A Summer Update - with Erica D'Eramo

Exciting Plans at Two Piers!

Join us for this short and sweet episode to hear what we're up to over at Two Piers. 

As the heat of summer peaks and we look ahead to the cooler days of autumn, the Two Piers team, led by Erica D'Eramo, has been busy with a range of exciting activities and future plans. This update provides a glimpse into what we've been up to, the projects we're currently involved in, and what's on the horizon.

Transcript

Erica D'Eramo: 0:05

Hello, and welcome to the Two Piers podcast. I'm your host, Erica D'Eramo. Today's episode is a little different than our usual content. So normally we have some guest or expert join us to talk about their field of expertise and share a bit about the work they do and answer some of our questions deep off minutes. Today, we are going to just provide a little update on what's going on in the Two Piers realm and what we've been up to and what's ahead in the future. Thank you for joining for this episode. So we're in the heat of summer here, it's just the beginning of August. And I think everyone, at least here in Maine is starting to feel the exhaustion of all of the days in the sunshine and the visitors and all the fun activities. I know folks who have kids out from school or getting all the vacations in, and I'm gonna say it, I'm kind of looking forward to autumn coming around the corner. I mean, I know that's, that's something that is a little heretical to say. But it finally started to happen, where I'm looking forward to seeing some change of color on the trees. I'm not ready for Halloween yet. So I don't want to be seeing all the candy in the stores just yet. But I can feel that August is going to be a very busy month, lots of activities, lots of work coming down the pipeline, which we are super excited about. And I can start to feel that natural kind of readiness for the days to start to get a little bit shorter, which will be which is already happening. So we're already seeing the days here in Maine get get shorter quite quickly. So today's episode, I just wanted to, you know, kind of change the focus a little bit and talk more about what what we have been up to here at chip, here's what we are, what we're involved in right now. And what we are getting involved in kind of what's what's coming down the pipeline. So I kind of break our work down into three facets, not being leadership coaching, leadership, and executive coaching, really consulting on the organizational and professional development realm, and on culture, you know, organizational culture realm, and then workshops. So we do a lot of interactive workshops with industry organizations, with companies, we do open enrollment workshops, and we focus on topics that, you know, disproportionately affect anyone who is underrepresented in the workforce. And yet, you know, these workshops are applicable to all so an example being navigating difficult conversations, right? Clearly something that we can all use. So on that front, on the coaching front, really, we've been doing lots with leaders who have come up through technical routes, either through craft or trade routes, and then found themselves in leadership positions, or through you know, engineering or architecture or technology, and then, you know, have been really good at what they do, and then find themselves in leadership positions, managing teams, setting strategies and shifting, you know, their focus on or trying to shift their focus on the type of work that they do. So kind of moving from that individual contributor realm where they had to be really good at what they did, maybe the expert in their fields, and some of these folks are quite advanced in their careers and very senior. But it might be the first time that they're taking on, say, like a strategy role, or managing a large team at, say, a director level. And so that's when really there has to be a big shift from the doing to the leading from kind of getting into the mechanics of things to setting the vision, setting the strategy, and then helping to remove barriers move, you know, making sure that the resources are there for the team to to accomplish the scope, navigating the tension between what the management or leadership above them wants and what the team is able to deliver. That's a that's a common theme that comes up in a lot of executive and leadership coaching conversations. So I would say that that's been you know, that theme has been coming through pretty pretty clearly lately that I think folks who have really found a lot of value in leadership coaching, have been people who've been really you know, high, a high performance, high achievement folks who were really good at what they did in again, like a technical or craft room and now are have been, you know, advanced beyond that. and are are finding, you know, these new skills and ways to grow into the roles. So that's, you know, I'm looking forward to doing more work with folks who have maybe traded in their steel toed boots for, for some office attire, or some work from home attire, or who have traded in their coveralls and are used to working in the fields, perhaps and now are working more behind the desk, maybe going out to the field still as a leader, but are finding themselves, you know, navigating office politics in a way they maybe haven't had to do before. And again, shifting that focus from being someone who delivers and gets involved in the actual activity itself to someone who is taking that 30,000 foot view. And on the consulting front, I think we're also seeing some themes come through with our clients and our clients kind of, I get asked a lot, what industry do you specialize in? And that's a tough question to answer, especially because every every business consultant will tell you to niche down niche down, you have to find your your narrow niche. And I think that we've seen that we've been able to help companies from a broad spectrum of industries. And so we might be niching down in the future, but right now, kind of willing to help whoever is really, really understands the value in making sure that they are accessing the full suite of talent that's out there that they are removing barriers to opportunity, and that they truly see the value in doing some of this work. And so, you know, what kind of consulting do we do? What does that look like? There's kind of a range in what we do. But usually, we go in and help. First of all, we set a vision and a goal that's aligned with what the company wants to do. So you know, to peers doesn't come in and say, you need 10x growth, or you need XYZ changes in your talent acquisition, we come in and ask what how do you want this company to look different, at the end of this work at the end of this effort than it does today. And then we map the path to get there, we make sure it's resourced. We do a gap analysis to see where we're at versus where we want to be. And then we help set the strategy. And then we implement strategy. So one of the realms that I find us working in quite a bit right now with clients is around employee engagement. So making sure that, you know, companies are setting the right tone with the with the workforce, for in terms of culture that that the leaders are displaying those behaviors that they've learned how to develop healthy, thriving cultures within the organization. And then also that they're, they're fully accessing the talent pipeline. So when they talk about employee engagement, that means like from the point that somebody encounters that entity, as a potential employer all the way through to their exit from the company or their retirement, you know, hopefully they're staying with the company until retirement. But that engagement and building of trust can really allow companies to, to make great strides in terms of the mission. So I think we're seeing companies start to understand that just focusing on the terms like diversity, equity and inclusion, it's probably not going to give them the true results that they want. Unfortunately, I think, and I've been very vocal about this. We saw a lot of talk around diversity, equity and inclusion, particularly after the murder of George Floyd and 2020, we saw a lot of commitments from organizations that felt rightly felt some pressure to address some of the gaps in their lagging indicators to address some of the inequalities and lack of representation in their organizations, which is both a ethical and kind of moral issue, but also just chose a huge vulnerability from a business perspective. And organizations, you know, whether well intentioned or not, we're working to close those gaps quickly in a way that was perhaps not sustainable. And it led to a lot of talk without, without necessarily the underpinning action investment and the the organic growth that needs to happen over time that's rooted in culture for the organization that's rooted in the systems and processes and how those are embedded and how people understand them within the companies and and what the trust looks like. So I on the one hand, I don't want people to ever be scared of the terms diversity, equity and inclusion or for that to be used as like, you know, this terminology around dei hires as if it's some sort of insult. Fundamentally, if you don't have a representative workforce, that means that there's a bottleneck somewhere in your system. So your demographics should not determine the amount of success that you will have in a company. And I think now we're starting to see companies that understand that this is really more about building the right culture, looking at leading indicators, looking at the trust within the organization, looking at the values of the organization, and then understanding that it will take time to embed these processes and see a return and getting clear about what the short term wins will be in the long term wins. So I'm hopeful in that realm. And we have some really great clients that are investing, they're investing sure the money and the resources there, but the most important part is investing the time. So investing the time with leadership, investing the time to do interviews, with key stakeholders, interviews across the seniority spectrum, and then learn from what the organization is telling them. And on the workshop front, we have some exciting workshops that we've recently done and that are coming up. So we do quarterly workshops with one of our longest term clients in Texas, which is a large industrial construction company, commercial construction company called Gutier, and we deliver Spanish language leadership workshops for their craft employees. So that's been very popular, well received. And Dr. Anthony Luevanos, knows who is one of our coaches with Two Piers. He delivers those workshops fully in Spanish. He also does leadership coaching and executive coaching in Spanish as well. So we're really grateful to have him on the team to help make some of our workshops more accessible to a broader audience. And we also do a quarterly workshop with the Gutier Women's Network, which is always great, always fun to speak with those ladies. And recently did an all hands workshop to focus on safety culture for Construction Safety Week. So that was in 2Q. And those will continue. We love that collaboration. And then we've also got coming up right down the pipeline with the Women Offshore Foundation, the Inclusion Summit in September. So we'll be collaborating with another another facilitator and consultant Tanya Tarr of Cultivated Insights. She and I will be facilitating a workshop on inclusive leadership that will also cover topics around positive psychology tactics that will boost objectivity and cooperation and aspects of adaptive leadership that, you know, help promote those inclusive work environments and inclusive leadership styles. Also talking about why managers should spark conversations about innovation and well being in a way to create, you know, a psychologically safe workplace. So really excited about about that upcoming workshop. And we'll also be highlighting some offerings that we are collaborating on in terms of wellbeing for operational readiness. So for some of these teams that rotate are on a rotational basis, whether working offshore on any type of deployment that could look that can be in the mining industry, it could be in the forestry industry, there are quite a lot of industries where people will leave kind of live on site and work for a rotational period, and then they have their days off afterwards. And so that really changes how people manage their health, their well being and how you handle those transitions of kind of showing up to work and then demobilizing can impact how you're able to respond to emergency situations when they arise, and how you're able to manage your own well being when you return to shore. So I'm super excited about that offering, I think it's going to make a big impact for a lot of people. And just talking to leaders who have either worked in a rotational type of environment or who have led teams that work in those types of environments. They seem really excited about it, too. So I know, we're definitely on the right track there. And I think we can really impact people's safety and just their overall health and well being if we can give some tools for, for what to look out for, how to know when you know, when we're approaching burnout, how to know when members of our team are maybe maybe in the red zone and we talked about you know, there's not really there's not a role that is similar to a chaplain in many of these instances. So in the military, there's usually or you know, on on a lot of shipping vessels, there is some form of a chaplain who is kind of of watching out for the emotional, spiritual well being of the crew. And in the case of offshore workers, there isn't really an equivalent. So that falls to the first level leader that falls to the people who are out there day to day watching out for the health and safety of the team. And so obviously, we don't want anybody to kind of try to be a therapist out there. But we do want people to be equipped with the skills to recognize when support is needed, when to call in for EAP support when to you know, maybe check in with our team and see if everything's Okay. Or if there there are issues that are bubbling under the surface. So yeah, I'm really excited about that offering. And we're getting really good feedback so far from the folks in industry that we've been talking to you about that. And if that sounds interesting to you at all, please let us know, because we'll be rolling that out, you know, coming up in 3Q and 4Q. And then on kind of the communication front here at Two Piers, we're going to continue with the podcast episodes, we've had some amazing guests, so far this year for season five, and we have quite a few exciting guests in the lineup for the rest of the year. We've sort of filled up the calendar for podcast guests, which I love this is, you know, we've gone on gone several years now just straight without taking a break in between seasons. So I think we'll probably, you know, forge right into 2025 with continued episodes. But that being said, if there's a topic that you feel like you really want to know about that you want to you want to find an expert, and you think it would fit with the Two Piers podcast, please let me know. Because I would love to go out and find that expert and have them on the podcast and share that content. And then we'll also be reviving our newsletters. So I'm not sure when that's going to happen. And it will look quite different than it has in the past. I think in the past, we've had a lot of content in there was a really big lift to get that newsletter out, and probably just overwhelming in terms of how much information was in there. So we'll be slimming it down and making sure that it's just applicable to you know, just bite sized pieces of information, which is always the goal. But man, I'm neurodivergent. And I get really interested in a lot of things. And I want to tell people all about it. So it takes on a life of its own, but we will be will be revamping the newsletter and in reinstituting that because I've been having people sign up for the newsletter and show interest in it and ask about it. And we have clients reach out and say somebody forwarded this to me so. So I'm reaching out. And I do really want to get that going, again, just so many things, so many things, we want to do so many exciting things. So that's just a little bit about what we've been up to here at Two Piers and what we've got in the pipeline. And I really appreciate you turn tuning into the podcast and staying with us and, and listening to these episodes. Please, if you have any thoughts on an episode, let us know. I mean, we I see the numbers come through about which episodes get downloaded the most and which ones get shared the most. But I'm always so curious about you know what, what people are thinking and, and if something resonated or maybe didn't, you know, if something just really didn't land? Well, I'd love to hear that too, and maybe bring a new perspective. So with that, I look forward to catching you next episode we have, like I said, we have some great guests in the pipeline, we'll be talking about things like cultural competency and awareness. Cultural humility, actually is kind of is the terminology we use. And we will be talking about financial freedom. So how to establish that how to understand some of your beliefs around finances and money, because that keeps so many people in jobs that they're either unhappy in or in work environments that are really deteriorating their well being. So we'll have an expert on to talk about, you know, financial freedom and financial mindset. And a couple other great guests that I'm looking forward to having conversations with as we go. And yeah, we'll catch you next episode. Thanks for joining