How Transformational Leadership Turns Your Organization into a Career Destination

Today’s conversation is brought to you by Mulberry Talent Partners, a full-service recruiting, temporary staffing, and executive search firm offering talent advisory services to individuals and organizations serving the Pacific Northwest and San Francisco Bay Area.

Today, we are joined by Tana Thompson, Chief People Officer and Executive Committee Member for Vista Capital Partners. As a Senior HR leader for over 15 years, Tana has extensive experience in leadership, coaching performance management, training and development, compensation and total rewards, culture development, and employee relations. Today, she shares how you can leverage transformational leadership to inspire your employees and work towards a shared vision to build high-performing teams in your organization.

Lauren Francis: Greetings, Tana. I’m so happy to have you here with us today. You and I have crossed paths for years with our connection to Xenium, and now you’re in another role with Vista Capital Partners. We recently just reconnected. We were just talking about our passions and, what really drives us and what we’re excited about. Then that turned into us being together today! I left our conversation when we met for coffee; I was so inspired and energized, and it was a natural conversation. 

You have such passion for this topic, transformational leadership, and you’ve also adopted those principles into the organization you’re working with now. You have an opportunity to see how it’s impacted the population and the organization and how it’s lifted people up, and I was just so inspired.

You and I had a pre-call to this conversation, and literally, that could have been our conversation. I mean, we just went on and on. Usually, those prep calls are 5 or 10 minutes. Ours was 25 or 30. Anyway, I think that just captures how exciting this topic is.

So, I will let you take it from here to talk a little bit about what you’ve created and what you’re working on.  

Tana Thomson: Great, thank you, Lauren. It’s a pleasure to be here today. We did have a great conversation, and I am incredibly passionate about people and organizations and helping build outstanding workplace cultures. 

I think transformational leadership really is about inspiring employees and working towards a shared vision. Inspiration, motivation, and psychological safety, a lot of it comes down to trust and empowerment. And I think it’s really at the core, and that really lends itself to building high-performing teams. 

Lauren Francis: Absolutely. How have you seen it work in your organization? 

Tana Thomson: I think it starts with a strong workplace culture. It’s that feeling, or we call it the vibe, when you walk into the office, and how employees treat one another. We are really, I think, aligned on our core values, and we’ve integrated the core values into our daily conversations and all of the employee experience.

I think it benchmarks our shared vision of creating happy and prosperous clients by creating that experience. The same is true for our employees, so we really put them at the forefront. And I think in order to create that wonderful client experience, we have to create it internally and really see our employees as clients. 

That’s really how I view it while leading the employee experience. Everything rises and falls on good leadership. And there’s a difference between management and leadership, but transformational leadership, conscious leadership, really, to me, is that next level where people can really, thrive, align with their strengths, and be given the autonomy and trust to go do their best work and great things will happen. So it’s really about assembling high-performing teams that are inspired towards a common vision or purpose.  

Lauren Francis: You’ve been with your organization for how many years?

Tana Thomson: Just five years. 

Lauren Francis: That’s a long time—in the sense of what you created. When you arrived in your new role, the leadership was already the kind of leadership and organization that would be receptive to the foundation, right?

Tana Thomson: Yes. The belief around how to lead a team and direct a team towards a shared goal and create something remarkable. 

Lauren Francis: When you were interviewing for the position, was this conversation part of your interview process?

Tana Thomson: Yes, I think the CEO shared with me his vision around employee experience, and I could tell when I walked in the door that there was something unique and special about the organization.

I’ve consulted with hundreds of clients, and you can quickly walk in and get a good pulse and a good feeling about the chemistry in an organization and how things are working. That feeling that I would describe in that essentially is culture. He had shared some of that vision. He actually spent a year doing a culture project where he researched a bunch of thought leaders on the topic and put a white paper together and developed and reaffirmed the core values and then really made a point to integrate it into day-to-day employee experience and how we interact with each other and our clients. 

He created the eight things that matter most around what he thinks, and it was most important to create a culture that’s built to last. The eight things that matter most are everything we’re talking about. Aligning people with our strengths, working towards a common purpose, and getting people in the right spots. Leading with purpose, the communication, that perception of progress so that people know what to expect and where their path is going at Vista. We’re really focused on being a career destination.

So we’re trying to do things that align with our mission and can create that world-class employee experience with folks who align with our values. I think with any employee who’s going out to look for the ideal workforce, you want to find an organization where your own values align with the company’s, and then it’s easier to be passionate about the work, find that shared purpose, and really see how you’re making an impact there. I think people ultimately are looking for that as much as job fit. They’re looking for that culture fit because we spend a lot of time at work, and folks want to be able to come to work and bring their authentic self.

Lauren Francis: I have two points that are completely different. One would be that people want to feel good.  They do. They don’t want to feel bad. They want to feel good. They want to feel, like you mentioned, safe and to be able to thrive. When I walk into, and I know this would be true for you too, which is you walk into a restaurant, you walk into a boutique or you walk into, you know, a business, and you can feel it right away. There have been many times when I’ve just left a store or an establishment because it just didn’t feel good. I just didn’t want to be there. And so it resonates with all of us all the time, even when we meet people that align with us or they don’t.

In terms of what is your gut saying to you something isn’t adding up for me. Some people act on it, some people don’t. But I think that idea of walking into a store, how you feel is key. It’s so, so important. 

The other question is what percentage of organizations do you feel have this mindset? The one that you have within Vista Capital Partners.

 Tana Thomson: I think it’s fairly unique. I think folks are getting on board. I think HR is transforming, and I think there’s a need for HR to continue to be more strategic and a thought leader. 

Just to kind of back up, I’ve trained a lot of HR Professionals in my time, and I always say I’m a leader first, I’m a business partner second, and I’m an HR practitioner third. You have to understand the language of business, but we’re in the people business. Professional services and a lot of companies out there are in the people business. That is our biggest asset, and we need to invest in that asset and make and build something remarkable and unique where people are happy to come to work every day, and they can thrive and be the best versions of themselves.

There’s a lot of intentionality at Vista, and I bring a lot of intentionality to it. It can make a very large impact, and I’m not sure many organizations are making the investment in the role and seeing all the long-term benefits that really carry over. HR is a strategic partner. It is the employee experience. I often say that HR is tasked with a lot of different responsibilities, and there’s a lot that they’re juggling. I think at the more basic level, it’s around compliance and the dotting of the I’s crossing the T’s that must happen.

But for me, the real fun stuff is creating an outstanding workplace where people are happy to come to work. We can create something unique and remarkable, and they can tell their families about it. It helps them lead a fulfilling life. That’s ultimately my goal: helping create this amazing workplace where folks can be their best and use their gifts and service to others to create something bigger and better, all the while leading fulfilling lives.

I focus so much on development, too. I think a lot of times people get into careers and if there’s not a linear career path, folks can get stuck. In my mind, we’re always developing and growing. Even for myself as a leader, the work is never done. There is always something to do. And it’s deciding what’s most important right now.

And so it’s really about creating that culture of development and growth. People want to grow.  They want to develop. They want to evolve. And that pursuit of excellence is one of our core values. To me, that’s about development. How do we continually get better? How do we lift each other up? What am I passionate about?

I’m also a big fan of “First Break all the Rules” and leading with your strengths. I think you’ll get way further along in your journey if you do work that aligns with your unique strengths and then find a complimentary partner, whether it’s a project or a team member. Really do the work to know what you are passionate about. What comes really naturally to me? And so I do a lot of work on strengths-based leadership and coach my managers on that as well.  

Lauren Francis: It is so great to hear you talk about this topic because it’s just so inspiring. The employees are benefiting greatly, and it also shows up with all of the relationships that are part of what Vista Capital Partners is.

It shows up in your relationships with your clients, not only with your employees but also with your clients and all the other partners that you work with. People can feel the heartbeat of Vista all the time, right? You know, one of the things that Mulberry is very similar in is that we want our goal to be for our candidates to thrive in their lives and careers and to help them along that journey with our clients. The same is true. We want them to utilize our resources to help them build strong, teams that fit for the organization and fit for them. That’s always top of mind because that’s really what’s important. Mulberry being a relational organization and not a transactional organization sets us apart. That’s kind of the core of who we are and people feel it all the time. So it’s really great. It’s nice. 

Tana Thomson: I definitely felt that working with Mulberry and you. There’s that energy there and that strong prioritization around the individual and creating that positive experience. So, I definitely think that reflects in your brand.

Lauren Francis: Oh, I’m glad to hear it. That’s great.      

When you joined Vista, the leaders already had this mindset. There wasn’t a situation where you needed to influence them, right? I’m sure there’s been influence that you’ve moved forward, because what you talked about earlier was that it’s constantly evolving. There are always ways in which we can make an impact right now. There are so many HR leaders that don’t have that opportunity, to really push that influence. Or there are organizations that talk about all of these things, but in practice, they’re not really providing the resources for these organizations to do what you’re doing. There’s a retention piece also, which is such a hot topic today. The retention piece and also career growth are another one. Can you speak to that a little bit?  

Tana Thomson: Yeah. I think one of HR’s top jobs is to attract, develop, and retain top diverse talent. That has been sort of my north star there. The attracting piece, I think, helps with our brand, our ability to recruit from a vast network, and being really clear on who we are and what our value proposition is. It just goes in different points, depending on where we’re at with growth or what we’re trying to accomplish.

But development and retention are at the top of my mind right now. Creating that career destination and knowing that the job seekers out there want to be developed, they want to find that home where they can thrive and create an outstanding career. We’ve done some career pathing internally, even though we are small, we look where we can expand jobs, create career paths within roles, and build a leadership pipeline.

There are various ways that I’ve done that. It all starts with training your managers and getting dedicated managers. I’ve built out some manager training, and we’ve also got our leaders and managers. They’re offered leadership coaching, in addition to me providing coaching and a development plan for each of our employees there.

One of the things I like about “First Break All the Rules” is that not everybody may want to climb up the corporate ladder, and that’s okay. We need both superstars and rock stars, referencing the book. Folks who want to become experts in a particular role and function and be world-class—client service associates, for example, or those who have aspirations of being on the executive committee—are needed.

It’s not one-size-fits-all. You need to take an individualized approach to development and understand what your employees care about. I think the more I can arm the managers with tools in the tool belt, so to speak, the more they can tailor and customize for each employee. One-on-one meetings are really essential. They need to happen. That really is time for the employee and manager to connect. 

Those should happen, at a minimum, monthly and the employee should really drive that agenda. There should also be some focus on longer-term development. They should be working towards short-term development goals as well as long-term ones. If the manager can help them work towards that and give them feedback and coach them, it’ll make them feel like they are progressing in their role and not stuck or stagnant. 

Lauren Francis: So what do you say? Let’s imagine that you were hired to be a leadership coach for an organization’s leadership team. They’re struggling in some areas, and they really wanted to get a fresh look at it. And they said, “Well, this sounds like a lot of work. This is expensive. There’s so many initiatives.” What would you say to that? Or would that be a common response?

Tana Thomson: So, I need to understand the leadership vision, as well. It all starts with the senior leadership team and the CEO deciding on what the vision is, and if they see value in creating a great workplace through employees. Then, I can help set up a framework to build that. It all starts with the senior leadership team and the management team getting very clear on the vision, purpose, and core values.

And then how do we integrate into the employee experience? It’s building out a great management team, it’s creating systems, but really, all of it is very relationally based. All of it is, let’s inspire teams to work towards this shared goal or purpose.  And then let’s go really hard at building trust and aligning people with what they do well and letting them do their work.

That’s part of the thing about transformational leadership, is it’s inspiring versus controlling. We have adults, and we want to extend their trust and autonomy and let them do the work. If we mindfully hire folks who align with our core values and the specific job and provide adequate training and support, then we can let them do the work and be there and provide resources and opportunities along the way. 

But it starts with that vision, and then you can build the structure and systems within that. I think you’ve got to get the right people managing and leading, and I think management is a combination: it’s managing the tasks and making sure the work gets done, but it’s also inspiring and motivating others to do their best and to work together effectively as a team. What’s got to be there is that trust and psychological safety and that relationship focus.

You’ve got to invest, connect, and build the relationship first before you can have straight conversations. When people know that you’re invested in their development, they perform. Psychological safety gets thrown out a lot, but it really is important. I see it as part of trust, and, you know, everything rises and falls on leadership.

Trust is the foundation of any solid and sustainable relationship, and it means different things to different people. I think it’s doing the work internally to invest in those relationships, build that high trust, and have those authentic conversations with the goal of growing and developing.

Lauren Francis: In terms of what would your response be to, “This sounds like this is going to be really expensive” 

Tana Thomson: I think get a great HR leader and have them build a plan and set a budget, and I can guarantee you the ROI will be there. The cost of turnover is high. And for high-performance teams, your high-performing employees will do 4x to 5x the work. They should be rewarded and provided with growth opportunities, but I think it’s all about building high-performing teams. I can share the ROI on that at each level. I think what HR professionals or managers often get wrong is that it all starts with good hiring practices.

You’ve got to get hiring right. I think some people are more skilled and equipped at hiring than others. And often, past performance is the best indicator of future performance. But how can we get really clear on what success looks like in that role? How can we make sure that we get them going right out of the gate, and they feel included and there’s a sense of belonging?

And that’s where DEI comes in: building an inclusive culture. How do we make sure we assign them onboarding buddies? What do their first 90 days look like? Let’s do check-ins and make sure they can ask for what they need. It’s all about the lens of that employee experience. 

At each milestone, we should really understand what they care about and make sure we can deliver and look at things really through the eyes of an employee or the viewpoint of an employee.

Lauren Francis: And it doesn’t stop at the onboarding? The two-day onboarding or the one-day. 

Tana Thomson: No, it’s a couple of months, I would say 90 days, and then a six-month check-in. The manager relationship is so critical that they’re having those consistent one-on-ones, and one-on-ones should happen more frequently right out of the gate when somebody starts so they need to really be sure of what matters and they can get the job-specific roll down and know how to ask for what they need.  

Lauren Francis: It’s really great to hear you speak about that because people are talking about that onboarding experience and what that means for everyone.

 Tana Thomson: If I could go back to the retention piece, I’m a big fan of Gallup and Gallup surveys. We provide manager effectiveness surveys twice a year as part of their performance reviews. I’m a big proponent of what gets measured, done, or attention. So, we create scoring on a five-point scale for about six or seven Gallup questions.

1. My manager cares about me personally. 
2. I’ve gotten feedback in the last two weeks.
3. My managers assigned me stretch opportunities. 
4. I have opportunities to grow and develop in my role. 
5. I would recommend Vista to other employees. 

So we’ve got questions there, and then we have open-ended. Then we actually incorporate that into the performance review, and there’s a numerical rating there. And so I think it becomes, being a manager here is a big deal. 

I think we take it seriously. We know often from Gallup studies that other folks may serve as informal mentors or managers who may lead the work. But ultimately, we’re putting that task on the manager. Generally speaking, you’ve heard the term that employees typically don’t leave companies; they leave managers, and so we want to do everything in our control to create that ideal experience. 

Lauren Francis: What you’re saying, too, is that by lifting that manager up and managing people, you’re creating a very different idea of what a manager is like from where it’s been to where it is now.

My husband is at Intel, so he says people would be promoted because that’s the next thing you do, but they didn’t necessarily want to be managers or to manage people. They’re better as individual contributors.

You know what I mean? There wasn’t a fit there. It was just sort of like, that’s what you do. If you want to grow at the company, here, you’re going to be a manager. And that’s what people aspire to be. There are so many different ways to be effective in an organization but also to have a roadmap of the paths that people can take.   

Tana Thomson: The number one thing I look for in managers is their competence, credibility in the role, and respect by the team. However, they also have to desire to lead others and have emotional intelligence.

To me, that’s a no-go if that’s not there, having that desire. The best managers know how to balance support and accountability and when to pull which lever at which time. 

Lauren Francis: And to use their coaches as opposed to just making a decision. So, that’s that collaborative piece you’re talking about all the time, which is so important. I wanted to ask if you have anything else you want to add to our conversation. 

 Tana Thomson: As you can tell, I’m really passionate about transformational leadership and HR’s opportunity to really lift up as a senior leader or as a strategic leader and make a big difference. I think the time is really now where there continues to be competition for top talent, particularly in professional services, and the ability to adapt and innovate and build this ideal workplace that could be hybrid or flexible, and that creates a great place to work.  

One of our goals here is to create a great place for women. We have sort of our second round of DEI goals, this inclusive workplace, and a more evolved version. 

One more thing I think I would say in closing is as a leader, there’s a lot put upon us or high expectations, which there should be. What’s the word? With great power becomes great responsibility. In any leadership role I think it’s upon us to continue to evolve and develop and to continue to have that humility and know that we don’t have all the answers and just continue to listen and learn from others and hold up that mirror. Self-awareness, which is a piece of that EQ, is so important. The work is never done. Whether it’s taking a seminar or listening to a podcast, there are so many different ways to develop. Just make sure you’re carving out that time to invest because your employees will be better for it.

And you will be better for it. It may be repetition at a point, but something may stick. I’ve done that over the years. Even through organizations, I was a part of Vistage for 10 years, which is a leadership group, and I’ve been in other leadership forums and cohorts. I always try to take one or two things and look at how I create value for those I’m serving and something will resonate. And then you just continue to build upon those things.  

Lauren Francis: Wow, that really is the perfect way to end our conversation, which will never end by the way, but there was one thing I’m going to just jump in with a final thought. It came to my mind on my notes from our initial conversation, that you talked about professional athletes, something about the way you look at your employees. 

Tana Thomson: Yeah, I really think there are a lot of similarities whether you’re a professional athlete, on a sports team, or in a workplace. I really want to view our team like that. We hire the best, invest in and develop them, and for them to be the best, their best selves, whether it’s personally or professionally, it’s that self-care piece.

You know, I’m a big fan of peak performance. There’s  One Minute Manager or, Atomic Habits is a great book about routines and discipline. Really getting, again, that self-management piece, getting your own house in order to be there for others.

You’ve got to have that discipline and practice, and then you can; you have more to give. We do quarterly well-being surveys around engagement and just ensuring folks are able to live a full life outside of work. They have work-life integration or balance.

Their manager can support them in a way that is helpful. There may be peak workloads, but the manager can help provide support there. And so I think, really dialing in that self care piece, whatever that is for the individual. And it starts again with nutrition, time management, healthy relationships, setting boundaries, all those things.

And so focusing on what you can control will always give you the best chance, I think, for being more effective or fulfilled. 

 Lauren Francis: In our conversation, you referred to your employees as athletes, and that to me was like, wow! That just hit home. Thank you for that. 

Tana Thomson: Thank you!

Lauren Francis: And thank you for joining us today. This was, again, another fabulous conversation with you. And I really appreciated having you on and having the opportunity to really talk about all these things, all these different practices, and to hear how you are making such a difference for so many people. It must feel so good. 

Tana Thomson: Thank you, Lauren. It was a pleasure being on, and, like I said, the work is never done, and the sky’s the limit. I’m really excited for the future of HR and taking organizations to the next level.