How to Become More Visible at Work with Angela Cheng-Cimini, Harvard Business Publishing

The guest this time is Angela Cheng-Cimini, SVP, Talent & CHRO at Harvard Business Publishing.

Angela is a global executive Human Resources leader with over 30 years of comprehensive experience in both Generalist and Specialist competencies, partnering with C-suite leaders. She is a proven contributor to the business strategy by helping leaders identify and build organizational capabilities.

With expertise in change management, organizational development, talent acquisition, and DEI, Angela's industry experience includes consumer products, high-tech, manufacturing, professional services and non-profit in non-union and organized facilities.

Questions for Angela include: 

• Co-written with your colleague Nicole D. Smith, your article called How to Become More Visible at Work has attracted lots of attention. The premise is that the impact of your hard work needs to be visible to others. Can you share some ways peoples can become more visible at work? 
• How can we know what’s top of mind for key stakeholders? How can one better listen, learn, network, and position oneself to help and add value to the work of powerful decision-makers in their organization?
• You were the closing speaker at the People 2030 Conference on November 2 and 3. The event focused on future-proofing the workforce. It offered attendees ways to learn how to better cultivate purpose, unleash workforce potential, and boost productivity using technology, innovation, and engagement. Tell us more!
• You've also led sessions in the past on how organizations can and should budget-proof their DEI efforts. Can you offer some tips for our listeners?

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HRGazettecom.

Speaker 2 0:25

Angela, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the HR Chat Show today.

Speaker 3 0:29

Bill, thank you so much for having me. Great to be here.

Speaker 2 0:33

So, Bill, my reintroduction there. Why don't you take a minute or two and tell our listeners a bit more about yourself?

Speaker 3 0:38

Yeah, happy to. So I'm a 30-year career HR professional, actually studied it in university, and my career trajectory is probably most notable in that I haven't been able to hold down a job for longer than three years, bill, before I got wanderlust and moved on to the next thing. But I think what it has provided for me is a really rich tapestry in terms of my background. I've been with large global multinationals, small nonprofits, startups, organizations that are mature, that are in decline, and I think what I've learned is that HR is applicable regardless of the industry or sector or lifecycle phase, because so long as you know how to inspire employees and give them a place where they can have value, that's really sort of the magic, isn't it.

Speaker 2 1:29

I love that answer. Is that why you do it, then, Angela? Well, maybe it is. Maybe that sounds like that's a big motivation for you inspiring others, looking to bring the best out of them. Is that your passion?

Speaker 3 1:43

It is. It absolutely is, although I don't plan on leaving every three years, so I hope, if my current employer is listening, please know that I am really committed. I love, actually, the work that we do at Harvard Business Publishing. As you know, we're best known for the magazine and it is a noble place to be so credible and thought of as a real leader in the space of leadership, and I get my geek on every day because I'm surrounded by people who want to talk about how to make organizations as good as they can be for the people who populate them.

Speaker 2 2:19

So I had a little taste. I was in the publishing world with a tech startup and we used to exhibit things like the Frankfurt Book Fair and the London Book Fair in New York and whatnot, and got to interact with lots of lovely people in the publishing industry. I think they are particularly nice people. In my opinion, most unique about that sector that industry from a people management perspective.

Speaker 3 2:48

Oh, so you know, I think one of my first observations because this is my first foray into publishing was that we still have vestiges of our roots, which is to say we need to get everything perfect Right when you're in publishing. You iterate and you edit and goes through several series of bread lines and 100 pair of eyes before anything is fit for publishing. And I think what we're learning now is that we have to be much more comfortable with the messy middle right, just being much more agile, throwing something other, that's, you know, two thirds baked and then iterating on the fly. So I think there's a little bit still in our DNA that says it's got to be live for primetime, and getting much more comfortable with let's. Let's try it and see what works. Fail fast, fail forward. So I think that's what struck me the most about publishing today.

Speaker 2 3:37

And the fantastic answer. Okay, so co written with your colleague, Nicole D Smith. By the way, I was all over your profile over to earlier, checking over your recent posts and what's been popular and what you've been getting up to and whatnot. So you co wrote a piece with with Nicole and it was called how to Become More Visible at Work and it's attracted lots of attention, lots and lots of shares and likes and all the rest of it. The premise of the auto is that the the impact of your work needs to be visible to others. Can you share some ways that others can become more visible at work?

Speaker 3 4:13

Yeah. So I think this piece of Nikki actually approached me and it was originally intended really for sort of more early career, less seasoned, less politically savvy professionals. And I think the reason that the piece resonated for me is has a lot to do with my cultural heritage, bill, you know Asian Americans tend to be real believers in meritocracy, that if you just keep your head down, eventually someone's going to tap you on the shoulder and anoint you for the next big job. And what we find is that time and time again we're actually not really well served by that mentality that there has to be some fluency and comfort with self promotion. And I think for a lot of people that strikes in this really distaste full.

Speaker 3 4:55

And what the article is intended to do is really demystify what it means to make yourself and your work more visible. It's not necessarily being, you know, the squeaky wheel, but it is raising your hand. It is asking for the more visible opportunities to showcase your work. It is about partnering up with the movers and shakers and decision makers in your organization. That is about networking, because it's not enough to just do good work. It has to be seen and valued by others so that they recruit you for the next big opportunity.

Speaker 1 5:32

Thanks for tuning in to the HR chat podcast. If you're enjoying this episode, we'd really appreciate it if you could subscribe and leave a five star review on your podcast platform of choice. And now back to the conversation.

Speaker 2 5:49

I love it and that's why you are where you are today, because you are cess driven, and kudos to you. So follow up on that one In the post. One thing you mentioned is how to know what's top of mind for key stakeholders. To how to understand what's going on in your boss's head is the mother way of putting that. I guess yes. How can one then better, better listen, how can they better learn? You mentioned networking there. How can they better network, being in the right places at the right times, and position themselves to, to to be seen to be adding value to the work of those powerful decision makers in the organization? Tell us about that.

Speaker 3 6:26

Well, networking certainly has become so much more difficult now that we're so geographically dispersed and some organizations are 100% remote, right, you no longer have those serendipitous moments where you might just be, you know, in the lunch line or in the elevator or washing your hands in the loo, right? I mean none of those things now. So run up to you because you're just all working out of your home office. So the other ways to network is to attend meetings, to ask to be invited, to really lean in when they speak, especially if it's in a public forum, so for senior executives, and when they, if they have all staff meetings, really taking notes and hearing out for the messages about the things that they believe are strategically important to their work and to that of the organization.

Speaker 3 7:14

Here at HVP, all of our goals are published.

Speaker 3 7:16

They're available.

Speaker 3 7:17

So at any given time you can see what someone in any other department is working on.

Speaker 3 7:22

So it's a real easy way to peek under the hood and say what's important to the chief marketing officer right now, what is it that the sales head of that unit is trying to do, and what are the networks, what are the pieces of work, what are the opportunities that I can get involved in, even if it's purely developmental. I mean, I think sometimes we wait for people to serve them up in a platter when I think sometimes it is, hey, that seems really interesting, I'd like to get involved in some way. These are one or two ways that I can get involved, and perhaps some of it is just shadowing, but these are some real specific contributions I can make. But I think a lot of times we just miss the opportunity to really listen, because I think our executives are consistently messaging what it is they're trying to accomplish, or that is, they should be consistently messaging what it is really important for them to achieve and then finding ways to marry up their work with your own so that your work has a chance to be visible.

Speaker 4 8:18

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Speaker 2 8:45

I subscribe to the idea that, unfortunately, a big impression is made the very first time you meet someone. Impressions can change and you can develop your relationships over time. Absolutely, of course, but biologically we are programmed to make decisions about people when we first meet them and make that first impression. We hear about quite a lot, so how to make a good impression? You are someone who has climbed that ladder is very successful in the corporate world, of course. What makes for a great first impression?

Speaker 3 9:20

So a really interesting piece of advice bill that I recently read was don't speak quickly Because it can lead people with the impression that you are nervous and that you're uncomfortable with perhaps pitching or managing up. So being really intentionally, just to kind of speak slowly with intention and with purpose, is actually a really good bit of advice. I think we all have a tendency to speak quickly when we're nervous and that doesn't always inspire confidence. So just even taking a beat when someone says hi, what do you do? Taking a minute to say well, these are the three things that I do every day that really impact what it is the organization is trying to achieve. And just taking a beat before rushing headlong into the answer, so that conveys a thoughtfulness, it gives you a moment to collect your thoughts. You can be a little bit more articulate than if you were just sort of spouting things off as they spontaneously come to mind. So speaking clearly and slowly can be really helpful in making that first impression.

Speaker 2 10:27

Okay, thank you very much. You were the closing speaker at the People 2030 conference back on November 2nd and 3rd. I saw on your LinkedIn. The event focused on future-proofing the workforce. It offered attendees ways to learn how to better cultivate purpose, unleash workforce potential and boost productivity using tech, innovation and engagement. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Speaker 3 10:53

Yeah, so my piece was about the role of human resources in really promoting transparency in an organization. I think, in particular, the workforce that is entering the organization is accustomed to having so much information at the fingertips, right, and there's really very little delayed gratification. You want something? You can have it delivered to your house in an hour. You want information? It's Google at your fingertips, and now with AI, everything is even more accelerated. So the expectation of information at your organization is I should know everything that is going on right now, as I'm asking for it, and while I think some of that has helped to break open the black boxes of what used to be really sacred subjects in organizations, transparency to me means information when you need it, as you need it, and so it's not completely. Let's completely break open the code and share everything.

Speaker 3 11:53

There has to be a reason and a purpose, and there are four key areas in which organizations can really practice transparency to drive engagement and boost productivity. One of them is pay, and we're increasingly see transparency laws being passed across the US and indeed in the EU. In three years, there's going to be a very significant piece of legislation that will mandate transparency, your norms how does an organization make decisions? What's their tolerance for risk? What are your strategic priorities? What are the goals that you need to achieve? And then the last pillar is internal mobility. How do you have a career that looks good? What does that look like? And I think most organizations don't have a really good structure or vocabulary to help explain to employees why they haven't yet climbed the ladder. And I think, when managers and employees can have really open and candid conversations, that makes for great engagement, because it's predictable and it can be planned and there's good reason for when people fall short. So that was what my talk was about.

Speaker 2 12:57

Okay, Rock and Roll. Thank you very much. You've also led sessions in the past on how organizations can and should budget proof their DEI efforts. Ken, as we are wrapping up this interview, one more question just after this one. Can you leave our listeners with some tips around this?

Speaker 3 13:17

Yeah. So I mean the upshot of that bill is that whatever you do that is good for the organization is actually good for DEI. So your DEI programming quote unquote shouldn't really live as a separate work stream. You can be more focused, for example, on hiring people for nontraditional backgrounds or that are not in the majority. But if, for example, if we go back to the subject of internal mobility, if you are clear around what it looks like, what the behavioral expectations are, what the experiences are required for a particular role in order to move up, that will also promote opportunities for your diverse employee population.

Speaker 3 13:56

If you want to make sure that your job descriptions are biased, free from the kind of language that tends to appeal more to one population than another, that lifts all boats as well. So the premise is, if you again practice transparency, if you over communicate expectations, if you're clear about the norms in the organization, that is good for your diversity efforts and it is also good for the business. So they really converge very nicely. And I think where organizations fall short is they put DEI to one side and they say, well, let's just do these things, when actually, if they're solving the greater business problem, they will also solve the challenges that confront them as DEI Okay.

Connecting With Angela Chang-Simony on LinkedIn

Speaker 2 14:36

Thank you very much. Just finally for today. I know I can't believe the time's gone already, angela. We just have to get back on the show again in the future. But just finally for today. How can our listeners connect with you?

Speaker 3 14:50

Oh easy, I am the only Angela Chang-Simony on LinkedIn and if you reference that we've talked today here in the Bill Mannam's show I'd be happy to connect.

Speaker 2 15:00

Wonderful. Well, that just leaves me to say for today Angela, Thank you very much for being my guest.

Speaker 3 15:05

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 15:07

And listeners as always. Until next time, happy working.

Speaker 1 15:14

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