Building High-Performing Teams and Inclusive HR Communities

The guest this time is Erich Kurschat, the owner of Harmony Insights LLC, a company that helps companies and consultants build high-performing teams and revenue streams around the Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors® assessments.

He is also the founder of HRHotSeat, an inclusive mastermind community of real HR pros solving real HR problems.

Erich draws from a broad range of experiences as a corporate HR professional, a public speaker, a classical musician, and a proud introvert to inspire others toward meaningful work and productive workplace relationships.

Discover how to transform workplace communication - Eric reveals his innovative methods for building high-performing teams through the use of DISC personality assessments and the Five Behaviors model. Dive into the world of effective communication as Eric discusses the importance of bridging diverse personality and communication styles to overcome misunderstandings. Explore how the inclusive Disrupt HR community is making waves by championing diverse voices and thought-provoking presentations, and why inclusivity holds the key to thriving HR networks.

Bill and Erich also discuss their experiences at the recent DisruptHR party for Jennifer McClure in Chicago. 

Chapters

• 0:03 Communication and Team Building in HR
• 9:35 Building HR Community Through Meaningful Connections

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 and visit.

Speaker 2: 0:22

HRGazettecom. Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello listeners, this is your host today, bill Badham, and joining me on this episode is Eric Kerstadt, the owner of Harmony Insights LLC, a company that helps companies and consultants build high-performing teams and revenue streams around the everything disc and the five behaviors assessments. Eric is also the founder of hr hot seats, an inclusive mastermind community of real hr pros solving real hr problems. Eric draws from a broad range of experiences. I've just learned that he's also a backup singer. What, as a corporate HR professional, a public speaker, a classical musician and a proud introvert, to inspire others towards meaningful work and productive workplace relationships. I just want to add, before we do the welcome here, that I got a chance to meet Eric in Chicago a couple of months ago now, as we record this, at Jennifer McClure's birthday bash slash disrupt event and what a lovely chap. So, eric, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the show today.

Speaker 3: 1:35

Bill, I appreciate the invitation to join you. I'm looking forward to our conversation so beyond my reintroduction there.

Speaker 2: 1:42

Eric, why don't you start by taking a minute or two and filling in any gaps? Why don't you introduce yourself?

Speaker 3: 2:07

way to learn HR, as I see it, with some really well-respected leaders in the industry and got to the point that I just wanted to build a business around the DISC personality assessment. So that's what I've been doing since about 2015. Really focused almost entirely on DISC, but more recently with the five behaviors, and have kind of built up an HR community in the meantime HR hot seat, which we may talk about. But any opportunity to have conversations like this be inspired by other people who are doing some pretty inspiring work themselves is always a treat.

Speaker 2: 2:33

Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazettecom. And now back to the show. Very good, thank you very much. So, as I mentioned a moment ago, we met at Gemma Clare's birthday bash, co-organized by the team from Disrupt HR Chicago. Regular listeners of the show will know that I'm a big proponent of the Disrupt HR community. I co-run a whole bunch of chapters in the UK, in the US as well, and then I do some other stuff in Toronto, canada. What is it like? What, sorry, what do you like about the Disrupt community, eric, and that particular unique format?

Speaker 3: 3:23

I think there are a couple of things that come to mind more readily. One is the challenge to the speaker of giving a five-minute presentation with auto advancing slides. I have spoken on all kinds of stages in front of all kinds of audiences, and I see disrupt sessions or presentations as a really rewarding challenge for anybody who accepts it, and so I always admire anybody who takes to that stage. Number two I think that in a world where HR organizations and associations are often exclusive in the sense that they are focused on primarily HR professionals as their members or as their speakers, et cetera, I love that Disrupt HR truly is inclusive. Anybody can show up, as long as they have something disruptive or thought-provoking at the very least to share the stages theirs, and I really like that model.

Speaker 2: 4:24

What gets in the way of us being able to communicate effectively with one another in the workplace? Eric.

Speaker 3: 4:31

I think, given the work that I do, a lot of it comes down to speaking different languages. Just as you can be in a room full of people who literally speak different languages, I think when you come into the workplace with diverse personality styles and communication styles, you have different languages being spoken. Now, for example, they could all be English technically, but you have some people that are really focused on details and some people are focused on the big picture or tasks versus people. Someone's talking in terms of black and white logic, and some people are talking in terms of feelings and emotions, in terms of black and white and logic, and some people are talking in terms of feelings and emotions, and trying to connect those dots can be really challenging. So it's maybe stepping out of our own shoes or out of our own perspective long enough to recognize that different people communicate in different ways and trying to figure out how to bridge those gaps, to connect those dots in a way that teams can be much more productive.

Speaker 2: 5:28

Now maybe you can talk to me about the model you use to help teams communicate meaningfully and productively with their stakeholders.

Speaker 3: 5:38

Absolutely, and I mentioned this a little bit earlier, and you did in your introduction as well.

Speaker 3: 5:42

I was a corporate HR generalist for a while while, and then I discovered the DISC personality assessment and I was a psychology major in college and so I just took the DISC very readily rather, and so everything.

Speaker 3: 5:57

Disc is the model that I've used for the work that I do and, in a nutshell, there are four different or primary personality styles D, I, s and C.

Speaker 3: 6:05

And you know, in a nutshell, there are four different or primary personality styles D, I, s and C and we don't have to get into the details of those necessarily, but they kind of outline this way of communication, this model for communication where people are bring different assessments oh sorry, bring different tendencies and preferences to the work that they do, and I feel like it's a really accessible model for people to engage more productively and meaningfully with one another, and it gives us a common language in the workplace to be able to have this really vitally important conversation about how we connect readily with one another and how we do our best work. I think it's a conversation that isn't often had and I think it could be very valuable as individuals learn what they're capable of, and teams learn to work together even more productively than perhaps they have in the past and embrace diversity, perhaps in different ways. I think that's an important piece of this puzzle as well.

Speaker 2: 7:03

Once a team, eric. Eric feels that they've improved their communication skills. Where do they go from there?

Speaker 3: 7:11

I think communication is the foundation for effective and productive teamwork. For me, that's when the five behaviors of a cohesive team model really kicks in. Everything DISC is more focused on individual contribution. Team model really kicks in. Everything DISC is more focused on individual contribution, communication certainly preferred work environments, et cetera. At some point a team is going to begin talking in terms of trust or navigating conflict or making commitments to one another and holding each other accountable to those commitments so that they can drive results. So for me, that five behaviors model really picks up very well where DISC leaves off, and sometimes they remain intertwined as you go forward. I don't think you can ever leave effective communication behind. I think it's something that you have to take with you both as an individual and as a team. But that five behaviors model really picks up well when it comes to beginning to build trust in some of those other things that I mentioned. I feel like those two models are very complimentary of one another.

Speaker 4: 8:18

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Speaker 2: 8:57

These are succinct answers. I feel like you've done this before. Very good. Okay, let's talk a bit about HR, hr hot seat, if that's okay. A very cool community. The last time you and I had a chit chat, you gave me the lowdown on a pretty cool community of hr folks. Uh, what distinguishes hr hot seat eric from, uh, quite a few other hr communities out there? We mentioned disrupt earlier on. There there are lots and lots of different communities as well. What's unique about hr hot seat?

Speaker 3: 9:24

well. Thanks for asking. I am so inspired by those other communities disrupt, of course we've talked about. There's HR unite and sherm and ATD and just so many communities for HR professionals.

Speaker 3: 9:35

I started HR hot seat eight years ago now as an introvert to create a space where people could connect meaningfully with one another.

Speaker 3: 9:48

I don't know if you've ever had this experience, but I was doing a lot of networking where I would return home with a pile of business cards and I didn't know what to do with them.

Speaker 3: 9:52

It felt very transactional and then kind of superficial in some ways, where I had collected business cards but I'd never really gotten to know anybody in particular and I really crave that meaningful we'll call it a deeper interaction. And so I created the HR Hot Seat community, not only for fellow introverts but for anybody who wanted to show up, have a productive conversation, tackle common challenges that they face with their peers, but do so in a way that you leave really having gotten to know your peers and feeling compelled to stay in touch. Our conversation is driven. It's a mastermind style conversation. It's driven by our members showing up with the real-time HR-related challenges that they face in their work and in their job searches. We tackle those challenges, but along the way, we're building rapport, building relationships, embracing everybody who shows up, including service providers and students and folks in job transition, in a truly inclusive way, and we're keeping it entirely free. That's something you don't see too often, something I'm proud of. We really have a good time and our members enjoy our free monthly events.

Speaker 5: 11:04

Once in a while, an event series is born that shakes things up, it makes you think differently and it leaves you inspired. That event is Disrupt HR. The format is 14 speakers, five minutes each and slides rotate every 15 seconds. If you're an HR professional, a CEO, a technologist or a community leader and you've got something to say about talent, culture or technology, disrupt is the place. It's coming soon to a city near you. Learn more at disrupthrco.

Speaker 2: 11:40

Okay, thank you very much, and what are some of the lessons that you've learned in owning your own business over the last few years?

Speaker 3: 11:50

I will tell you, Bill, I'm not sure. I wasn't sure when I left corporate America that I was wired to be self-employed and I'm still not sure that I'm wired to be self-employed. Sure that I'm wired to be self-employed, but there are certainly some things that I've learned, I think one is self-promotion a way to become comfortable promoting myself and my business in a way that doesn't feel certainly transactional but doesn't feel just uncomfortable. That's something that has taken some time, maybe in particular because I'm an introvert, but I've had to really learn to get to a place where self-promotion doesn't feel like I'm necessarily always stepping into the spotlight myself, but instead I'm shining the spotlight on products or services offerings that I'm really passionate about and I think would be valuable to other people.

Speaker 3: 12:46

Two, I would say the value of organic conversation, where you don't have to know you know if you're going to spend five minutes. I was always somebody. If you were to spend five minutes or $5 on something, I would need to know what that ROI was going to be, how, why is this worth my time or my investment of finances? I've really had to learn the value of organic conversations where you don't necessarily know where they're going to go, but you're having faith, that you're putting good into the world, that something will come of the conversation. Even if you never hear from the person again, that conversation you will have had will have impacted them in some way and informed or inspired them to go out and do their best work.

Speaker 3: 13:32

And some people are probably listening to this saying, yeah, that's kind of how relationships go and conversations go. That's something that I had to learn and now I will. In a heartbeat. I will jump at the opportunity to take conversations with other people that I've never met and where I don't know where it's going to go, where it's going to lead, simply, um, for something kind of like the universal law of reciprocity that says if you help enough other people, get what they want. You will get what you want, and I've learned that that can't always be quantified.

Speaker 2: 14:03

Just a real eye opener for me personally yeah, or another way of putting it is karma. I'm a big believer in karma be nice to people, be open to conversations and try and be a good person, without an agenda, um, and you know it's not altruistic, though, is it because, um, if it's karma, you know these things will come back eventually and reward you, but just try and live that way. Okay, just finally for today, eric. How can our listeners connect with you and learn more about all of the cool things that you get up to?

Speaker 3: 14:34

well, thanks for asking. I spend probably entirely too much time on linkedin, so that's where I would have people go first. Just find eric kershott. Eric is erich on linkedin and I would love to connect with people there. All of the work that I do around disc and the five behaviors, including some other things, is at HarmonyInsightscom and, of course, hrhotseatcom for anything related to the entirely free HR Hot Seat community. But if we start on LinkedIn, I can point you in other directions as well and would really really like to learn from your listeners and be inspired by the work that they're doing as well.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Excellent. Well, that just leaves me to say for today Eric, you superstar. Thank you very much for being my guest on this episode of the HR chat show.

Speaker 3: 15:23

Thank you, bill, I've enjoyed our time.

Speaker 2: 15:26

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

Speaker 1: 15:33

Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit HRGazettecom.