Human Capital as a Value Multiplier: Cynthia Hiskes on Building HR for Growth

Anderson Williams: Welcome to Bigger. Stronger. Faster. the podcast exploring how Shore Capital Partners brings billion-dollar resources to the lower middle market space. In this episode, I talk with Cynthia Hiskes, the Head of the Human Capital Center of Excellence at Shore Capital Partners. Cynthia brings deep experience, not just in managing human capital, but in building and scaling the HR function with numerous businesses over her career.

In our conversation, Cynthia talks about the importance of aligning your HR investment to the size, stage, and scale of the company, and the importance and opportunity of developing an HR strategy informed by the learnings around growth and scale of the entire Shore Capital Partners portfolio. She shares insights on how human capital looks different in the context of microcap companies, and particularly highly acquisitive microcap companies.

She highlights the importance of having HR as a strategic business partner to inform both growth strategies and successful integration of new acquisitions. Finally, we talk about talent and the importance of evaluating your talent, as well as building your talent pipeline, particularly for critical roles that drive company growth.

Cynthia Hiskes: My name is Cynthia Hiskes, and I am the Head of the Human Capital Center of Excellence at Shore Capital Partners.

Anderson Williams: And what does that mean, Human Capital Center of Excellence?

Cynthia Hiskes: Maybe it needs a little bit of an explanation. I can understand that. What it really means is I work functionally from an HR standpoint to help support our businesses platform and beyond to grow, and we do that by helping make sure that they have leadership systems in place, people systems in place, and infrastructure in place to help speed their growth.

Anderson Williams: And w-we obviously invest in the microcap space.

Cynthia Hiskes: Yes.

Anderson Williams: What does that look like in the microcap space?

Cynthia Hiskes: Yeah, most times when we’re, uh, meeting our companies for the first time, they have very little HR infrastructure. They may not even have an HR person on board, which is completely fine. We don’t want to push them to put systems and processes in place that aren’t going to help them.

So what we do is our first step is really help them establish their year-one fundamentals. What are they gonna need in the first twelve to eighteen months of their business to help them grow, and not give them too much, just give them what they need. So that might look like, what does your organizational design look like, and how is that gonna evolve over the first eighteen months?

Do you have a h- employee handbook and policies in place to make it easy for your managers and people to know what they can do maybe, or what they shouldn’t do? Other things like benefits and payroll. If they’re gonna scale quickly, they may not have something very sophisticated in place. Let’s get something in place that’s going to take care of that administrative burden so that you can focus on things that are more, like, uniquely qualified for the people that we have there to do.

Anderson Williams: And your background, you’ve worked with some larger companies, and you’ve built companies, uh, from an HR perspective. Will you just give a little bit of your background? I think it’s important as you describe that to know you’ve sort of been there. Sure. And so you have this way of knowing, like, this is right for today, but this is where we’re going, and making sure that you’re sort of building stage relevance.

Cynthia Hiskes: Absolutely. And I think that’s super important, and it is some perspective that our early companies and platform companies don’t necessarily have. So to be able to say, “That’s great, like, you’ve built your business for where you’re at right now, but it’s nowhere near where it’s going to be.” So helping them see into the future a bit.

And you’re right, those are some experiences that I have had. Fortunately, I’ve worked for some very large and established companies. So I have the experience of, like, what does good look like in that sense. And then worked for some companies that were growing very quickly, either from organic or inorganic growth, and that looks a little bit different.

To your point, let’s make this stage specific. We don’t need to put overly sophisticated processes and systems in place if that’s not gonna help you right now. ‘Cause you really don’t have the headcount in your organization to manage that, so that’s one thing that we’re really careful about. People might ask for something, but that may not be something that’s really going to be helpful for them right now.

We need to put foundational things in place for them to really get value out of those more sophisticated processes.

Anderson Williams: And it feels like some of that is also the value of doing this work in a portfolio. Will you talk a little bit about what you lead and what you facilitate from the perspective of the center of excellence with the HR leaders across the portfolio?

‘Cause this isn’t just your opinion or your experience. You’re actually facilitating learning across 60-odd organizations at this point.

Cynthia Hiskes: Absolutely, and sometimes I think that’s the more important part of my role is bringing people together. So my role is really about providing resources to our portfolio company. Sometimes that comes through me, but oftentimes it comes through their peers in other portfolio companies.

Organizations grow in very similar ways, so they’re going to face very similar challenges. We’d rather not have everyone have to learn everything on their own, so bringing them together is a way that we can share what they’ve experienced, what they’ve learned, and then capture those in best practices so that we can benefit from each other’s learnings.

How does that happen? So a few different ways. For my cohort in particular, I send a probably once-a-month email that’s an update of here’s what’s happening, here’s new information, here’s requests that people have. That is one way. The more formal way we do that is through our quarterly cohort meetings.

Those are 90-minute Zoom meetings where we get together, and we have a specific topic that we’re discussing, and then we also have time for breakouts where people share their best practices with each other. And those are always the hi- most highly rated portion of the time that we have together. Uh, no matter how much time I give them with each other, they always want more.

Anderson Williams: Well, I’m sure people love knowing they’re not going it alone, for starters, and that the thing they’re challenged with is not unique to them or their company or something they’ve failed at or they’re not smart enough to figure out or any of those other things that people think.

Cynthia Hiskes: Absolutely. They’ve even said, “You know, it’s great to hear about everything that’s gone really well, but I would like to hear about the things that didn’t go really well, too.”

Anderson Williams: Yeah.

Cynthia Hiskes: So we even incorporate that a little bit. Sure. Those are the after-hour conversations-

Anderson Williams: Yeah, yeah…

Cynthia Hiskes: That we tend to have, but I think those are really important. An example of that, just recently we had a conversation with one of our portfolio companies who decided to implement an applicant tracking system, and part of that discussion was why did we decide to do it?

When did we know it was the right time for us to do that? So that was really good information for others to hear and understand and then of course, understand, well, what were the learnings you had? What would you do differently-

Anderson Williams: Yeah …

Cynthia Hiskes: If you were to do it again?

Anderson Williams: What are some of the things… You know, at Shore we talk a lot about the planting, growing, and harvesting phases-

Cynthia Hiskes: Mm-hmm

Anderson Williams: of our hold period of the growth of our companies. Are there a couple of things that come to mind that you see as, like, here are the regular challenges that accompany the planting phase? Like, almost everybody in the portfolio is gonna face this in one way or the other, and when we move into the growing phase, it actually looks a little more like this.

Are there some patterns there that just are real-world challenges that almost every company’s gonna face?

Cynthia Hiskes: Absolutely. I think the first challenge is that they face, and it will repeat, and I’ll tell you why in a second, is around their organizational structure and organizational design. And that is– goes far beyond what the organizational chart looks like on a piece of paper.

These companies have grown really organically themselves with probably five people around a table, so no one ever had to write anything down around who reports to anybody and whose decision rights and what is your role versus my role. They all just kinda knew it. But that doesn’t necessarily scale. So they’ve built their organization around the people that they have, and they need to wear many hats and play many roles.

But that’s not the organization of the future. So that is one of the elements that consistently repeats itself. How do we build the organization of the future, and then how do we move people into that organization? Um, how do we make decisions around what is the most important skill and competency we have for some of our key leadership roles, and who are the best people to fill those roles?

Do they already exist? Do we need to help develop them, or do we need to go find one from somewhere else?

Anderson Williams: When you think about that evolution, we grow really throughout the hold period, most of our companies anyway, through acquisition.

Cynthia Hiskes: Yeah.

Anderson Williams: What are some of the unique perspectives on HR or human capital that are particular to that kind of growth?

Cynthia Hiskes: For sure. This is one that, and I’ve experienced this over the last however many years I’ve been working, it is when you go into a new organization as an HR leader, and if you’re interviewing, let’s say, with the CEO, and one of the things that’s most important to them is they wanna make sure that the culture doesn’t change and that we preserve the culture.

And I’ve never said this to any of them ’cause I probably wouldn’t have gotten the job. But the answer is, that’s not gonna happen. You know, and that’s actually not the answer, and that’s not the game. And I think this is particularly applicable when we’re talking about acquisitions. You have founders that are continuing to come into an organization.

You have different people, you have different ways of working, and different processes. Those cultures are gonna change. So that is one of the, I think, key realizations or realities that people need to face and leadership needs to understand. If you wanted to stay the same, then you needed to stay the same.

You know, you’ve chosen-

Anderson Williams: Yeah …

Cynthia Hiskes: To make a difference. Now, let’s talk about what were those things that really helped drive your business results, and let’s capture that, and that becomes your culture.

Anderson Williams: Yeah. And what does it look like? You, in effect, acquire, which means you just hired, at the same time- … people, right?

Cynthia Hiskes: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Anderson Williams: How do you even approach that from the perspective of a human capital strategy?

Cynthia Hiskes: Mm.

Anderson Williams: Just real nuts and bolts, like, how do you get started with that kind of volume on all at once kind of-

Cynthia Hiskes: Sure …

Anderson Williams: Integration of team members?

Cynthia Hiskes: Fantastic project management is one, and you need to capture certainly all of the, I would say, more like discrete elements of things that you know you’re going to do. We need to enroll them in benefits. We need to get them on the payroll system. We need to get them all the system access that they need. So that’s one, and you’re doing that for any employee that you’re bringing on board.

Anderson Williams: Sure.

Cynthia Hiskes: But the other is more around, I would say, maybe the softer side or the people side, and it’s really, I think, having a very open conversation about these are our values, this is how they come to life in our culture and what’s important to us.

Then you have the conversation with that group of people that says, “How is that the same or different than where you’re coming from or what you currently do?” And I think it’s really trying to focus on more of what is the same than what is different. And that usually gets you to, you know, the next point. So it is a lot about relationship building, but it also, you can do it in a really systemic and methodical way, and I think that is really important.

The other thing that’s really important because most times the things that trigger employees’ reaction or have a negative impact to morale would typically be, “Don’t mess with my pay.”

“Don’t mess with my title, and don’t mess with my benefits.” Those are table stakes. Yeah. You wanna make sure you get all those things right. But earlier when we were talking about org design, that is really helpful to have a roadmap of what the future org structure is gonna look like because then when your new organization is coming in, you can very easily show them, “Here’s how you fit.

Here’s how these roles map to this point in the org structure,” and it gives them a vision of not only, oh, I have a place, which is a sense of security, but it also gives the acquiring company a lot of credibility around thought and stability, which is around they’ve been thoughtful, and they have stability and credibility, which helps the company that’s being acquired feel more comfortable.

It’s really change management.

Anderson Williams: I’d love to hear you talk about your recommendations, your best practices, whatever it might be the right way to frame it.

Cynthia Hiskes: Mm-hmm.

Anderson Williams: I’ve heard and seen examples here and in the past where a company’s being acquired, or you’re growing like this, and it all happens with the CEO and the CFO and the COO, and then gets handed off to HR without that- Yeah

level of partnership. I’d love to just hear your thoughts on what a partnership should look like-

Cynthia Hiskes: Mm-hmm …

Anderson Williams: When HR is fully engaged and empowered as part of the strategic conversation, and not part of, like, a handoff after an acquisition and otherwise.

Cynthia Hiskes: Absolutely. I think that’s the worst feeling and the biggest frustration for most HR leaders, present company definitely included, is when someone comes and tells me to do something or asks me to do something, and I wasn’t included in what got us to this point.

So my best practice for those leaders would be bring your HR leaders in early, and if you don’t have an HR leader, ’cause as I said earlier, they oftentimes don’t, so no wonder this isn’t being-

Anderson Williams: Yeah.

Cynthia Hiskes: Considered. Bring someone else in.

Anderson Williams: Yeah.

Cynthia Hiskes: Call someone from the Centers of Excellence. We can give you a playbook. We can engage more actively, if that is important as well. But it’s not a matter of telling somebody what to do, it’s engaging them from the get-go and bringing them along. Because then you can feel confident that they will be able to take those decisions and move forward as that team decided they wanted to.

Anderson Williams: Yeah.

Cynthia Hiskes: And those principles. So I think bringing your HR leader in early is really important. Understanding what HR can do and should do for you is probably … I would do that first, ’cause then it gives you some sense of, like, what’s the compelling need to do this.

Anderson Williams: Yeah. And say more about that.

Cynthia Hiskes: Mm-hmm.

Anderson Williams: What part of my next question was, like, about misconceptions-

Cynthia Hiskes: Yeah …

Anderson Williams: For HR. Talk more about how to understand and know and think about what HR can do for you as a partner rather than as a, maybe a function.

Cynthia Hiskes: Yes, exactly. I think that’s a great question. I’ve had a couple of CEOs say to me, “I don’t even know what good HR looks like. Like, what should I be looking for?”

So one of the things I put together is … It’s just a little quiz that says, “Are you running HR as a strategic part of your business?” And there’s, I think, I don’t know, 12 questions, and it asks things like, “Is your HR leader present at your management meetings?” Because how can they be strategic if they’re not, right?

And how do you incorporate HR metrics into your business metrics? How do you make the connection between the two? Who’s involved in that? So it helps, I guess, really give more of a, an assessment of your operational cadence and how are you behaving. ‘Cause if you want an HR person to be strategic, they need to be operating in an ecosystem that wants that.

So helping to just people identify what that looks like.

Anderson Williams: Yeah, I love that ’cause you’re basically saying that part of it is setting up the infrastructure of how you even report on and talk about your business performance at the beginning. I think a lot of people will think, “I have to get to a certain size or a certain number of team members before I really need HR,” or something like that.

Cynthia Hiskes: Yeah.

Anderson Williams: Which what you’re saying is quite the difference. It’s not just org design, it’s business strategy and business design, and how you’re gonna think about and talk about your business.

Cynthia Hiskes: Yes. And I think that’s what’s tough with our businesses early on, ’cause it is hard to afford, and honestly, you don’t need, like, a full-time, high-level HR person in your first 12 to 18 months.

But you need a slice of that, and we can help you do that with some systems and processes and tips in order to bridge that gap until you do have that person on board and in place.

Anderson Williams: And what does that look like? Just for anybody listening who may be curious about how they might partner with you.

Cynthia Hiskes: Mm-hmm.

Anderson Williams: What does that consultation process-

Cynthia Hiskes: What might that look like? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What does that look like? Absolutely. So it may be, how do I assess the organizations that I’m acquiring and who are coming in? How do I assess their culture and their cultural fit? Mm-hmm. Are there going to be clashes? We’re usually probably not gonna acquire a company if there is a huge gap.

That’s easy. Yeah, yeah. But it’s when there might be a few different things going on- Yeah … that you just wanna, like, get in front of and establish expectations. So I think integrating two different organizations- Yeah … which oftentimes happens early on, and you may not have an HR leader to help do that. And you can do that very systemically.

You know, it’s like we talked earlier about, here are our values and norms. What are yours? What does this look like? What do you like about your organization? What would you like to be different? What are your biggest concerns? So there are very textbook ways that you can do that, but somebody needs to do it.

So that, I think, is one example. Another example is having conversations with- Leaders, founders, or people who are on the management team of the company that’s being acquired, and understanding what they really want and helping them understand what they really want. Because they’ve worn so many hats for so long, they don’t sometimes even know what they’re best at and where they should be spending their time.

And sometimes I think, you know, we’re very sensitive to the relationships that exist at all of the companies that we acquire, which is appropriate. But sometimes that sensitivity blocks real conversation about what do you really wanna do, and what does that really look like? Here’s what it looks like to be this role in this organization going forward.

Is that something that you wanna do? So part of it is, for me, it’s having those conversations with… and sometimes it’s the CEO around, “What’s standing in your way?” You know, “Why don’t you wanna have that conversation? What are you concerned about?” Most of the time, I think people really, their hesitancy blocks progress.

Obviously, hesitancy blocks progress. I’d say maybe their fear of the unknown blocks progress. So having conversations with people so they can identify what’s blocking them and getting that out of the way so they can move forward is really helpful. Yeah. We did that recently with OnDeck. They had four or five different founders coming into the organization at one time.

They weren’t all going to be able to be in the same role going forward. So in this case, which was really– it was super fun to do, it’s a group of engineers, so they’re a very technical, analytical, framework-y kind of group that I got to know. So what I posed to the CEO was, “Why don’t we look at, you know, you know what structure you need going forward. You know what seats you need on the bus.

What are the profiles for each of those seats? And let’s be explicit about what they look like. Then let’s show them to those founders and get them thinking about what is it that you really wanna do? Where do you think you best fit? Where can you bring the most value for the business?”

And we actually used the Predictive Index to help identify profiles that seemed like they would match. And using an analytical framework and applying it to a problem that can be very, like, seem very subjective and emotional is super helpful, and it was particularly impactful with that group as well.

Anderson Williams: Yeah.

Cynthia Hiskes: And then it just sped the decision-making and the alignment with the decisions.

Anderson Williams: When you look at the org design work that you’ve described- Mm-hmm … and you think about the phases of the business as we grow- Mm-hmm … and we think about the rapid growth of the businesses, which necessitates rapid growth of people, how do you help your HR leaders know when to invest in talent versus when might be the time that you need to either keep them in a role and hire above them, or maybe they’re just not keeping up with the company, and it’s a difficult conversation?

This is such an acute and rapid growth environment. I feel like that has to be a conversation on most of your HR leaders’ heads a lot of the time.

Cynthia Hiskes: The reality is, it is on some, but it isn’t on others ’cause they’re not pulled into those conversations. So perhaps another topic. But yes, I agree with you on the cycle that we need to have for talent assessment, and then if you wanna call it succession planning.

In our world, I don’t think it’s succession planning as much as it’s just talent planning. You know, what’s the next cycle that we’re getting to? So the Nine Box process that we use, I think it’s evident at Shore, we go through that twice a year because we know things change that quickly. And internally, our portfolio companies, I think, need to consider what is the right frequency for them to be thinking about that.

Because sometimes what we think about when we think about talent and succession planning is, “Oh, somebody’s going to leave, so then I need to find someone to replace that.” Where it’s a much different view for our portfolio companies. It’s really about thinking about where is the business going, and what types of skills and resources am I going to need going forward?

So to your point, it may mean we have someone who’s doing sales and marketing right now, but in 12 months, we need two different people. And of the person who’s doing it right now, what’s the right path for them, and when do we start looking for this other one? So it’s really more about actively planning, which, to your point, we’ll say now of the people who are here, how do we develop them to continue to move with the company?

Yeah. So I think it needs to be done pretty regularly.

Anderson Williams: Yeah. Well, and you mentioned the 9 Box. Will you just give us a quick overview of what that is and how it’s used to spur the kind of conversation you’re describing?

Cynthia Hiskes: For sure, because that is the most important part of the 9 Box exercise is the conversation.

The framework and the system to put people in a box just gets you to the conversation. So what it is, is evaluating individuals against their performance and potential in their current role. So you say, are they high, medium, or low performance based upon what their role is and what they’ve been doing?

What have they been delivering? And then you say, “Well, do they have potential for what’s next?” And if they do, then the action is, then what are we doing to help get them there? And if we don’t have an opportunity within the organization to help them develop, that would be a risk then because chances are pretty good if someone has higher potential than you’re willing to invest in, they’ll become disengaged.

And then you’re probably gonna have a high performer who then is leaving the organization. The other thing it does is it helps us calibrate internal to the organization. Like, I may have people in my organization and I’m rating them, you have them in yours. Then we come together, and it’s important for us to really understand, “Well, I don’t know, I kind of thought my person was, you know, box six, and I think they’re like your person who you said they’re box nine.”

So it helps us then- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm … as leaders in the organization get calibrated around what good looks like and what our expectations are, which is super important because in our fast-growing acquisitive organizations, the bar will continue to move, and it’s important that we continue to move along with it.

Anderson Williams: I think that’s the context here is so specific of being microcap, highly acquisitive, five-year hold period, puts a compression on all of these decisions and the speed with which they happen.

Cynthia Hiskes: Absolutely. So then when you think about how you’re investing in talent and the decisions that you’re making regarding talent, those are huge.

Those aren’t people decisions. Yeah. Those are business decisions that you’re making. Yeah. So you wanna make sure you’re making really good ones because you don’t… Early on in the hold period, you don’t have a lot of them. You know, you have like three or four people that are making it happen. You better make sure that those are the right people.

Anderson Williams: Well, and let’s fast-forward to exit, and when you’re thinking about that harvesting phase- Mm-hmm … as we talk about it, how do you think about talent? So we’re talking about sort of this rapid growth and getting ready for growth and keeping people, you know, up to speed to grow the business, and we’re still gonna keep doing that, but at some point, somebody else’s eyes are coming in and evaluating.

Cynthia Hiskes: Absolutely.

Anderson Williams: And they’re not just evaluating our financial performance, they’re evaluating that org design, that infrastructure. Mm-hmm. Is it going to carry this company to twice its size, and so forth? Will you share from your perspective, having lived in bigger companies as well- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm … but also working with, with Shore, what are the kinds of considerations you think about when you get to that point where it’s like, “It’s time to start to tell the story of what this company looks like at exit”?

Cynthia Hiskes: Yes, two years ago at the Executive Leadership Academy, there were some strategic investors, and one of the questions they were asked is, “What do you all look for from a people side of the business- Mm-hmm … at exit? Like, is it important to you, organizational health, and how do you measure it?” And there were four metrics that they gave.

One was turnover, one was employee engagement, one was time to fill, and I believe the last one was wage sustainability. And these are things that I recommend you start tracking, or you build the systems in your planting phase so that you can track. All those things can be done through your HRIS system.

When you hit growing, midway through growing, you need to start thinking about your story, and you need to make sure that you have that data trend established, and not just so you can show it to somebody, but so you can make good decisions and make sure that it’s a good story, ’cause then you have, like, two years to make sure it’s a good story.

And you’re not just doing it for the investor, you know- Sure … the next investor. You’re doing it because it’s gonna drive your business results. Yeah. So those are the metrics that really suggest a level of organizational health and sustainability that will continue on past a transaction.

Anderson Williams: Well, and I think it’s a really important message that to be able to tell that story with validity at exit means you’ve begun executing it in growth.

Cynthia Hiskes: Absolutely. Absolutely. Right. And then that’s what makes it even more powerful and valuable- Yeah … to that buyer.

Anderson Williams: And I’m assuming at that point, and I have a couple of very obvious examples in mind, but that there are particular roles when you think about a potential acquirer on the back end of a hold period with us, there are particular roles that they’re, like, really concerned about.

Oh, sure. Absolutely. Like, like, “I want low turnover, but, like, I need to know there’s not only low turnover, but there’s a pipeline for that kind of role.” What are some examples of those kinds of things that you see that really do become part of defining the business as a company grows?

Cynthia Hiskes: Yeah, absolutely. And those are the same things that you need to be working on early in the evolution of your business. I call them key value contributor roles. People may call them revenue-generating roles.

You know, what are the roles that if those people are not in seat or on the job, you are not making money or you’re losing money? And in multi-site healthcare, those will be your providers or your hygienists- Yeah … or your anybody who needs to touch someone in order for them- Yeah to be billed. So you need to definitely identify who those are in your organization, and then make sure that you’ve got great recruiting, to your point.

What’s our pipeline for that? And retention strategies around those. Yeah. And that is also triggered when you’re looking at your turnover numbers. Oftentimes, getting back to what are the things that you continue to see, people will be like, “Oh, our turnover is high. Our turnover is high.” You’re like, “You know what? Which ones are most important to me?” Because I can’t fix everything.

Anderson Williams: Mm-hmm. Sure.

Cynthia Hiskes: So let me fix what’s most important, and it’s usually the ones it comes to be.

That’s when you really find out your, what your key value contributing roles are, and then you put specific actions in place for them. It may be they need more work flexibility. It may mean they want some specific benefit. It may mean you need to put a tuition reimbursement plan in place for this specific role, not your entire organization.

So you start to get much more surgical about solving the problem, but first you’ve gotta identify it and get down to the root cause.

Anderson Williams: So before we wrap up, what are for you maybe the couple of biggest misconceptions that you think people have about the HR role, the human capital function that you see, whether that’s from a founder perspective or an investment team perspective or- Yeah from within HR itself, but what are some of the misconceptions that we probably need to surface and be having conversations more proactively about?

Cynthia Hiskes: I think one that came up earlier was, you know, this, “I’ll call you when I need you.” If you are calling me, you needed me before. So you bring people in early and make sure it’s part of how you’re running your business, not a separate nuisance that you need to, um, mind to. That’s one.

The other is very much related is HR oftentimes, and it’s a little bit like triage, it’s risk mitigation or cost avoidance, but I think we really should be looking at it as a revenue enabler, especially in microcap businesses. You know, we talked about we have a really small, like, concentrated pool of people.

The decisions we make about who those people are, how we invest in them, and how they work together is pretty darn important.

Anderson Williams: Yeah. It’s really a value multiplier.

Cynthia Hiskes: It i- that’s a better way to say it- Yeah … is a, is a value multiplier. Yeah. So I think those are probably two. The third I would say it’s an HR misconception. I think it’s just an overall misconception. Things that feel, like, ambiguous and emotional, they can’t be dealt with in a systemic way, and they absolutely can, and it is the best way to deal with them. And I think it really helps people make progress and move along, and that’s where I have found the conversations I’ve had with people have probably been the most valuable to them, is just helping them figure out, how are you gonna get from here to there? That is something that I have…

Helping people create what’s next for them is something that has always been really interesting to me. About 15 years ago, I decided to get my coaching certification, and it’s very focused on that. You know, like, what’s next for you and what’s holding you back? That’s… You can have that conversation one-on-one with a person.

It’s the same thing with your organization. What’s next for your business and what’s holding you back? And, um, most of the times if you ask enough questions, which is another really important skill, is asking the questions and continuing to click in, you’ll find what the blocker is, and then it wasn’t really as bad as they thought it was gonna be.

Anderson Williams: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure and check out our other Bigger. Stronger. Faster. episodes as well as our Microcap Moments and Everyday Heroes series at www.shorecp.university/podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts. There, you will also find our newest addition to the podcast series, Raw Talent.

This podcast was produced by Shore Capital Partners with story and narration by Anderson Williams, story recording and editing by Austin Johnson, editing by Reel Audiobooks. Sound design, mixing, and mastering by Mark Galup of Reel Audiobooks.

Special thanks to Cynthia Hiskes.

This podcast is the Property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, nor a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the Terms of Use page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.