HRviews

GINA CAJUCOM is the Principal and the Managing Consultant of Insight Coaching and Consulting. She has worked in Human Resources Management including Recruitment, Organizational and Employee Development for over 15 years.  Graduated in BS Psychology with two years of graduate study on Human Resources Management, Gina holds the US designation of certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Certified Human Resource Professional (CRHP) designation in Canada. She has also completed 200 hours of coaches training with Coaches Training Institute (CTI) and looking to be certified as Certified Professional Coactive Coach (CPCC). See her work on career coaching and consulting and find resources at www.careerinsights.ca.

How does it feel to be a woman leader, an entrepreneur?

It feels like flying by the seat of your pants – no safety net, no parachute.  Essentially, that is how entrepreneurs are. There is no roadmap to use; there are only people who have taken the path and you just learn from their experience. Amazingly though, each has taken a different and unique route. There is no cut-and-dried way or method to be successful.  You just try to make your own and learn from your own mistakes and failures.  Needless to say, that this is the most exciting and enriching path that one can take.

Tell us more about your company and the services you provide.  Also, where do you see yourself going a few years from now?

Insight Coaching and Consulting helps working professionals aged 28 to 45 years take charge of their careers: career planning and career transitions, marketing oneself through a strategic résumé, well-prepared tactical interview, and strategic job search.  We also assist companies – through training and leadership coaching – in leading people towards meaningful and fulfilling work through career management and career transitions.

As mentioned above, business evolves and I continue to reinvent myself as directed by what resonates with me personally and what I discover that people and organizations need help with.  The humbling part of entrepreneurship is the recognition that you are not in control of your business future and your business plan is only as good as your last client. Playing it by ear and being quick on your feet to respond to what people need is are crucial. Coaching and consulting, training and learning design are two of my natural inclinations and I see myself doing these in my business for years no matter what form it might take.

Can you give us 5 pieces of advice for a new HR professional who embarks on this path and perhaps considers entrepreneurship an option?

With experience of over 15 years in the HR practice, it was a vehicle and a big source of content for my business practice.  All the stored knowledge and insights I gained in organizational behaviour, and all the competencies honed by dealing with difficult situations in managing people issues and problem, have helped develop my expertise in leadership and employee relations.  I know both sides of the coin: the organization’s culture and the individual’s story. I do not only get to know what makes an organization effective, I also get to know the dynamics of an individual’s impact and contribution to its success.  Thus, it had become my mission to do just that: help individuals find a fulfilling career and help organizations facilitate this process.

Here’s my advice:

• Learn and expand your experience by taking on the extra work, the “other tasks assigned from time to time”, and the additional assignments that might come your way.  They are “opportunities” for knowledge and skill development.
• Depending on what stage of career development you might be in, expand your reach in the organization.  Develop a healthy working relationship with your functional line managers, the operations people.  Learn from them and always offer your expertise.  There is a “trove of treasure” in gaining insights from operations that would be open to you if you establish a good rapport with people who run the show.  The shop floor is where the heart of an organization is.  Feel the pulse, learn from the dynamics of interactions, and be part of the solution to their challenges.
• Always see and go back to the “big picture”.  The organization manifests entrepreneurship this way.  “How will you resolve this issue or how will you decide if you were the owner of this company?”  Looking from the top provides enriching insights that would be useful in your own business.  Bottomlining is a C-suite skill that you can learn in whatever position you might be.
• Unless you are moving up or expanding your role and experience in the organization, do not stay in one company beyond five years.  Your value in the marketplace begins to diminish henceforth. Why, because you would just be repeating what you have been doing over and over again and soon, you would be too comfortable in the rut that you would not even realize you are in one.
• Consider all your experiences in HR as a trove of treasure from where you could pick any skill or competency and put to use in serving the public as a self-employed practitioner or full-fledged business owner.  However, while in it, take the time to learn more about yourself and in which area you find the greatest resonance.  Find your vocation from what you are doing now and draw your inspiration from it to build your business.

Freud said “when inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it”. What do you do?

Running a business requires a lot of creativity. Indeed, it does and I believe that people who thrive in entrepreneurship are naturally creative.  As Robert Kiyosaki said in his book – Rich Dad, Poor Dad – “Starting a business is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. In midair the entrepreneur begins building a parachute and hopes it opens before hitting the ground.” There is definitely a lot of improvisation along the way and it takes a lot in you to sustain your drive and keep on going.  Thus, it is not as important to have enough money to sustain you through up’s and down’s as having the passion to continue doing it even when confronted with challenges and difficulties.

Do you feel, in your job, like a jazz musician jamming for hours, scratching or improvising, or your actions are pretty clear and well defined?

The only thing clear and well defined in entrepreneurship is that you need to do tons of jamming and scratching and improvising.  There is nothing clear-cut, just a lot of unknowns and unpredictable variables.  What you look for is the flow, being in the groove, and hitting a sweet spot.  In as much as buying is an emotional decision, running your own business is finding that emotional connection with them.  This requires being in tune, changing the tone, and just being in harmony with the client.

What is the best idea you’ve ever had?

The best idea I ever had is to start off my business practice from the place of my personal strength and passion.  Most business advice you’d get is to do market research and a feasibility study to see the potential for sustainability and profitability.  Money was never the first consideration.  I started it from where my heart is.  As Aristotle said: “Where your talents and the world’s needs cross, there lies your vocation.”  My goal was to build a practice that makes sense to me.  My passion for what I do sustains me.  Profits will come when it catches fire for as long as I keep it burning.  The fuel comes from the satisfaction that my clients are being served on what counts to them.

Whom do you mostly rely on?

Self-employment is a lonely road from where most fall out because they miss the interaction     and the recognition and the energy of working with a team.  What I find effective is establishing strategic partnerships with other entrepreneurs complimentary to my business.  We understand each other’s challenges and we support each other when the chips are down.

The HR Practice in Canada is beginning to open itself up to global influences and encourage best practice in areas such as workplace wellness, and implementing compliance in areas of workplace harassment and violence,  maintaining  personal privacy, accommodating disability, and the like. It is still lagging in the area of diversity and I look forward to the time when something akin to Affirmative Action is implemented in Canada.

Globally, I believe that HR is still more reactionary than visionary.  Whatever innovation has developed was borne out of demands for either legal compliance or due diligence.  The growth in the area of technology also pushed HR to innovate more in the area of administration and this is what I am most impressed about, having started my career in HR even before every office desk had a PC.

Do social media play a part in your business?

I find myself relying on the social media to develop and maintain connections and to promote business.  It allows the ability to cast a wider net and promote a faster growth of transaction-based business due to easier access and a quicker product or service delivery. However, there is still great value to face-to-face interaction and I find that lasting and fruitful business relationships can still be had by the traditional handshake.

What does the future hold for us, the HR people?

Again, because of the rapid technological development that impact efficiency and efficacy of HR administration, the size of HR will continue to shrink and the face of HR will change to tech-savvy information specialists, largely younger, who would keep the back room function of HR alive.  With the integration of policies on legal compliance into the global and largely automated corporate systems, and with the improved education of line management on the same, HR management will have minimal administrative but expanded consultant role.  HR could then lead and innovate, to a greater extent, in areas, such as talent acquisition, people development, employee retention and rewards management – areas that are difficult to outsource to external providers.