Your Employees Deserve Better, with Meeghan Salcedo

We sit down with Meeghan Salcedo, Chief People Officer of IPC Systems, to discuss creating a positive, collaborative work culture, the complexities of the term "impostor syndrome," and building trust while working in a hybrid environment.

-

0:00:29.5 Maricella Herrera: Hi, everyone. Before I get to the episode, I want to take a moment to address the United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe versus Wade on June 24, which stripped away the right to have a safe and legal abortion. Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all people, which we have already seen with abortion bans and restrictions in countries like Poland and Malta. This decision has dire consequences and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions within the United States. I encourage our audience, America and otherwise, to learn more about what you can do to help at podvoices.help. I encourage you to speak up, take care and spread the word.

0:01:16.1 Intro: Welcome to the Ellevate Podcast. Conversations With Women Changing the Face of Business. And now your host, Maricella Herrera.

[music]

0:01:34.3 MH: Hi everyone. It's Maricella Herrera here with another one of my Ellevate colleagues, Pranita Balusu. How are you, Pranita?

0:01:46.6 Pranita Balusu: I'm good, I'm good, can't complain. How are you?

0:01:49.8 MH: I'm great. Thank you for being here today on the Ellevate Podcast.

0:01:55.0 PB: No, thanks for having me. This is actually super exciting because I'm a long time listener. It's gonna be a little jarring to hear myself speak when I listen this, but still very cool.

0:02:08.3 MH: Yeah. It's been years and I still every time I hear my voice, I'm like, oh. [laughter] So, don't worry. So as you all know listeners, we've been doing a little bit of a round-up of our Ellevate team members who have been joining me as co-hosts throughout the last couple of months, and so we just wanna give you a little peak into our Ellevate family and what we do and how we work. And so Pranita actually is our program manager for our entrepreneur program. So Pranita can you tell a little bit about what you do?

0:02:47.4 PB: Yeah, sure. So like you said, I'm the program manager at Ellevate that mostly works with our entrepreneurs. So I think a lot about our actual product and what we're offering, so asking questions like, how do we improve our products and programs? And how do we make sure we're serving our members and creating a space and network that they can really lean on? And because I focus mostly on our entrepreneur members, how do we specifically make sure our entrepreneurs are getting what they need to make sure that their businesses are a success regardless of what stage they're in. Being an entrepreneur is often kind of lonely, so I really wanna focus on how do we make Ellevate a community where they don't need to be alone. So that's kind of what I do at Ellevate, and I absolutely love it. No shade to any job I've had before, but I've been around a little bit in different industries and companies and sectors, but what we do at Ellevate is probably what I'm most passionate about, so I'm really grateful I can make a career out of it.

0:04:00.7 MH: We're really happy to have you. And I said you're a program manager for the entrepreneur program, but you honestly do a lot more. You've been working with me and our marketing team in other initiatives, and you are a data nerd as I am, so it's always fun.

0:04:15.5 PB: Yeah, we love data.

0:04:18.2 MH: It's always fun to pull out the spreadsheets. But you said you were passionate about the work you do at Ellevate, and A, I'm really happy to know that you're happy, but B, you wrote, I just learned, literally two days ago, that you wrote and published something in an academic journal. Tell me more.

0:04:37.8 PB: Yeah, so I guess a little bit for context, I have a background in a lot of non-profit and politics, but I started getting a Master's in Poli Sci and public policy kind of to step away from some of the Band-Aid fixes that are necessary, I feel like, in non-profits, and think more about long-term scalable sustainable solutions. So that's kind of how I got into doing a lot of research. But right from the beginning, I kind of fell into researching the gender wage gap specifically. I think it makes sense working at Ellevate, that that's something that I really care about.

0:05:21.5 PB: Yeah, so that's been my focus for the last two years, and I could rant for hours about the gender wage gap. Don't worry listeners, I will not. But I really focus my research on thinking about what kind of factors, what kind of policies we could have in place that would reduce the wage gap. I think a lot of research has already been done on what contributes to the gender wage gap. So some of it is still outright discrimination, even though that's technically illegal, some of it is industry or occupational segregation or devaluing work done by women or motherhood, especially. But I think a lot about what state or company level policies have been proven to reduce the wage gap.

0:06:16.0 MH: I love that because you clearly are an Ellevate person because you're not talking about the problem, you're thinking about the solutions.

0:06:25.0 PB: Yeah, yeah, it's always important.

0:06:28.8 MH: And I think we are very much about action. So this is actually pretty related to the person we are actually gonna hear from today in the interview, who's Meeghan Salcedo, she's the Chief People Officer at IPC. But the reason I'm saying it's very related is because Meeghan and I, in fact just today, this morning, I was at their office taping a video with her. But we talk a lot about what can companies do to make better cultures and be more inclusive and all these things, and you're welcome to join us in our lengthy rants about it, but I wanna hear from you what you think is one of the things that companies can do or that has been proven to work when it comes to the gender gap.

0:07:18.2 PB: Yeah, definitely. So I think one of the biggest things is just flexibility in the workplace. So that could be any policy from being able to work from home or being able to change up your schedule when you need, policies like what parental leave is actually available, and then the second part is really creating that culture to encourage people to take advantage of that, 'cause the parental leave might be available, but people might feel like they can't actually use it if they're worried about their job or their promotion or their bonuses and things like that. So I think a lot of it is policies like that.

0:08:00.5 MH: It just comes down to trust, I think, in many ways, and comes down to what we're seeing in the post-pandemic world, people wanna be treated as grown ups.

0:08:13.6 PB: Yes, 100%.

0:08:16.8 MH: Mind blowing.

0:08:18.6 PB: Yeah, wow. Treat humans as humans as you say.

0:08:22.3 MH: Yeah. I've been ranting about it, you've heard me. You will hear a lot of that, listeners, in this episode in particular, like I said, I was at IPC earlier today, IPC is one of our clients. They are amazing. I really, really enjoy working with them. And personally, I really enjoy working with Meeghan and her team, Natalie, and all of them because they actually walk the talk. I've been in their office as they actually loan us space sometimes if we need a space for Ellevate to come together since we don't have an office anymore, they're really amazing.

0:09:03.6 MH: I see them and the way that they relate with their teams, it's what you wanna see about companies. You wanna see them treating humans like humans, you wanna see them respecting and creating those spaces of psychological safety and belonging. And it's refreshing, I've been thinking a lot about this after talking to my friends, and you'll hear about the situation in other interviews about talking with my friends about their experience in corporate America and how sometimes we think we can't change things, but there are companies that are doing it right.

0:09:46.2 PB: Yeah, yeah, there definitely are. And re-Tweet everything you said about IPC, 'cause I was there at their office too, and I was lucky enough to meet Meeghan, so I think they're definitely a really good example of a company that cares about the people that work for them.

0:10:04.9 MH: Yeah. Well, let's go to my interview with Meeghan and we will come back to our first for the week.

[music]

0:10:25.3 MH: Thank you for joining us today. I am so excited to be talking to Meeghan Salcedo, the Chief People Officer at IPC systems. Hi Meeghan, How are you?

0:10:36.4 Meeghan Salcedo: I'm good, how are you? I'm so excited to be speaking with you today.

0:10:40.5 MH: I'm doing well. I know last time I saw you, we were at the rising leaders round table and you were talking all about your mentorship and sponsorship journey, so we'll touch a little bit on that. But to get started, I wanted to ask you a little bit about kind of yourself, your story, and how you got to where you are today.

0:11:00.5 MS: Sure. So thank you again for having me. It's such a great opportunity to be able to talk about my journey and hopefully my story is helpful to other people as well. But to start I think one of the most important things that I've learned along the way, eventually coming to IPC and being in the CPO role, is that you never know where your career can change and pivot and grow, and I think looking at that as an evolution rather than a set plan that you're going adhere to no matter what, along the way has been enormously helpful. To your other point around mentorship and sponsorship. That's been a big part of my journey as I've grown into this HR role here. And I think it's a really big one for us to continue to just talk about, especially as female leaders in the workplace.

0:12:04.9 MS: So came from a marketing and management undergrad background and worked in marketing for about five years before I fully segued into an HR role, and part of that was really wonderful that there was crossover competency skills and things that I was able to learn and apply to my role today, which has been really exciting. And so moving through similar industry with finance background with tech and now into FinTech, it all kind of led its way to where I am today. So all of the experience I've had in varying roles in either similar industries or complementary industries or even marketing background, moving into the core people side has led me to where I am today along with really great mentors and sponsors. And that's so incredibly important.

0:13:05.0 MH: What made you decide to switch from marketing to HR?

0:13:08.7 MS: Yeah, so it was really interesting. My Director of Marketing was also the director of HR. It was a small engineering firm, and so I had quite a bit of crossover responsibility in that role, underneath that team structure, and there are so many similarities as far as human behavior, communication, what motivates people, what engages people. And the people side of it, I was just, I was so drawn to. And I think the thing that really crystallized it for me was realizing in this team that I was in, where it was like a hybrid team underneath, this one leader, that making the workplace a place that people want to be every day, and that they're excited to be there, they're inspired, their career is fulfilling, all of that is something that human resources can really impact, and I just thought that was such a powerful career to go into.

0:14:11.6 MH: I think it's fascinating. I asked this question because I think I'm a marketer at heart, but I'm more of a people person, I think at heart. I'm always looking into culture and businesses and what businesses are doing to be more inclusive and to make their workplace more human and how can we make that happen? What are some of the things you're seeing in IPC?

0:14:34.7 MS: Yeah, so I think it's a great question. I think humanizing the workplace, humanizing human resources itself is revolutionary time, I think for the entire function. You see a lot of companies renaming and re-branding those teams as people operations or people team, and the focus on people and less on resources. So looking at people as these holistic 3D beings that bring so much to the workforce and bring so much to their companies and teams is super important. So I think across the board, all industries, locations around the world, there is a huge focus on people and humanizing that. Certainly at IPC that has been a huge focus of mine since I started six years ago.

0:15:30.0 MS: But the pandemic has been a big catalyst of that for I think lots of organizations in a more sped up way, and it's a wonderful thing, I think, taking that tone and making sure that the expectations of employees of their employers, like that being just much more heightened than it ever had been before, it's a good thing. Like, we should all rise to the challenge, we should all be taking that people-centric focus on how we evaluate performance, how we challenge people in a good way, how we create office space that people want to be in, that's allowing itself to be collaborative and engaging, and the way that we're focusing in on our clients in a people-focused way as well. People work for people and people buy from people as well. So having that focus is so hugely important.

0:16:27.1 MH: It's funny to think that treating people as people is revolutionary, but it is. [laughter] It is sad but it's true.

0:16:39.1 MS: [laughter] Well, I think when you call people resources it sounds almost the same as if you're talking about a laptop or a table, or...

0:16:49.9 MH: How did we spend so many decades not realizing that?

[laughter]

0:16:55.3 MS: That's a good question. [laughter]

0:16:58.9 MH: It's so normal, but now it's like, hey, they're... [laughter]

0:17:06.1 MS: I did see something recently around just things that we could do in the workplace and workshops and other things, and it was funny because it was titled "Resources For Humans."

0:17:21.7 MH: I like that.

0:17:22.5 MS: And that was a worker, like a play on words of the function. Because I think it really is something that we had to continue to refocus that and make sure people don't feel like a number in an organization. They're a real live human being that has a background and experience and a personal life and all these things that you bring every day. And it's really important to honor that and to celebrate that. Celebrate diversity, celebrate all the things that we bring to the table.

0:17:52.5 MH: Yeah. And speaking of diversity, I know you started the Diversity and Inclusion program at IPC. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

0:17:58.7 MS: Sure, yeah. So the Diversity and Inclusion program started in about 2016, and at the time there was executive sponsorship, some employees that had expressed their want to participate and help to launch this as well. So it was a really amazing collaborative effort in that, and I think getting that executive buy-in, as well as buy-in from the HR team was hugely important. And you start small, you think big and you go fast. That's a really good, I think analogy for how we launch the DNI program. And for some companies, they may be starting their journey, others may be way farther along, but I think right now we're in a really good spot.

0:18:52.9 MS: And we went from having three key areas of focus to really expanding what DNI means, which we're able to do now with a more established program, so that's inclusion in all shapes and forms, that's making sure that that's incorporated into all of our programs, from performance evaluation, to job opportunities, to our core values. And so I think for us, the biggest takeaway from when the DNI program started to now is really highlighting how broad that is and that there's... Inclusion is for everybody, diversity means for everyone. It's not just gender diversity or racial and ethnic diversity, it's diversity of thought. It's different socio-economic backgrounds. It's all of those things that make us who we are.

0:19:54.5 MH: And all of them at once, right? The intersectionality of all of them just makes, again, humans human. You mentioned performance review, I'm curious how you incorporate that angle within performance reviews.

0:20:06.5 MS: So, it's important for us to evaluate success with job responsibilities and objectives that are set in the beginning of the year, but also how you embody our values. And our core values are really important and they're in the formal evaluation process, we also recognize them with our reward and recognition program. And I think when you do that, aside from just saying, we want everyone to be inclusive, well, what does that actually mean? That means in practice, really doing that, and if it's part of a formal review, I think it shows the organization takes that seriously.

0:20:48.4 MH: Absolutely. And I think the question you asked, well, what does that mean? Is a lot of what people are asking themselves, and should be. Companies should be asking themselves that. I was reading an article, so I had to do a presentation on impostor syndrome earlier this week. I was reading this article from the Harvard Business Review that came up much earlier this year, and it was all about stop telling women they have impostor syndrome, and I bring it up because a lot of it had to do with psychological safety and belonging within the workplace. And how we have impostor syndrome because we were never supposed to belong in the workplace. So, how do you tell someone that is from a different race or a different ethnicity, how do you tell a Black person, a Brown person, a Latina, "You have to meet the standards of the model of success that it has existed until now," and not expect them to have self-doubt, not expect them to actually feel like an impostor? So how do you... I don't know, I wanted to bring it up 'cause I find it fascinating. I've been talking about it all week.

0:22:03.8 MS: Yeah, I love that topic. I think it's such a good one.

0:22:07.7 MH: Yeah, I wanted to hear your thoughts on it. How do you think these kind of come together?

0:22:13.4 MS: So, I think it's really relevant. I think it's a really important conversation to have. I think telling people to ignore the topic as if if we don't make it a thing, then people won't feel it. Well, I think people feel impostor syndrome for a couple of things, because if you're in a role or an industry that maybe traditionally someone like you has not been in, it's hard to benchmark. Well, now I'm seeing myself here. What does that look like? What does that feel like? What should I be doing? And I think that is part of it.

0:22:52.6 MS: And so the impostor syndrome as well for... I think for women, if you're taking women as an example, it's hard because I think as you come up the ranks, leaders lead like this, strong leaders do this, successful leaders do this, and a lot of it becomes male traits when women should be leading like themselves. You have different ways of leveraging that leadership power, and if it doesn't look exactly like that, or if you're a style may be slightly different, then for you it's hard to maybe see yourself in that same role, that same level of success. And I think that's where the impostor syndrome comes in, you come like that, self-doubt comes in.

0:23:40.1 MH: And it's so easy to get caught up in that trap and it's harder or easier to get caught in that trap for... I would say like we were talking, there are so many aspects of diversity and so many intersectional aspects of diversity.

0:23:51.9 MS: Yeah, absolutely. It's interesting because my team and I talk a lot about diversity and inclusion, and as you're bringing people into an organization, if you're diversifying teams and you're taking a look at that, there's this concept of being the only, and there's lots of versions of that. You could be a Caucasian male, but maybe you're the only person that's not from a certain university prestige that everyone else went to, and that makes you feel like the only or whatever it may be, and there's always going to be that. And I think people can identify with that terminology and feeling. But when you are the only, it is tough, 'cause even if you feel really included and accepted, it's tough sometimes not to feel a bit like an outsider. And organizations taking into consideration when you're bringing people into teams, no matter what that's like, to really include people, integrate people well and kind of address that, but I think that only feeling can cause stress in the workplace.

0:25:07.2 MH: Yeah, and the only feeling can be also... I know exactly what you're talking about, it can also be sometimes construed as or thought of or felt like tokenism, which is a whole other...

0:25:22.2 MS: Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, and people wanna feel like they earned their spot, you don't wanna feel like somebody wasn't given... You weren't given maybe the same opportunity or maybe you were given the same opportunity for tokenism. I completely agree with you. I think it can go a lot of different ways.

0:25:43.4 MH: So the concept of psychological safety, I think, is a concept we don't discuss as much. We tend to talk about diversity, we tend to talk about inclusion, which are both part of the solution to more workplaces, but psychological safety is what comes at the core of it, I believe. What do you think, and how do you view psychological safety in this context, and what can companies do to create that environment?

0:26:17.9 MS: It's a really good one. I think psychological safety to me is about creating trust, trust within the teams, trust between your manager, leadership, other people that you work with in different departments, and that trust comes with a couple of things. I think there's... Credibility building, so you have to prove that you are trustworthy or that you are working hard to have the best interest of the organization at heart. But I think organizations from a leadership level, making sure that there's an environment where it's okay to provide feedback in a constructive way, but that that's something that's encouraged, that's something that's not used against you, that's something that's used to promote positive change. That's a huge one.

0:27:10.6 MS: I think it's one where the employers have the ability to create that space so that employees feel like they can be heard and that they can trust that when they have something to say, both positive, reinforcing things that you wanna continue and that are working well, or if there's something that needs to be addressed, that that's done in a really constructive, healthy way. And also having the ability to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. If you wanna have innovation, you wanna have growth, you have to make it in a way where it's okay to fail sometimes, because otherwise people won't take that risk, and that could be the next big thing, obviously to an extent where it's not detrimental to the organization, but I think building that trust in those areas are hugely important for employers.

0:28:01.1 MH: How can managers do that directly? 'Cause that's what I always think. I always go back to your direct manager is the one that's gonna have or team leader is gonna have the most impact.

0:28:11.3 MS: Yeah, 100%. The people that they work for, those people, those managers, they make or break your experience, they can really impact your career in a big way. But you're right, the line manager, the person that's working with you day in, day out, building that level of trust is huge. I think caring about the people that work for you as a manager, it doesn't have to be overkill and overly personal, but you should care about the people that work for you, you should know things about them, you should be thoughtful about things, you should find things that you can connect to them on and making sure that you're connecting the team that works for you as well. But also showing that trust with them, they're able to confide in you on things, you're able to mentor them, that all builds that trust and psychological safety. Also knowing that your manager supports you when you're not in the room. That is huge.

0:29:15.7 MH: I hadn't thought about that, but it's true. You have to know that someone has your back, whether you're there or not.

0:29:23.1 MS: Yeah, I think the manager, to me, what benchmarks a good leader, a good manager is not they themselves, are they the biggest expert, are they... Do they have the biggest team? All of that. It's, is their goal to make everybody on their team, the people that report in to them successful? And if that's the angle...

0:29:46.3 MH: And that's their job. [laughter]

0:29:48.6 MS: Yeah. [laughter] And by nature, if your manager has the goal of, I want you to be successful, I want you to be successful on my team and in this organization and in your role, that creates psychological safety, 'cause you know that there's a place for you and that you're gonna have a place to grow and then you know somebody really has your back.

0:30:10.2 MH: And having that conversations of like, and this is how we can get to your next step, together. I feel like that's always missing.

0:30:16.5 MS: Yeah, it's such an important thing as a consistent conversation, one, that people should be talking to their managers on a regular basis, and that kind of conversation is important to have not just when it's mid-year review time or year-end review time and all of that. That should be a continuous conversation, that feedback and that, just the fact that your manager is looking at that for you and that you're collectively working towards that together creates a lot of psychological safety and trust.

0:30:47.2 MH: Yeah, 100%. I could talk to you about this for hours. [laughter] This is what I nerd out on.

0:30:56.1 MS: Me too.

0:31:00.0 MH: It's like, yeah, all these things that we need to fix. [laughter] How do you... And I only have five more minutes, dang it. Okay, how do you think you can build that? Is it harder? Because I do think it's harder in the hybrid environment that we're in right now. So how do you bridge that or build that trust? For us, I would say, we have a bunch of new employees at Ellevate, some I have not met in person, and I find myself trying to think, "Okay, I have to make the space and the room to get to know them, to check in on them," but how do you make it so that it's part of the company culture that you're not having these silos and that you're connecting and building that trust with employees when they're hybrid?

0:31:47.1 MS: It's such a good one. And I think so many organizations are trying to figure out what's the magical recipe for getting this right, for making sure that people have the flexibility and all of the great perks that come along with that, of being able to work remotely, with being in the office and making sure that you have that collaboration and that engagement and all of that. So the positives of both worlds. I think especially for new people coming into an organization, if you don't have the background of certain processes or the culture or who does what, or all of that stuff, when you're coming into an organization, you're learning all of that from scratch.

0:32:34.3 MS: And I just think we all have to be a little bit better, make a little bit more of an effort, and technology is really helpful for having Slack or Teams channels that can get created for office locations or teams and are able to use that for engagement and for communication and for planning things. And that informal welcome, that informal engagement is hugely important and what people will miss if they're not in an office.

0:33:10.1 MH: That and you somehow have to plan the unplanned.

0:33:14.4 MS: Yeah, yes. Yeah, yes.

0:33:17.3 MH: It's weird, but it's so important.

0:33:20.4 MS: Yeah. I do think for our organization, if I'm using that as an example. We're back in the office in a hybrid way, and it's been really great, and I think when you see the benefits of that and you're able to balance that with also all the great things that come from the flexibility of being able to work remotely, again, like you said, planning the unplanned, so that if you're making sure that teams are in the office at the same time, or that if people are traveling to other locations, that there's a sync up around that to really maximize that. We just have to be better, more organized planners. But I do think hybrid is such a great thing for so many different reasons, and I could list those on and on and on and on, [laughter] but I do think we're in a different way of work. So it's everything has to be readjusted 'cause we're constantly connected as well, which is a whole other can of worms. [laughter]

0:34:28.4 MH: Yeah, we can talk about that for another half hour.

0:34:30.3 MS: Yeah. [laughter]

0:34:32.0 MH: Oh, so many specifics. But let's start by being... By recognizing that humans are humans.

0:34:38.7 MS: Yeah, exactly. [laughter]

0:34:39.7 MH: Sort of the basics. So, before Megan, who produces our podcast, kills me, let me ask you our lightning round questions. I'm gonna give you some questions and you can answer in one sentence or less.

0:35:01.2 MS: Okay.

0:35:01.9 MH: Okay, early bird or night owl.

0:35:03.6 MS: Night owl.

0:35:05.5 MH: Me too. Pet peeve.

0:35:08.8 MS: Inauthenticity.

0:35:10.8 MH: That's a good one. Monday mornings table.

0:35:14.0 MS: Coffee.

0:35:14.6 MH: Yeah. Recent read.

0:35:18.1 MS: Oh, that is a good one. And now that I can't answer that quickly [laughter] that is not good. Oh, Untamed.

0:35:32.4 MH: Oh, that's so good. And finally, what's one question or thought you'd like to leave with our listeners?

0:35:44.3 MS: I would just say when you're engaged, I'm assuming that these listeners are with your own career, with your organizations, the best thing I could say is just to continuously provide feedback, provide that feedback to your manager or to your leaders in whatever format that is, town halls, engagement surveys, all of that. Your voice matters, and it's really important to stay engaged in that, and I think people having that lens and knowing that what they do, what they say, can create really positive change and transformational change in the workplace, and you can see it, people demanded that we not come back to five days a week, as an example. All of that really matter, so I would say to continue to do that and together I think everyone's gonna really continue to transform the way that we work and in a really beneficial way.

0:36:48.1 MH: That's great, I like that. Thank you, Meeghan, thank you for being here.

0:36:52.0 MS: Thank you so much, this was fantastic.

0:36:55.3 MH: This was a lot of fun. We have to do this again, but over a glass of wine.

0:36:58.3 MS: Yes, exactly.

[music]

0:37:06.2 Megan Oliver: Hey everyone. It's producer Megan jumping in to say that right now, you could get 20% off Ellevate membership with code pumpkinspice. The offer ends October 10th. So if you're feeling the fall vibes, be sure head to www.ellevatenetwork.com and use code pumpkinspice all one word for 20% off a pro or executive Ellevate membership.

0:37:29.3 MH: I always have so much fun with Meeghan. I really enjoyed that conversation. And people got something out of it.

0:37:34.4 PB: Yeah, I think Meeghan is great, and I'm glad you got to interview her for the podcast.

0:37:39.9 MH: Yeah, so this morning, like I said, I was over there at IPC and we turned the table, she was interviewing me, so you'll all get to see that, 'cause actually it was video taped. You'll get to see that later.

0:37:54.1 PB: That's good. When it's a conversation, it's a good interview.

0:38:00.6 MH: Conversations like that are very important and matter, and if you want to come and have some conversations with all of us, please join us for our round tables coming up in the next week. So every Tuesday at 1 PM, you can join me at our executive roundtable. The next one is on engaging in expansive dialogues for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, so if you care about DEI, come and chat with us to see what we can really do to make a difference within the world, and especially within our companies. Our rising leaders meet on Thursdays at noon, and they will be talking about managing difficult and disengaged employees. Also a very, very important topic. Pranita, do you wanna tell what our entrepreneurs are gonna do?

0:38:53.5 PB: Yeah, sure, so this week we actually have one of our chapter leaders out of Chicago who's incredible, she's an entrepreneur herself and an attorney, and she's gonna go over the dos and don'ts of contracts, so really getting into what to make sure you have in your contract, what to look out for, and that's gonna be on Thursday at 4 PM Eastern.

0:39:19.4 MH: I kind of really wanna go to that.

0:39:24.2 PB: Definitely.

0:39:25.2 MH: And then our women seeking confidence roundtable that takes place once a month. This time we'll be talking about getting unstuck. So now, to our weekly segment on history makers, every week we celebrate people who are making history, people who are doing firsts and creating change, and sometimes these are a little bit like, oh, it took this long. But the truth is, we still have to celebrate, we still want to celebrate all the good that's happening. Pranita, do you wanna start?

0:39:55.7 PB: Sure, so first we have Mary Peltola who will become the first native Alaskan in Congress.

0:40:01.0 MH: Odessa K. Sam-Kpakra became the first black woman in the history of the Tennessee Army National Guard to command a battalion-sized unit.

0:40:12.8 PB: Alex Eala became the first Filipino to win a grand slam singles championship.

0:40:18.7 MH: Samantha Rubin became the first woman General Manager of the Madison Mallards.

0:40:24.3 PB: Revital Barzani became the first Israeli woman to command an Air Defense Command combat battalion.

0:40:32.0 MH: And Megan Piphus became the first black woman puppeteer on Sesame Street. Really? Wow. See, this is what I mean. But we're making strides. We're making strides. So thank you everyone for joining. Thanks for listening in. Next week, I will be having a conversation with Cindy Tsai. She is really great. I really hope you tune in because it was a great chance to do some relaxation exercises. I'm not gonna lie, I ended that session pretty happy. Cindy is a board-certified physician, mindfulness teacher and life coach who helps high-achieving professional women go from chasing what's next to loving what's now. She's the author of so much better life-changing strategies to develop calm confidence and curiosity to become your own inspiring success story. She is really great, so I hope you join us next week.

[music]

0:41:38.0 Outro: Thanks so much for listening to Ellevate. If you like what you hear, help a girl out, subscribe to the Ellevate Podcast on iTunes, give us five stars and share your review. Also, don't forget to follow us on Twitter @ellevatentwk, that's Ellevate Network, and become a member. You can learn all about membership and all the great things that Ellevate Network is doing at our website, www.ellevatenetwork.com. That's E-L-L-E-V-A-T-E Network dot com. And special thanks to our producer, Katharine Heller, she rocks, and to our voice-over artist, Rachel Griesinger. Thanks so much and join us next week.