Expert Best Practices from the Career Growth Track at HR Virtual Summit

HR Virtual Summit was two days filled with incredible insights and advice from speakers around the globe. In the Career Growth track, registrants were treated to guidance on personal development, tips for speaking more effectively, and recommendations for career growth.

Check out some of the learnings from the HRVS Career Growth sessions:

Effective leaders use verbal and non-verbal communication skills

In her session, Walk That Walk and Talk That Talk: What the Most Confident Leaders Say and Do, Bridgett McGowen, an award-winning international professional speaker, shared four critical pillars of communication that effective leaders know how to use. These pillars help leaders do as Bridgett’s session’s title—walk the walk and talk the talk.

• Pillar 1: Send a message without saying a word.
  Bridgett set this pillar up with a surprising fact: within seven seconds, people make judgements and decisions about you. “You don’t have to say a word. Your physical appearance (and not just clothing), nonverbal queues, and body language—all of it sends a message without you opening your mouth,” said Bridgett. “Use the power of the smile as part of how you show up.”
• Pillar 2: Use your ideal speaking voice and reduce filler words.
  When you do speak, said Bridgett, “How you sound sends a message to people,” and she explained the effect of tone. “When your pitch is too high, you can sound nervous. If your voice is too low, you might sound bored or disinterested.”

• Bridgett’s advice to find your ideal voice? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song. The tone of the first three notes of the song is the tone you should use when you want to use your ideal speaking voice.

To hear the other two pillars of effective communication and learn more from Bridgett about what confident leaders do, watch for updates from BambooHR about HR Virtual Summit. Bridgett’s session will be available to watch soon!

2023 is the year to work on your career goals.

Keri Ohlrich, CEO of the Abbracci Group, shared her insights in her session, Focusing on Your HR Brand: Top 10 Development Ideas for 2023. As an outcome-focused business executive with over 20 years in HR, Keri’s advice for attendees was clear and helpful.

Here are a few of her tips on career growth and development ideas for 2023:

• Get to know yourself and what motivates you professionally.
  Keri suggested starting your 2023 career goal journey with the basic practice of getting to know yourself. Take assessments, quizzes, and do some thoughtwork to truly find out what motivates you and what doesn’t motivate you.

• As Keri said, “Even if you’re good at Excel, it doesn’t mean that a job focused around that will motivate you.”
• Get feedback on your strengths and weaknesses.
  The next step in figuring out your development plan for 2023 is to gather feedback. Just as your business likely sends out an NPS^® survey, consider conducting a similar survey for yourself. Ask your peers and others in your network, “How likely would you be to recommend me to your colleagues?” This feedback can help inform your next steps and find areas for improvement. Plus, it can point out strengths that you might not recognize in yourself.
• Revise or create your brand.
  “Everyone has a brand, even if it isn’t clear to you,” said Keri in this step. Her advice is to get feedback on what your personal brand is, so you can see if it currently aligns with what you really want it to be. “Perhaps you’re too bold.” Keri supposed. “How can you take that down a bit?” On the other hand, if you think you’re participating well in meetings but people say you never offer your opinion, seek feedback to gain understanding of the issue and make a plan to fix it.

Hear the rest of Keri’s development ideas for 2023 when her session is available to watch. Keri’s session will be live soon!

Keep an eye out for more learnings from the other tracks at HR Virtual Summit. You’ll find best practices and so much more for each of the session tracks: Benefits and Compensation, Culture and Values, Wellbeing, Employee Experience, and HR Newcomers.