In this episode, we speak to Stefan Tonnon, a human resources professional with 25 years of experience as a leader in the IT sector across EMEA, the US, and APAC. His passion for people development, diversity, inclusion and belonging, technology and sustainable transformational change is the driving force behind his career. He has lived in five countries, and being a global citizen has enabled him to understand how diversity is crucial to driving financial success in international companies and start-ups; he is a mentor and business advisor for Collective Brains. Stefan is also an investor, farmer and ambassador for start-up Threefold and provides business advice to small tech start-ups.
Timestamps and Takeaways
09:49 How living and working in five different countries gave Stefan a deep cultural and diverse experience working with people from all over the world.
14:48 Stefan explains why he loves his role in human resources and how he got into it in the first place.
16:52 Why is kindness in leadership so crucial if you want to impact others and make them feel safe.
17:56 What happened to the H in HR and why the focus on performance, rather than people?
20:15Companies with strong values can often be misaligned with what they say to their people and how their leaders behave in 121's and meetings.
20:55 there are some great examples of companies out there that understand that the results you want to drive have to be human-enteric; they know that they still have to do that through their people.
21:30 Asking people how you are doing and not always talking about work is still essential and will remain vital and how companies are quickly forgetting it.
23:15 How our current education model is still very individualistic, and then you enter into a role and have to work as a team, and often those skills require further development.
26:33 The importance of how you communicate as a leader and listening to understand your people
30:03 We reflected on what we see as the most significant skills gaps for leaders to develop right now.
33:58 We have all been trained in the past to fix problems but often end compounding the issue with quick fixes without first asking people what they think is the root cause.
38:36 The big learnings for leaders right now and going into 2022 will be how they support their team with the five different generations in the workforce, plus having their people working both in offices and remotely.
47:41 The importance of treating your team as human beings and practising kindness every day.
48:53If you hire the best people in the market, make sure you allow them to do what they are good at, empowering and trusting them to do what they are good at from day one.
49:55 The ripple effect and impact you can have on someone's mental health, just be showing an interest in how their day is going.
54:07 The power of vulnerability, in accepting your mistakes, discussing them with your team and making things right.
