About Samantha Parga
Currently the HR and Payroll Manager at Flagsource, Samantha has focused on creating development sessions and training techniques for the leadership team she has worked with, aiming to improve internal growth. Having gone from a VIP Bartender to HR Manager, Samantha recognizes the importance of being able to identify talent and translatable skills on a deeper level rather than just what is written on a resume.
In this episode Steve and Samantha discuss:
- Finding courage within
- Basing stability on work ethic
- Reflecting on what you want
- Choosing the scarier option
Key Takeaways:
- Find courage from within or draw it from the people around you that you’ve allowed to influence you.
- Don’t let your stability come from external circumstances, but rather, from within. Cultivate a good work ethic and have some courage in facing the unknown.
- Look and reflect on what you want for your career. What do you want to learn? What do you want to be better at?
- When deciding on what to do between two options: one a less scary option and another a scarier option, always choose the scarier option. Surely, that scarier option will bring growth.
“You’re not going to progress if you’re not learning new processes, procedures, reporting styles. If you have the same type of experience, you can’t grow.” - Samantha Parga
Connect with Samantha Parga:
Website: www.Flagsource.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-parga-msml
Connect with Steve and Jason:
Website: Rewire, Inc.: Transformed Thinking
Email: grow@rewireinc.com
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Listen to the podcast here
Samantha Parga: The Safe Zone May Not Be The Growth Zone
As I typically do, we have found some intriguing guests to be with us. I get the great pleasure of introducing and interviewing Sam Parga. I'm super excited because the topic of leadership and HR revolves around how we develop people. From our initial conversations, I got the impression that your thoughts around that, what you've done, and how you see the development of human capital is interesting. I hope to be able to go down those roads with you. How's that sound?
It sounds great.
Let's do this. Before we kick off, I want to ask you a question. You can spend a little time thinking about it or you can answer as quickly as you would like. What are you grateful for?
I am grateful for the opportunities I've had to make decisions and the courage that I've found to make them.
I'm already going to go in a little bit of a wrap. That's beautiful. Grateful for the decisions themselves and the courage to make them. Do I hear that right?
Yes.
Where did you muster up that courage?
A lot of it comes from various influences, coworkers that I've worked with, family, and friends. Each time I'm presented with the opportunity professionally or personally, do you stay or go? You pull some of those influences from the people that you have been around or talked to. That helps us or myself specifically make those decisions and either find the courage from within or from your influences.
I didn't mean to have a follow-up question to that but here we go, I'm going to follow up even more. Off the top of your head, who has been the person that's influenced you? As you think about gratitude and decisions and where you are in your life, who's influenced you and how?
You will never progress if you’re not learning something new. If you just have the same type of experience over and over, you cannot grow.
I feel like I can't say one person. I've had different influences from each chapter of my life. I could say, my father. He is a long-term computer programmer. When he has been in and out of different roles on the corporate side of it, he has given me some advice. I will say some of that influence is more so from the people I talk to on a daily. For example, at the last company I worked at for Centennial, I had a senior accountant that pushed me to get back on the job market and find my job. Even though it was a short time that I had known that person, he influenced me to push myself and find the courage to get back into the job market and find a better-suited position for myself.
Thanks to those people who would do that. Maybe we can become that for other people. I don't doubt that you are that for other people. It’s good for you. You talked about chapters. I could read off your bio and your curriculum, that's one way to do this or I could ask you about the chapters of your life. If you had to take no more than 2 or 3 minutes max, what are the chapters of Samantha Parga’s life? Maybe end with what's your chapter now.
I was in school for my Associate’s in Environmental Science. Initially, I thought I would go into some type of natural scientist role. I had my first job at Clark Environmental. I was a mosquito hunter. I found that it was not what I had expected it to be working outside. It was July, 90 to 100 degrees. There, I hung up my mosquito hunting net. I plateaued. I was a bartender for seven years at the Horseshoe Casino.
I had no real plans of returning to school or starting any type of future career. That chapter ended not specifically by my own personal choice but the company had decided that we were not going to have full-time workers anymore for bartending. Instead, you can take a severance package to leave or you could stay part-time.
That comes to one of my decisions that I had to find the courage to say, “I'm going to try to find something different.” I went on Craigslist and found my first job in an office where I was hired to be customer service for a warehouse called SliBuy.com. There is where a lot of my career journey started. They had a lot of attrition. Shortly after starting, we had the customer service manager go out, then we had the listing manager.
The HR manager had quit, and they asked me if I would step in. I was hesitant. I told them I didn't see myself in an HR position but the president was adamant. He's like, “You are nice. You can do it.” I accepted the challenge. It was supposed to be only temporary but I ended up staying there for three years, gaining experience as an HR Manager. I had six departments there.
I was even the Head of Security. I can brag about that. I took that and decided, “HR is my passion. Let me try to find a job that is only HR related.” That's when I started working at The Home Depot, a warehouse for HR, as a Generalist. That's where my career in HR developed. I did go back to school. My brother encouraged me to go to WGU. I got my Bachelor's in HR in six months.
I got my Master's in Management and Leadership in three months. I decided, “I'm done with Home Depot. I'm ready to move on to my next chapter.” I got the HR Manager position at First Centennial Mortgage. I was only there for eight months before that influence pushed me to find something better for myself. Now I am the HR and Payroll Manager at FlagSource. It is a great fit for myself.
Those are cool chapters. It sounds like there's a lot going into each of those transitions. The way you tell the story now, we are not actually in the story. I'm curious. Moving from Home Depot, which you moved from sliBuy and FlagSource, and being a bartender. It’s fascinating how you went from each of these things. Did you have trepidation and anxiety around the transitions? What was that like? It sounds like you are telling me now, “I just went and did this work.” Was there a struggle in making those decisions? What was the struggle like id you did?
Growth Zone: HR leaders must have conversations with employees to help them grow and give them opportunities to do so.
A lot of the struggles were the unknown. You are going from Home Depot. That’s a stable environment. When I worked at sliBuy, I knew those people. I worked closely with the president. I worked with the GM and the operations managers. I knew the team. Going to Home Depot was a whole brand-new process that I had to learn. They have acronyms like crazy that they use. They don't generally break those down for the new people. It takes a while to learn that type of culture.
When I went from Home Depot to First Centennial, I remembered one of the AGM. His name was John. He had said to me, “Don't you want the stability that Home Depot offers?” I remember looking back at him and saying, “I know that my stability comes from my work ethic.” It's almost like you have to find that courage to decide, “I don't want to stalemate my career. I do want to progress.” You are not going to progress if you are not learning new processes, procedures, and reporting styles. If you have the same type of experience, you can't grow.
There’s no science to this question. There’s anecdotally your opinion. What percentage of people have you encountered that are like John who would forgo growth for stability?
In my opinion, a good 75% of people would rather stay with what they know. At that building I worked at, there were 50-something leaders, and over 50% had been there for years before I had gotten there and are still there now. I don't think a lot of people find that courage to step into the unknown and try something new.
Here we are in the confines of an interview. It's easy to talk about, the courage. By its nature, courage is not easy. If courage were easy, I suppose we would call it something other than courage. Where do you think you derived that? There might be people reading going, “Have courage, as if.” You continue to grow in your leadership role. Are you encouraging others to find the courage that you had?
Every time I talk to one of the employees or friends or family, I always encourage them to look and self-reflect as to what they want for their career. I literally had gone a month with my production manager and approached so many of the associates and asked them, “What do you want to learn? We want to give you that opportunity if you want to cross-train, if you want to do a different department, and if you want to learn a new skill.” Some people do need to get approached about it. They are not going to do the approaching.
When you asked those questions, “What do you want to learn? Where do you want to grow?” were there other questions that you and your production manager were asking?
Not generally. A lot of the people that we did speak with did say, “I like my job. I want to stay here.” I don't want to discourage them from liking their job. That's good. The ones that did say, “I want to learn that department,” it was not something that we had even thought about offering to that associate. We had to approach them and find out by asking the questions that that person would want to try that other department.
We didn't ask additional questions. We are now trying to figure out ways to get them into those roles that they are looking for. It's important for HR leaders, for leaders in general, to have those conversations with their employees to help build them and give them that opportunity or that platform to say, “This is what I would like to do,” and then make a mental list. If you can make it happen for them, why not?
If you need to find your courage, look at the two options presented to you. The scarier option is probably the right one.
Do you feel like the organizations that you have been with and maybe even the one that you are at now, sometimes it feels to me, and I would love to hear your thoughts around this, it's one thing for individuals to go, “I'm happy where I am?” This is fine. That's okay, but you still are asking questions about growth, which is super cool that you do that. What do you say to organizations who find themselves, the whole organization, the leadership, and maybe some people are reading going, “We don't want you walking around asking people where they want to grow because we, as an organization, are also interested in staying where we are because it works?”
I've had that happen to work at Home Depot. I was helping an associate who asked for assistance to build a resume. I know when I was speaking with her, her intention was to apply for a maintenance associate position. Her resume did need a lot of help. I appreciate that she had come to me for it. When I was walking the floor with the regional HR manager, I remember she approached me about the help I was given her, asking for the next time that we could meet.
I remember that regional manager turning back to me and saying, “We don't want to give too much help with a resume because we don't want them to leave.” I did tell her, “Her intention is to stay within the company. It's just to apply for a different position.” That is a problem that even though there's that fear of that person leaving, you do more good by helping that employee than bad because that person is going to realize they see you as Home Depot. They don't see you as Samantha. They see you as a member of that company. “This company has helped me. I want to stay with this company.”
How about the company you are now with, do you find them to be open to the idea of you helping all these people grow and develop? I suppose even if it means developing beyond the company.
Yeah, absolutely. The company I'm with now is looking into other ways to offer classes for employees. I have never been in a situation where the company I work at, the majority of people do not speak English. It is a little bit of a challenge but the company has tried to find some type of resource to be able to offer English as a second language.
They also want to do other skills training for the employees if they are interested. Completely on an optional basis, we've had employees approaching saying, “I want to learn.” The company is much so for the employees. They want to find those avenues and resources and bring them onsite for those employees to grow.
I don't think it's a more difficult question but here's one that I hope is a good segue. Where do you still need to grow?
I feel like for myself, I need to get more into the leadership role. For now, I'm on an HR team of one. My last role was HR team of one. For me, I need to learn more about working with direct reports. I haven't had one since my first role at sliBuy, where I had many departments. I had at least 6 to 12 direct reports at one time but I haven't had that since 2015. For myself, I need to grow with that. I have always had an opportunity to grow with business acumen. I try my best to learn the numbers and not space them out during numbers discussions. That's an opportunity for me.
You have to grow as a leader in the business acumen piece, the numbers piece. What's on the horizon for you to take steps in that growth?
Growth Zone: You have to continuously push yourself to learn something completely new. Otherwise, you will experience a growth plateau.
I'm working with the SHRM, the Society of HR, to do the senior certification exam. While I do have the opportunity for the business acumen side of it, I'm still growing the HR skillset, too. It’s because I am relatively new to my position. I’m still getting the swing or the scheduling side of all of the different types of reporting that we have to do. They are constantly changing in Illinois, the types of reporting and the deadlines. I'm still working through that. I don't want to rush the development piece.
I find that so much of your career has been marked by change. That change has been self-imposed, “You are going. You are growing. You are going to do this.” You probably could've stayed at Home Depot forever, and you didn’t. You changed. It feels to me like there's something in you that understands that change is growth, and growth is change. You embrace that. I can't imagine there aren't readers going, “Get somewhere, be there, and don't change,” because change freaks people out, and here you are inviting it and going and growing. What are your thoughts about that?
I don't want to get stuck on a growth plateau. I know that once I have learned a position, my goal is always to be the subject matter expert in that position. I want to know the ins and outs of the platforms that we use. I want to know the ins and outs of the benefits that we offer. I want to know and be able to answer every question, the backside of my hand thing.
I always strive to have that knowledge. Once I have learned all that, now I'm at a growth plateau. I have to continuously push myself to either personally take a class outside of work or try to find a different position that will help me learn something completely new. This is my first time working in a manufacturing company.
It's different for me. It's going to take me a while to become a subject matter expert. It's still amazing when I walk through my office door into the warehouse, and we are seeing these American flags being manufactured. When it comes to that day, when I know the ins and outs of every single platform and benefit, it’s secondhand nature for me. I know that I have to self-reflect and decide, “You can stay here and have that stability or you can push yourself to grow to reach your career goals.”
As you look back from the mosquito hunter to where you are now, I’m curious, how do you evaluate that? Did you feel this about yourself even back then? Did you know you had to grow? Has this mindset of change and growth developed in you over time?
It developed over time. I was at the bartending for seven years. I had no ambition to go back to school and learn a profession. I was fine. The tips that I had coming in were great. The hours were great. I had no responsibility. Nobody calls my phone outside of hours to ask questions. It was what I plateaued at saying, “This is fine for the rest of my life.” I didn't plan it like, “This will be the rest of my life.” I didn't plan in general.
For me, looking back now, seeing that, “I'm an HR and Payroll Manager coming from bartending and mosquito hunting,” does make me look back and say, “I can't believe I have come through many different hurdles and hills to get to where I'm at now.” It makes me proud and thankful that I've had these opportunities to grow.
We do call it the insight interviews. I'm not interviewing you for a job. As we get close to ending here, this sounds like a job interview question. You've probably done this a ton in your world. If you've had that much growth in the past and had these changes and stuff, and you didn't plan it, it feels like some things and some people happen to you. You got to space and learned what it meant to change and grow. It feels almost like you developed this taste for growth like, “I can keep growing.” With that in mind, how do you see yourself growing in the next ten years of your life?
A high percentage of people are doing self-reflection, but only a small percentage take action on it.
I see myself deciding to eventually, not in the near future, I do want to grow in my role but I do want to learn more about having my own direct report teams. Eventually, possibly supporting a regional team and growing that way. I don't have a specific title that I'm chasing or a specific company that I like to work for. It's all something that I need to let happen. As those decisions come, I need to continue to find the courage to choose what is right for me and what's going to help me progress.
You have found courage in the past. You get to write a book called Find the Courage. I'm making this up, by the way. You didn't say you wanted to write a book. If you were going to write a book on finding the courage, because you keep talking about that, “I found the courage.” I know there are people reading, even I'm like, “Where did you find it? That's interesting.” You mentioned people and circumstances but in your book, where would you tell people to find the courage?
I would name my book, Being AweSam. For me, whenever I had those tough decisions, normally I found the most difficult decision like, “Should I stay or should I go?” The reason why I'm having so much difficulty making that decision is that a part of me inside knows that it is the right decision. It's the scariest one. What internally I'm telling myself is the better option for myself. If you need to find that courage, look at the two options that you are being presented. The scarier of the options is probably the right one.
Anything else in the book before I close that chapter of our thing? I'm keeping that metaphor alive, by the way.
There should probably be a big chapter on self-reflection. When you are working your job or pursuing your goals, if you find yourself comfortable, you need to have that self-reflection moment and say, “How am I growing now? What else do I need to do to now put myself on a better trajectory to grow and learn something new? Now, I feel like I'm comfortable. I need to step outside of that comfort zone.”
I got so many questions for you. I love that self-reflection. I'm going to ask you based on your own personal experience. What percentage of the people do you see in the world do a good job of self-reflection?
There's probably a higher percentage of self-reflection. There's a lower percentage of people who take action on it. I said 75% are stalemated. They are comfortable with that stability. Those people are self-reflective where they know that they are choosing stability. You have that lower percentage of people who will take action on that self-reflection or that self-realization.
I can't think of anything sadder than having a realization and then ultimately not possessing the courage to take action on it. You got to live with that. I already had that realization.
It’s their choice. They are choosing that stability because they know it's a safe zone. It's not anything bad. Even though they are choosing not to take action on it, they feel comfortable where they are at.
Growth Zone: If you find yourself comfortable and self-reflect on how you are growing. Put yourself on a better trajectory by stepping outside that comfort zone.
We are always trying to name our little episodes. How about this as a name for our episode, The Safe Zone May Not Be the Growth Zone?
That's wonderful. I like it.
You made it up. We expect you to write a book on that stuff. Was there anything in our interview that you were hoping I would ask you that I didn’t?
I don't think so. I feel like we've covered a good amount of information. You asked good questions.
I was asking them for me. That's what's cool about these interviews. Little do people know, these are for me. I'm walking out. I know the inside interview goes well when even during the interviewing process, I'm sitting here going, “I wonder where I still need to make that growth decision. I wonder what reflection I need to do.” Being stuck and stagnant is not always evident when you are in it.
I got to imagine that that's one way that people stay there as they maybe think they are growing but it's a deflection because the real change needs to come as a result of us moving, doing, and taking action. I need to ask that of myself. That's why I know these are good because I'm sitting there going, “Whether anybody else gets anything out of this, I didn’t.” I'm grateful to you. Thank you so much.
We wish you well in your new endeavors. Thank you for all of your book titles. We expect those books to be coming out and be bestsellers here in the next couple of years. We will look forward to that. I wanted to thank you for your time. I've learned a lot. As we say all the time here on the show, whether it's evaluating the stages and seasons where you are in life and continuing to ask where you grow.
I loved what you said about oftentimes that scary one being the right choice. Maybe people will go and reflect on that and have their own insight as a result of that. It doesn't matter at the end of the day, true to Sam's point about what my insights are, even what her insights are. What matters most is what insights you have and then what will you be willing to take action on. Anyway, thank you. Thank you for being part of it. I’m grateful to you.
Thank you.
You are welcome. We will see you all next time here at The Insight Interviews.
Important Links
- Sam Parga
- SliBuy.com
- http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/samantha-parga-msml
- https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/RewireJason/
- https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/Steve-Scanlon-Lizard/
- Grow@RewireInc.com
