Building Trust Is Key to Successful Business

Principal at HCS
Summer Anderson

Summer Anderson founded the California-based Human Capital Solutions (HCS) to help companies build executive teams to support innovation and profitability. Her 15 years of global executive recruitment for Fortune 500 technology and fast growth e-commerce equipped her with the expertise to understand what her clients need to move their business to the next level and beyond.
The most important trend today is getting the relationships right. Summer says when you have trusting relationships with top management it eliminates fear, which frees everyone to be their most creative and take risks necessary to propel growth.

Transformational Verses Transactional Leadership

Summer has seen a lot of top-down transactional leadership, but her goal is to provide transformational leaders who complement the company culture and existing management. To do that, she must learn the company from the ground up, have access to all the principals involved and talking with the entire team to learn what’s working and what needs tuning up. Once the existing team understands that HCS only wants to help, they buy into the process and lose any fear they have of being replaced. It’s this kind of approach that helps her attract quality candidates who can add value and synergy to the team.

Women Leaders in Executive Management

Although Summer’s mentors were mostly men, she mentions several women role models in executive leadership who influenced her.  She talks about women she admires and how they lead with strength, but humility. She would like to see more women in the executive ranks, but comments that the movement of women leadership is exponential. There are more women in the workforce today, but management is only now supporting them in ways that helps them creatively drive the companies forward. Those that employ more women have more varied approaches and outcomes and increased profitability.

Women Need to Support Women

Both Dr. Nancy and Summer talk about what can be accomplished when women support one another. Summer urges women to call out and debunk the “girl games” that start in the third grade. If we shine a light on them for what they are, then we can end them. We’ll never get anywhere fighting one another. Dr. Nancy agrees and comments on how much more fun it is to work and play with like-minded women and men.
Listen to this interview for more stories about Summer’s experiences and views on team-building in the tech industries. Then check out HCS website’s mission to find the impossible and how being human can ensure the best success.

 

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