Ask a Boss: How to Navigate Business as a Female Leader in HR

This week, our founder (and fearless leader) Dana Dowdell is in the hot seat. A self-proclaimed HR fanatic, she’s been pushing boundaries in the Human Resources field for over 12 years.

Dana sat down with Brandon Chance to discuss what it means to be a leader in HR. They’re diving deep into what it’s like running an HR consulting business and how being a woman in the field impacts how she shows up as an HR leader.

Dana is a business owner and host of two podcasts – Quirky HR and It’s Just Business. As well as an HR coach, professor, and Human Resources expert.

If you’re a leader in HR – or curious about the field and business – this one is for you.

Let’s dig in.

What an established leader in HR wants you to know.

Chance: What do you wish you knew about HR before getting into it?

Dowdell: So, there's this concept in true crime – an armchair detective. Where people basically sit behind their computers and make up theories. They think they’re better and more knowledgeable than experts.

I wish I had known how much of that there is in this field.

There're lots of people who work in HR, who have no knowledge of laws and regulations and how they actually get applied in the workplace. And yet, they're finding themselves in these HR leader roles and not really equipped with the right knowledge, skills, or support to do those effectively.

I also wish I had known how skeptical people are. All it takes is for a manager to have one bad situation or experience with an employee. And then they then think that every single experience in the future will be like that.

So, there's so much skepticism from leaders, managers, and business owners. I wish I was aware of how much that existed.

When I went into this field, I remember my professor said – “You need to go into this field with the assumption that people generally want to do well.”

I wish that that was practiced across the board, rather than having so much skepticism about humans, what they do, and why they do it.

Chance:

I can understand that. Do you want to try and change that mentality?

Dowdell: 99% of my work in HR is generally positive, developmental things.

Like helping employees figure out their benefits, helping them enter their time off requests, learning a new platform, or getting them set up for training.

It’s the 1% of shitty things where I have to write someone up or have to fire someone.

Since the majority of my work is positive, I would much rather be perceived as approachable, warm, welcoming, kind, and human.

Chance: I am not sure if this is a true stat or not, but it made me think a little bit about how HR is predominantly female. As someone who identifies as female, do you see this as being more of a strength or a weakness in the field? How has it affected your experience?

Dowdell: Oh, man. It's interesting.

Chance: I would like to clarify. I think I could have worded that better and said it has more of a perceived strength or weakness because I don’t want to imply that being female is any kind of weakness.

Dowdell: Brandon, you're about to work with three other really strong females. If you don't know that already, you will know very quickly how badass we are.

I think as a woman, I can relate to people a little bit differently. But I think a man is very capable of relating to employees authentically.

You know, those gender challenges still very much exist in the workplace. And I think they particularly exist at those higher levels in an organization.

If the company or client that you're working with doesn't see HR as a strategic partner, it's a constant uphill battle. You're up two rings of the ladder, and then you're down three because of some office politics or an assumption that someone's going to make about you.

I think as a female, it's a bit harder to have a level of authority and to practice that appropriately in the workplace. I can tell you that I’ve been boxed out of situations or conversations that I should have been included in.

I self-reflect on those like – “Is it me? Is it my approach? Is it that I haven't built those relationships with people that I really should? Or is it that, no. I just need to stand firm and say, I should have been included in that conversation.”

So I think that's where I see the challenge right now, especially in my career. I’ve been doing this for a while, I've established myself and have gotten a lot better about having my voice heard.

But it’s still challenging, trying to get a seat at that table.

To show your value, show your worth, and prove that it's important that HR is part of these conversations.

What it’s like running a consulting business as an HR leader.

Chance: Has that challenge been a struggle in starting your business?

Dowdell: I'm sure it has. It’s impacted price and how I think about price and value. And how I value myself.

I have another podcast that I do with my friend Russ called It's Just Business, and that was the whole crux of why we started the podcast.

His experience as a man in business – in pricing, contracting, and all of that stuff – it's very simple. For him, it's very, this plus this equals this. That's how it's gonna be.

As a woman, I've really struggled with my pricing and standing firm on the value that I provide. And I think over time, it's obviously gotten a lot easier.

I'm constantly reminded just how good at our job we actually are. Which is really nice place to be.

To think about six years ago, when I used to write sticky notes when I would talk to a client so that I didn't automatically give them a discount. I would put a sticky note on my computer and be like – “You charge this amount for this. Don't let anything convince you otherwise.”

But I don't get hung up so much now on rejection in business. I'm very much about fit. If a client doesn't want to work with us, that's okay.

It could be that I'm a woman, it could be that I price myself out of their budget, it could be a variety of different reasons. So, I don’t necessarily get hung up on that stuff.

Chance: At what point in your business did you finally have that “aha moment” where you're like, you know what, I got this.

Dowdell: I think I'm still waiting for it to come. You know, it's those little incremental moments that I think are adding up to that big feeling. But I still have impostor syndrome.

I will say, when clients started to find us on Google – most of our business comes from referrals and word of mouth. But when somebody Google's us, and likes us from our website or the reviews we have on Google and reaches out, that's really cool.

Because I think about myself as a consumer. Choosing what company I want to do it do business with. So, it's cool to be on the receiving side of that.

But I never want to get too big for my britches. I always want to be humble.

I started Boss Consulting HR wanting to help other small businesses. And I never want to lose sight of that or price ourselves out of the market so that we can't help small businesses anymore.

You know, I have this dream of being able to take my entire team to a SHRM conference. To stay in a really nice hotel and fly first class.

Those things haven't manifested yet. But that's how I look at my businesses. Like when it gets to the point that these things can be done, that's when I'll know we're successful.

But I also don't ever want to stop growing the business. I don’t ever want to stop reaching and helping more people.

So, we might reach that metric of being able to fly first class to a SHRM conference, but there's always going to be another achievement that we're going to be aiming for.

Get in touch.

Listen to the entire interview on the Quirky HR Podcast here.

As a leader in HR and in business, Dana is available for speaking arrangements and podcast appearances. Please contact hello@bossconsulting.com to learn more.

To inquire about our consulting services and work with Dana and our team directly, schedule a consultation here.