Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Forging the Future: How a Female HR Leader Is Driving Culture and Capability at Eaton Manufacturing
60 Plays10 days ago
Step into the evolving world of manufacturing with our latest episode, featuring Rachel Galloway, HR leader at Eaton Corporation. Rachel’s journey is anything but typical… transitioning from the non-profit world and social services into the heart of a global manufacturing powerhouse.
Now supporting over 400 employees, she tackles some of the industry’s biggest challenges integrating AI, managing dispersed teams, and bridging generational divides. Her approach? A mix of forward-thinking strategies leveraging internal tools like the company’s learning platform Eaton University and foundational coaching tools.
Discover how Rachel empowers highly technical engineering teams to unlock their potential through Discovery Full Circle - enhancing communication, collaboration, and performance.
In the traditionally male-dominated fields of manufacturing and engineering, Rachel shares what it means to lead with authenticity by “respecting yourself, and others will match your energy.”
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Voices with Insights Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello to our Insights community who continue to change lives around the world. My name is Marcus Wiley and welcome to the Voices with Insights podcast. I hope you're feeling colorful to your core today as you join us on a ride of discovery.
00:00:17
Speaker
We will chat with practitioners from across the globe to discover their fascinating untold stories. Whatever you are doing listening to our podcast, let's see if we can uncover an idea or two that will help you to create high-performing teams through awareness of self and others in a powerful and simple way.
Guest Introduction: Rachel Galloway from Eaton Manufacturing
00:00:34
Speaker
I am joined today by Rachel Galloway from Eaton Manufacturing. Hello, Rachel. How are you? hi Marcus. I'm just lovely. How are you? Fantastic today. and It's great to be speaking to you. ah Tell us, where where are you talking from today, Rachel?
00:00:50
Speaker
ah So I am in northwestern Ohio, currently enjoying a lovely balmy 98 degrees here. So it's a quite, quite interesting start to our summer.
00:01:01
Speaker
Wow sounds like things are hotting up for you and yeah hopefully hotting up for our guest today as we share your story. and To get us started ah just for our listeners to get to know you a little bit better do you mind if I ask you a couple of odd questions and just see where it goes?
00:01:19
Speaker
Odd is my specialty. Odd is your specialty. Fantastic.
Exploring Personal Metaphors and Inspirations
00:01:22
Speaker
Okay. Well, the first one coming at you today is, Rachel, if you were to describe yourself as a piece of fruit, which piece of fruit would you be today and why?
00:01:33
Speaker
um If I was a piece of fruit, I would say that I would be... I'll say a star fruit. A little tough to get through on the outside, but quite quite good on the inside.
00:01:48
Speaker
Love that. Love that. Love that. Okay, we'll come back to that in a second. Star fruit. Nice choice. and Second question coming at you. If you were to describe yourself as a character, let's say in like a story, like it could be a fairy tale or it could be one of your favorite novels, or it could be from a latest a hit movie or a musical even, which character would you associate yourself with and why?
00:02:15
Speaker
So I am a I'm a big fan of fantasy and sci-fi and comics, and I'm ah a Marvel, not a DC person for the most part. So I would say that a character that I would associate the most is probably the ancient one.
00:02:32
Speaker
um So she is someone who... has spent a significant amount of time acquiring knowledge, preserving knowledge, um and wanting to use that knowledge for the betterment of all, but tends to not get directly involved in situations unless it's necessary. So she's always been a ah favorite character of mine. She tends to stay more in the background, but can have a ah pretty important impact if needed.
00:02:58
Speaker
Oftentimes people don't see it, but they they benefit from the results of what she's done. i see. Now we're already getting to know you through the means of these silly questions, because I guess the the the method behind the two questions, Rachel, would be we're all living the story of our life. You know, sometimes we are the heroine, sometimes we're the villain or the sage or the provoker of starting a journey, right? So you have told us a little bit about you and where you are in your life journey.
00:03:25
Speaker
And then I love the pieces of fruit because every every piece of fruit has two textures, right? And you talked about the outer texture. and the juice on the inside. So we will we will play with your starfruit and see if we can get to some of the juice on the inside today.
00:03:42
Speaker
Wonderful to have you with us. Thanks for playing my nonsensical
Role and Responsibilities in HR at Eaton
00:03:45
Speaker
game. Just to allow us to get to know you a little bit, maybe in more normal language, could you tell us a bit about yourself and what your day-to-day role is and what it looks like in So I am an HR business partner for Eaton Corporation. I support our global research and development engineering organization, which is 7,200 engineers strong across the world. And have cross across the world and i
00:04:12
Speaker
have ah been working with engineers for about the last decade or so. I consistently had roles in various roles in HR and I've supported other functions, but I'll say engineering work, HR business partnership with the engineering function has been a a bit of a passion of mine and kind of day-to-day role. It, it,
00:04:30
Speaker
changes lot. It's of the things I really appreciate about working in HR and working in my role in particular. um My day can be very different depending on what it is. So, for example, today having this lovely conversation with you, which is a bit atypical out of my norm. I don't normally do podcasts, but it's a great opportunity to talk.
00:04:49
Speaker
a bit about eating it and what we're doing. But, you know, I've got interviews for our teams. I've got conversations on career progression because I have somebody who's interested in doing something out of engineering and so wants to talk about what those options are.
00:05:03
Speaker
A manager who wants to know how best to coach his employee. I've got conversations later, you know, with someone who has some medical issues and wants to understand the options. So a lot of talking about our benefits and how we can be flexible. And then this afternoon, it's some project planning as we're looking at future growth and what are we going to do from a talent perspective based on some potential activities that may or may not materialize, but we want to be prepared before we kind of get there and all of a sudden have to figure out what we're doing. So it's a bit of a hodgepodge.
00:05:33
Speaker
um of all sorts of all sorts of things. And that's just kind of how my how my day goes. it's I wear a lot of different hats and I never know which one it's going to necessarily be as it also changes. There's a good chunk of unscheduled hours. So who knows what'll drop in later?
00:05:51
Speaker
It sounds like you're going to have a productive day. ah The varied and wonderful life of an HR business partner. That's the goal. Yes. Good, excellent.
Impact of the Insights Program on Emotional Intelligence
00:06:01
Speaker
And then your role within like the Insights Global community is a practitioner, right? You're a practitioner. Yeah, yeah. So im I am a practitioner and i enjoy working in that capacity. I've always appreciated having, going through Insights. It was the first time I went through it, I i wondered if I had been bugged because I was like, there is no possible way that that brief 15 minutes that I spent answering a seemingly list of non-connected questions revealed so much about me. And it was one of those moments where I was like, oh, this is right. And then, oh, this is right. um So I really appreciated it and wanted to get involved from there because I thought it was a really powerful tool in in order from a cultural perspective to get connected. And I'm always looking at ways to connect with other people. I find humans fascinating.
00:06:52
Speaker
So in my job, I get to work with so many of them and so many different different backgrounds, different aspects. Insights has been one of those ways um to connect with others ah kind of across the globe um here again in Eaton, not just as a practitioner, but also it gives us a common language to use. So as I'm trying to coach people, not everybody has the same level of emotional intelligence, right?
00:07:15
Speaker
But by using the Insights program, we can really break it down into common framework and an easily recognized tool. So even my most tone deaf, emotionally intelligent leader can start to pull together and say, OK, this is what you're talking about then and this is what we're looking for. And it also allows people to um share without getting too personal when they need a change or when they they need to interact differently with someone or they need help in how they're interacting.
00:07:44
Speaker
by using the language that we use in Insight. so I find it to be a great benefit. Great, fantastic. And we'll look forward to hearing more about these tone deaf leaders later on in your manufacturing industry.
00:07:55
Speaker
but but But before we do that, I'm always fascinated.
Rachel's Unconventional Journey to HR
00:07:58
Speaker
How did the journey begin? And and how might it have begun for for you, Rachel? On our last podcast, we had a gentleman called Andy Dowling and from the UK.
00:08:08
Speaker
And his career started in the motor trade and even selling watches on Regent Street in London, actually. so So before you got into this world that you're currently in HR and your role, how how did it all start for you?
00:08:21
Speaker
um So I'll say I have a very atypical HR background. I am not, I don't have a degree in and human resources and I actually wasn't looking to move into corporate America or manufacturing at all. I initially started my career after graduating from college in non-for-profit work and in grant writing. And I have always been very passionate about community involvement and engagement and making the world better, making where I live better and and working with communities. So I did that and then also continue to work in in the education field.
00:08:56
Speaker
And as I progressed, made the, had the opportunity to move back home and work with a company there that focused on um at-risk youth. And they were starting a new branch of of the company that i worked for that was focused specifically on girls and and being a girl. And understanding the challenges. And sometimes, you know, it life is hard, even if it doesn't seem like on the surface there's anything to be upset about, but it is a lot going on. And so I took the opportunity to switch over and move kind of from a grant writing community
00:09:32
Speaker
um engagement leader into ah more into the social work side. So I did that for several years and I went worked back and forth between starting out with the girls side, the girls school side, and then i moved over to work with the boys um and worked with some very at risk youth.
00:09:49
Speaker
A lot of the similar lessons that I had growing up and things that I'd been doing with the focus of, you know, how can we make the end better than the beginning was, even ah even if it was different. And so that's kind of what started out on my journey. And, but um for anyone who's ever worked in in social services with at-risk youth with challenges, it's it's not all sunshine and roses. It's a lot of really hard stories.
00:10:11
Speaker
And I think working with children especially makes it hard. it It'd be hard for an adult. And as an adult, it was hard for me to hear what they had gone through, let alone imagine them being children. So after about five years of of working in that environment, I was a bit burned out and said, okay, i need to take a step back and I and want to do something different. I didn't know what that was. So the first time that I didn't have a plan, i was the child in school that advocated for having uniforms in public schools. I wanted homework during the summer and I didn't see the purpose in having a summer vacation. I thought two weeks was good.
00:10:46
Speaker
You know, two weeks off is enough. And then I wanted to go back into summer school, you know, and and wanted to be around school. So i' I've always been a very planful person. So that was the first time that I took a risk and said, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm just going to kind of take it on faith.
00:11:02
Speaker
And within a month, I had a nice bit of ah a down time. I spent a lot of time with my family, spent a lot of time volunteering. um I'm still doing a lot of things from a volunteer perspective in my community. So while I wasn't working in a sense of of income, I was still being productive.
00:11:20
Speaker
Then I had an opportunity to interview with Eton, and i was very resistant at first. I had a image of what corporate America was and and I kind of categorized all companies into that image and it wasn't a great image.
00:11:35
Speaker
So I was initially very resistant and then had a couple more conversations, spoke to my parents, spoke to my mom and and they said, okay, if it'll get me to stop having this lecture, then I will go for one interview and that's it. And then I don't want to hear about it anymore because there's nothing about my background that says manufacturing.
00:11:55
Speaker
Or corporate America. So I'm sure they're doing this as a courtesy and then we can all go about our our day and I'll keep trying to figure out what I want to do. But ah to my surprise, that's not quite how it turned out. I didn't actually get the job that I interviewed for initially, but they did call me back after that first interview and say, hey, we've got another opportunity that we think you'd be great for.
00:12:17
Speaker
Would you come back in and speak to different team? And that was that was kind of it. So got hired and went in and that started my journey. Didn't start in HR, but it that's where I ended up.
00:12:28
Speaker
That's where you started off at Eton. So yeah I guess a Shakespearean quote, if you don't mind, what's past is prologue. but Perhaps, you know, and what's past in your purposeful, intentional youth and and in the social work arena has prepared you for finally becoming an HR business partner.
00:12:48
Speaker
i don't know. I think so. I do love the Bard. my One of my favorite quotes from him is to that own self be true. So the decisions that I made gap going forward, it's, it's you know,
00:12:59
Speaker
just being myself, whatever that was and whoever that was at the time. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that early story. It's always fascinating, I find, where where people's journey has come from and where it has led them. And you had your, not your two-week summer break, right? You had your four-week summer break, four-week, a month to to get into Eton. And here you are. And I guess that was around 18 years or so ago.
00:13:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. About that, about that time, which is weird to say, because I don't like to necessarily think that I'm that old, but and the math doesn't lie. The math doesn't lie and it just means you're even wiser and been gathering more knowledge like that super superhero you talked about earlier on.
00:13:40
Speaker
And then ah what about some of the challenges that you are facing currently in your current current role then?
Global Staffing and Cultural Challenges in HR
00:13:47
Speaker
And and what ah what kind of work are you involved in to address some of the business challenges within Eton? Yeah, so some of the challenges that we have right now within the teams that I support are both kind of ah internal as we look at just kind of staffing and movement. We're a global company.
00:14:04
Speaker
And so making sure that we have people in the right locations where our customers are, where the work is being done. We have, I work for, with centers of excellence across our engineering organization. So they're in a variety of countries. And so we'll have people in one team working within one domain that sit in four and five different countries and in team members working there. So organizing that time, balancing schedules, making sure that you know we're coaching through both culture with a capital C challenges and in bringing different people together and culture with a small C challenges.
00:14:39
Speaker
as different centers work with different businesses. So that's an an aspect because we are a global organization, balancing out some of the external ah challenges from an immigration perspective, it culturally, is as well as some of the legal things.
00:14:55
Speaker
It's been new navigation for us and in terms of what we're doing and in working very closely with our advisors, but it's talking with employees who you know have very legitimate concerns about what could happen and in what happened to their jobs and if they decide to move and change.
00:15:11
Speaker
change or go back home and and how does that happen? What is happens with our job and their career? And then also with early talent, you know, people coming in and wanting to join and balancing um the development at the different stages where, you know, we've got a lot of people who are ready to retire and and new people who are coming in. And there's a wide delta between some of our people who have, you know, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 years of experience.
00:15:39
Speaker
in these really highly technical roles and people who are fresh off, you know, with their grad degree or bachelor's and wanting to learn and how do we bridge those gaps and and develop that as we've got a very generationally changing landscape coming in from a ah just a work perspective as as that changes. So,
00:15:57
Speaker
lot of different things that are that are happening. and then to answer your second part of your question, you know, what are we doing about it? a lot of it is having conversations and in listening, i would say, is the first key. We do a lot of listening sessions.
00:16:09
Speaker
I try to spend more time listening than I do talking with my employees and understanding, know, what are those challenges? What are those concerns? Rather, I think they're legitimate or not. They're very real concerns. Spending a lot of time with our advisors and our third parties and who are providing us that guidance as to what we can do and what we should do.
00:16:28
Speaker
Working internally to understand what's Eaton Stance and and how how we're focused, what we're focusing on and making sure we're aligned to that. And that's communicated out broadly and and understood. So we're all on the same page.
00:16:40
Speaker
And then spending a lot of time just getting people connected. So encouraging people to use the resources. We've got a ton of programs and engagement and activities for people to learn and and grow and develop and making sure that they're aware of those and in keeping people connected and just keeping myself plugged in and and connected. It's easy.
00:17:00
Speaker
I think sometimes to get detached if it doesn't directly affect you and not necessarily understand the impact. So staying connected and and building that well of empathy, I think, is really also really critical as we're getting through and as I focus on, you know, how can I help?
00:17:19
Speaker
is the focus, you know, and am I doing something that is helpful and it's helped the way that the person needs the help, not the way that I want to provide help. Sure, sure. And presumably you're working with quite a large team to connect all these people who are globally working and working
Cultural Differences in Eaton's Global Operations
00:17:34
Speaker
globally.
00:17:34
Speaker
Yeah, we do have a quite a large team. and And even though we're separated into different groups and you can look at, you know, field ah HR versus some of our HR services teams, our legal teams, internal and external, our employee base, our business leaders, counterparts, you know, within ah HR and all the other, all the other countries that we do business in. It's our, it's a lot to navigate. We're a very highly matrix organization and being able to successfully navigate that matrix is critical.
00:18:04
Speaker
Right. And I loved you referencing a culture with a capital C and then culture with a small C. I'd be keen to hear a little bit more about that, actually. What was what was some of your definition of those two things?
00:18:15
Speaker
So when look at culture, the capital C, those that's culture with how you were raised, geographic background, you know the languages that you speak, the social mores that you have from where you come from. And so that can be different you know when you're when you are looking at expectations of someone coming from U.S. versus someone in India or China.
00:18:33
Speaker
that's There's different cultural expectations of of how you show up, how you interact, what's important, things like that. culture with small C is is more, I look at it more within our work environment and what we do and how we act as a company. So there are certain things that we do, those unwritten rules, right, that we have.
00:18:53
Speaker
And it can be very different for someone who's just coming in to the organization and they don't know those things, right? no whats And it's not necessarily something that you know, we don't have it. It's not in a guidebook. It's not part of the onboarding process.
00:19:06
Speaker
A lot of times you learn through observation and doing, but we are also a highly geographically dispersed set of employees and teams. So you may not always get that opportunity to observe others. So it's helping people to understand, you know, something as small as coming on camera, right? And the impact that that makes and having those conversations.
00:19:27
Speaker
Flexing your schedule so that if you're working with teams in China and India, that may mean that if you're in the U.S., you have an earlier start, you know, flexing and going back and forth in those times so that it's not always at the end of the workday or in the middle of the night for someone across the pond, if you will, in in those meetings. So but just understanding those expectations.
00:19:51
Speaker
Oftentimes, I think getting people to understand the culture with a capital C is a lot easier than it is culture with a small C because it's some of those you don't even know that you're doing them right or or that you have a bias to a particular type of behavior, especially if everyone else around you is doing very similar things and it's not apparent until you interact with somebody else.
00:20:12
Speaker
was a different set of small C cultural expectations. Right, yeah, the to the tribal tribal way. One of these days, somebody's going to write down all these unwritten rules somewhere in the world, don't they? It would be helpful to be able to, the same as we have our our lovely book of acronyms, I'd love to be able to give someone, here's all the things that you need to understand about working within our centers of excellence and within our RD&E engineering team.
00:20:37
Speaker
ah Yeah. And of course, the moment that somebody captures it or we capture it, right, it evolves and cultivates into something else. because It's going to be something. It'll be something different. Love it. So the the geographical spread and then the generational challenge and then the the different...
00:20:53
Speaker
levels of expertise in this whole manufacturing engineering industry that you've you' joined in 18 years young far. Thank you for that. all Right, and probably still probably still learning.
00:21:04
Speaker
You mentioned do you have, there are many of programs that you run. Could you bring some of those to to life? like What kind of support programs or tools have you implemented ah to empower your
Eaton University and Employee Development Programs
00:21:15
Speaker
employees?
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, so we've, as like as a company, we've got several things to focus on employee empowerment. um And my role is to really make sure that our employees know about them and are engaged with them.
00:21:27
Speaker
um So one of the things that we have that I have found to be really beneficial is we have ah an entire program called Eaton University. And so it's a whole suite of learnings that our employees are completely free to access and engage with. We have functional colleges, so depending on which function you're in, you can get some things curated specifically to help you.
00:21:50
Speaker
There's general knowledge built into there, so if you are needing to better understand how to use Excel, or you've you've never really had to pull together, an executive presentation, you know, you can do those things and get some of that, you know, technical learning and and expertise through there without having to leave your office. You know, what it comes in, you can do just in time. We also have instructor led courses through there, um, as well as virtual kind of learn at your own pace courses.
00:22:20
Speaker
Then, um, as a continued outgrowth from there, sometimes you need a little bit more involvement. And so we've got our educational assistance program, which is another huge thing that we really um look for and and have adjusted to hopefully keep up with the resources that people need. So it's not just advocating for, you know, a traditional four-year degree, but also we support people who are getting masters and PhDs and in other advanced degrees.
00:22:48
Speaker
but also certifications, especially in the area that I work in in technology. Oftentimes, certifications have become and are becoming significantly more impactful and important in developing critical core skills in each areas to provide that kind of academic background that people need to build that awareness as they implement it in the real world on the job. So that program and making sure people are aware of that, that was a bit of a change to our program.
00:23:17
Speaker
has also been helpful. And then we look at it ah from a kind of cultural background and what are some other things we can do to help build that engagement. We ah have a lot of different activities that we get involved with and encourage people. The biggest one that I'm a huge advocate for is our global mentoring programs.
00:23:36
Speaker
All the research, all the studies, doesn't matter what you look at, shows that people who are connected with mentors perform better, are less of a retention risk, feel more engaged at work, and feel more like they're a part of a team. So I really encourage employees, especially our early and career employees, to join the mentorship program and get connected as they're trying to figure out what do I do with my career? How do I go?
00:23:59
Speaker
um how do i How do I get to where I see other people? What do they do to get there? Because I want to be in that seat. And I also encourage my employees who have been here for a while, who have those experiences to be mentors, um to have a you know a structured place where they can talk about how did they get to where they were, especially people who have an atypical history to go in. it really helps, I think, more and more.
00:24:24
Speaker
As we look at it, people are coming from a lot of different backgrounds. It's not a traditional, as much of a traditional, I got this particular engineering degree and then I completed this work and I've progressed it in a stair-step method.
00:24:39
Speaker
There's a lot of different learning. There's a lot of people coming into technology from previous jobs or from backgrounds that where they didn't have any type of engineering. They don't have an engineering degree. They do have certifications they've learned, or they just had a talent for it. You know, a lot of our software teams, a lot of our coders don't have a degree in computer science and engineering.
00:25:00
Speaker
and That's not how they came up. They're just really, really good at it. And so trying to adjust the thinking and moving away from that traditional, you must fit into this box in order to be successful and showing that, hey, you don't need to be in a box.
00:25:15
Speaker
Maybe you're triangle. Maybe you're a star. It goes, you know, but we'll let's meet people where they are. If they have the right skills to advance our growth initiatives, our technology roadmaps. And so making those changes from a a cultural perspective.
00:25:29
Speaker
so that Sounds like a fabulous program. i mean, I often think that sometimes when the mentee becomes the mentor, they start to learn a little bit more, right? As they see how the knowledge they're passing on to somebody lands or doesn't, right? Yes, the reverse mentoring is ah a great opportunity. yeah I think coming in, not just with that global program, but then we also have ah ah several other leadership development programs to go through.
00:25:53
Speaker
Also, so we've we've got things to accelerate people's careers, whether you are highly mobile and want to move anywhere in the world and take on these really huge executive leadership goals and those are your aspirations or.
00:26:05
Speaker
You have aspirations to to lead, but hey, you know you're not going to move anywhere um but within kind of region. So we've got a ah multitude of programs. We also have other programs focused specifically on development within the technology space. We just launched ah another program where we can have our employees who are in various technical fields um go through and and go through a learning academy, which will provide them with opportunity not just to learn through these these programs and kind of the book learning, but also with the advanced advancements in AI, do simulations.
Eaton's Ethical Reputation and Talent Engagement
00:26:42
Speaker
in real time practicing these skills before they actually go to effect it on the on the products that we're working on, which has been immensely beneficial and we do feel will be immensely beneficial in the future as we're looking to get people more connected and with as rapidly as the technology is changing, get them upskilled and shifting into areas that are focused for us.
00:27:06
Speaker
especially if we're looking for people as people are looking to develop out of maybe some of the more traditional fields and and make a change for what they were doing to where the technology is now and what's the the latest and greatest newest hot tech skill.
00:27:20
Speaker
Wow what a fascinating and booming industry and organization you've got it just sounds like it's thriving and there's A lot happening. There's a lot going on we're doing We're doing really, really well. And one of the benefits, I think, Eaton as a whole and and one of the things that I routinely hear, I just had an interview this morning with someone who wanted to join, um who's interested in joining.
00:27:43
Speaker
and one of the things he pointed out was, you know, the reputation that we have. um not just from a technology perspective, but ethically, as well as the people that he's met and and worked with. Eaton does a lot of an investment with colleges and universities. We work with a lot of students from internships and co-ops and they get the chance to experience in the real world on real products what they're learning in the classroom.
00:28:06
Speaker
And it's the engagements that they've had with our engineers, that make it a lasting impression um because it's, you know, you can look as good as you want to on paper, but if that's not backed up by actual engagements and interactions, and it doesn't really mean anything.
00:28:22
Speaker
One of the things that I'm really proud to work for is that we mean what we say, we walk our talk and the engagement of our leaders and our employees, especially in our engineering function through our engineering and technology development programs, our operations for engineers programs,
00:28:37
Speaker
That's backed up. So early in career talent gets to see that and they can envision what their career could look like. It's not just a thought that they had or i'm going to make my parents happy getting an engineering degree.
00:28:50
Speaker
I should be able to do this. They can actually see what that looks like from someone who has coming from, you know, the same places that they've come from. They're doing the things that they're interested in doing now. I hear you, Rachel. You know, as as I hear you talk passionately about that, there's there's something about coming full circle for you, right? Back to where you started, you know? So um and you're in your pre-Eton career, you know? so um I do spend a lot of time with our early talent teams. It is very reminiscent. It's been a passion ah passion of mine. So I continue to stay involved.
00:29:23
Speaker
um with that with that piece.
Enhancing Team Dynamics with Insights Tool
00:29:25
Speaker
There we go. Talking of Full Circle, um one of the Insights products, Discovery Full Circle, I hear you're a proponent of that and part of your your role as a practitioner, right? and you You build that into some your programs?
00:29:38
Speaker
I am ah I am a proponent. I enjoy the the entire suite of the insights and the different programs that it offers because it allows us the flexibility to kind of meet teams where they are, but also help them as they progress. I really like discovery for full circle um because the way it helps people connect, connect with themselves, connect themselves to their peers, connect themselves and their peers to the team, and then ultimately to the Eaton culture and the business model.
00:30:05
Speaker
And it just helps things tend to make sense. And in a way, if you don't mind, actually, just just before you carry on, you couldn't couldn't just give us like a 20 seconds, and just for our listeners out there who might not be so familiar with what Discovery Full Circle is.
00:30:22
Speaker
but what What is it for you? and um And then I think you were going on to talk about the application of it. Yeah, so Discovery Full Circle is is one of those opportunities through insights that helps provide employees with their profile, you know, for themselves is what that looks like. And then you go into a session where you talk about not just what your profile says about you, but then as the team as a whole, what what does that look like and how do you guys show up?
00:30:47
Speaker
um as ah As a collective team, what are the opportunities within that team group? And then where can you where are you winning and where do you have some opportunities to develop? It's nice with the tools. You can kind of see like, hey, if we have a particular problem, right, we're having trouble communicating. you know, we're all talking the same language, but for some reason it's just not landing.
00:31:08
Speaker
I've worked with teams who've been able to pull it up and say, oh, well, it's not really shocking that you're having some troubles. Everybody's on like one side of the circle. So maybe you've got everybody who's in a very introverted state.
00:31:21
Speaker
You don't have anybody who's comfortable being more extroverted. And your role for your team has a lot of business engagement. So you've got a lot of people who are comfortable sitting in the background, um but you need somebody to stand up front who can have those conversations or Maybe you've got people who are very focused on doing, but you don't have a lot of people who are focused on listening.
00:31:43
Speaker
And so that's causing some issues. So it visually allows people to see, especially in working with engineering teams, it's all driven by data, right? yeah Where people fall in. And so you could have more targeted conversations, more focused interest.
00:31:57
Speaker
in what's working and what's not working to really help solve those lows communication challenges, cultural challenges. It really allows you to look holistically about what's going on with your team.
00:32:08
Speaker
Right. So you're looking at the collective team team dynamic to um help help make decisions about how to ah to get into a better flow and a better connection with the wider organization.
00:32:18
Speaker
And so what what has been some of the positive impact of of that that you've seen in your organization or with leadership teams or... Yeah, I'll say recently, um we have completed a full circle with ah a really large team, new new leaders in place. We had leaders who've been with Eaton for a while, new leaders, new to Eaton, new leaders, first time in leadership role. We've had people who are coming in, you know, externally who are hired, maybe they've been in the role for a while. They've been a leader for a long time, but not at Eaton. So we've got a lot of different personalities, a lot of different expectations.
00:32:50
Speaker
Every one of the things that is consistently true about hiring people um at Eaton is we all have a passion for what we do. We want to win. We want to be successful. And so you have people who want to row together, right? Want to move in that direction. But this team just wasn't seeming to to gel, right? You know, it the way that they were communicating wasn't as effective.
00:33:13
Speaker
Things were getting missed that shouldn't have been missed. And so it really took a step back to say, you know, what can we do to help? One of the first things that I talked to the leader about was, you know, Let's have you heard of insights? Are you familiar with this tool?
00:33:26
Speaker
And so explain to him what it was about. Talk to the team. Some of the team, about half of them had gone through before and other teams. um And then the other half had had not gone through it. Maybe it heard about it, but it never gone through it themselves.
00:33:39
Speaker
And so we pulled together a ah day and a half workshop. and used a couple of different tools, but Insights was was ah the main one that we used to in the Full Circle program to really talk about who they were as a team, um providing that background individually, and focused on communication. And so that was particular topic we had. Spent a good time together, had some tough conversations, um had some people do some reflection work for themselves, as as well as how they were showing up for their team.
00:34:10
Speaker
And fast forward, you know, three months later, having the leader implement those changes, having the team work through some things, you've got some unsolicited feedback that they can really see that these changes were working, that that people were listening, they were having better conversations, they were feeling heard by the leader, um the leader was having more positive interactions with with the team and then fast forward six months later we've had a handful of the other team members who have either scheduled and gone through insights with their teams um or who we've done some work where we maybe previously had gone through but were able to connect the dots in it in a new way and do a modified version and so that team as a whole went from
00:34:55
Speaker
really having some challenges to being successful. And it didn't just show up kind of culturally, it also showed up in the work that they were doing. So we also had challenges and complaints from customers, you know internal customers and business partners, where you know it's just challenging to work with. Certain individuals were difficult, there's negative feedback.
00:35:16
Speaker
That also showed a significant difference in throughput ah in terms of velocity of the work being completed, engagements increased. partnerships more globally, also, or better. So it has a lot of positive benefits that aren't just the we're getting along better, right? Like that's a core part of it, but it affects so many other things.
00:35:39
Speaker
the ripple The positive ripple effect, right? yeah and I mean, kudos to you and very, very well done. i mean, I think as you described the flexibility of weaving insights discovery with other tools and other parts of programs and other initiatives, it seems that it's breathed some life. And I often think When teams start to work on their core, right, and the core muscles that are enabling for the entire system, that's when you do get all the added benefits, as would be the same for an individual, right? If you work on your core, suddenly yeah you have more flexibility and you're to do it different ways.
00:36:10
Speaker
Yeah.
Reflections on Female Leadership and Authenticity
00:36:11
Speaker
Wow. and Rachel, what fantastic story. I must say, right i'm um um I'm very impressed. ah You're such a purposeful, intentional leader and a female leader, I guess, in an industry, might and which is probably not being so female dominated. and Can you tell us a bit little bit about what that journey has been like for you?
00:36:30
Speaker
um It's been interesting. yeah so I said I started out, I didn't start in an HR, I actually started out in operations and I was the only only female leader on my shift. I started of on third shift and went through and so it was a little bit different coming in. But one of the things that I have focused on, i mentioned is, you know, a quote from the BART, just being myself.
00:36:52
Speaker
um I knew that I had a lot to learn and wanted to learn, and I've always been focused on that. So just for myself coming in, i think showing up, being authentic, understanding, um and being willing to listen to feedback, even if I didn't always like how the message was delivered, I tried to find if there was truth in it.
00:37:14
Speaker
And just being consistent and delivering on results, I found that um Again, the culture at Eaton is very supportive. So I think that has a lot to do with my experiences as a whole.
00:37:29
Speaker
But I think also for myself, delivering on results, improving ah through anyone who may have a doubt that I was here for a reason is big. And so you build that reputation.
00:37:41
Speaker
and I think that's key. Continue to focus on that the reputation, showing up, honoring your commitments, showing up every day to do the best that you can do. You know, that's all you really can do and going through and you're, there's always going to be someone who doesn't agree with how you look, how you dress, how you talk.
00:38:04
Speaker
what your decisions are and learning very early on that that's, that's true no matter where you go. And not everybody does have to like you. ah Not everybody has to to like you. Not everybody has to agree with you, but they do have to respect you and you have to respect yourself to go through because that comes across. So I would say, you know,
00:38:25
Speaker
if I would say anything or anything that I do say to other women coming up across the board, you know, with Eaton and in all the other things that I do is to be true to yourself, to respect yourself,
00:38:39
Speaker
and require other people to respect you as well. And that I think, regardless of what industry you're in where you are that makes that makes an impact to go through because people will then come up and match your energy.
00:38:52
Speaker
Or if they don't, you at least know where you stand, but you're not devastated because you know who you are. I love it. Do you Rachel, as I'm sitting listening to you, I'm thinking the non-corporate person who's now in the corporate environment, right?
00:39:06
Speaker
the female leader who is standing out and shining after 18 years, the non-HR person in HR, right? The non-engineering person in an engineering and manufacturing industry.
00:39:16
Speaker
You seem to have been a ah shining light. You know, part part of me is thinking, how do you do it? And to hear you talk about, well, to thine own self be true, and respect others and match that respect and and and request that respect. It's very very inspiring.
Encouragement to Follow Your Passion
00:39:32
Speaker
as we As we close out, Rachel, is there any final thoughts from you that you would like to share with any of our listeners today? I would say do what you're passionate about. Find what that is and focus on that and showing up each day and doing the best version of who you are that day and what you're passionate about.
00:39:54
Speaker
And that's really gonna make all the difference in the world. I have been doing this job for a long time, but it doesn't feel like work. There are hard days, yes, but as it as a general rule, i it' it's not it's not shocking to me that I've been with Eaton for so long because I'm excited about what I do. I enjoy what I do because it doesn't feel like work to me because I'm very passionate about what I'm involved with.
00:40:17
Speaker
So find your passion, follow your passion and believe in yourself. Love it. As a star fruit, it has been wonderful to find the juice on the inside, but also understand the outer layer of the fruit, right? That you've had to be yeah to preserve yourself and through the journey that you've you've been on.
00:40:38
Speaker
It's been an absolute pleasure to speak with you today, Rachel, and I wish you all the best. Thank you, Marcus. Same. Enjoy. It's been wonderful. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you. And to you too. Bye.
00:40:53
Speaker
Well, that was a truly fantastic story we shared together today. i love the fact that our community of practitioners makes such a huge difference across the globe. That's all for today, folks. Thank you for listening to our Voices with Insights podcast.
00:41:05
Speaker
Look out for the next story in our series.