We recently connected with Shannon Carriere and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Shannon, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
Although I had some surface confidence when I was younger, as I leaned into my stable career and raising a family, I fell into complacency. I was going through the motions. When I started to think more seriously about running my own business, I realized there was some missing faith in myself, because- what have I REALLY done these past 15 years? Was it special at all? Do I even belong? These questions prevented me from putting myself out there and taking risks.
I don’t know how it happened, but one day I woke up angry with myself. Who is this that you’ve become? You are better than this! That’s when I started on a path of taking personal risks to pull out of the ingrained complacency. On my to do list every day is “Rejection”. Each day, I have to put myself out there- risking hurt feelings or embarrassment or exposure or flat out rejection. When I achieve any level of that discomfort, I get to mark it off of my list.
Some might say I succeeded with this method, but for me success sounds like an end game- and end games lead to complacency. I would tell you that I am continuously pushing myself towards rejections, because funnily enough, it gets harder every day! I saw early on that the activities and interactions I was avoiding, weren’t actually scary or difficult after all. This has inspired me to be bolder and instead of shying away from the world, I’m jumping in head first to a world of possibilities.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Have you ever heard someone (or been the someone) lamenting the awful interactions they have with that dreaded department of HR? There is no end to the frustrations that people see, feel, and experience. Part of this comes from the department itself not being structured to be truly functional for the organization. It is often built as an afterthought or emergency after something has gone wrong.
HR for me has to be a smart and customized effort for an organization– and one that is agile with the growth and development of the company and the people who make the work happen. HR is a MOVEMENT organization, not a stagnant one. If your HR program is focused on maintenance, you’re missing significant revenue and growth opportunities.
I’m launching fractional services that help business owners assess what movement and agility looks like for your people operation, ensuring that your biggest expense (people) are very clearly your biggest asset in growing your business.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Knowing people deeply. You can’t run a business or an HR organization thinking that process is how people function. Be interested and ask questions to understand what is motivating behaviors and actions.
2. Bucking trends. Sure, “quiet quitting” and “act your wage” are amusing, but drama doesn’t belong it the workplace. It helps NO ONE. If you’re getting paranoid that someone is actually doing so little they’re just waiting to get fired, talk to them. Have a real conversation with the real humans and find out what’s really going on.
3. Hold your values sacred. If you’re starting out in HR, you’ll find that people around you will pressure you to make things easier on them–not better for the team and individuals. Before you take action, do some soul searching, connect with mentors you trust, and make sure what you do next keeps your soul intact.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Focusing on strengths is a great concept– and when I’m struggling hard, recentering on what I’m good at is a great way to pull through and keep moving. However, I do think there is danger in ONLY focusing there. The concept assumes that we’re all generally “okay” at life, but some of us have some big problems that, if fixed, will give us the space to focus on our strengths.
If you’re dealing with trauma (personal or workplace), addiction, or you’ve gotten feedback that your behaviors are detrimental- these are things that need to have action plans connected along with strengths exploration. I like to think of it as a grading system. When all of your grades are at least a C, you can maintain the C in most areas and put your energy towards an A+ in your strength areas. If you’re rocking a few F’s, let’s pull those up to a C before we lean into our strengths.
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