Where am I going?

Where am I going?  Harwell said, "It's time to say goodbye, but goodbyes are sad and I'd much rather say hello. Hello to a new adventure." Yep, onto a new adventure.

We bought a house in Florida, we have elder care issues to deal with, my oldest moved his family to Florida (my middle guy lives in Orlando) and I want to spend some time with my wife again (she has been assisting with elder care in the sunshine state). So where am I going? All these issues tie into my blogs recently: elder care, embracing changes, taking care of yourself, HR trends, managing your career, and so on. 

I am ready to take on a new career challenge. I am blessed to have the opportunity to make changes, reconnect with my wife and family, and write the next chapter in my career and life. I am moving on from Gannett/USA Today this April after five wonderful years as the Chief People Officer - I am very thankful for the opportunity. 

I have a wonderful friend and colleague, Samantha Howland, who will be taking over the reins. Great company, great mission, great employees, great team and a great new People team leader.  

My heart if full from all the wonderful employees from across the country who have taken the time to write, call or just drop in to wish me well and share stories about things our team did to make their work/life better at Gannett. Sometimes it is the small things which matter to folks (regular communication, stand up TMZ style meetings, buying an employee lunch randomly, no jargon in emails, saying hello in an elevator, reaching out to a new employee who was acquired, having fun at work, riding my hover-board) and other times it was life changing (adding autism or fertility benefits, building inclusion into all of our HR processes, fast tracking benefits for a cancer employee so she could have less stress in her final days, surprising an employee during a time of need with an unexpected bit of cash to help them back on their feet, mentoring an upstart, or even setting up “meetings with our CEO”). Making an impact with our employees is why I chose this career. Our team made an impact every single day.  

After we announced my departure late last year, I heard from hundred of employees. It was humbling. I saved each and every email. What made me smile was that they used words like: ”approachable”, “caring”, “genuine”, “honest”, "reliable", “fun”, “thoughtful”, and “making a difference”. These words reflect more about WHO I am versus WHAT I have done. I am proud of WHAT the team has accomplished in the last five years, but I am equally or more proud of HOW we accomplished things. We worked as a team, we collaborated, we treated people with respect, we listened, we delivered and guess what – we cared. And with that, we made a difference. We supported the business needs, upgraded talent, improved benefits, went mobile, changed our culture, became more inclusive, understood our employee voices, added analytics to everything we did, automated, enhanced and simplified (the list goes on). 

Corporate America is not easy these days. Budget pressures, Wall Street pressures, declining profit margins, rapidly changing work forces, and the “what have you done for me lately” world we live in. In order to rise above those very real challenges, you need great employees. And you need to KEEP those great employees. And you need those employees to work as a team toward common goals. We hit the jackpot with our team.

We had tough business challenges over the last few years and I want to share some tips I have learned along the way that allowed me to build a great team and to do great things: hire the best people (and different from you), show those people opportunities to make an impact (what is their purpose?), offer your employees relevant benefits (early in career need to pay down student loans, mid-career may want 401k), manage your team with trust (your hired them - now let them do what they do best), create and keep reenergizing a great work environment (be relentless on the work culture), understand and support work/life balance (know your people), be inclusive, communicate and listen….and listen more, make each and every employee feel valued (they will “feel” this), lead them and get the heck out of their way.

At Gannett/USA Today, we strive to connect with our communities every day. As part of the People team, I tried to connect with our employees every day - great journalists, and programmers, and finance folks, and product experts, and legal minds, and distribution pros, and consumer marketing gurus, and most of all consummate and fun human resource professionals. “Together we win” has meaning for me.

A legacy is the bread crumbs left behind that serve as memories or pathways to guide people in future decisions. They are a compilation of what we did, where we went, goals we accomplished, failures we learned from and most of all people whom we impacted along the way.  Our leadership is not shaped and our legacy is not defined at the end of the road, but rather by the moments shared, the decisions made, the actions taken, and even (as noted) the mistakes overcome throughout the many phases of our career. When we can inspire those around us to take a leap of faith with us, we are creating legacy defining moments in our leadership career. Our team had many great moments here at Gannett. I am proud of the team and all that they accomplished.  Proud of my legacy of hiring great people. I tried to give a vision and a purpose and then step back and watch them work their magic!  Thank you team. 

Not sure where my next path leads me after we get settled again as a family … in an ode to Rush (and recently departed Neil Peart) I will continue to be a workin' man ... maybe serve as a consultant, maybe work as a coach, maybe serve on a Board, maybe serve as another Chief People Officer. Definitely continuing to make an impact.

"It seems to me, I could live my life a lot better than I think I am

I guess that's why they call me, the workin' man

Well, they call me the workin' man, I guess that's what I am" (Rush)

Onward.  

Together. We. Win.