April Smith

I attribute my success to my kids, first of all, but I also put myself there too. I'm just a motivator anyway, and I move on motivation. I love to do more, and I think growth is always there - you never get to a point to where you can't grow. I think my children most of all drive me, and I have two daughters. I always push them to always do more, and if you can help someone else do that, then that's part of it too. That's what keeps me going and pushing forward in my career.

The best career advice I ever received was when I first went into management in general, and it was basically to choose my battles. That was one of the hardest things to do, but learning how to do it on a scale where you're doing so many different things and you're dealing with so many different people with different backgrounds, different cultures, and things like that - learning how to choose those battles where you don't have to fight everything. I think that was the best advice for someone coming into management. You don't have to fight everything, learn how to listen to people and their thoughts. I use it in my personal life and my professional life.

The best advice I would give a young lady going into this career would be to always try to put the employees first, if at all possible. I think that sometimes we forget that because we're working for the organization, and that is usually our first priority a lot of times. But I think we forget about the employees sometimes, and their needs. For me, that's why I chose this field and I combined it with social work, because I'm able to talk to them and get on that level with them, so they understand that I hear you, I understand you have things going on at home, and it does affect your work. When you come in, I want to make sure you know I hear you, I understand you. I'm empathetic. I'm not just gonna close my door and not listen to you. So don't forget about the employees and the people part of it.

I think there are opportunities for growth in this field in HR. There's always room for growth. For me, being an HR manager, you can always be a business partner and move up. You can always be a senior HR manager. Those are opportunities I always look for, and honestly, I'm looking now. I just always do that because I feel like I can always move a little further if I can, because I know my experience is there and the education behind it. So I feel like I can always move a little more. As I told you from the beginning, I think people always have room for growth.

I think respect is the most important value to me. Respect goes both ways, but people sometimes forget about the part of earning it. We always want it, and that's on both sides, but you have to earn people's respect. I teach and coach young managers about this too - you have to earn people's respect. They're just not gonna walk through the door and just respect you automatically. You know what I mean? It's not just an automatic thing. When you have that respect from people, I think it's so important. That's one of my biggest things - it's just respect.