Value of a Peer to Peer Network: Kenneth Reeves, CHRO, Freese & Nichols

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Summary of Vlog Post by Emma Lokar, CHRO Partners Intern, Graduating May 2020

Ken:                      Okay. My name is Ken Reyes. I'm the Chief Human Resources Officer for an engineer consulting firm here in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area called Freese Nichols. I've been in HR for approximately 25 years. Probably 12 to 15 of those years being at the CHR level in many industries.

Ken:                      Started out in Houston in the energy industry for several years. Moved to Dallas/Forth Worth to go into the retail industry and then left the retail and went to aerospace. From aerospace to nonprofit. From nonprofit now to engineering consulting.

Ken:                      You know, my journey of HR has not been necessarily [inaudible 00:00:00:41]. I've let my skillset, my network, and just the need, drive, you know where I've gone and what I've done and I truly can say that, you know, I've definitely realized through being in different industries, the need to be more strategical and the need to be aligned with your CEO. And how much a CEO really relies on the Chief HR officer for building a culture, maintaining culture, and strategic direction of your most important asset which are the [inaudible 00:01:15].

Speaker 2:           So a lot of people will say that the CEO has the loneliest job but I would beg to differ. I feel like the HR executive probably has the loneliest job in the company. So tell me how important peer to peer networks have been to you and your personal development and how it's brought value to your organizations.

Ken:                      Oh, peer to peer networks are paramount. It's brought value to me relative to the ability to be transparent and ability to say things to your peers and leverage their knowledge and expertise along with your past experience and your expertise.

Ken:                      You know, the whole adage of why recreate the wheel if somebody else has already done it and they've done it well and it's worked well for them. You know, we all learn by our own experiences. But I'm of the belief that we can learn a lot of other people's experiences also. And I don't think any of us have yet to crack a nut on the the best way or the only way to do things. So I think the peer to peer networking is great. And that's why I like you know, groups like this, the masterminds.

Ken:                      We get together. We can be transparent with one another. We can cry on one another's the shoulders and we can celebrate successes also. You know, we feel good at sharing with our peers what's also working well in our organization to help young HR professionals along the way also.

Speaker 2:           Yeah. You know, it's interesting because there's all sorts of studies saying that there's so much on the internet, right, that you can do. You can Google just about anything and learn how to do anything. But I have to say that when you're in these groups, right, you actually can get feedback. The computer's not going to talk back to you. Right. So how has that candid feedback been for you from some of these groups?

Ken:                      Well, I mean the, the candidate feedback number one is, you know, I never want to be a legend in my own mind. I lean on this group to tell me whether or not they think I'm heading in the right direction or not. Just because something is successful on one platform doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be successful on another platform. So therefore this group to help you customize some best practices that fit what it is that you're trying to accomplish because there may be a lot of uniqueness from organization to organization and different situation to situation.

Ken:                      So it's really, you know, leveraging those best practices and seeing if those best practices will fit in your organization and really, like I said, doing a deep dive to really see if indeed there are those similarities that would predict a level of success and give you the desired outcomes, you know, when you're trying to implement a certain initiative.

Speaker 2:           Right. And how's that different than going out to vendors or consulting firms that are trying to help you?

Ken:                      Well, and nothing against vendors of course. But you know, there's no agenda with the masterminds. I think that if I'm selling a product, then I've got an agenda. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

Speaker 2:           Right.

Ken:                      But I've got something that I think is the latest and greatest and which is okay. But with this group of masterminds, there's no agenda. The only agenda is that, you know, we achieve all of our desired and that we are transparent in putting of all that information on the table to help each other and just do just that, achieve that.

Speaker 2:           Right. Now you're pretty open, right? So you're a very confident and self-aware. But for those people who may not be as comfortable getting into a session like this and like opening the kimono, right, literally sharing all their deepest fears and being transparent, what's your advice to those folks who maybe are a little bit concerned about sharing their deepest, darkest secrets with a peer group?

Ken:                      Well again, I go back to HR masterminds. I think if any thing in life it starts with a relationship. And so I think that one of the things that I like about, you know, this group is that I felt like over a meeting or two we got to know one another and we felt comfortable with one another and that we all abide by that highest level of confidentiality. What's discussed in this room stays in this room.

Ken:                      And so I would say that you also, just be yourself. I mean, throughout the course of my career I've had great mentors and where I've sometimes gone wrong is trying to ... While I extract things from him where I've gone wrong sometimes is trying to be like them.

Speaker 2:           Right.

Ken:                      So I think you have to take who you are at your core, develop those relationships, and then put it out there. And so I don't think there's any magic formula to achieving that. I think it all starts with on the foundational concept that a good relationship can help overcome anything. And so I think that's one of the things that masterminds is helping me to do is develop those deep relationships with the people in this group.

Speaker 2:           Right. And you know, there's tons of round tables, especially for you CHROs. There's a ton of free round tables, places where you can go chat with a group of people about a topic. How would you say that differs from what you experience in a mastermind?

Ken:                      Well, I've been a part of some other CHO round tables before also and quite candidly speaking, I think that once we reach the sea level, there's a certain amount of pride and ego that goes along with that. And so I can say I've been in the room with some of those people who have that pride and those egos. But again, I'm going to go back to what I said earlier. It's about the relationship. And if people will truly humble themselves and be transparent and say, "Listen, I am not maybe the smartest guy in the world and I'm not the most well versed in this or that," then you can start to work towards solutions.

Ken:                      I think that some of the HR round tables that I've been a part of, people sometimes tended to want to show how small people were.

Speaker 2:           Interesting.

Ken:                      Rather than-

Speaker 2:           Being vulnerable.

Ken:                      Absolutely. Let me show this person, how do I measure up to these four or five people in the room? But again, you know, be yourself. Have your own style, your own goals, and come there with this level of transparency and sincerity and that we'll all here to work together with the share information to achieve outcomes.

Speaker 2:           Final question. So what advice would you have for somebody who aspires to be a CHRO someday? What are some things that they need to do?

Ken:                      Don't do it. No.

Ken:                      No, I would say that if you aspire to CHRO and throughout your whole CHRO journey, if you will, the one skill that I that is imperative above many is the ability to influence. And when I say the ability to influence, how do you influence people to see your side of things or to get on board with your agenda when they don't have to? You know, it's easy for us to influence those people who work directly for us.

Ken:                      But I will say that throughout your journey, that you're going to have your team. And I will say be, number one, transparent with your team. Be a leader to your team, but also to your clients, those people who you are servicing and what's your level or ability to be able to impact those people. Be customers service, customer focused, but to get those business leaders to get on board with what it is that you want to accomplish. Not only for yourself but for their different departments or their business units.

Speaker 2:           So how do you do that? I mean your ex-NFL football player, six five. What are you six five? Okay. That's easy for you to say, right? How does somebody do that? Like is it through expert questioning? I mean, how do they get people?

Ken:                      Well, I think that the way that you do that is, you know, the whole saying to have two ears and one mouth. You should listen twice as much as talk.

Speaker 2:           That's great.

Ken:                      So I think that the cornerstone of my success has been knowing the right questions to ask and listening to what people are saying, listening to what they want, and then going back and tailoring and stocking and giving them right back what it is that they're asking for.

Speaker 2:           That's awesome.

Ken:                      So because I believe in HR there are different components. I mean, I might be great at compensation. I might be great at benefits. I might be great at all these things but if that's not what my client wants or needs, it serves no value to them.

Speaker 2:           That's great.

Ken:                      So I think listening twice as much as you talk and really delivering on what your client's asking.

Speaker 2:           Yeah. There's a book called the power of questions and I think you're right on there. It all starts with asking the right question.

Ken:                      Sure.

Speaker 2:           Well, thank you so much, Ken. It's been a pleasure getting to know you today. And thanks for being a guest blogger on CHRO Partners.

Ken:                      All right. Thank you so much and I sure appreciate it.

Speaker 2:           Okay. Take care.

Ken:                      Okay.

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