This episode with Leah Pierre delves into her role with the Houston Texans, and how her career progressed to get her there. Hosts Aly Sharp and Demetrius Norman get the full scoop on Leah’s decision to pursue higher education and some of her favorite parts of her job.
This episode with Leah Pierre delves into her role with the Houston Texans, and how her career progressed to get her there. Hosts Aly Sharp and Demetrius Norman get the full scoop on Leah’s decision to pursue higher education and some of her favorite parts of her job.
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Aly Sharp:
Welcome back to season seven of Career Compass, a podcast from SHRM and the SHRM Foundation. Career Compass prepares the future leaders today for better workplaces tomorrow.
Demetrius Norman:
Thank you for joining us for this episode. My name is Demetrius Norman.
Aly Sharp:
And my name is Aly Sharp. I will be your co-host. During this episode, we'll be talking to Leah Pierre, the HR manager of the Houston Texans. With over 10 years in human resources, Leah has held increasingly responsible human resource positions in various industries, including oil and gas, healthcare, manufacturing, and sports and entertainment. She's been a member of HR Houston SHRM for over the past 10 years, and served as a 2021 and 2022 committee chair for the HR Houston's University Liaison Committee.
Demetrius Norman:
Listen, we are extremely excited about today's conversation, and with that I am happy to introduce and warmly welcome Leah Pierre.
Leah Pierre:
So thank you, Aly. Thank you, Demetrius. It's so nice to meet you guys and I'm so excited to have this conversation today.
Aly Sharp:
And with that, let's get started. So Leah, can you provide us with a brief rundown on when you knew you wanted to be in HR?
Leah Pierre:
Actually, that's a pretty interesting story. So growing up, all the way from elementary school to high school, I was actually trained as a fine artist. So that's where my talent, that's where my natural gifts were. So I always thought that I was going to be in an arts career. I actually got my undergraduate degree in interior architecture, so I thought I was going to be designing offices and hospitals and buildings. And I graduated in 2008, and that is when the real estate market crashed.
So I was in a quick scramble, like a lot of people, to figure out what I was going to do. Student loans were coming due and I needed to figure something out. So Sally Mae doesn't wait for her money. So I started doing some temp work, and about my third or fourth temp assignment was in an HR position. And so they thought this project was going to last a month, and then after a couple of months I had someone working with me, and after six months I had a team hired under me, and in a year I had made myself, hopefully irreplaceable, because they decided to hire me permanently.
And even though the real estate market did come back, once I had a taste of HR, I never looked back. So I really decided to commit myself to HR. I joined a local SHRM chapter, started educating myself on HR, and really kind of falling into my love for this profession and kind of locking in my commitment there, and the rest is all history.
Aly Sharp:
So because of that career change, or I guess shift, is that what motivated you to get an advanced degree?
Leah Pierre:
So yes, that is exactly one of the reasons I decided to get an advanced degree. When I would speak to people, or kind of interview for positions and things, it was like, "Well, what's up with this architecture degree?" And I really wanted to solidify... It's only recently that I just completely pushed that off my resume, but I really wanted to solidify my commitment to my new profession, kind of gain more knowledge that I didn't have in undergrad.
Honestly, growing up, and I don't know if it's because I was so hyper-focused on being an artist that I don't really remember HR being pitched as a career option. And in the past it wasn't something you could necessarily get a degree in back then, lots of people kind of like me found their way there through the course of their career and the different tasks or duties they were exposed to. But it wasn't a career path, and I really wanted to solidify my commitment and my knowledge in that area.
So when I actually was laid off, being in oil and gas, that's a pretty common thing. When I was laid off, it was just kind of perfect timing. I was already thinking and planning on going back to get my master's degree, and it just was perfect timing. I got in and I was like, I think this is a time for me to really focus and get through it really quickly. So I did go to get my MBA full-time, which being later in my career, I really thought the MBA was a good fit for what I want to do in HR. It gave me a good business background to be able to apply in my day-to-day task as an HR professional.
Aly Sharp:
Definitely. I mean, everyone needs a business background, I think, if you're working in business. And that was one of the main points of my undergrad. They were like, "You're going to touch everything. I know you want to be in marketing, but you're going to have to take an accounting and a finance class just so we know you're going to be okay out there."
Leah Pierre:
Well, I don't think they got that note in art school. So drafting classes, furniture design.
Demetrius Norman:
So Leah, interestingly enough, in undergrad I did vocal performance and piano. And my previous job, I actually worked for the organization who designed and created the architect registration exam. So six degrees of separation, right?
Aly Sharp:
I have no idea what that is, but Leah lit up.
Demitrius Norman:
I know. Yes, she did. Yeah. So listen, we can talk offline about that. And I can see how you've been prepared to make the transition, but when I did a little research on your work history, I see that there's just been this steady progression upward. So can you talk about how your job duties and interests changed from that coordinator role to the generalist role, to now the manager role? What did that look like, and how did you build upon your skillset to get to each level?
Leah Pierre:
Okay. It's pretty far down on my resume, but actually when I really started in HR, I was a file clerk. I don't think they call it that anymore. I started as a file clerk, and then I moved on to being a coordinator. So over my career, really the transition that I've kind of made has really been focused on the transition from being administrative to being strategic. So with each one of those positions, my job duties really went from being very focused on getting a certain task done in a certain amount of time, being very focused on a specific group, a very targeted group, this site, this business unit that I'm supporting and delivering on certain outcomes. I want to be able to get our teammates through onboarding very quickly, make sure we have all this paperwork. It's very focused on the current, right now, individual kind of task.
Whereas, as my duties have advanced, become a generalist, become a manager, my focus now is more on being strategic. It's future facing. How can we be more proactive than reactive? In my administrative roles, I was very reactive. A manager wants to hire someone, okay, I'm going to take the steps and make that happen. Whereas now we're trying to do process improvement and look at, how can I make this process better in the future? How can I make the experience better for my teammates? How can I coach my managers to be proactive to intervene in a situation or a performance issue with a teammate before it happens and not reacting after it happens?
Demetrius Norman:
I love that, and I love the fact that you focused on the strategic transition. And I have a follow-up question to that. So how would you describe the process for moving to handling day-to-day task and being reactionary, to now having to be strategic and shifting? How was that gear shift for you? And what would you recommend for some folks who are thinking about moving from doing day-to-day stuff, to now being the total decision maker for an HR team?
Leah Pierre:
So I think a lot of it is about exposure. I've always spoken up to my managers, to my leaders, to let them know my aspirations, to let them know I want to do more. I want to learn more. I think I am a lifelong learner. I love to learn about topics inside and outside of HR, whether the information is applicable to me right now or not. So in having that aspiration, in expressing that to my managers, to a mentor, to my peers, I've always been open to being exposed to things that are even outside of what my current duties are.
So just being in the room, listening to those conversations, that kind of gets your mind thinking about, what can I improve in my current process? What can I do to make things better, and kind of not think about what I'm doing right now, but how it can be better? So it's kind of hard to do that when you are bogged down in your day-to-day task. It is those opportunities to be a part of projects, or be in the room and listen to things that are going on that are further up your reporting chain from you, or in other parts of the organization. That kind of gets your gears turning and thinking about how you can be more strategic. Because in general, being more strategic allows you to be a bigger impact, a longer lasting impact on your organization.
Aly Sharp:
And now I have a follow-up, and this kind of leads into the next question I have. The question is, what do you believe are important skill sets or characteristics of people who want to be successful in HR? But what my follow-up was going to be is, if you think that that strategic mindset, or at least that shift to being strategic is a learned skill, or do you think that people are just innately strategic?
Leah Pierre:
I think it's both. I think some people have it and some people can be taught it, if they don't have it. I would say that I've had various managers. I think as a person, personally, my teammates might think otherwise, who knows? Maybe that's something I'll ask them later. But I think as a person, I am a strategic thinker. That may come from my arts background. You don't start a blueprint and just start going at it. You plan, you have a plan going. You think all the way from beginning to end, and you plan from the end backwards so that you can get there.
So I think I've always been a very strategic thinker, but I've had managers who've encouraged that in me. They will say, "Okay, you want to do this, but what's the next step and what's the next step?" And then after you're done, we're going to have, what we here at the Texans calling AAR or an after action review that's like, what went well, what didn't go well? What do we want to repeat? What can we do better for the next time? So that even if you're never going to put this event on again, if you're never going to do this process again, you still are thinking about those things in the event that it does happen. Or thinking about ways you can make the process better now.
So having leaders who ask those kinds of questions like, "Well, what would you do differently? How would you change this? How could this be better for you?" And thinking in a year, what do you want to see this process look like? In a year, what do you want your relationship with your managers to be like? And thinking about the end goal and working backwards from that.
So I think it's kind of a little bit of both, which funny enough to your question, what do I believe are important skill sets and characteristics for people to be successful in HR? Critical thinking is one of those. Being able to ask questions and having the courage to challenge what we've always done, what has always been is one of those things you have to have in HR. You have to be willing to fearlessly evolve and ask the questions, to fail, to be wrong, to be able to move yourself and your organization forward.
Aly Sharp:
I love that. Demetrius, do you have any follow ups? I feel like you'd be sitting on one?
Demetrius Norman:
No, I love the call out for critical thinking, and I think that and strategy go hand in hand. And it's important really to make sure that those skill sets are developed in what Johnny calls, into those power skills, so that you can be more impactful in your organization. I am curious about your experience with the Houston Texans, and what are some projects or initiatives that you've been a part of during your tenure there?
Leah Pierre:
So being part of a professional sports organization, it's a wild ride, it is a completely different organization than any one I've ever been a part of. The vast majority of my career has been in oil and gas. So it was a really big mind shift coming here to this organization with such a big presence and such a big energy. So one of the projects I've been able to be, or initiatives I've been able to be a part of here is revamping our new hire orientation.
So I'm a firm believer that there is no other time your teammate is ever more engaged, more excited to be with your organization than on your first day. And you really have to set the tone with your expectations, with giving them the knowledge, giving them a warm welcome than you do on a first day. And how can you have an orientation as a sports organization that is not exciting?
Aly Sharp:
Right.
Leah Pierre:
So we had hints of that in our orientation before, but we really wanted to ramp it up. Being in HR, a lot of times I feel like we try to be very independent. We don't want to bother the business with ask or questions or needs, but it was given to me that, hey, we have professional-level production here in this organization. Use them. You don't need to try to hodgepodge together videos or PowerPoint presentations. We have people here who are gifted beyond your imagination to be able to help you pull this together.
So really working with our communications team, our graphics team, our digital video team, pulling all of everybody's talents in to be able to showcase in our orientation what this organization is capable of. Not just for the football results, but just as an entertainment organization. So that was really exciting. We also launched our new charge, which in the organization when I first got here, they were kind of in the starting phases of that. I am a part of, as the HR department doing change management or implementation of our charge. So we had a very big shift at the organization, and our values, our vision, our mission had been the same since the organization had started, which, we're a very young organization. We are the very youngest NFL team in the league.
Demitrius Norman:
Wow.
Leah Pierre:
So having brand new leadership, they came together and really spoke to the teammates here, "What is the culture? What do you want the culture to be? How do you define our culture as a teammate, not just from our leadership?" And we had this buy-in from everyone in a kind of consensus, and being able to set those things. So once it was all finalized, we really rolled out our vision or our ecosystem, which kind of rolls from our vision to our purpose, values, characteristics, and then our habits, what we expect our teammates to be doing on a day-to-day basis. How do we expect them to be acting?
Because even though it's amazing and it's great for our teammates to come in and do their job and be good at their job, they still need to be good teammates. No one wants to work with, who makes coming into work and achieving those goals difficult. So as the HR department, we've been helping the organization kind of integrate these new habits, our new vision, our new purpose into the organization. When we have those performance conversations, kind of putting those into the habits. "How does this play into you being a team player? How does this play into showing your passion for your work?" Whether positively or negatively, putting those things into all of our conversations we have with teammates so that this new culture we're trying to define completely saturates itself into this organization. So that's been a really amazing opportunity as well.
Demetrius Norman:
I love that. And there's a point in your response that I wanted to expand, or see if you could expand upon, and that is the different industry. So you mentioned the oil and gas industry. You were working in HR there, and now sports and entertainment. And I wanted to call that out because a lot of times emerging professionals don't understand the depth and breadth of HR as it spreads across multiple industries. Can you talk about, organically, how you moved from one industry to the other? Was that intentional or was that by design? How did that happen for you?
Leah Pierre:
So for me, just because that temporary assignment was in oil and gas, and we're in Houston, it's the oil and gas town. So a lot of the organizations, a lot of the connections you make at your current position allow you to, give you those opportunities. In other positions, it's usually very easy to move from one organization to another in the same industry because you already have an understanding of what that business does, what their positions do, how their business is.
In oil and gas, it's cyclical. So every two or three years, there's a swing up and a swing down. So understanding those things, it makes it easier and it makes people gravitate to your resume and your experience when they see you already have that. So making a transition into another industry, sometimes it's difficult. Even though HR is a support function in most organizations, mine it is transferable from industry to industry, organization to organization. Sometimes it's hard to make that transition just because you have so much knowledge in that industry that someone else sees is valuable. So those are the people who are really going after you.
It's like, "I don't have to teach her about the positions on an oil rig. She already knows that, she can come in and hit the ground running." So making a transition actually was very... I was very mindful of that. It was a goal of mine just because of the cyclical nature of oil and gas, I wanted to move to another industry that was a little bit more stable, get a little bit different opportunity. And honestly, my transition really came from networking.
So my professional network. HR is a very interpersonal career. It's very relationship based. So a lot of the positions I've gotten, and especially the one where I made this transition in between industries was from a connection who knew I was looking, who had professionally worked with me in the past, who I had made relationship or built a relationship through my local, HR Houston, which is our local SHRM chapter.
Making those connections is really what kind of allowed me to move industries. Now leaning on that connection had worked with me previously, and you never know where you're ever going to cross someone again in the future. So always making sure you're putting your best foot forward, that you're always trying to learn, trying to grow, trying to build those relationships. Because you never know where you're going to run into somebody again in the future. Whether they make a referral for you, or point a position in your direction, or they're in the position to hire in the future. I think a lot of HR professionals, especially young HR professionals, don't understand how important it is to have a strong network in HR.
Demetrius Norman:
There's that word again.
Aly Sharp:
Yep. I'm like, every time you say it, I'm like, yes, yes, keep talking about it.
Leah Pierre:
And it starts in school. Even for those students-
Aly Sharp:
Absolutely.
Leah Pierre:
That starts in school, I have HR connections from my MBA program. I have, even professional connections who are not in HR, but they're like, "Hey, I have a position at my job. Would you ever be interested in coming here? I told them all about you." So you want to always, just the same way I say I'm always interested in gaining knowledge, even if it's not applicable to me now, I'm always interested in making connections, in adding to my network, even if there's no "advantage or need for it right now."
Aly Sharp:
You never know.
Leah Pierre:
It's always good to connect with people. Yes, you absolutely never know who they know or where they'll be or who's speaking about you in a room you're not in.
Demetrius Norman:
Wow. It is crazy. This is the fourth episode, and that networking component comes up each and every time. So yeah, all good stuff. Thank you so much.
Aly Sharp:
And to be clear, that part is not scripted. We only pre-write the questions. We're not telling people to say networking.
Demetrius Norman:
No, it is all good. It's all good. And I'll be honest, hearing your passion about the development of the onboarding, and impacting the culture with the Houston Texans gets me excited about the industry because of your excitement. So I can only imagine the impact that you have on your new hires and them seeing how you light up just talking about how you plan to... That culture not only extends to those in the office, but to the team as well. So it was just good to hear you talk about that, and I'm sure folks are happy when they go through the process. So all good stuff. All good stuff.
Aly Sharp:
I'm going to pause just for a second so we can give out that PDC information. So for those of you listening who are seeking professional development credit, this program is valid for 0.5 PDCs for the SHRM CP or SHRM SCP. The code to redeem your PDCs is 24-6UKF2. Please note that this code will expire on October 31st, 2024. Again, that code is 24-6UKF2.
Demetrius Norman:
All right folks, so we are getting close to wrapping up this, but I have a few more questions for Leah. So Leah, what advice would you give to those students who might be in the middle of an HR program, or in the middle of a career switch? Are there specific skills that they should be paying attention to, or projects that they should be mindful of working on to help develop their skillset while they're either working, or in a degree program?
Leah Pierre:
So I think, whether you're a student or whether you're an HR professional, it's always important in order to advance your career, your knowledge to be open, and be open to opportunities. Some of the internships I took while I was in my MBA program were not paid. I know that's not something that everybody has an opportunity to be able to take advantage of, but if you are in that position, I encourage you to take that opportunity. If someone allows you to shadow them for a day, take that opportunity. If you're in your job and they ask for someone to volunteer to help with something, raise your hand.
The more that you experience, the more knowledge you gain, the more opportunities you have to make connections. And people always want to help those who are open and willing to jump in and get their hands dirty. A lot of times... Sometimes, as a student, I had to have my own life relevant realization that I was like, oh, well, I just finished my MBA, I don't want to do that. I don't want to go back to filing paperwork.
Aly Sharp:
Yep. Yep. Yep.
Leah Pierre:
I don't want to do the administrative things anymore. But showing that you're willing, especially now that I'm a manager, showing my teammates that I'm willing to get my hands done, that I'm not just always delegating, but I'm always open to jumping in and helping where needed. Showing my manager that I'm always willing to, "Okay, I've never done that before, but I'll definitely give it a try. I don't have a problem. I can figure it out."
Aly Sharp:
It's like my favorite thing to say.
Leah Pierre:
I can figure it out. I might not know, but I'm sure I can call someone who knows, I can do some research and I can give it my very best try. And as people say, fail forward. So always being open and never closing off yourself to an opportunity because you never know where that could lead you, whether that's a promotion or a job or just a new skillset that you can add to your resume. The other thing I would say is that students should really focus on their brand. What do you want to be known for? What is really important to you?
Demetrius Norman:
That is so good.
Leah Pierre:
I think I've staked my career and really honed in on the skill sets and characteristics that I want to be known for. And those things for me is, again, critical thinking, integrity. Integrity is one of those things that gets tested in HR. Someone's managers, rightly wrongly, teammates, they're always trying to push the boundaries. As people in general, we're always trying to push the boundaries. If I could do this this time, can I do a little more next time? Can I cut it a little closer?
So being really strong in your integrity in HR is an absolutely non-negotiable for me, critical characteristic I want to be known for now. Having empathy, you're dealing with people, we don't deal with just data every day. There's stories. The decisions that we make and the processes we put in place, the policies, the benefits, they impact people and there's emotions to people.
So being able to connect to your teammates, to the people you support is critical. People don't want to come to HR, they don't believe in HR, they don't support HR. They don't feel like you can connect with them and you have their best interests at heart. There's plenty of times that there's things that I've done that I've had to lean on those relationships that I've built when something hard comes up. And you can't call on that if you haven't built it before it comes.
And a lot of building relationships to me is about showing empathy. Even if I cannot give you what you want, even though I can't make you feel any better, people knowing that you empathize with them, that you understand where they're coming from and that you still, even if you make a hard decision, are looking out for their best interest, for the organization's best interest, that goes a really long way.
Demetrius Norman:
Wow. I love that.
Aly Sharp:
I think that was a really good question to end on. That was like wrapping it up in a little bow.
Demetrius Norman:
Yeah, it was.
Leah Pierre:
Yes. You have to focus on, what do you want to be known for?
Demetrius Norman:
Branding. The call out to branding is so key and it's so crucial, and I want to say it was implied in a couple of the other episodes, but to hear you say it and with the intentionality behind it, I think is important. That folks have to decide what they want to be known for and focus on that, which is so powerful. So thank you for bringing that to light.
Aly Sharp:
Yeah, and I think a lot of times, at least with the younger generation, they're like, "I want to make so much money and blah, blah, blah." They think of it from an accomplishment standpoint and not necessarily from that character standpoint where they're like, do I make people feel good when I go to work? Do the people I work with know that they can count on me to get things done?
That is honestly one of the things that really matters to me. I want my boss to know she can take time off and not be worried that I'm going to light the place on fire or everything's going to fall apart. And I'm very early in my career and I learned that very quickly. Coming to SHRM, it's like, I want people to know they can count on me no matter what my role is, no matter what my level is.
And it doesn't have to be about work either. I am really big into making those personal relationships, like you said, it doesn't always have to be about work. And I think when it is always about work, people become really disconnected from their workplace. Sorry, that was kind of a tangent, but this is obviously very important to me.
Leah Pierre:
No, no. That's also a very good characteristic, to know that you can be depended on. That you can be trusted for your boss to be able to give you the autonomy, to be able to work without being micromanaged. That they can trust that you can go off and work and be independent, and have the humility to raise your hand when you need help, when you don't know, when you get in a spot where you do need someone to step in or to ask questions. So that's a huge important thing, not just in HR, but things we look for in our teammates in every organization I've ever been in. Can we depend on you?
Aly Sharp:
Yeah. Well, thank you Leah so much. This was a fantastic conversation, and I really think it's going to help some students and emerging professionals out.
Leah Pierre:
Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been an amazing time with you guys, and I can't wait to see what our future HR professionals do in this world. It's going to be an amazing impact.
Demetrius Norman:
I agree. And with that, we're going to bring this episode of Career Compass to a close. So we just want to say thank you all for joining us, and we hope that you stay with us throughout the rest of the season as we continue to discuss more topics like this episode.
Aly Sharp:
And for more exclusive content, resources, and tools the help you succeed in your career, consider joining SHRM as a student member. You can visit us at shrm.org/students to learn more.
Demetrius Norman:
Lastly, are you looking for more work and career related podcasts? If so, check out All Things Work and Honest HR at shrm.org/podcast. Once again, thank you again for listening to us, and we'll catch you on the next episode of Career Compass.