Ask the Expert: Sebastien Girard, Chief People Officer at Centura Health

Sebastien has a strong track record in HR transformation, recruitment, retention, and workforce planning. In our interview below, edited for brevity, we talked with him about his path to HR leadership, leading with Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence.

Before we dive into the focus of our interview, can you tell us a bit about your backstory?

I’m a son, father, husband, I'm Canadian and I'm American. I have an interesting path because my first career was as an Operations Executive in Professional Services working for the largest HR service provider in the world, Randstad. After 15 years with them, in 2015, I had a midlife crisis. I really wanted to use my talents to give back and knew I wanted to move from the for-profit sector to not-for-profit world. The question was then which industry should I choose, and healthcare is an amazing way to make a difference, right?  The second thing is, if you truly want to have an impact on people, then it should be HR. The People Division is a way to elevate, care and serve people, so I went from a for-profit business professional, Operation Executive into an HR Executive role in healthcare. I consider myself a business and social engineer that happens to also be an HR professional. The best way to describe me is probably as a Business and Social Engineer. And with Centura, I am on a mission to elevate and serve every single community, patient or caregiver I partner with.

What or who inspired you to pursue your career in HR?

I've been blessed with amazing mentors in my life. The first one was Linda Galipeau and she is just a phenomenal businessperson, probably one if not the best to this day that I have ever met. When I had my midlife crisis, I was in self-reflection on which industry to choose and how I could use my talent. Dr. Jim Dunn, being a classmate at MIT, was the one who opened my eyes to what healthcare can provide and what HR can do to really have an impact on communities and on people. I had the honor and chance to work with Dr. Dunn for over six years. That's where the inspiration comes from and, to this day, I feel blessed to have learned from the very best.

What’s the best advice you have received in your career?

There are many to choose from. Linda Galipeau, who was the CEO, President, and Executive Board member of Randstad taught me that being courageous and vulnerable is key to leadership.  I also really connected with Hal Gregersen, professor at MIT and Executive Director of the MIT Leadership Center. He said that your answers are only as good as the questions you ask. I highly recommend his book, “Questions are The Answers”. Lastly, Dr. Jim Dunn is the one who touched on Emotional Intelligence, and he said that, yes, there is IQ and, yes, there is EQ, but in the end, what is going to win the day is SQ, which is a social intelligence.  People have a tendency to forget that. The second I started to embrace that mindset, it absolutely changed my career.  

What’s one thing you’ve had to learn the hard way in your career?

Empowerment. I learned the hard way that people are much better when they are part of the decision-making process because, when they're part of it, it becomes their solution. When it becomes their solution, it increases their accountability, their ownership, and therefore, they are empowered. Solutions should always come from people, never from top down except in period of crisis, right?  That's one thing that Linda taught me. She said you don't have to agree with the solution. If you want to empower your people, you need to ask yourself:  Is it legal because you don't want to let somebody doing something illegal? Will it hurt your brand/reputation? So if it is legal and it's not going hurt the brand/reputation, then the last question is, does it have a fair shot at working? What matters is not that you agree with the proposed solution if it has a fair shot at working. If it's legal and it doesn't hurt the name, let them do it. This is the best way to create accountability and ownership.

Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. Can you briefly talk about what does Emotional Intelligence look like on an organizational level? 

It’s the capacity to see, understand and read emotion; the capacity to empathize with those emotions or to provide sympathy. That doesn't mean that you change how you act on it, but you have a capacity to understand the layers of emotions and the motivation of people which is crucial.

The best organizations need to move from engagement to experience. There's a big difference between both.  Maya Angelou said it best that people forget what you tell them, they never forget how you made them feel. That's Emotional Intelligence. I can be engaged and have an awful experience and the awful experience is what's going to make me leave. I can be disengaged and have an outstanding experience, and the outstanding experience would make me stay. The experience has the capacity to create emotions. I think every interaction a leader or HR is having with their associates is an opportunity to create an experience and that requires Emotional Intelligence. How do I generate emotions out of my interaction with you because this is what you're going to remember.

What can senior HR leaders do to start being more emotional intelligent leaders themselves?

It's all about being intentional around creating emotions, preparing before the meeting, and guiding your leaders. There's a pyramid that I always use that I thought was fantastic called the “Hierarchy of Competence”.

The bottom of the pyramid is Unconscious Incompetence, which is where I'm doing something wrong, and I don't know I'm doing it wrong. Then you move to Conscious Incompetence - you know you're doing something wrong. Then the next level is Conscious Competence, which is when you're becoming good at it, but you need to think about it. Then the goal is to get to the last level of the pyramid, which is Unconscious Competence. I'm doing something great, and I don't even have to think about it. There are  not a lot of people that are amazing at this, so it’s about intentionality and providing the tools to leaders. There is also a mistake that happens when people become consciously competent. They think they are good, so they stop being intentional and they move back down on the pyramid.  You need to rebuild them and make sure they do not give up on intentionality too fast.  

How can HR leaders bring emotional intelligence into the workplace?

Lead by example and intentionality but I think it's really about leadership development. The only way to win is if everyone receives the same tools and that there is a focus from the organization. I think awareness is a big one and to really ask ourselves the question, do you have that expertise in house? If not, find the expertise. I would say embrace the journey from engagement to experience. I think this is one mistake that many organizations are making. They're getting their people engaged but they are not creating experience or emotions.

The best advice I would give to a leader is no matter how good you are at Emotional Intelligence, Social intelligence is the true game changer.  It’s something that we need to make sure every single organization or leader is paying attention to.