruse  7:10  
So you know what, like I said, we were all part of the same team once internally, you know, at a business in the Milwaukee area that was enjoying, when I say enjoying a lot of success, how do you quantify that the business was doing really, really well. And, and, you know, that's what position did so well for its its merger and acquisition. The people at the business were doing well, and the culture was really doing well. There were workplace awards, you know, top workplace, etc. So there was some good unquantifiable things that I feel like can say, Yeah, we were in a really good position and spot there, I don't think those things would have come together the way they did. If the team that I'm still working with now hadn't have cut wouldn't have come together the way that we did. So the way that you know, the way that we all came together, I sort of think of it as putting together a team of the right abilities, the right strengths, the right needs that way. So there are four of us who make up human works. Founder, Shawn, his role is the thought catalyst for humanworks. But what Shawn really does so so well is is really challenges the, you know, the thinking the actions of people around him gets people thinking differently, that among all of his other many strengths, that's really what Shawn did so well for the company. And he really did a fantastic job of bringing in the right people. So the other people on my team, Rebecca, and Sarah, each bring their own sort of unique strength of their own set of skills to what we do, Rebecca really, really is fantastic at finding the right people. And putting those right people together, her sort of groundwork strength is that subject matter expertise, if you will, is around talent acquisition there, his background, is really more in sort of that marketing communication sort of round. So that's what Sarah did for the team there. And that's what Sarah does. Now, for human works. It's kind of funny, all four of us, we really, were really quite different. And none of us has a traditional human resources background, yet, we all came together and sort of had the same beliefs and focus around people. And that's what really helped sort of those strengths come together to build the team that we have.

Leighann Lovely  9:10  
Right? You all complement each other and maybe build each other up in your own strengths.

AJ Kruse  9:15  
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And that's sort of the I mean, that sort of goes to one of the beliefs we have just around teams in general is that you don't want carbon copies of it. You need those different strengths, different perspectives, different abilities sort of come together. And that's definitely what we have with human works big time.

Leighann Lovely  9:30  
Well, that's excellent. So tell me a little bit about some of the challenges or the things that you work with when it comes to the clients and the companies that you that call you for assistance,

AJ Kruse  9:43  
for sure. So um, I think when people when people connect with human works, or when people are reaching out for support there, there's a there's a handful of things that they're really looking for some of the people who reach out. They're really motivated to breathe life into their culture. That's what they're looking to do. So they're looking at the culture They're saying it feels there's a field here that we're missing something. That's one thing that sometimes people reach out looking to human works for support with how do we do that? Well, something else that I think leaders reach out to humanworks for is, I think sometimes they're, they're saying, you know, I know that we need to get everyone in this business, rowing in the same direction, we really need to get some alignment and some clarity around, you know, not just our purpose, not just why we're here. But what we're here to do and how we're going to do that. What's the plan? What are the, you know, not just what the goal is, but how are we going to execute that goal. So they're, they're trying to get their arms around everything. They know that that's not helping, as well as maybe it should be more visibility, just across all the teams departments here in the company, sort of like strategic planning and finding our way kind of thing. I also think people reach out to human work, sometimes when they've pinpointed something or they've identified something that it connects directly to their people directly to their workforce somehow or their employees, and they're saying, this piece just needs to be better. So to us, we call those human touchpoints, a human touchpoint could be a good example of that might be performance management and new engagement get started that a couple of weeks ago around performance management sort of tis the season, so sort of an end of the year, a burst of energy for that company, but they were looking at how they did that human touchpoint how they did performance measurement, they said, This just needs to be better to last thing, I think people really people being companies, the last thing I think companies really think about or reach out to human works for is they're looking to elevate or strengthen their leaders. So they sort of have this understanding that, you know, that's where the rubber hits the road. It's the people leaders in this business that make all these things possible as far as what we have to accomplish hitting our goals reaching our customers. So they're looking to strengthen or provide something to those people, leaders are the leaders within their organization, they're looking to strengthen, build them up, give them confidence somehow. So they're looking for some leadership development, or help creating a leadership model for their business. Those are the sorts of things that we get connected with business leaders about

Leighann Lovely  12:06  
Leaders are typically company when they're looking to strengthen or they're looking to up their game, they're they're going to look at the leaders ultimately, because pour or lack of leadership, ultimately, you can usually pinpoint that if they're lacking in something, yeah,

AJ Kruse  12:24  
it's sometimes I think of it sort of like an hourglass, I just feel like people leaders are sort of at that bottleneck, or that middle point of the hourglass where they have the pressure and expectations of you know, a senior leadership team who, you know, they've set a vision, they've set a goal, they've set a path, and they said, This is what we have to accomplish, we're counting on you to do it. And then on the other end of that hourglass, the other side of that there's their team, their team who has all kinds of unique individual needs, strengths, goals, aspirations, who are showing up to work every day saying, you know, hey, I'm giving, giving my time, my energy to what you're trying to accomplish here. I'm trying to get it done for you. But you know, I need something back from you, I need some direction leader, I need some clarity leader. So I feel like the people leaders, sometimes people even call that middle management, but I feel like those people are sort of at that center point of the hourglass, they get a lot of attention and for good reason. Because they really are sort of to me where the rubber hits the road for so much of what happens in a business, that's where it's at. So humanworks definitely, definitely has a focus there around, you know, what is the model of leaders for leadership, you know, at a given business, how it how does that play out? And how do you teach it and reinforce it with your leadership team?

Leighann Lovely  13:42  
Right? And, and has there been bigger challenges or different challenges, because of what has transpired with the pandemic, and, you know, over the last 20 months, and I kinda feel like it should be like, 22 months now, that number just keeps increasing, you know, obviously, as we're, we're moving forward, and I wish there was an end in sight, but we continue to see different challenges. You know, as months go by, fortunately, we are starting to finally catch on to new ways of communication. We're getting better at it. But what I've been some of those, you know, shifts and challenges, what have been some of the positives that have come out of, I don't know, Zoom calls or the different ways that we've kind of pivoted in order to continue to be productive and do business.

AJ Kruse  14:33  
Yeah, I think the quick I mean, the two quick things that come to my mind, as far as you know, challenges and positive certainly challenges right now. There's a lot of conversation going on around keeping people. The great resignation is maybe a term we're all tired of hearing about and maybe it'll phase out but it's keeping people in to me, a couple things come in with that. For sure. Keeping people kind of boils down to what are we doing the right thing for people? Are we doing the right things for Are employees? Are we making this a place they want to be? Because when I, when I look at the whole great resignation, when I think about that big picture of that, to me, it sort of boils down to this crisis of values sort of that at least the way I look at, it comes down to a crisis of values. So from, from a human perspective, from an individual perspective, I think, the last 2020 months, whatever, 20 months, 24 months, whatever it's been, that's sort of shaken people down to their core. And I focus on that word core a little bit on purpose, because when you get shaken down to your core, you circle back to your core. And that's where your core values are, it's what's most important to me. And as people have gotten shaken, they've looked around, they've said, Okay, what is it that I really value? What are my core values? And do they line up with the actions that I'm taking with the routines that I'm committed to with the sort of with with this path that I'm on? And if they, if they found a no there, when they asked that question, they started looking at it a lot more carefully, and saying, Well, what am I going to change? What has to change about this routine, this path of these actions that I've committed to? So they're looking around and they're saying, If my employer really doesn't carry or live or hold the values that I hold, dear? Why would I keep doing that? So that's sort of the way that I look at the great resignation, I heard an interesting perspective yesterday listening to someone speak and they were sort of saying maybe this great resignations, a good thing, maybe the shakeups a good thing, because it's gonna, it's gonna force some hands so that they're back to that idea of accelerating things. It's gonna force employers to care a little bit more about asking that question. What do we need to be doing for our people? And when I think about that question, the answers to me, they're kind of clear. You know, they're there probably a lot of ways to answer that question. But the kinds of things that I focus on would be what do people need? Well, you need to give employers that is you need to give people consistency, you need to be who your values say you are, that word consistency goes a long way for me. So it's, you know, it's not just about being who your values say you are as a company, that has to be evident, lived and experienced in the employee experience, for sure. But, you know, there's more to that consistency word. That means giving people a way of working that works, you know, being clear about this is how things are done here at our business. This is how we set goals. This is how your daily work attaches to those goals that connects and fulfills those goals. You know, so there's a lot behind that consistency work. But I think people need that. I also think people need challenges and opportunity. So they're, to go back to those goals, they need to be challenged, they need to have the opportunity to take on something that's a little bit bigger than what they've taken on before. They need leaders who care about them. And they need to free the freedom to use their strengths, their strengths and their abilities. Those are the kinds of things that people need. And if if employers are asking that question and sort of saying, what do we need to be doing for people? That's a challenge that they're faced with right now. I hope they are looking at that question more deeply. I hope they are sort of challenging that selves to look at the way they've answered that question in the past, and maybe find a better way to answer it in the future, if they don't feel confident that they're doing that well for their people, or if they're struggling with keeping, you know, the people that they want to keep at their business that they need to fulfill what their business is there to do. You also asked about positives, I think that you

Leighann Lovely  18:19  
hold on, before you get into positive this is how much of a geek I am. You just, I got goosebumps, because I am 100%, Everything that you just said 100% on board. I know you said somebody had mentioned that maybe this was a good thing. I don't necessarily think you know, oh, going through a pandemic and everything is a good thing. But maybe it is a good thing for employers to finally have to look and see. You know, and realize, like we need to treat people like people reevaluate what you're doing, and how you're treating these people. I you know, this is everything that I've been, you know, saying and everything that I've been the people that I talked to, again, you know, this is going back to the, you know, my core values, the things that I truly believe and, and you know, I could talk about this for the next three hours, you'd probably be like, okay, Leighann, let me can I get back to my life?

AJ Kruse  19:12  
I wouldn't go with you on that journey. Right.

Leighann Lovely  19:16  
But you know, so I just I wanted to intervene and just say like, I mean, that is, that is 100% awesome. I and this really comes down to you know, the whole health and wellness piece of you know, what I am all about, of, you know, you can't, and I'm going to everybody who's going to be listening to me, they're going to hear this a million times you can't leave your emotional baggage at the door when you walk into work. If you're truly you're a human person. You walk into work, you're human and you're gonna bring your real self there and employers have to accept it. We this is no longer in the you know, the the 60s the 70s. When you drop your bag at the door come in Then you become a worker bee. And it's all 100% business. No, I'm sorry, life happens. And it's messy. So

AJ Kruse  20:07  
Yeah, I completely agree. I'm going to stay on that with you though, because, you know, I talked a little bit about human works being, you know, being the result of 25 years of successful sort of ideas being put together with how to, you know, how to create an environment for people at work. And I don't know if I did. I don't know if I did true justice to really all the, you know, all the thinking that was behind sort of the start of what we did, or what we're doing with humanworks and what we're we're working to build. You reminded me of taglines something that we were saying to each other when we were drawing up the foundational beliefs of humanworks. And the thing we said back and forth to each other a lot is working life aren't mutually exclusive. So everything you just said, There, that's something that we were saying to each other, it turned into a tagline for us Leanna turned into work brought to life brought to work that's sort of the tagline that that got attached to him and works. But the thinking that came behind that it really went back to, there are 7.7 Give or take billion people in the world. That's a lot of people. And here's sort of the amazing thing. All 7.7 billion people share eight things, at least, that's what we believe we're all completely different. We're all completely unique. We all have different needs, the list goes on and on and on. But at the same time, when we're talking about what people need, at work. And in life, it's it's not different between in work and in life, but what people need, we found these eight things that sort of unite all people. So eight things can sort of bringing everybody together, these eight things that we all share. And those are really where we were we start with everything that we do with a business or everything that we do with a leader or with a team within a business, from a service and from a work perspective. We start our thinking there. What are those eight things? Well, I'll share him cricket. That's okay. Yeah, um, the eight things that we believe, you know, these, these are amazing qualities that unite all people. Everyone's unique, it starts there, I know I said 7.7 billion people, we're all different. But everyone's truly unique. That means we each have a uniquely different, you know, grouping of strengths, abilities, drivers, you get the idea, each one of us is truly unique. Everyone is unique and needs to be treated that way. Everyone believes to us all around the values that we just talked about the vision that you know, that each of us has, but that organizations have when they connect to people. So everyone's unique. And everyone believes that the first two after that everyone connects, which is about relationships, relationships, and teamwork, everyone contributes, which is about our ability to question challenge and communicate with each other. Everyone rises, which is really about leadership and the systems that we create, to empower people and leaders that everyone learns, which of course is about growth, everyone thrives, it's about well being which you just brought up. And then everyone matters, which is really about the belonging that I think we're sort of leaving, our conversation is sort of leading us there a little bit. It's that idea that you said don't drop your bags at the door and become a different human being when you walk through the doors at work, because you can't, No you won't. There might be things you want to keep private I, I totally get that there are things about your life, you might not want to bring into every conversation, you, we all get that. But your strengths are going to change your needs are going to change who you are isn't going to change when you walk through. It is about bringing work to life and life to work by expecting people to be human by expecting leaders to lead that way and help leaders understand how to do that. So that's that last piece everyone matters is really about creating belonging, and within the teams regardless of our differences, regardless of our uniqueness, creating belonging within teams, so that we, we can, when we're at work, we can get together and we can accomplish everything together better. That's really what it's about.

Leighann Lovely  24:04  
Right? And that's, I agree with everything that you said it we have to be it is it is far too much work. And it's far too exhausting to create two personalities to be one person at home, and one person at work. It's exhausting, that plain and simple. I cannot go to work and pretend that I don't have a life, that I don't have a child at home that I don't have a husband that you know, at home, and I'm sorry, but I am who I am. And I'm going to be my authentic self wherever I am. And you know what? When I finally decided that I wasn't going to play a role at work anymore. And I was going to be myself people liked me to help you know a hell of a lot more. Because it was just it was so much easier. It was so much easier to break down that wall and just say enough is enough. And I think that the world is finally ready for that they're finally Ready for people just to just be themselves. And the only reason I tried to put up that wall was because for so long I lived under that shame of people are going to find out that I have bipolar disorder, people are going to find out that I, you know, suffer from a mental health, and I'm not going to be able to work here anymore. But you know, enough is enough. And yeah,

AJ Kruse  25:23  
Yeah, well, you know, it's funny, what I heard you say just now was the difference between you trying to sort of take that piece of your life and quiet it down or park it somewhere else at the door, or leave it in the car in the parking lot? And the difference that happened for you when you said, No, I'm, I've just got to be me. I just, I just need to be authentic to you. I need to, I need to walk through the door with everything I've got. And just be me and be open and honest about that. The difference I heard was the confidence to me, I'm guessing, and you can answer for sure and but to me, when you started sort of being who all of you at work. I'm guessing you've got more, you are more confident. I'm also guessing your work, you got better results. I'm guessing you did better work than I'm guessing that you I don't know. You tell me what do you think?

Leighann Lovely  26:12  
Absolutely. Because I removed the fear. I removed that fear of people aren't going to like me, because they know this piece about me. And once you remove that fear that that shame or whatever it is, that you're holding back because of and there's always a reason. There's it even if you don't understand what that reason is, you're holding something back and people, people know it. And I removed that fear of people aren't going to like me if they know this, and don't get me wrong, I wasn't running through the hall screaming I have bipolar disorder. I just know. Right? No, I just I just, you know, instead of, you know, trying to dumb down the, you know, the parts of me that I thought people aren't going to accept this, you know, I just, I just stopped I just started, you know, what, I'm just going to be myself. And by removing that fear that people weren't going to like me, I became more myself than I've ever been in my life. And that confidence came out, removing that fear, you know, allowed me to be more productive. It allowed me to talk to people more authentically, it allowed them to see who my true self was, and that personality that I truly have was, and when I saw that happening, I went wow, I don't have to live under that, that cloud of shame for who I am. And that's what it's all about. And, and again, now I'm taking over here, this is not about me. But, and I love that you know you that you're an advocate for this in, in so many ways, and what you do in your business is training people on these things and talking with, you know, business leaders, you know, about how to learn and, but it's this is a self discovery thing that people have to, you know, they, they have to discover this on their own or working with somebody.

AJ Kruse  28:14  
And sometimes they need some permission. Leighann, I think to your point there I you know, I, I appreciate your story so much, you know, I because I think especially when it comes to challenges that come with, you know, mental health, those are, those are the challenges you can't see, you know, it's, it's one thing to say, Well, I was walking into the building at work, and I noticed someone coming who, you know, had a physical handicap was in a wheelchair, you know, maybe had a very visible challenge, right. And, you know, it was my opportunity to hold the door to offer support, that sometimes people people have a challenge that's really clear, it's really evident, it can be seen, mental health challenges aren't aren't and, and they aren't things you can see they, they aren't things anyone would otherwise know. They might know your they could they may have known your land, you might have had co-workers that knew you were struggling to a certain degree before you made that, you know, shared or known, and they could see something was wrong or challenging you to get up but maybe they were afraid to ask maybe they weren't sure what to do. So you know, they gave a little space or something like that. What I think it really comes down to for employees is working within an environment within a team to go back to those eight things where everyone does matter and and they know that there's some belonging there it's safe to share where that challenge is coming from. They're supported and sharing that and and that helps them get at their best work. It helps when you go back to that idea of competence and you getting to your best work. It can help them get their best work by being who they are at work being open about you know, what they choose to share and being an environment where they feel supported. They know their leader welcomes that wants to hear about their life wants to know how they're doing cares about them. Right and wants to find ways to support them in doing their work. So I've had the privilege to sit in a lot of strategic planning meetings, that's something that, you know, human works, does as a service, you know, we're there, sometimes with leadership teams at those at those points in the year where they're sitting down with a senior leadership team putting heads together and saying, Alright, how are we going to execute the vision, you know, this quarter this year, they're having those important conversations. It's something that it's sort of a privilege to be part of those conversations fun. It's always exciting. It's always entertaining. It's always fun to challenge those groups. And, you know, more and more and more people make the list. Isn't that exciting. So, you know, to rewind the clock back to, you know, talking about the challenges that companies are facing, but even talking about some of the positives that are coming from the challenge of the last, you know, give or take 20 months, people are making the list more and more and more in those strategic planning conversations, that tells me, more and more senior leaders are saying, I can't ignore this. You know, I often tell people this, I often say most reasonable people, if you start talking about employees and work and some of the things that you and I are having an exchange about right now, the most reasonable people, when you say, you know, doesn't it really all come down to people, we're called human works as a business. So I feel like I can throw that out there doesn't really all come back to people. It doesn't all come down at the end of the day. Some people don't like that phrase, but at the end of the day, doesn't come down to people. Most everybody. In fact, I don't know, I don't know if I've ever met any leader who could honestly not say yes, I'm privileged to work with leaders who say yes to that question. But most people go, you know, yeah, but the difference there is not, there are very few leaders who are confident about how to answer the rest of the question, which is, well, well, then what? Well, so what? So if it all comes down to people? What are you going to do about it in your business? What are you going to do about it for your workforce? What are you going to do about your employee experience all the words that we attached to this, this thing we call life and work? You know, what are you going to do about it leader at work? If it really all does come down to people finding agreement on the answer to that question. That's where we don't get so much agreement, or that's where it's hard. That's where I'm not sure what the right answer is. What do you think? So that's where the door opens, fortunately, for for human works, or my team to have that conversation and to, and to share some of our beliefs about Well, here's, here's what you can think about. How do you do that at your company, based on who you are? And what you do? You know, what should you be doing? That I think, to me, is one of the greatest positives to go back to that silver lining of all the challenges we face in the last 20 months. There's the silver lining, it's that more and more senior leadership teams, more and more people are asking the question, what should I be doing for my people? Because, you know, you're right, it really does all come back to people. We have to let people bring work to life and like to work, we have to do those things. So so how do I answer that question, you know, helped me answer that question. And so that's a silver lining to me, what comes from that? Well, when an employer commits to that when it's on the strategic plan, when they've said yes to that, and it's they they've dedicated themselves to some actions that support that. That's where the confidence comes in. That's where that silver lining comes in. You know, we talked about your confidence, I was just talking with a leader just a couple of weeks ago, who had the she had the guts to say to the rest of the leadership team. I don't know about all of you. But I can tell I'm different as a leader, because I'm afraid of losing people. I'm not at all confident anymore. I'm scared to call out things that I don't like, because I don't want to upset or frustrate someone because they're gonna walk and I don't know how to replace them. I don't know if we can find somebody quick enough. And I and we need to keep the lights on the doors open. We need to keep this this this business running. That was a leader with very little confidence. Scared, you talked about fear, right? So what comes in when we start doing the right things with our team and our people? When we start answering that question, what do we need to be doing for people confidence comes back. Because what comes in behind that our actions around those core values we talked about, when a company starts being who they are, and being who they say they are and living their values. There's a lot of confidence that comes back when that happens when they've got a clear strategic plan. So clear. So communicated that the you know, the everyday entry level employee who walks to the door or signs on at home says I know how what I'm doing today. I know how that impacts the 10 year goal for my company, this big, huge, audacious vision of my company. I know how I add to that. I think I just think that's amazing. You know, I think confidence come comes back when there's a model for leadership when When when leaders leadership on the team says no, this is how we lead, this is how we hold accountable. This is how all the leaders that are business do that. And when there are talent practices, and when those human touch points of the business are really clearly defined, really supported, you know, talent practices that you know, that lean into individual strength and accountability. I think when those things are there, that leader who's at the table saying, I'm scared, I'm scared to lead. Their competence comes back. So I'm not scared to lead. I know what we're doing is right. I know, we are who we say we are. I know. I know. We've got the plan and the vision. I know how we lead.

Leighann Lovely  35:35  
Yeah. Well, we are coming to our time. And I have one last question. I'm asking everybody this question this season. So if you could pinpoint a time period in your career that made a huge difference in your life or career path? When would that be and why?

AJ Kruse  35:55  
The moment in my career that maybe made the biggest difference, I can kind of pinpoint a really interesting conversation. So I think I told you, I made the leap from elementary education, teaching schoolchildren into corporate development, corporate learning organizational development, it wasn't really a smooth transition, it's sort of have a couple of stops along the way, for a little while I was working in retail management. And Retail Management taught me a lot about people taught me a lot about managing and leading people. But what I was really hunting for what I was really searching for was something in corporate education, working in education with with, with a with a company, and, and I had an interview with the individual who would become my boss, the individual who become my leader, the individual who would invite me to join this new startup humanworks, that they were starting to be a key contributor there. So at the end of that interview, Sean asked me, this person said, what's something that I really ought to know about you? That I don't know? Yes. You know, tell me something that I really ought to know if I'm going to work with you. So I had to think for just a second. And you know, the answer that I gave this exchange that we had, it stands out as a pretty critical moment in my life, I had convinced myself walking through those doors, you know, I'm in a job now I can support my family, but it's not what I'm really looking for. So I'm just going to be 100%. Me, I'm going to be as honest as I possibly can be, even if I don't think that's the answer they want to hear. So bland back to what you were saying about just bringing your full self to wherever you are, I had I had promised myself, I would do that. So after a little bit of thought, I told them, Look, this job is never going to be the most important thing in my life. But I want to love it, I want to do great at it. And I want to be the absolute best I can be at it if you give me the opportunity. But you need to know, this job is never going to be the most important thing in my life. But I will give you everything I've got if you give me the shot. So that conversation, it ended well makes me It chokes me up just a little bit, because it was pretty pivotal. Because I think it was where that relationship really started the relationship. You know, what's resulted in a lot of learning, it's resulted in a lot of opportunity. But to your point, I would say to anybody who's struggling with maybe doing what you were talking about earlier, being who they really are at work sort of being open, being honest, being themselves. I think I would just say you're going to be really happy, if you do.

Leighann Lovely  38:39  
That's amazing. So he accepted you. You were honest. And he hired you.

AJ Kruse  38:47  
Yeah, um, and it wasn't, it wasn't. It wasn't a quick smooth hire I ran into, I had an injury that happened at my other job shortly after that interview. It took me a long time to recover. I had a lot of challenges following it is really an interesting part of life. And I know you might not have time for all of that, other than to say, you know, right after that interview, yeah, I had that injury at work. Something tripped me up. And and not only did they hire me, they waited six months to do it. So

Leighann Lovely  39:17  
and you wrote an he wrote an article about this.

AJ Kruse  39:20  
Yeah, I did. I did. And it's something that it's something obviously, kind of a kind of an important piece of life for me, right. So when you asked me what's something that made a huge difference is the first question that came to mind. But yeah, I did write an article about it. There was a you know, there was part of the injury. It was really physical. I was I was stopping a shoplifter and the shoplifter shot me so they pulled out a gun. They didn't want to stop that day. They shot me. I mean, thank goodness, I'm okay. I survived. You know that injury came with a lot of physical pain, a lot of physical challenges. It also came with a lot of emotional challenges. A lot of a lot of emotional Fallout and psychological challenges and PTSD. And working through that, that part was harder than the physical part. So, um, so yeah, the injury that took six months to, to get me ready to go even try going back to the work that happened the day after that interview that I mentioned. So, it when it comes to, you know, how employers look at people how they think about people, and, you know, getting the right person there for the right job and things like that, those moments were, you know, incredibly impactful in my, in my life, in my experience, my story, and reinforced so much of what we we talk about it human works, what we believe in it, human works, where all those beliefs came from. So I'm in a unique position right now, where I get to work with companies to instill the kind of values that made a very profound difference for me,

Leighann Lovely  41:01  
That's awesome. And, you know, people like you and me, we're driven by something that has impacted our lives, which makes it that much more important and impactful in the way that we that we do things, and I applaud you for sharing that. And, you know, I will, I will put a link to your article. So if somebody is interested in reading more about that they can find that article.

AJ Kruse  41:31  
Thanks. While I appreciate you taking on the story, receiving it from me, yeah, I it's, it's always kind of a wild, kind of a wild story to share, as I'm sure you've learned with your own personal story. But, um, like I said, the opportunity to the opportunity to instill the values, share the values and live the values that made a profound difference in my life. That's valuable, and sort of a cherished thing for me. So I would hope that everyone who hears this, everyone who who listens and gets connected to the kinds of things you're talking about, Leighann just sort of stays on the path of learning as much as they can about that. And has competence and a little bit of bravery. It takes I think, to to be who they are at work to live their own values and find find situations not only in their work life, but in their personal life that support the those values that they carry on hold. So dear.

Leighann Lovely  42:32  
Well said, AJ, thank you so much for coming and talking with me today, today, and, you know, sharing your story and talking about human works. It's, it's been an amazing conversation. And thank you for being so authentic. And yeah, telling your story. So if somebody is wanting to reach out to you to learn more about humanworks, how would they go about doing that?

AJ Kruse  43:00  
Oh, boy, So humanworks. We're on LinkedIn, you can go to humanworks8.com and learn a lot about us there. That's human works with the number eight.com otherwise, yeah, I just I invite people to connect directly with me on LinkedIn AJ Kruse K R U S E, look me up, find me connect with me. Or, you know, reach out by email and those are really easy to it's just A J at humanworks 8 .com

Leighann Lovely  43:30  
Excellent. Thank you and you have a wonderful day.

AJ Kruse  43:34  
Thanks, Leighann. Appreciate the opportunity.

Leighann Lovely  43:37  
Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode, to follow us, like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

 

AJ Kruse - LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/aj-kruse 

Humanworks website - https://humanworks8.com/ 

The article referenced in this conversation - Bursting Bubbles - Injuries, by AJ Kruse  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bursting-bubbles-injuries-aj-kruse/ 

Music by Cruen - Family Time

Transcribed by https://otter.ai