041: Don Robertson - Take More Risks on Talent
Don Robertson is the Chief HR Officer for Northwestern Mutual. Previously Don was the Chief People Officer of Apttus. Before Apttus Don was the CHRO for Sutherland Global Services. Before Sutherland he was SVP of HR for HP Enterprise Services. ES had $22 billion annual revenue and 110,000 employees. Don partnered to deliver people strategies that helped shape the organization.
Don was with HP for 14+ years. Prior to the ES role, Don was SVP for Technology and Operations, an organization with over 50,000 spanning IT, Real Estate, Sales Op's, Shared Services and Security. In this role Don oversaw more than 200 HR professionals.
Previously, Don was the VP of HR for APJ (living in Singapore). Don was tasked with building a best-in-class HR focused on developing the most talented and committed workforce in the region with over 120,000 employees. Don led a team of over 600 HR professionals. He was a member of the APJ Senior Team and led the APJ HR Council.
Don\u2019s experience at HP ranges from Sales Mgt, to HR Program Management to Sales Development and Marketing. As Sr. Director of HR Transformation, Don was responsible for the transformation strategy for the company\u2019s HR population. He was instrumental in defining and executing major HR policies that included people development and talent management initiatives. Prior to this, Don was Director of Sales Development for where he created and globally sponsored the Sales Excellence program to drive major sales transformation across the company.
He is also an experienced and successful entrepreneur, having launched several companies and IPO efforts. He has held senior positions in Sales, Finance and Operations with GE Capital, Deloitte, SRI and Clorox, prior to joining HP.
Don holds a BS in Business Administration (Marketing and Accounting) from California State University, Fresno. He is also a member of the Craig School of Business Board . Don is based in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and 2 boys.
On This Episode:
- Find out how Don\u2019s background in financials gave him a foundational understanding of business.
- Discover the ways HR can gain credibility within companies.
- Don explain\u2019s how to maintain connectivity with your team during the \u201cnew normal.\u201d
Key Takeaways:
- You won\u2019t be good at acquiring new talent if you don\u2019t know what the business is trying to accomplish.
- Don\u2019t just tell your team what to do, tell them why.
- Leaders must be authentic, be empathetic, be humble, and be cautiously optimistic.
Tweetable Quotes:
- \u201cThe more we have tangible experience to Draw from, the quicker our ability to ramp, the quicker our ability to react, the quicker we\u2019re able to use the more advanced part of our brain as opposed to the rudimentary part.\u201d
- \u201cThe more you can demonstrate to your people that you care about their career more than you\u2019re own, the more they\u2019re going to help you and believe in you.\u201d
Don Robertson:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-robertson-9b8104
Denis Gianoutsos: