S4 Sp1 | Moments that Matter with Shelia Gray

A new and special podcast series where leaders and talent professionals share their own experiences with varying aspects of discrimination and inequality. Here we’re dedicated to creating dedicated conversations around those specific moments – the moments that matter.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 0:21I did two virtual conferences this week the one that I spoke at was okay, because because they did an avatar and you actually went into a room, you got to choose your spot and stand where you wanted to look at the screen or going third. That was an interesting conference,

Chris Hoyt 0:42But I want to talk about the logistics that I would pick the avatar with …

Shelia Gray, Quadient 0:44Oh my gosh, it was so cool

Chris Hoyt 0:46With the biggest giant head. And then if I got to pick where I could stand, I was standing the very front.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 0:52Mine, you couldn’t be a person of color. So when I would choose my avatar, the hairstyles With a ponytail a high ponytail, and then when you chose the skin tell it color it only did your face not your neck or your hands. It was weird thing on there. And then your clothes. I gotta wear some tight jeans and some sneakers. So I was like, Oh yeah, okay, we’ll call it

Chris Hoyt 1:16I haven’t worn pants and months.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 1:19Not long pants.

Chris Hoyt 1:22Alright, so look, I have with me, Shelia Gray. Shelia, you have been a force, you’re one of my favorite people in our industry space. I have known you I always try to figure this out. Because, you know, I think we take for granted the time that we spent in the space at the time that we travel, you know, for those of us who were power travelers for so long and who just you know, bumped into each other in Ireland or Amsterdam or where all the other places we might have been? I want to say it’s probably been seven years, eight years that we’ve known each other.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 1:55Oh gosh. Um, I think I met you I may have met you before, but I met you at a CareerXroads meeting in New Jersey. I think it was BASF

Chris Hoyt 2:08Operations.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 2:10It was the first operations meetings when I met you. I was with Mark and Jerry a lot longer than that. But I think that’s the first time I met you.

Chris Hoyt 2:19Yeah, maybe so yeah, in fact. I don’t I think that was summer. It would have been roughly

Shelia Gray, Quadient 2:26Summer or spring.

Chris Hoyt 2:27Yeah, yeah, I remember that. Absolutely. Remember that. In fact, that was one of the meetings where I was sitting, I was sort of more of an observer than I was a participant that day.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 2:37Yes.

Chris Hoyt 2:38Was one of the final meetings before I was making the final decision if I wanted to buy half.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 2:42Oh, it was okay. Yes, that was the first that was a really good meeting. That was my that was the first operations meeting. And so I don’t want to say we went off on tangents, but we covered a lot of stuff in that meeting. We did everything from recruiter performance to technology, and we covered the gamut and called it operations. It may have been one of those meetings where as a result, we did an we’ve now started doing subsets of that meeting, because I don’t remember us doing a technology meeting before.

Chris Hoyt 3:13Right? That’s what we did

Shelia Gray, Quadient 3:14Subsets. Yeah.

Chris Hoyt 3:15Yeah, it’s fine because we carry the operations piece. And sometimes I think it acts as a catch all.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 3:21Yes,

Chris Hoyt 3:22But we’ve pulled other pieces out full blown meetings and disciplines and now we do technology showcases that came out of that. Yeah, that was pivotal.

Shelia Gray, Quadient 3:29You know, it’s funny, because as a result of that meeting, I really saw like, when organizations asked me what’s the bare What are those job families with those jobs, you got to have in TA I used to say, you know,