Episode 49
Navigating an executive career with Justin Lombardo
June 17, 2021
Throughout his varied and fascinating career in learning, healthcare, and now human resources, Justin Lombardo has learned a lot about digging in and letting go. In this episode, he and Diana discuss ways to be a continuous learner, how to know when it’s time to move on from your role or organization, and ideas for managing the needs of a stressed-out workforce while maintaining a strategic point of view.
You can connect with Justin on LinkedIn.
Navigating an executive career: Key takeaways from episode 49
Being a life-long learner is one of the most important factors that has helped Justin to be successful in a variety of roles and industries. Throughout our discussion, Justin touched on three major themes of his continual learning throughout his career:
1. Listening to other people, whether they are the people around him in his own organization or part of his broader network,
2. Studying the things that don’t go well, which can be your own mistakes or those made by your colleagues, and
3. Reading deeply and broadly on new subjects, discussing what you don’t understand with people who are experts on the topic.
Feeling that you can’t make many more significant contributions in your current role is an important trigger that it may be time to move on, whether it’s into a new role or an entirely new organization. Two other triggers are a lack of energy about the work and a lack of patience for solving problems.
Life is short. Don’t be afraid to take risks professionally. Justin points out that the biggest enemy of people who want to make a change is the downward spiral of thinking that it will result in a disaster. Those of us who are blessed with opportunities, networks, and education have the ability to land on our feet, but we have to believe we can do it.
As work transitions back to the office and many people are thinking about making career moves they may have delayed last year, companies are concerned about retaining their people. Justin says senior leaders are in a high-touch moment, meaning that we need to be very intentional about one-on-one time with employees and thank them for all they’ve done to get the organization through the past year.
Being competitive on salary is important to retaining employees, but you can also look at the total compensation package. What does your organization offer in benefits that other organizations can’t or don’t do? Justin talked about the generous time-off policy at the archdiocese that helps to close the wage gap.
You have to cut down on the noise around you in order to focus on strategic priorities that will help ward off problems in the future. Justin learned that he needed to delegate the daily fires on the desk of a senior HR leader to his team so that he could work on avoiding future fires. Senior leaders have to find ways to stay out of the weeds, even when it feels like that’s where the exciting work is happening.
When you are overly stressed, you engage in certain behaviors or exhibit particular signs in your body. These should prompt you to take a step back and deal with your stress first and foremost. It can be helpful to designate a trusted friend or colleague to help you recognize the signs as well. If you can’t prioritize your self-care, your usefulness to the organization quickly diminishes.
Finally, celebrate the wins. We’ve all been through a difficult, once-in-a-century year. As you return to pre-pandemic life, take a moment to give thanks for what you’ve accomplished.
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