International Women’s Day with Theresa Hummel-Krallinger, High Five Performance, Inc.
As a woman-owned business, we are honored to share the stories and messages of incredible woman leaders across a variety of industries for our International Women’s Day blog series.
This interview is with Theresa Hummel-Krallinger, Chief People Officer at High Five Performance, Inc.
Why do you think it’s important to celebrate International Women’s Day?
As the old Virginia Slims advertisement used to say, “We’ve come a long way baby!” It’s amazing the strides we’ve made even during my lifetime. I think it’s important to look at where we’ve been, the progress made and what is yet left to do. It’s a great time to be a woman!
What motivates you to be a leader in your industry?
Clearly, Human Resources and Organizational Development are the backbones of an organization’s culture. At this time, it is absolutely critical that leaders create organizations where people want to work and can thrive. It’s a time of great change for employers and employees. Remote work is a game changer, enabling many people to work virtually anywhere. There’s a new challenge for leaders to create an engaging culture, even when staff isn’t on campus. It’s a challenging, exciting and wonderful time to be in this profession!
Are there any female leaders that have inspired you throughout your career?
So many! Jean Otte of Women Unlimited was an amazing leader who created success for herself during a time when very few women reached the executive suite. She then created Women Unlimited to educate, inspire and create powerful networks for female leaders. I am a proud graduate. Another is Valarie Higgins, president of Almac Clinical Technologies. Smart, hard-working, and authentic – she came up the ranks from being a project manager to the leader of the organization. I learned so much from watching her and often use stories about her in the workshops I lead.
What advice or message would you share with young women who are looking to build their careers?
Two key aspects of long-term success are managing your personal brand and cultivating and feeding your professional network. With every interaction you have, you are creating your brand. Create the kind of experiences that will build the brand you want and need in order to achieve your goals. Then, as you build relationships, be diligent about tracking your network connections, feeding and maintaining key relationships and staying top of mind. If you do these two things well, you will be well on your way!
Read the rest of our International Women’s Day blog series here.
