Tiffany King on trust, silos and taking your seat at the table

What this conversation is about

Tiffany King was vice president of people teams at UnitedHealthcare when she joined Glenn Llopis for episode 71 of Personalization Outbreak, after human resources roles at Starbucks, Apple and Banfield Pet Hospital. Glenn framed the conversation this way:

"transformation is really a fancy word for opportunity management" — Glenn Llopis · 00:02:59

Nobody takes a class in opportunity management, he said, yet everyone is practicing it. The episode walks through the strategies of Glenn’s Innovation Mentality: seeing opportunities, anticipating change, unleashing passion, living with an entrepreneurial spirit, building trust and leaving a legacy. King connects each one to her own experience.

Seeing past the silo

Opportunities are everywhere, Glenn says, yet few have eyes to see them. For King, seeing them starts with being an agile learner who takes in every point of view:

"if you stay within your little silo, you're never going to be able to look up and look out" — Tiffany King · 00:05:15

Glenn noted that legacy business models were built to put people in silos and cultivate like-minded thinking. King has worked inside that design:

"when you are in an organization where you're working in silos, you become stuck" — Tiffany King · 00:06:09

Silos choke collaboration, and Glenn linked them to why organizations struggle to measure inclusion: truly inclusive organizations would be widening their view through people’s different perspectives all the time.

Anticipating the move

King grew up moving every four to five years for her father’s work. The worst part was the lunchroom at each new school, where she had to make new friends all over again.

"I anticipated the move, right? I kind of knew right at that four year mark we were going to be moving again, and I was going to have to prepare myself for a change and a shift" — Tiffany King · 00:09:21

Change became normal, and she carries that into her work. Leaders are change agents, she says, so they have to think through the what-ifs and how each disruption lands on their people. For someone who feels stuck, she starts with:

"just some self-reflection, right, to understand why are you feeling stuck" — Tiffany King · 00:11:19

Next comes finding the allies and advocates, whether a friend, a coworker or a colleague, who can help that person move forward.

Passion, and room to speak

Her advice to everyone she has mentored:

"follow your passion and seek to grow in an organization whose values align with your values and your morals" — Tiffany King · 00:13:21

Help someone unleash that passion, she said, and watch the value they add. On the entrepreneurial spirit, which Glenn calls a way of life rather than a job title, she said:

"you really have to have that courage to be able to speak freely and speak your ideas and your thoughts even when they may be a little uncommon" — Tiffany King · 00:16:04

A leader’s job is to make that space safe and to turn people’s ideas into action, so they feel heard and valued. Glenn added that when work isn’t predetermined, people discover capacities they never knew they had.

Trust, starting with yourself

Why does trust matter so much in change?

"trust is important because you're basically asking people to follow you into the unknown" — Tiffany King · 00:19:02

For her it is non-negotiable: with trust, people face uncertainty with less fear. Glenn pushed further, saying people also need to trust themselves, and she answered personally:

"as an African-American female, I know many times we deal with imposter syndrome and feeling like, should I really be here?" — Tiffany King · 00:20:59

Her answer is the line at the top of this page, which she gives the young women she mentors. To close, Glenn asked how to find people who want your success to continue. She recalled a book she read when she first became a leader, about the legacy you want to leave:

"the one thing that it talked about that stood out to me most was to be me, right? Don't try to be anyone else, but be me" — Tiffany King · 00:23:14

"be true to who you are, be true to the essence of who you are" — Tiffany King · 00:23:49

Glenn’s closing thought was that when you are true to yourself, people gravitate toward you, and they become the support that carries you through change.