Sharon was the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Prudential Financial, a Fortune 50 financial services firm. Sharon oversaw three distinct verticals: global human resources, corporate social responsibility, and global security. Sharon shares an example of managing an international natural disaster response while also fielding human resource complaints from back home. Find out how Sharon juggled her responsibilities under pressure and managed to rise to the top of her industry throughout her forty year career.
Transcript
My name is Sharon Taylor, and up until three weeks ago, I was the Global Head of Human Resources for Prudential Financial. I was responsible for three broad verticals. The first is Global Human Resources, so all things with respect, related to people, Corporate Social Responsibility. The third leg of the stool was Global Security and Executive Transportation, intuitive what those things require by the names themselves, so big job, sort of a 24/7 kind of a role, but a job that I always wanted, and one that I always aspired to. You have a integrated strategy, you hire the right leaders to lead them, and then you set forth goals and objectives, and then you have to let them go, and your job is to set strategy, remove barriers, manage the space between the lines, see what's coming around the corner so ya understand how to pivot, and provide air cover when necessary. There was a day when I was away on company business, working on a talent management strategy with leaders in a different location, I look on CNN, and there's a major earthquake and tsunami in Japan. 60% of our earnings come from our international operations, and 80% of that 60% comes from Japan. So, while I'm preparing to give a presentation to these people about leadership and talent management, that show has to go on at nine in the morning, at four in the morning, I'm on the phone with our Business Continuation folks, trying to sort out, you know, how are we accounting for everyone that is there in the Japan office? How much damage is there? Do we have power? Are our people cared for in (mumbles)? Was there loss of life? Do people still have homes? How do we care for them? So putting together and putting in motion a search and recovery strategy for that part of the world, and you get a call in the middle of all of this, someone hates their boss and is crying, but this is a very senior person calling me, a critical retainer, and their ready to go walking out the door. So, you know, it really draws upon the things that you learn through the whole of your life, critical thinking, decision making, analytical skills, empathy, you know, the ability to communicate with clarity, the ability to be calm under tremendous pressure, those kinds of things.
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