Verizon is one of the biggest brands on the planet—but behind the scenes, it’s the people who keep it moving.
In this episode, Steve West—VP and HR Business Partner for Consumer Sales—reflects on his own journey from recruiter to executive and shares his approach to building teams, developing talent, and leading with trust.
Steve also shares:
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[00:00:00] Steve West: Employee experience equals customer experience. And if you unlock employee experience, you're gonna unlock the customer experience. I think it's the same with the brand as well. If you have a great employer brand and people love to come to work, it makes it a lot easier for your consumer brand to flourish.
[00:00:14] Dave Travers: So what does it really take for your business to attract world-class talent today? I'm Dave Travers, President of ZipRecruiter, and on Talent All Stars, we shine a light. On the people and the day-to-day processes behind recruitment and retention at some of the world's most influential businesses. If you've ever visited a Verizon store, called customer service, or used your phone to scroll or stream, you've experienced the impact of a massive global workforce in action.
Our guest today, Steve West, is one of the key leaders shaping that workforce. He's Verizon's Vice President and HR Business Partner for Consumer Sales, and previously led the company's global talent acquisition team. On today's episode, Steve shares what it was like moving from a player to a coach. At Verizon, how rotating through different parts of the business helped round out his skillset, and how HR and TA Pros can stop seeing themselves as order takers and start acting as strategic partners. So let's bring him in. Steve, welcome to Talent All-Stars.
[00:01:13] Steve West: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:15] Dave Travers: So excited to have you, so much to talk about, and so much incredible experience of Verizon, which I wanna get to. But starting even earlier in your career, you were a recruiter to begin and before making your way to Verizon, as in the recruiting and TA function went along the road, was recruiting and working in people, something that like became clear to you.
This might not be just my current gig, but might be something I could really do for life and feel great about.
[00:01:42] Steve West: You know, it did happen really early on too, and, and it surprised me. A lot of people end up in recruiting and don't necessarily know how they end up ended up there. I started my career in recruiting, and I think quickly started to build some sponsors with some of the different business leaders that I supported.
People had a good eye for what I was bringing to the table, which was really. Fortunate for me, they reach out and say, Hey, you know, I see what you're doing. I see you're doing a good job. I see that people are following you. Maybe there's more here. Let's really push you. And so I think people took me under my wing or under their wing and challenged me a little bit to say, Hey, there's more here for you.
So I would say I had moved when I was in recruiting, I had joined Verizon, and I did recruiting for a couple years, entry-level recruiter role. I started to move into more of a consultative type role where I was leading these hiring projects more around the planning and the guidance and the advisory type fashion to the business, which made me realize that I can actually start to influence a larger talent strategy and not just take the orders and go back and fill the jobs, but really drive some strategy and some value.
The goal was always kind of to be a leader. I had been a leader through most of my life growing up through athletics and things like that, and so I wanted to be a leader in my profession at some point. I never necessarily aimed to be the smartest person in the room, but I love working in teams, love motivating teams to reach the full potential, and just getting teams to vibe together to come out with some great solutions.
So I think as we started leading those recruiting projects, it opened my eyes to say, you know what? This is working pretty well. People are following. We're getting stuff done. The business is liking what they're seeing. It's different than what they felt before, and it started to take off from there.
[00:03:23] Dave Travers: So you talked about leading, driving strategy, creating value. I think a lot of people who are in individual contributor roles think about those things and would love to be more of a part of that, and think as they think about moving more into leadership. Give specific examples, though, like what do those business jargony words really mean when it comes to leading TA? Or give some specific examples of where you. Drove strategy in a different direction and created value in doing so. What does that mean?
[00:03:50] Steve West: Yeah. I think the biggest thing is when you first start as a recruiter, unless you just are natural at it, right? Like you, you say, okay. Mr. and Mrs. Business leader, what are you asking for, and I'll go and deliver it. And I think the first time you stop and pause and start to push and say, well, I've seen this, or, here's what I know, or here's what the data is telling me, here's the trends that I've seen in the conversations that I've had. Once you've built that repertoire of conversations and experience and knowledge a little bit, you can start to use it as data points and push and say, Hey, I know you're asking for this, but what I think you really need might be this, and this is aligned with what's available in the market.
So I think it was something that clicked that really allowed me to say, you know what? Why don't I just stop taking orders, and why don't I understand what the business is trying to achieve as their overall business goals, not even related to this job, so that I can help to influence what they really need in this job? So I think that was probably the first thing was just like sitting with the business leaders and really learning what are you trying to accomplish outside of filling this job? What's the team responsible for? And then I think specifically going and becoming a leader, you know, not just pushing back on the business, but leading teams and peers.
I think that the biggest thing was going from that player to coach, making that transition and leading the people that were your peers and the people that you were looking left and right and we're in this together, how do you keep that bond and that engagement, but also start to have a little bit of a more authoritative approach, a way of connecting with them, removing obstacles for them, making their lives easier, and understanding what their pain points are, and having it be less of, Hey, we're all doing the same thing, but, Hey, I'm still in this with you. And now my job is to remove the obstacles for you so that you can do even better at what you're doing.
[00:05:33] Dave Travers: I think so many people, I remember myself early on in my career, the first time somebody senior came to me and asked me to do something like, it was almost like I blacked out and had tunnel vision. Couldn't quite understand what it was they were saying. I was so nervous, kind of thing. So you talked about not just taking orders, but like really asking the why behind the why. Like getting to what are you really asking for? For somebody who hasn't been through that before, it doesn't feel confident yet doing that.
Give me an example. So if I'm a business leader of Verizon and I come and say, Hey Steve, we need to spin up a new sales team. I need at least 10 people as soon as possible. We have this new customer segment. Like, let me know when you have the people go. And how do you have the, I'm already halfway walking down the hall. How do you get me to engage and be like you're talking about,
[00:06:18] Steve West: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think it's, Hey, help me understand the context so I can tell these candidates what they're walking into. Right? I think if you put it in that lens of, Hey. Help me help you a little bit. So you go back to the really basic questions.
What's the priorities of your team this year? Next year? Like, do you have a three-year idea of what that looks like based on those priorities? How are you doing against them so far? Are you crushing them? Do you need these 10 people to be able to achieve one of those things? Where does this fit into the big puzzle of what you're trying to accomplish as your business?
And then if you are making progress, but you're not quite hitting those objectives, what gap is existing? Like, help me understand that context. Before I start to fill 10 jobs for you, because I might be able to give you a little bit of an extra lens that's going to help you realize that you're missing something you didn't realize, like you're the expert of your business.
I know you know what these 10 people need to do to deliver this specific tactical thing, but let me just understand the context, and I may be able to use that to drive more value or just to help sell the jobs. So I think if you position it as like, I need it to help sell the job, it gets you a lot more in and understanding how you can make an impact.
[00:07:27] Dave Travers: I think that's so right, and just getting somebody who's in a hurry to start talking, they will reveal, you don't even have to come up with the right question. Like it's on the top of their mind. And so I think that's so right. Just having the like temerity to be like, lemme just make sure I understand exactly what you're asking for, like what's the overall business objective this team you want spun up. It's to do, or whatever it is, it will all come out. I think that's great advice.
The other thing you talked about there that I loved was when you're promoted from within. All of a sudden, this group of people who used to look at you as a peer, all of a sudden you're like, are you still Steve or are you now my boss? And as a person in that position, that's very nerve-racking. 'Cause these used to be the people you'd go out and go to lunch and complain about your boss together or whatever, with how do you handle that situation? Like you, you reference sports. That's great example. When you're a team captain or whatever, you're kind of in that position. But, how do you handle that? 'Cause that's a little nerve-racking when you have those peer relationships that you value.
[00:08:25] Steve West: Yeah, you're, you're spot on. I think the first time I officially took on a team leadership role was actually after I left talent acquisition. I had done a quick tour as an HR business partner and went back to talent acquisition after doing two years as a business partner, and everybody that was there was the people I grew up with, right? It was the ones that we were on the front lines of recruiting together. First day of Verizon, many of them were still in that same talent acquisition organization, so I had to think about how I was going to interact with them and still be the same Steve, but one that is gonna continue to drive the business forward.
You mentioned the athlete piece. Like everything I think I've ever learned about leadership started with the foundation in athletics. I think being that natural team player as a key part of the leadership capabilities, and I learned that through my childhood and college athletics.
But the biggest, I think unlock for me, going from player to coach, as I like to call it, was realizing that my job is to now remove the obstacles for other people. Understand that it's not just about executing on what's right in front of you, but setting a strategy so that the team has a purpose and something that they wanna work towards.
And that's on my shoulders now as the leader versus I'm one of you and we're on this mission together. Like, I need to help bring them to that. And then I think the third thing I would say is realizing the importance and the critical role that I play as the developer of those people, part of my belief system and leadership is that I'm only as good as how much I develop the team underneath of me.
And if they aren't leveling up every single day, how the heck am I leveling up? And so I wanna make sure that. That is something as I was going from that player to coach that stood out that, Hey, I know I'm in a different role now, but I'm invested in you just as much as I'm invested in my own career.
[00:10:11] Dave Travers: I love what you said about developing the team, and I think that's so right. Talk a little bit about if you're coming up as a first-time manager or it's a struggle as your team starts to grow in developing people for new roles and new challenges, like how do you get good at developing people on your team so that you can succeed as the coach, so to speak?
[00:10:33] Steve West: Yeah, it's definitely a strength you have to build. It doesn't necessarily always come natural, I will say. There's many times, especially around development conversations where I looked in the mirror and felt that imposter syndrome of, am I just saying a bunch of stuff that just sounds right, and like, I saw this leader do this. Is this how I should be having that same conversation?
I think one, it's stay true to yourself and have those core values that you continue to rely on, but it's no different than how you would think about your own development. What do I wanna achieve? What needs to be true for that to be the case? Do I need to take a lateral move? Do I need some type of experience that I haven't had yet?
What do I think is gonna make me more equipped to be able to be prepared for different opportunities and then just have that same conversation with another human being about their own career? So I always approach the development conversations of with my team. The same as how I would want somebody talking to me, like brutally honest, transparent, what do you want to achieve?
I want to help you get there, and here's what I think needs to be true for you to get there. And we have a little bit of a phrase, and our CHRO at Verizon has said this quite a bit recently, clear as kind. The more clear you can be with somebody about the realistic situation that they're in, the more kind it is.
So be clear, be transparent, and just be honest about, this is what I'm seeing, this is what I'm hearing. This is what you're telling me. Let's put the dots together and create a career path for you.
[00:12:02] Dave Travers: I love clear as kind and somebody at ZipRecruiter, Marissa Morrison, taught me that one, and I love that as a framework because it's so instinctive as a person who wants to be liked and a leader, you want everybody to love you to find an excuse to delay saying the really clear thing that needs to be said.
[00:12:24] Steve West: And it is so much, it's hard to do sometimes.
[00:12:25] Dave Travers: It is very hard to do, and it is so much kinder, not just in the long term, but in the short term, like your team member who knows. Most of the time they're struggling a little bit, knows they're seeing the expression on your face. They know it's not landing in the way they're hoping it is. And for you to say, great job. It seems like we're making progress here. You know, let's keep working at it. Maybe we'll get there. Like, doesn't get there in terms of like, this isn't good enough. Let's reset, let's think about how we can take a totally different approach, and it feels really scary, but it's actually cathartic and much kinder to the person in the end.
[00:12:57] Steve West: It's so true. And constructive feedback in a very clear way can be a very positive message.
[00:13:02] Dave Travers: Yes, absolutely right? Absolutely right. And it gives credibility to when you are giving positive feedback, the fact that they know if it's bad, you're gonna give clear, direct feedback, and right away. So one of the things you talked about there was thinking about in developing people is how do you upskill cross-skilled? How do you think about using management transitions and moving into different roles, both personally and as you develop teams? So you have moved at least once or twice between TA and being an HR business partner, and it sounds like that's also a tool you, with your team. How do you think about that?
[00:13:42] Steve West: Yeah, talent rotations are so underrated, undervalued. I think we talk about 'em a lot, but like, there is significant value that comes from those. I didn't do a ton of rotations. To different parts of HR, different parts of the bus business in terms of the function that I was doing. But I did do a lot of rotations in who I supported, which gave me a really good view of the Big V, the big Verizon picture. I've supported almost every part of the organization from a TA lens, as I did rotations within TSA, I took on greater leadership positions, I had different business units that I supported.
And I did business partner stint for a couple of years that helped broaden my horizons a little bit as well, but I think that we're becoming a lot more comfortable with these intentional rotations and how we talk about what is the right rotation, and it's not just rotating for the sake of rotating. We can get caught up in that sometimes as well.
But I would say I honestly wouldn't be sitting here having a conversation like this with you if it wasn't for the fact that I did these rotations early on in my career, and it created opportunities. The biggest thing that I think that comes out of rotations is the relationships that you build with the different teams, but also leaders across the organization, and to just the business acumen and financial acumen that comes along with supporting different business units.
I think one of the things that's made me successful in my career has been those strong relationships with senior leaders, and they've all. Not all, but many of them have become mentors and sponsors of my career. And if I didn't do those rotations, I wouldn't have those sponsors and mentors. I think similarly on the business acumen side, if you only know one part of the business, you lose the credibility as you start to climb the ladder and sit in different rooms and at different tables, if you can't speak about some different things that are going on in parts of the business that you don't support.
I always think one of the things that separates talent once you get to that final interview stage is who's the person that's talking as if they're coming at from the area they're coming from, versus who's the person who's talking about the big Verizon as a whole?
And if you can really make yourself shine in that lens, then you're gonna stand out for that next opportunity. And the best way to do that is rotate, challenge yourself. Go into some spaces that you're not as familiar with. And it's uncomfortable and it's hard and it's challenging at times, but if you have those relationships of sponsors, nobody's gonna let you fail.
[00:16:10] Dave Travers: I think that is so wise, and I think that point about how you will have perspective you about, in your case, about the Big V, but about your company and the where you were before. You will view it differently every time that you rotate. If you haven't done one of those before. Either as a manager or as an individual contributor, how do you go into your bosses?
So if I go in and I say, I heard you talking about, and I saw on your LinkedIn, you've like moved around a little. It hasn't always been straight upward, like you've done different stuff. How do I even do that? Like mentor me? How do I have an effective conversation with my manager to start that ball rolling?
[00:16:46] Steve West: Yeah, I think. The biggest thing is, hopefully you're having that conversation with your manager, right? If you're not, then you do need to be the one to take the charge and to force that conversation to happen. I think that's the first thing is just start it. Just say, Hey, I want to talk about my career. I have aspirations, I have desires, I have goals, and here's what they are. And clear as kind again, right? In both directions. Whether it's you getting feedback or you giving feedback. I think if you need more out of your leader, you need to share that. So I think just starting that conversation is one of the hardest hurdles to get over and get comfortable with.
You kind of build it up. At all the nerves in your belly, and then you go talk to your boss, and here's what we wanna talk about. But it's the most critical step. I think the why you're asking for those rotations is really important, so you have to know what you're trying to achieve. And I think one of the things that's really important when you're thinking about your career is rotations to gain skills is certainly important.
But good talent, top talent, high potential talent, you're gonna be able to learn skills on the job. The rotations aren't necessarily to learn the skills. They are to an extent, but that's not the primary goal. The primary goal is to build the relationships and the network, and the knowledge of how the business works around you, so that as you climb the ladder, you have that support system in place.
And so you have to think about what is the rotation that's going to set me up to be supported in the next opportunity? You almost have to be thinking two or three opportunities in advance, and it's really hard to do that. So I think you have to start with saying, what am I doing today? And where do I see myself someday? And then start to think about what are the steps and roles that have to be taken to get there? You have the conversation with your manager, and you say. Here's where I want to get to. I think these are the places that might be the right pit stops along the way. What do you think? You just start that dialogue.
Next thing you know, your manager says, Oh, you know what? You should talk to so and so. You should talk to so and so. Oh, I didn't know you were interested in that. I'll connect you with this. And it just creates this web. I think it's really important to not just have those conversations, but to like build this web on paper, write down what are those paths that I can go after, who do I need to connect with, who do I need to gain as sponsors along the way to make that happen?
But it's starting the conversation and not just starting it blindly, but starting it with a sense of, I have a goal at some point, and maybe that goal is only a goal for five years from now, but a goal that's futuristic for you that you can hit and then start to build the actual steps that you need to do to get there.
[00:19:10] Dave Travers: I think that is such great advice, and I love the just get started. The first conversation doesn't have to be perfect. You just want it to get started. I think for those who haven't already started that conversation, it's often because they feel like it's selfish or their boss will bring it up when it's a good time for them, or something like that.
But the boss doesn't hear is like this selfish person is just the squeaky wheel. What the boss hears is like, this is somebody who's ambitious, who wants to learn, who's thinking about what they can do to create more value for the company. And let me tell you, when you walk into the boss's office, the boss is already thinking about the five problems they haven't figured out yet. And there's a person who like wants a new problem to figure out. That's like a real revelation. So I think that's great advice to just get started.
Okay. One of the other big things that I know Verizon has taken on and you've been a part of is really thinking about brand both as a company obviously, but an employer brand, and so that's something you have thought a lot about and obviously been involved in it a couple of different ways through rotating.
How do you think about employer brand at such a massive company that everybody knows, and that is such a consumer-relevant brand? And how does that impact how you manage both people from a being a business partner to the business, and also from a talent acquisition perspective?
[00:20:29] Steve West: I love the conversations about employer brand and consumer brand and how the two connect, and we talk a lot about employee experience equals customer experience. And if you unlock employee experience, you're gonna unlock the customer experience. I think it's the same with the brand as well. If you have a great employer brand and people love to come to work, it makes it a lot easier for your consumer brand to flourish. And the great news about what we did at Verizon recently was we launched our new consumer brand.
And our employer brand was fully embedded in that strategy. And we launched what we called a culture OS, a cultural operating system, at the exact same time that our new external brand went live externally. And so we were really rallying around it. And the great thing was when the culture OS launched, it wasn't like, Hey, here's the new culture we're gonna have, and now everybody live into it.
It was just capturing on paper what already existed, and so it just put a framework around it, and we have such a great culture at Verizon, and it's really grown over the last several years that it's built a great foundation for that employer brand. One of the things we talk a lot about is. Your best advocates are your own employees.
How do they talk about the company and whether it's for other potential candidates to join the company or for consumers to use the company? And so we do a lot around using real-life voices of our employees to tell their own experiences. And we talked about the rotations a minute ago, having employees talk about their rotations that they've taken, and really what led them through their journey. What mentors and sponsors did they get? Where did they start? Where did they stop? Where did they question their careers at? And just being real, open, and transparent with that. If you go look at our career site, you'll see a lot of those testimonials of just real, true examples of employees who came in, maybe started at what they thought was a job, and realized it was a career.
And so we've tried to really lean into that to help them understand. This is a career. We have so many things to offer at a company like Verizon where you've got a lot of different functions that exist within it, you can really achieve your goals and do many different things. And it starts with our cultural OS, making sure we have our core values that we're all aligned around, and making sure that we're serving our four key stakeholders every day, which is our shareholders, our customers, our employees, and society.
[00:22:48] Dave Travers: I love that. And I love the way you talked about the values being. Not some new announcement of saying, Hey everybody, we're gonna change today and we have new values and we're gonna behave totally differently, but rather documenting what is already true, because that is definitely gonna land. But it also makes it so much more understandable for long-time employees and new employees that this is the way we work and there's some intentionality behind it.
And every value is a choice. There's always a trade-off to be made by honoring some values as sacrosanct, but that you're intentional about it. And then telling stories like you talked about, people in their careers or whatever, that bring that concept of a value to life is really powerful. I love that.
[00:23:30] Steve West: And I think to that point as well, you know, it's not just, here's the culture OS. It's just out there on a webpage. It's embedded in everything that we do, and we talked about a lot of the talent practices early on. It's embedded in how we evaluate talent through interviews. It's embedded in how we think about our talent management, succession planning processes. Everything that we do from a leadership rating perspective is built on this cultural OS. The values, the leadership principles that we have in place. We call 'em V Team principles. We have V, We nd Me principle of how do you lead for the Big V? How do you lead for we, as in your peers and your team, and then how do you lead yourself, the me? And I think that it just continues to grow and you hear more and more people talking about it, and it connects the dots between everything that we do both in HR and in the business.
[00:24:18] Dave Travers: I think that is super smart, and I think there's no amount of connecting HR to the real business as opposed to living in a silo unto yourself. That is enough for any people team. Okay, so one other thing you have to do that I would love to hear about as a leader, and now you've led and rotated from leading multiple different types of teams in TA, and being a business partner is you sometimes have to make a case for investment.
So you mentioned one of your four key stakeholders. The first one you mentioned was shareholders. Obviously, having a return on that investment is important and is critical to making a good case, but sometimes there's a really compelling return on investment, but it requires the investment first before you see the return.
When you see that opportunity, whether it's in technology or more people or whatever the case may be, how do you make that investment case in a large organization like? It's not just walking into the owner's boss's office and saying, Hey, I need 5,000 bucks to do this. It's a little bit bigger and a little bit more involved. How does that work?
[00:25:18] Steve West: I think it happens way before you ever get to that point of putting the proposal in front. We're fortunate enough at Verizon, we have a really fantastic leadership team that's very in tune with different parts of the business with what we're trying to achieve from a talent management perspective, from HR perspective, that's all great and fantastic and it's amazing that we have these great relationships at the top that help support these different things.
But it comes to that point you and I were talking about earlier of you have to have a seat at the table and you have to really know what the business is trying to achieve. We have a tendency in HR to use HR speak to make recommendations for new programs and initiatives that feel very good and they feel aligned with our culture.
And it's super important that the programs launch so that we can bring this talent in and all these things. But is it truly a tie to serving those four key stakeholders and making sure that our financial sheet is gonna look good at the end of the year, and making sure that we're hitting the objectives that we put out there for our shareholders to be successful.
And so I think the more that you're involved in the business. You're asking questions about what the business wants to achieve, you understand the objectives, you understand the gaps. The more of a case, you naturally have to put a request for an investment in front of them because they know and trust that you know what their business needs.
So that all has to happen before you ever bring anything to the table. And then once you do bring something to the table, you have to show that value in the lens of those four key stakeholders. For example, I need to help understand if I do this, how is it gonna impact those shareholders? If I do this, how's it gonna impact employees?
If I do this, how's it gonna impact customers? When you're in HR and you're talking about the impact to the customer experience, that really makes a difference. And it's not just fluff, like this might change this experience, but no, if we put these skills in place, here's what we think will change from the time to serve customers, what it's like when they walk into a store, for example, how they use our network services. You have to relate it to what our customers are ultimately purchasing from us at the end of the day, and not just the, uh, we identified these skills and we've gotta plan to fill 'em.
[00:27:25] Dave Travers: I love that you started with, there's a bunch that happens before you get to that meeting where you're really selling in the boss's office or whatever. However, the process works at your company. Because the intuition for someone who hasn't made a bunch of investment cases before is, okay, I figured out now that we should make this investment, now I'm gonna go sell people. And that's exactly wrong. What you wanna do now is go learn. How do people who've made successful business cases, like I need to now make, how have they made it?
Like who's the last person who really flamed out and who's the last person who had a really, or maybe it's the same person who had a really successful, you know, pitch that, that everybody loved and got greenlit, and who are the stakeholders along the way, some of whom I may not even have a relationship with yet that I need to go understand and I gotta learn and bring that in to my thinking first and make them feel like part of the case. So I love that. I love that framework.
Okay. We always end these episodes with a lightning round, so I wanna give 60-second type answers in a scenario where you're riding up the elevator to headquarters or you're pouring yourself a cup of coffee in the kitchen. The CEO walks up to you and says, oh, hey Steve. I saw you the other day in that meeting, and I, I've been thinking for a while now, the business partner team and the talent teams, how should I, as a leader who doesn't spend every minute of every day thinking about it, how should I measure the success of those teams for the next year? Like, gimme the crib sheet.
[00:28:54] Steve West: Honestly, I think the first thing I would say is. You could tell by is the business achieving its objectives? Are we hitting our balance sheet? Are we doing what we told the street we would do? Because everything that we are doing ultimately comes back to leadership and to talent.
And so if we're not hitting those numbers, then you have to start to ask the question of, have we done enough to get the right people in the right jobs and develop that talent? And so I think it's. Honestly, very tied to the financial results of the company and strategic goals that we have. So that's the easiest first thing.
And then I would say from there you can start to get into, are you seeing talent mobility? How deep is our succession strength? Are we getting a lot of feedback? How's the culture in the organization as a result of these talent moves and things like that? But I really do think that if we're not hitting our goals as a company, then it's a talent question on how are we performing there?
[00:29:49] Dave Travers: Aligning to the business is always the right thing to do for the people, team, and business results. Okay. Same scenario, another lightning round question. Hey Steve, what's the skill? That we're gonna need over the next two or five years that we don't have enough of in the organization today, whether it's upskilling current people, or getting new people. What's the skill that we need? You're closer to it than I am. What do we need?
[00:30:12] Steve West: I think. Business acumen. I feel like I'm a broken record on it, but business acumen and financial acumen, like you have, stop talking HR, let's start talking business. Everything's gotta start there. And then on top of that, the art of influencing. The more that you understand the business, bring data to the table, know your business about talent and how skills work, and things like that, then you have the opportunity to influence, and you have to have that skill of influencing. A lot of influencing these days that is a hard skill to gain.
[00:30:41] Dave Travers: That is so true. And all those business acumen things, I believe are very learnable. What you just need is the willingness to learn. And it doesn't mean you have to know accounting as well as the accountants do or anything like that, but you have to have intuition around what are the big issues and how do they impact people?
[00:30:59] Steve West: Go read the proxy statement. That's the best way. Just get yourself familiar.
[00:31:04] Dave Travers: There you go. It looks intimidating when you start, but there's actually just a page through it and go back through some of the issues that are legal. Like for instance, I love that example, having written some proxy statements in my day because the management team usually does, for example, spend some time in every proxy statement talking about what are the biggest risks to our business.
That's a great thing to go read because they actually put some time into that, and they're really insightful things there. So that's a great piece of advice. One more thing, lightning round. If a friend of yours comes and says, Hey, I'm looking at a new job, a couple of VPs of people, VP of talent, VP of people business partner roles in front of me that I have to choose between, what's your advice on how I should assess the team? So this isn't the CEO, this is a friend of yours. Now. What's your advice on how I assess the team, and how do I know if I'm walking into a high-performance team? You've seen different teams of all sorts, and within a people team context, how do I know after going and spending a day interviewing or something, how do I know that a team is high performing?
[00:32:11] Steve West: Yeah. I think one, how vocal are they? If they're talking, then they've got a good enough culture. They respect each other, they have confidence in each other. If they're quiet. And the call that, or the conversation you're having, is a little bit more reserved, and you have to start to wonder why. And so I think that's really important.
How much conversation and dialogue is there amongst the team? And then I think that the second is, are they talking just about what they're responsible for? Are they talking about what their function and the larger function that they work within is responsible for? If they're only talking about, we have this task that we have to deliver in XYZ days, and here's the progress against it.
It's probably a little too narrow-minded, and they're only going to achieve what they're at being asked to achieve. They're never going to overachieve. So are they talking larger picture, or are they talking just about what's the next day-to-day task in front of them.
[00:33:01] Dave Travers: Very smart. Steve West of Verizon. Very clear. You are a Talent All-Star. Thanks so much for taking the time.
[00:33:08] Steve West: Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity.
[00:33:14] Dave Travers: That's Steve West, Verizon's Vice President and HR Business Partner for Consumer Sales. We'll drop his LinkedIn profile in the episode notes, and just a reminder, Talent All-Stars is also available on YouTube, on ZipRecruiter’s official channel. I'm Dave Travers. Thanks for listening to Talent All-Stars, and we'll see you right back here next week.