TWC S03 E01: Our People and Their Potential are Our Greatest Assets with Guest Expert Hilda Gan

Why is it so important to feel  important?

How does our uniqueness affect our workplace interactions?

Why is inclusivity the single most impactful (and affordable!) way to improve workplace culture?

On season three's first episode, join Katherine as she discusses these questions with the wonderful Hilda Gan.

Hilda Gan is a keynote speaker, International Best Selling Author and the President of People Bright Consulting and the creator of REVUP Your Potential. Her company provides Business and HR Strategic Consulting and Leadership and Manager Coaching and Training. She loves to work with Organizations and Entrepreneurs who recognize that People are their greatest assets.

To learn more from Hilda on how to REVUP your potential, visit her at People Bright Consulting | REVUP Your Potential.

Listen to Hilda's podcast at REVUP Your Potential with Hilda Gan | Podcast — People Bright Consulting | REVUP Your Potential. 

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Transcript

Intro: This is The Write Connection. This podcast is designed to help you choose the right words and stories in your business content to create authentic connections with prospects, clients, partners and colleagues. Now the host of The Write Connection, Katherine Burrows.

 Katherine Burrows: Thanks Carl. Welcome to The Write Connection today I'm here with Hilda Gan, she's a keynote speaker, international bestselling author, the president of People Bright Consulting and the creator of Rev Up Your Potential, welcome Hilda.

 Hilda Gan: Thanks for having me, Katherine,

 Katherine Burrows: Could you just tell us briefly a little bit more about what you do with People Bright Consulting?

 Hilda Gan: Sure. I founded People Bright Consulting about five years ago because I have a passion for helping people and I love to help them with their human resources needs. We all have headaches about people in our organizations, both as heads managers and even staff. So what I like to do is create strong, healthy workplaces. So work culture is really important and building a strong HR foundation. One of the things I love to do is really management and team building training, really helping companies maximize their potential. And I call it Rev Up Your Potential to help them really build the strength of their companies.

 Katherine Burrows: And you're not just talking about this, you've actually implemented all of this and become one of the 10 best workplaces in Canada. Can you tell me that story?

 Hilda Gan: Sure. That goes back to actually accompany my husband and I founded in the mid-nineties. I'm a nurse by profession and I really loved what I did. I was an educator, a manager, a director and one day he said, I'm thinking of starting a business. And before you knew it, I transferred my skills from the healthcare sector to engineering. It was a transportation engineering firm and we both believed in wouldn't it be nice if people came to work and they enjoyed what they did and they enjoyed the people that they worked with so that was our premise. Let's build a company that you love what you do and you love where you work and we grew that company from two people to 125 people. And we had seven offices across Canada and no matter how many offices we had, we still wanted that concept to be there.

 So when we were about 10 years old, we said, oh we'd like to see what a national assessment thinks of us, cause we'd been on like the best small to medium size employer list. We were top 10 and we found ourselves being the best workplaces in Canada, top 10 twice. And that was just an amazing thing for our staff to have. And for us it validated what we all felt like we really do enjoy what we do and enjoy where we were so fast forward, we sold the company and of all the things that I did corporately, cause I was the one that did most of the back office stuff, making sure everything was managed and run smoothly. The people, it was the people side. And so I created People Bright Consulting to really help build strong work cultures, not just for one company at a time, but I started my own business to do that.

 And then I had to think, well, what was the recipe for success? Why were we so successful? And what did we do? And it came to me Rev Up Your Potential, rev up is an energizing word, but it also stands for five principles that were the recipe for our success. So it's respect, equality, valued, uniqueness and potential. So what I mean by that is have a place where people respect each other, not the way you think they should be respected, but the way they want to be respected, look at them as equals. And by that, I mean everybody's job is equally as important as the other people in the organization because without them doing their job well, it really impacts the brand. It impacts the reputation of the company, then value who they are and that's the recognition piece people should know how to do then the secret sauce is in uniqueness. Look at the individuality of people. What are they good at? What are they passionate about? What they strong at? And then if you tap into that potential, you're gonna create a company that's more inclusive, that's motivating and engaging their staff. And that's what made me start People Bright Consulting and that's what makes me want to help people rev up and I do a management training program to help people rev up their potential.

 Katherine Burrows: Well, that's amazing. And definitely those are all qualities that I think we can identify with wanting in a workplace, whether that's a huge corporation or just working for ourselves, those are all things that we strive for. So tell me more about the tool and the uniqueness and how you find out what someone's unique gifts are.

 Hilda Gan: Thanks for asking. So when I came up with this like rev up well I thought, okay, what's the you stand for? And found uniqueness I thought well, we can all say, you’re unique, we're all unique, but that's so qualitative. I mean that's a motherhood statement I had to find something that was a little bit more science space, a little bit more,  authoritative than just say, oh, you're all unique let's just treat them. And one of the things I did was I became a fascination certified advisor and fascination is an assessment tool that actually looks at communication and how you effectively communicate. We have seven different languages. We can speak the language of people or out of the box thinking or details. I won't go into all seven of them, but each one of us has two that we just naturally use.

There are gifts they call them their superpowers and for similar to a Myers Briggs or a disc for five minutes, you ask these questions and you get a 16 page report that really identifies your uniqueness. When you know your uniqueness, you really do come across with confidence and build trusting relationships. So that's a key piece of my training. I help people understand communication effectiveness because it's so hard. People think it's easy, but it is hard to make sure you communicate effectively. And I have exercises that help people get the light bulb. The aha moment. Oh really? I had one person say to me, I always thought people thought the way I did. I never realized they had a different perspective. I'm glad you got that aha moment. So part of my thing in rev up training is really communication, effectiveness, how to uplift and motivate your team as well as understanding your uniqueness. And then at least understanding that other people have uniqueness. If you wanna quantify it, you can take the fascination advantage tool. And then I coach and support people through how to be better managers through my rev up approach.

 Katherine Burrows: And then you must teach them how to communicate between one unique style and another unique style so that they can speak the language that's commonly understood.

 Hilda Gan: That's part of the team building fun exercises. When I do a group you could have a natural team, you could invite your whole team, but you could have managers who are different people, but they have different styles. And so we get them to do things like, okay, write a sales pitch to sell lemonade. And you'll find the people that are alert are getting down to the nitty gritty deal details. We put 30 lemons in this and then the people who are out of the box thinkers will come up with amazing ideas. And then the passionate people will say, well make it a social, make it a lemonade social, so we all come from different perspectives. And when you understand the different perspectives, you are a little bit more open minded and flexible not to change your style. You'll live your style and be confident about it, but understand that there are different styles and listen for that. And maybe those people that rub you the wrong way might not rub you the wrong way when you realize they're different and different is better. It's not worse, being different is better than better, our uniqueness is better.

 Katherine Burrows: Yeah. And I think it makes such a difference when we do bring those unique gifts, as opposed to showing up for work, trying to be like this clone robot who has no emotions and no history and no personal life and no training like whatever specialized training or experiences you might have, but bringing all those unique things because that combination is what you have, no one else has the exact same combination even siblings who grew up in the same home don't have the same experiences.

 Hilda Gan: Yeah. Sometimes when people rub you the wrong way, it doesn't matter what they do. They can be the nicest person, but they just rub you the wrong way. But the minute you start to understand them and connect with them, all of a sudden, all those negative qualities, you see them with a different set of lens with a passionate lens. When you see them in a positive, passionate way, it's much more tolerable if not actually good.

 Katherine Burrows: Well, and diversity is such an opportunity to look at things from a different perspective yeah. To bring in a different skill set, different ideas. And I think if we can learn to see conflict, positive conflict, where someone's respectfully expressing a different opinion as an inspiration for creativity it challenge us to go deeper.

 Hilda Gan: Exactly. I'm not creating anything major earth shattering, but I'm saying be nice respect people, look at them as equals, when you do this, you create a culture of inclusivity. When I talk to my friends in DEI, diversity equity and inclusion you gotta have your numbers, you gotta have a plan. But the true essence of creating a positive culture that embraces a DEI culture is really inclusivity that is the big thing. And that's the cheapest thing to do if everybody adopted a mentality of being more inclusive and tolerant and to not tolerate those people that don't tolerate others, then you can create a more positive, healthy work culture for sure.

 Katherine Burrows: Well, I think that's what really brings in the value. When you feel valued for your ideas, your perspective, your opinion, your expertise, whether you're the lowest person on the totem pole, the most recent hire, or whether you're the CEO, that there's a place for you to express your opinions, to come with input, to really make a difference in your organization. That's when you really feel valued.

 Hilda Gan: And that's that equality piece. I remember when we were Itrans, that's the name of the company that my husband and I had. And we would include our staff as part of the hires. We'd narrow it down and we'd bring these people back for the second interview. And there would always be somebody who was doing that job in there. And our executive assistant was in on a hire for an admin assistant. And we say would you have any questions for us? And she said, what do you like about this company? And Lori said, I like the fact that I am equally as important as the vice president who I report to. And I said yes, that's exactly the culture we have been trying to create. And when you hear it come out of somebody's own  personal experience you know that you created this culture that is embracing, it's not just my husband and saying no, this is what we have to have it's when everybody else believes and embodies that. But you have to do it with an idea of making it expected by everybody and hiring the right people to create that values driven company that cares about inclusivity and the right feelings.

 Katherine Burrows: And now you've put all of those ideas into a book and become an international best selling author. 

 Hilda Gan: Thank you. I didn't put all of the ideas that book that rev up book has yet to come, but I knew that I wanted to get the rev up concept out there. And so I'm actually a part of a book. There are 16 women and each of us has a chapter. And in that chapter, I talk about rev up because I'm very passionate about it. And it's interesting because somebody said to me, so your husband and you had this idea of creating a great place where people like to work and are valued. Where does that come from? And I said, well my husband. No, where did it come from before you and your husband had this idea? And they made me think and it goes back to when I was a seven or eight year old. We used to go down to Chinatown every week.

 And oftentimes we'd go to this place for dim sum and I'd end up going to the bathroom. And the hostess sometimes would be standing at the front and she would talk to me. She knew my name she kind of asked me how school was and we'd have this running dialogue over the years. And she made me feel really important I'm not paying customer. My parents are the paying customers she could totally ignore me for all it was worth, but she cared about people. And so she made me feel valued and respected and an equal. And I think suddenly it dawned on me that that's where it came from. This feeling of being made to feel important, no matter what you are, we all wanna feel like somebody cares. And so if we could do that at work or even in our families to make people feel valued and cared for it, it really goes a long way.

 Katherine Burrows: It does. And I grew up also was hearing stories. My grandfather had clients that were, flying into the airport and he always made sure he would go and pick them up personally. And he would often bring them back to his home. And my grandmother would offer them a drink before they would head downtown for dinner. And he remembered their spouse's name and their children's names. And he would ask how’s the skating lessons going? Or how's the baseball team going or whatever it was. He would take the time to know what they were interested in. And even sometimes making sure that he would take them, if they wanted to see the muse he would take them to the museum while they were in town.

 Hilda Gan: Wow. He was a special kind of guy, cause there are not a lot of people like that. And for me, this woman was a role model. I said, I wanna be like that, I want people to feel good about themselves and I think she shaped who I was really and just recently I finally got around to the book launched in January. So a couple weeks ago I finally got around to talking to her daughter, Jean Luman. She has since passed, but I told Arlene I said I wanna tell you I created a chapter book and I referred to your mom here. And she said, thank you for sharing that Hilda, cause I don't often hear about it outside of my local. They were in a dance company. And so she said, I hear about it from my fellow dancers, how much my mom had shaped their lives, but not from outside the dance company.

 So she said, thank you for doing that. My mother had this way of making you the center of her universe when she talked to you, she wouldn't be checking out to see if there was somebody else that she wanted to go talk to how you network and you're kind of looking around the room, she didn't do that. She said she made you feel that way. So thank you for validating that and, and making that special. So I owe Arlene a copy of the book I said, I'm gonna send you a copy of this book because your mother is in that book.

 Katherine Burrows: That's beautiful. That's why it's so important to create these stories where our workplace culture is positive and inclusive. And we're taking control of that narrative because we don't know what kind of influence that has on people. Maybe your company that you had with your husband was the only way that one of those people or several of those people were introduced to those ideas of inclusivity.  You probably changed many lives by running your company that way.

 Hilda Gan: Certainly, when we've had about three reunions since we sold the company and it's amazing the number of people that come back and who recognize how special this place was, they say they'll never be another, Itrans I think there are other companies out there, but I'm glad they had an experience of such a positive work culture. And I think it's important to help spread that because then other people like myself then create, they wanna be a role model of what they experienced and more and more of us. So I'm on a mission to help as many people in the world embrace a rev up approach it doesn't have to be rev up exactly, but really reach out and make somebody's day, just touch their lives and make them feel good. Just make them feel good, that's what I want. I want people to just have more positive experiences as many as possible in their lives because we've got so many things that can make us feel down or sad or negative, but trying to stay positive and trying to help others experience a positive life is important to me for sure.

Katherine Burrows: And you've created a training program around that as well to help multiply that positive impact.

 Hilda Gan: Yes. It's called rev up your people management skills because a lot of managers really they're good at the skills that they have. They're good at probably project manager, but they don't often have the training for the people management side. How do you uplift and motivate people? And during COVID, it's been really difficult because suddenly they realized that people skills they had in their toolbox, wasn't really strong enough to manage during COVID and people who are trying to adapt to the multiplicity of anxieties that have created due to managing families, elders and a host of other things or isolation, not even having anybody to be with. So yeah, it's called rev up your people management skills. And I do it both for companies, large companies. And then a couple of times a year I host one for people who just want to be able to do it, but they don't have a company. There may be just an entrepreneur or they wanna bring their office manager with them but yeah, that's what I do.

Katherine Burrows: Well, that's great. And you've even created an interactive guide to being confident with difficult conversations that you've kindly agreed to offer to my guests.

 Hilda Gan: So I love for people to communicate effectively and it's amazing how we make assumptions that we know how to communicate, but we don't necessarily know how to communicate effectively. And people really avoid awkward conversations. I've done a couple of seminars on that. So I decided to create a little guidebook on how to deal with difficult conversations. And even talks about the financial aspects there's a study that says for conversations that are avoided, it's estimated that $7,500 is lost in either productivity or the fact that you have to redo work or host of other aspects $7,500 for a conversations that you avoid. So I've created that and as a complimentary offering, I have a link that will allow you to pick the excerpt version for free so it will help you give you tips and strategies on how to deal with those awkward conversations that we often get ourselves into and try to avoid, which we shouldn't try to avoid too much, too long. 

Katherine Burrows: And when we focus on our being unique and being authentic, I think that makes all of our conversations and communications so much easier.

 Hilda Gan: Yes, you can actually avoid awkward conversations if you have good trusting relationships, because it's quite so awkward as if you're having a conversation with somebody who suspects, you have ulterior motives.

 Katherine Burrows: Well, thank you so much Hilda for being a guest today. Do you have any last thoughts you'd like to share?

 Hilda Gan: I really appreciate that opportunity to really share about rev up. As I said, 2022 is my year to get that concept out there and to hopefully touch as many lives as possible to be nice.

Katherine Burrows: Well, we can all benefit when the world is a better place. So thank you so much and have a wonderful day.

Hilda Gan: Thanks for having me, Katherine.

 Katherine Burrows: Thanks so much for listening today. I hope something in today's episode inspired you to tell your own story more creatively please join me next time for more about how authentic words and stories create The Write Connection.

 Outro: Thanks for listening to The Write Connection. What did you think of the show today? Give us a rating and leave us a comment if you have a question for Katherine, reach out to her by sending her an email, The Write Connection@KatherineBurrowscreative.com or visit her website, Katherine burrowscreative.com. And don't forget to follow Katherine on social media thanks again for listening to The Write Connection.