The HR Lady Award Winning Podcast: Accountability + Merger with HR Empowerment Podcast

Hey everybody, Wendy Sellers here, the HR lady. Welcome back to our podcast. I am beyond proud to share that Interesting Things with JC has received the 2025 gold, I'm probably pronouncing this wrong, Herms Creative Award for one of his episodes. JC, congratulations.

I appreciate it very much, Ms. Wendy. Sincerely appreciate that. So for those of you that have listened to us for over three years, you may not even have known that JC has his very own podcast.

And it truly is interesting. It is about everything. You know, I was going to say under the moon, but it even includes things outside of that, too. It is called Interesting Things with JC, and he has received this amazing award.

The recognition comes from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, and this episode specifically stood out among more than 6,000 entries from over 30 countries. So JC, tell us a little bit about the winning episode number 1235. Three Turns to Freedom. Yeah, absolutely.

I greatly appreciate that, Ms. Wendy. So there's been so much going on. We'll start with the Hermes, the Hermes Award.

So this episode kind of came out of nowhere. There was a suggestion that was sent forward to me from a dear friend of mine's kid. him and the family, they listened to the podcast out in California. And while listening to the podcast, the daughter, who was listening along, shared the information that, hey, I'm a barrel raiser.

It's a super interesting topic. Could you do a show on this? Absolutely. No problem, kid.

So I went ahead and put the information together. And then as award season has been kicking off, that one particular episode. You know, I've got a lot in the can that are for the entire series. But for that particular episode, it was only that episode that was submitted.

And it won the 2025 Hermes Creative Award gold winner in the shootout there. And couldn't be more honored. I'm not even going to lie. By the time this goes to broadcast, there's going to be some stuff in the mail by then.

But I ordered a... Paid a little extra, but I got a certificate made for the kid, and it's coming from the organization, and then I'm going to pack it up with a note and everything and send it so that the kid has that, just as a token of appreciation. And the episode, again, it was all about women's barrel racing in horse racing, you know, the formation of the Girls Rodeo Association, the GRA and the Women's Professional Rodeo Association, the WPRA that came later, and notable athletes and their long fight for equal pay recognition and pro rodeo and the setup of the Cloverleaf Barrel.

So it was a nice, interesting piece and I feel very honored that the Hermes Creative Award team stepped up to the plate and bestowed that honor upon me for that particular episode. It was some good news. And we've been on a roll this year. Yeah, you have been on a roll.

That's not the only thing you've won. I think you have like four or five other awards that you won this year. So we will definitely make sure that we share that in the podcast notes. And one other announcement, this podcast.

The HR Lady Podcast, was just named by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts as an honoree for the 31st Annual Communicator Awards in the Educational Distinction 2025 category. So I want to say thank you to you, JC, because you are the one that, you know, have pushed me and pushed me into this podcast and help me, you know, get my voice out there and help people. So thank you for helping me and for helping our listeners. Oh, it's a pleasure.

You know, the Communicator Awards put together by AIVA is it's it's an industry standard. OK, so when someone says that they have a radio show, they have a podcast, they do something in marketing, all of that is really good. And you should trust them. You totally should.

When you see someone step up to the plate and they come to the table with one of these awards behind them, it is it is firmly graded by a jury of international peers. They're standing out with distinction across the entire global marketplace and the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts. They're big time. So this is a huge honor bestowed upon the entire podcast.

And Wendy, just working together this entire time has been absolutely fantastic. Taking something that was just a small concept and going so much larger, I feel honored to be here with you. You're the legend. You're the trademark.

You are it. You know, and I'm, I'm just, I've been along for the ride, you know? Thanks for having me around. Hey, thank you.

Thank you for also holding me accountable to making sure that we continue our podcasts and our education and educating ourselves and our listeners along the way. And for today's show, I actually wanna start off with a focus on accountability and what that even means because it often does not work, especially in the workplace. I just came back from a three-day in-person training with the mid-sized public organization, with the leadership team that is on the surface, accountability is set up right.

But what we discovered in our interactive training and even the fact that they do quarterly reviews for their employees, they use SMART goals, what seems like the whole nine yards. Overall, the next level of management though is not really motivating or holding employees accountable. So I'm going back next month to now train that area managers to say, okay, we have everything set up on the surface, but now we have to keep moving forward and accountability just keeps moving. We just did another session on our other podcast, which we'll talk about in a minute, on generations.

And so we really need to understand that, listen, whether it's a different generation, different personality style, different degrees, different life experience, work experience, people are different and we have to communicate different. And accountability starts with communication, 100%. So make sure that your managers understand how to interact with all of the employees, not just the employees that they like, or not just the employees that sound like them or look like them.

Leadership needs to be 120% dedicated. Many employees are, you know, unengaged, unmotivated, and unfortunately, that you might have high turnover, don't blame the employees. Grab that mirror and say, we have to hold ourselves accountable as leaders, as directors, as managers, as supervisors, and make sure that it's not just, oh, yes, we do reviews. Well, if the reviews aren't changing a darn thing, then the reviews need to change.

So with that said, did you know that 85% of employees cannot define what accountability means at their job. That's a shocking high number. They're not holding themselves accountable for accountability. It's kind of, it's quirky.

Yeah. Well, that means to me that if the employees, majority of employees don't understand what accountability means for their own role, that means that managers aren't doing their job. And so they probably haven't been trained. Often we put people into management positions just because they've been there the longest and we We say, oh, well, let's keep them around a little bit longer.

Now we're going to just smack a management title on there. But we never actually train them how to manage. It's kind of fascinating when we think about the dynamic of things, too. It's not even just training them how to manage, but the culture of things that you're being brought up in.

And I'm saying it that way with intent, because when we think of accountability, we. There's a negative connotation that's associated with it. There can be. There shouldn't be.

But there is. And when we think holding yourself accountable, holding someone else accountable, it's not necessarily a bad thing. And that goes to the culture, the leadership, the training, and all points in between. These are true teachable moments.

These are opportunities for incremental improvements. They don't have to be decisively horrifying to the point to where somebody no longer wants to work for you and or, you know, wants to quit the team or just walks off the job because of it, you know? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

And, you know, accountability, just like you said, Pete, it shouldn't be a scary word. We should want to be held accountable. And I think many employees do. They're like, put me in, coach.

Give me some feedback. Hello. Hello. Give me some goals.

Give me some metrics. Where do you want me to go? And then when our employees actually meet those metrics and meet their goals, like we're not giving them any feedback of, hey, good job. Often managers only talk to their employees when something's wrong.

And we should be talking to our employees all the time. I want to make sure that if you are using whatever your performance metrics are that you're using, whether you use traditional key performance indicators, KPIs, or SMART goals, you know, those metrics are super, super important. But if people are meeting their goals, if their managers don't know how to coach and don't know how to mentor, it's really not going to get the employee to go above and beyond those goals. In this case that I was just at a client recently, and I'm going back there, we saw flawless SMART goal templates, but no one wasn't doing any, nobody was actually meeting them or they weren't inspired to go above and beyond.

So they were kind of smart goals with dull results. So make sure that, If you are thinking, you know what, we need to put accountability into our organization, start out with setting goals. Don't shove them down your employees' throats. Make sure you work on them together so that the employee 100% understands what their goals are.

And they might even say to you, you know, hey, they're easy. Can we make them a little bit more difficult than that? I'd be one of those people. I'd be like, ah, they're too easy.

I want something that's a little more difficult. So you want the challenge. You want the challenge. I want the challenge and I'm passionate about what I do.

So if you're going to give me smart goals that end up with dull results, I'm just going to be bored and I'm going to be checked out mentally, even though I'm still going to do the bare minimum of my job. Accountability is 100% key. The, you know, we want to make sure that you are doing check-ins. That once a year review, get rid of it.

I mean, literally, if you're only doing once a year review, I don't even want you to do it at all because it's pointless. Why are we waiting 364 days to talk to our employees? Does anyone do that still? Why don't we talk to them?

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. You would be surprised. Majority of companies still only do official reviews once a year.

Like a former written, documented review once a year. But in some of those instances, from what you've seen as the HR lady, or even just talking with your peers more so, I'll frame it that way. Do we see that there might be a high level of undocumented mentoring and connections, or is it truly just, hey, check the box, do it once a year, it's HR, back to work? You know, there's a lot of companies that are doing it right.

There's a lot of managers that are doing it right. There's a lot of leaders that are doing it right. But generally speaking, many businesses in our country are small businesses and they don't even have an HR department. So you're lucky if they even have reviews.

Well, that's right. That's what people like you are for. They could contract with you for a nominal fee. Yeah.

I'll come sit at your office and, you know, tell your managers, hey, did you talk to your employees in the past week, it could pass a month. Oh, no, I just dole out orders and tell them what to do. And if they do it wrong, I, you know, I ream them out. No, that's not feedback.

That's not feedback at all. What I find, JC, is that most managers don't know how to give feedback. And don't blame the managers. You're the one that put them in that role.

You're the one that promoted them into management without getting them any training. So it gets easier, though. It really does get easier to talk to your employees. You know, all you have to do is dust out that job off that job description, print it out and sit down with your employee and say, okay, let's go over your job description, which means you need to have a job description.

What's going well? What's not going well? What can I help you with? It's easy as that.

Those three statements, what's going well, what's not going well, what can I help you with? And then actually shut up and listen, and then follow up and do what you said you were going to do. Super, super important. Accountability is 100% key.

I mentioned before about leadership. You know, that leadership needs to be involved 120% of the time. I'm going to change up to 200% of the time. I, it drives me nuts when we call everybody leaders.

Oh, we have a leadership team. I'm like, okay, so what does that mean? Managers aren't leaders. Anybody can be a leader no matter where they're sitting.

It drives me batty when we have on the org chart, this is our leadership team. I'm like, so you're telling me that that person over there can't be a leader because they're not on this org chart. Maybe we're just saying those are the ones that need extra insurance. Right.

So, folks, please, please, please, you know, get out of your own way. Make sure you let, you know, understand that all of your employees can lead from the seat that they're at. They can lead from the position that they're in. They don't have to have a management title to lead.

But if we are going to be slapping on management titles, please give them some training first. I can help with that, by the way. It's super, super important to, you know, hold people accountable, but then also get out of their way. You know what?

Hey, JC, have you ever made a mistake? No. Yeah, right. I've made mistakes.

Today alone, I've made mistakes. If we don't make mistakes, we can't grow. So don't rip people a new one just because they made a mistake. We want to make sure that we are holding people accountable, that we are acknowledging that mistakes are okay.

Hopefully they're not so severe that you're going to lose a client or an arm, but we do want to make sure it's all right. We've made a mistake. Now, what do we learn from it? And let's, you know, grow from that.

Does that make sense? It does. I snicker because didn't your brother almost lose an arm? I have many members of my family, actually, that have worked in manufacturing.

And my dad is actually got crushed in a machine in manufacturing. I didn't mean to bring all this up. Yeah, that's okay. That's all right.

And I know you were just kidding, but seriously, it is one of the reasons why I'm also passionate about helping the manufacturing. Associations and a manufacturing industry. My brother happens to be an OSHA expert and a safety and training expert where I don't know anything about that except for to go, go to the person who knows about that. I'm the HR lady, not the safety lady, that's for sure.

So if there's any listeners, you know, if you need any kind of help whatsoever, just let me know. Reach out. I can help your organization. I have online training options.

I have membership options. And we, JC and I, have some exciting news to share with you regarding our podcast. Can I say it? So, sure, sure.

We are not going to do this podcast anymore. This is the end. You are so mean the way you say that. But he is honestly telling the truth.

The HR Lady podcast, which has nearly 10,000 podcast downloads and over 250 episodes published across three years, is thrilled to officially merge our two podcasts into one. So in case you didn't know, me and JC have been co-hosts of the HR Lady podcast for the past three years, as well as a podcast called HR Empowerment. And the HR Empowerment podcast will now be the primary podcast as the HR Lady podcast is retiring. It just makes sense.

So here's the awesome news. We're going away. Yes, we're going away. We are not going away.

we're going into a different channel. But when you listen to the HR Empowerment Podcast. Through the Aurora Training Advantage website, and that link will be in this podcast show, you can now, wait for it, wait for it, you can now get Sherman HRCI credits for listening. So the HR Empowerment Podcast happens once a week, and it is a minimum of 30 minutes in length, and you will now get 0.

5 Sherman HRCI credits just for listening on the HR Empowerment Channel. Now you do have to go onto their website and listen, but it will still be available in all the other podcasts. So listen, you, dear listener, might be quite familiar with exactly what we're talking about. You've sat in the conferences.

I've been there as well. You know, like I do, some of the MCs are just getting worse and worse every year. Why bother? take your time, spend it with us.

We're in the car. You can earn recertification credits driving to work, listening to Wendy's beautiful voice and me supporting her along the way. It's a win-win situation. And you do that one day a week, just one day a week.

You just did 52. How many recertification credits do you need? You know what I mean? So I don't know.

I don't know. It's just a point of consideration for you. We're here for you. And that's why this podcast will never exist ever again.

It's going away. But you can always catch us on the HR Empowerment Podcast. I love it. I love it.

I mean, see, it's not bad news. It's exciting, exciting news. So you're still going to get us. You're still going to get our guests.

We're going to make some exciting changes to HR empowerment as well. So please check out the podcast notes and connect with us on LinkedIn. And I'll be make sure that we are sharing where you can log in to get those credits. We truly have been so honored to spend the past three years with you.

Again, nearly 10,000 podcast downloads, over 250 episodes across three years, and there's got a lot more ahead of us just on a different channel. So we hope this information in this podcast about accountability and on all of our 250 podcasts has been helpful. Thanks for joining us the past three years. JC, any final words?

It's been fun. And I'm not going to lie, I'm going to miss it a bit. But I feel confident that we will have a good path forward. We've been doing both all along.

We really have been. But I really feel that from a listener's perspective and from a production standpoint, when you catch wind and start to see the guests that we have lined up, some of the tricks that Wendy has up her sleeve, there's going to be some beautiful things. Now, if I'm not mistaken, you could definitely go to the YouTubes and look up HR Empowerment Podcast. You could go on the Spotify's HR Empowerment Podcast.

Anywhere you find your podcast, it should be available out there. And if you're not already tuned in on that, make sure you do so. Back to you. Awesome.

Thank you so much, everybody, again, for joining us the past three years. Take care, everyone, and stay safe.