The Path to HR Leadership That No One Talks About

Most HR professionals are given the same advice:

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Work hard.

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Gain experience.

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Wait your turn.

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But that is not how careers actually accelerate.

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In this episode of Pulse, Dani Woods shares the real, unfiltered path behind her rise from HR assistant to HRIS Director before 30. And more importantly, she explains why the title itself was never the point.

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This conversation is not just about promotions. It is about confidence, discomfort, and stepping into leadership before someone gives you permission.

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If you work in HR, HR operations, HRIS, or people analytics and you are thinking about your next move, this episode offers both tactical advice and mindset shifts that can redefine how you approach your career.

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From HR Assistant to Director Before 30

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Dani did not follow a traditional path.

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She began in HR as an assistant without even completing her bachelor’s degree. She originally thought she wanted to become a lawyer, but after speaking with practicing attorneys who were unhappy in their careers, she pivoted.

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She convinced a company to take a chance on her while she was still in school. Over time, she moved from HR operations into HRIS and eventually stepped into leadership.

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By age 27, she became a director.

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But when the promotion came, something unexpected happened.

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Instead of fulfillment, she felt empty.

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The title had been tied to validation. Proving she was good enough. Proving her age did not define her capability. And once she reached it, she realized leadership is not about the external recognition. It is about impact.

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That realization reframed everything.

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The Turning Point: Do the Job Before You Get the Title

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One of the most powerful themes in this episode is simple:

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You do not get promoted and then start doing the job.

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You start doing the job and then the promotion follows.

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Dani shared that she was operating at the next level long before the official title changed. As a senior manager, she was already thinking and acting like a director.

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Instead of waiting to be invited into strategy conversations, she stepped into them. She created roadmaps her leaders had not asked for. She proactively identified gaps. She proposed solutions.

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She did not wait for permission.

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This shift from reactive to proactive is often the real inflection point in HR careers. Many professionals stay focused on assigned tasks. Leaders focus on problems that have not yet been solved.

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If you want to grow, you must operate above your current scope.

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Confidence Is a Career Multiplier

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A recurring theme throughout the episode is confidence.

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Many HR professionals know more than they think they do. But when they speak, they hedge. They soften their voice. They downplay their impact.

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Dani described how she initially struggled with self-belief. Even when she was operating at a senior level, she did not always see it herself. And when an executive once told her she was not ready, she had to make a decision:

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Accept someone else’s definition of her capability, or define it herself.

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She chose the latter.

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She reworked her resume to reflect the level she was already operating at. She reframed her experience. She stepped fully into the belief that she could lead.

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The lesson is clear:

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If you do not believe you are ready, no one else will either.

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Moving from Individual Contributor to Strategic Leader

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One of the biggest transitions in HR careers is moving from individual contributor to people leader.

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For Dani, that shift happened when she realized the influence leaders have on their teams’ daily experiences. HR leaders have the power to make Monday mornings better or worse. They shape calm or chaos.

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When her organization was acquired, she was forced to build a new team from scratch. She did not have all the answers. She had to jump in.

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That moment required stepping out of technical comfort and into leadership discomfort.

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The growth happens there.

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When Should Leaders Step Away from Technical Work?

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A major topic in the episode centers on whether HRIS or HR tech leaders should remain deeply hands-on.

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Dani admitted that at one point, 60 percent of her job was configuration. But over time, she realized that staying too deep in the system limited her team’s growth.

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If you are always the expert in the room, your team never becomes experts.

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That said, she emphasizes balance. Leaders must still understand the system well enough to step in during a crisis. You cannot advocate for your team if you do not understand what they do.

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The shift is from being the default troubleshooter to being the architect.

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That distinction is what separates managers from leaders.

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How to Move from HR Operations into Strategic HR Roles

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For those coming from HR operations, Dani offers encouraging news.

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The transition into HRIS or more strategic roles is very possible, especially if you start with curiosity.

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She recommends:

• Volunteer to lead testing.
• Partner on process redesign.
• Take formal training to deepen technical knowledge.
• Position yourself as someone who understands both operations and systems.

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HRIS teams automate operational processes. If you understand operations deeply, you already hold part of the equation.

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The key is reframing your experience in terms of systems, reporting, and architecture.

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What to Do When Your Boss Blocks Your Growth

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Not all leaders encourage upward movement.

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Dani addressed a common frustration: presenting ideas that go nowhere.

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Her advice is pragmatic.

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You will encounter leaders who resist change because it requires effort. You cannot control their appetite for transformation.

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So you have two options:

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Build anyway and wait for the right environment.

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Or find an environment aligned with your growth.

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She described building solutions on the side, developing proposals independently, and eventually taking those ideas to new organizations where they were embraced.

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Growth is not always about fighting the current system. Sometimes it is about choosing a different one.

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Convincing Executives HR Needs Investment

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For those already in leadership, another major topic was how to justify expanding an HRIS or HR tech team.

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Executives respond to numbers and risk.

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Rather than saying, “We are overwhelmed,” Dani recommends framing the conversation around:

• Hours required to stabilize systems
• Risks of under-resourcing
• Cost comparisons between hiring internally and outsourcing

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She even suggested building heat maps to visualize system gaps and enhancements.

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When you speak in the language of cost and risk, executive conversations change.

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Redefining Success in HR Leadership

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Perhaps the most surprising part of the episode is how Dani defines success.

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It is not project count.

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It is not module launches.

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It is not response time metrics.

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It is calm.

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Is the business more stable than when you arrived?

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Do team members want to show up on Monday?

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Are they operating at high capacity without constant fire drills?

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If the environment is healthier, clearer, and more stable, that is success.

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This reframing is powerful in a field that often measures output over sustainability.

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The Final Message: Do Not Let Anyone Define Your Career

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The episode closes with a direct challenge:

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Do not let someone else define your career path.

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Layoffs happen. Toxic cultures happen. Doubt happens.

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But those experiences do not get to define the trajectory of your career unless you allow them to.

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Use setbacks as fuel.

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Operate at the level you want to grow into.

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Build confidence deliberately.

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And most importantly, take ownership of your path.

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Because the path to HR leadership that no one talks about is not about waiting.

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It is about stepping forward before you feel fully ready.

Dani Woods (00:02): Do not let someone else define your career path.

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You've gotta get out of there, out of your box and grow your confidence. And a lot of us are scared to it. We're scared to talk to our leaders and say, hey, this is what we really wanna do in our career.

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I really started networking more to learn what other leaders are doing and kind of changed my skillset.

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At the end of the day, I think that you have to create and establish a team that can operate at a high capacity and they aren't constantly in fire drills. And that, to me, is success.

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Logan (00:34): Welcome back to Pulse, where we have real conversations with HR leaders about what it takes to grow and lead in today's workplace. In this episode, we're joined by Dani Woods, an HR technology leader who became an HRIS director at just 27. But this isn't just a story about title progression. It's about confidence. It's about stepping into the job before you're officially given it. And it's about refusing to let someone else define your career path.

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Dani shares tactical advice on moving from HR operations into HRIS, when directors should step out of configuration work, how to build and justify an HRIS team, and what defines success at the leadership level. This episode is packed with tactical career advice to help you take your career to the next level. Let's get into this episode.

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Logan (01:19): Dani, you posted on LinkedIn this morning about a tire going out.

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Dani Woods (01:24): So now looking back, I think I have an idea. So I hope that like Texas PD is not listening in on this, but like I was doing way too high of speeds this morning. I was headed to yoga, but the problem was, is I needed to leave my house at like 5:22. I woke up at 5:20. So if you can imagine, I'm like shooting out of bed, running to my car, going to yoga. I was getting so stressed out just trying to get there.

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And I was driving way too fast, I get there and it's completely fine. I take my class, I do an ice bath, like I should by definition have a great day. And then I come out and I go to my car and it says low tire pressure. I normally ignore that because to be honest, I'm like, I don't know, the weather's been fluctuating, I'm probably totally fine. And then it said zero PSI. I actually don't know what PSI stands for, so if anyone listening in does and you could educate me, that'd be great.

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But it was completely empty. I had to, first I called my dad panicking and I was like, what do I do? And he's like, you just go to the gas station, put air in your tire. And I did, but then the air thing didn't work, which could have been user error to be totally honest. And then I immediately call my boyfriend. I'm like, I don't know what to do. And he's like, all right, I'll come meet you, whatever. I ended up taking an Uber and I left my car in a parking lot. And I took off and then him and his dad took care of the rest. So it's currently getting fixed.

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Logan (02:48): Good, good. I also enjoy driving a little too fast. I lived in Germany and I got really used to the Autobahn having no speed limits. So for anybody that travels there and wants to drive, it is an amazing experience, especially because the cars are built for it and the roads are as well. But we're actually not here to talk about cars because I know absolutely nothing. And really what we joined for is Dani is going to give us a little bit of career advice about how to become an HRIS director by 27. I'm not 27, but maybe there's some stuff in here. But Dani, we've been working for a few months together and I actually haven't asked you what your career trajectory even was. So, or at least the details, like a job interview. So I wanna kind of start there to contextualize for everybody joining if they don't already know. Maybe everybody already knows and I'm just the only one not.

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Dani Woods (03:41): No, I rarely tell people what I actually want to do. I kind of learned a lesson early on that become careful like what you tell people depending on if your ideas are fully fleshed out. And I think I really kind of hid behind it for a long time. And just this past week, you probably saw on LinkedIn, I finally kind of started opening up about my story because I've been posting a lot of content for the past year and I don't really share personal things because I was kind of taught LinkedIn's not Facebook.

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But I decided that LinkedIn is Facebook. So I'm going to go ahead and share it all. But I'm still figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. And I actually wanted to be a lawyer, which probably doesn't come as a shocker to a lot of people that know my personality. Yes. And the reason I want to be a lawyer is I always said I love to argue, which I don't think that's a good reason to become a lawyer, but my parents still think I —

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Logan (04:30): as good as any.

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Dani Woods (04:31): should do it. Yeah, I should probably still do it.

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So I had started in as an HR assistant. I didn't even have my bachelor's degree. I had already started in HR. I ended up pivoting because I realized that a lot of lawyers I had talked to weren't very happy and that kind of scared me away. So I convinced a company to hire me fresh still in school and then kind of fast forward a bit. I became a director at 27. I'm no longer at 27, unfortunately, but I did become a director.

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And I explained this in our newsletter that we have Logan where I felt super empty. Like I was excited. I got the phone call. It was so fun. The people that wanted to tell me about it were excited, but I was chasing this validation that like I was good enough and I could do it at a certain age after I felt like my age held me back and people looked at me differently for being too young. So I did that. And then I realized that's not what I want to do.

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So I actually have big news, but I'm not gonna share it yet because I'm just not ready. After I announced that I went independent, there's something else as a quick change and I am gonna be back into corporate America. So I am really excited about that. But most of you also know that I did career coaching kind of in the beginning of the year. It was something that the industry signed me up for. I started getting a bunch of DMs of people that just wanted advice really.

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How to take a roadmap and spin it and sell it to executives or that their boss was giving them a really hard time and they didn't know how to grow. So that kind of started as a business, but I had to take a step back after I had gotten their director job and then I was doing career coaching and then I got laid off on top of all of it. And I was like, what do I want to do? And I actually don't want to be an HRIS for the rest of my career at all.

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I am in the middle of starting a foundation. So it's entirely, it's not even tech related. I'm actually gonna start transitional housing for domestic violence survivors. So I'm gonna work with women and help keep them off the streets and then help them with their career, get resources and just kind of help them keep moving throughout like the most tragic thing that has happened to them. So that's actually what I'm doing long-term, but I need to do this until I can get a full foundation spun up and work on a nonprofit.

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Logan (06:50): Really awesome.

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Dani Woods (06:51): It's way different than you probably expected. Yeah, no. I don't, like, it's not I'm gonna be a CHRO. Like, I am doing this and I love it, I'm excited. But I'm going on and I want to be in the community and I actually am thinking about going back to law school so I could be a lawyer in the community as well. I really just want to like work for free if I can. I can get to a point that I can just work for free, like 40s, 50s. That's what I want to do.

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Logan (07:13): Pretty good. Mean, you know, sometimes people have independent wealth that helps them with that. None of us, but hey, who, but I mean, going for the charity, like there is something about just working for something a little bit bigger. But I do want to focus a little bit on, for the listeners, those that are in HRIS or are in HR and are looking for kind of what's the tipping point for making that next jump. One of the biggest jumps, I think, in careers is going from IC to people management. And there's a lot of barriers for everybody to not let that happen. But I guess in that career trajectory and what you want to do, what was the turning point in your career that sent you from being in IC to individual contributor to a director and influencing strategy, rather than just only doing hands-on work? If that's something people in the audience want to do.

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Dani Woods (08:11): Actually started doing the job before I was paid to do the job or before I had the title. And I've actually done that from when I was manager to senior manager, to senior manager to director. When I was a senior manager practically for a year operating as a director.

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When I was in IC, I had realized, I look back on my, kind of my whole career and the parts of it that I actually didn't like and I wanted to change. And I realized that the HRIS managers and the directors have the ability to make Monday mornings great again for their employees. They have so much pull when it comes to instilling confidence in their team members, to up leveling them, overall to help them.

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So I had realized that if I really wanna make a difference, I should probably step into management and I got thrown into it. So we had gotten acquired and then all of a sudden I had to create a whole new team because there was no one else to do it. Was an IC reporting into a managing director and then I had to take over technology. So I just had to jump into it.

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Logan (09:10): Yeah, I mean, that's the, it's almost the analogy of like dress for the job you want, not the job you're doing kind of a thing and doing it.

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Dani Woods (09:15): Yeah, that part too.

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Logan (09:18): And I think that is actually a big piece of advice for growing your career is you don't get a promotion and then you start doing the job. You do the job and the promotion naturally comes.

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Dani Woods (09:28): Yep, the money comes with it. Yeah, it's a byproduct for sure of what you do.

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Logan (09:32): So then what should, like, if you want to make that jump, like, how do you start doing the job of the next level, especially if it's strategy or maybe in your organization to make that jump, you're going to have to become a people manager. Like, how do you actually start doing those things?

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Dani Woods (09:47): Some tactical ways that I would do it is number one, okay, this is non-tactical, but you've gotta get out of there, out of your box and grow your confidence. And a lot of us are scared to it. We're scared to talk to our leaders and say, hey, this is what we really wanna do in our career because you might have a leader that is insecure and doesn't want you to grow and they don't want you to outskill them. And that is so real. And I unfortunately have had several bosses that have been like that.

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So if you're facing that, I would start with something small. You start managing projects or you deliver higher quality work. You get involved with maybe road mapping, maybe, hey, I've got a brand new idea. How about we do this? Can I pull you into this? Find problems and create solutions. Don't just take what you're given. You're never going to get far in your career. You do the day to day, that's average, right?

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You want to go beyond that. So start doing more, unfortunately, than you're getting paid for it. And you'll eventually get there as far as management, but I would send my boss presentations. Like I would literally send them roadmaps that they did not ask me to ever create. And I would say, hey, I know you're working on road mapping. Here are some ideas. Feel free to use this if you want. And my leaders did use it. And then I think they started to see a different skillset that I actually have. And that takes discomfort, but you'll get over it.

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Logan (11:10): Good, that is good advice. Slide decks are interesting and sending the presentations to your manager, I think a lot of times our audience is in private equity companies. Like the idea of sending QBRs and stuff to your manager, in kind of a format is a good way to start leveling up, I think. Next question I had, so as you start to grow into the strategic set, what conversations should you as a director or directors be having versus analysts or managers?

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Dani Woods (11:42): Typically budgeting, head counts, M&A, larger transactions, maybe you're preparing the company to sell, maybe you're preparing for divesters. Those typically are kind of living within that position because they're a little bit more confidential. And then I would typically take any other functional area that they work on and I would have them lead that piece of it. So if they're maybe in benefits or they're doing absence, they can work with those leaders directly. And I would normally handle kind of the higher level, larger projects.

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Logan (12:12): Okay, and then how technical should you be hands-on at the director level and what should you leave to others to get in the weeds with?

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Dani Woods (12:23): Hmm. So such a hot topic. I had posted that I think HRIS director should stop configuring and that's very bold and I'm not saying you really should stop. But if I take a look back on when I was the most successful, it's actually when I stopped configuring as much. So I used to do probably 60% of my job was hands-on in the system. And I was bumping into my team members because I was kind of crossing into their modules because maybe we had overlapping projects. And I felt like I was getting in their way.

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So instead, and I thought maybe I justified it with helping with their workload. But it might have been actually me and I needed to get out of my comfort zone of being the expert in the room and allow other people to grow. So I stopped doing that. And I stepped away from probably like for six months of configuring as much so I would do maybe a couple hours here and there. I would have like creative Fridays where would jump into the system or I would learn something new about it. I'd be on community. I really started networking more to learn what other leaders are doing and kind of changed my skillset.

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So, but what I will say with that is if you are starting brand new teams, like I'm on my third of creating brand new teams, you have no head count, you have no resources and you have a system that you are inheriting day one of hire. So you need to configure as much as you feel confident. And what I mean by that is at the end of the day, if you have to execute, you've got to be able to know how to work this system. So having your default as I don't know that, I don't do that, doesn't work well when you've stepped into a new company and they're like, hey, I need this one report or hey, this person's on leave, I can't put them on leave. What's happening? And you got to go look into calculations. So you still have to stay very well versed in order to do your job.

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But I don't think that day to day, should you be assigning security roles? No. But you better know how to.

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Logan (14:17): Okay, I like that. I've always been like, if you need to scale something, I have to figure it out first and then scale it rather than just coming in and bringing in a straight expert and then you have this black box and I don't know, personality thing maybe. But I've got a question, how can we move from HR ops role to an HRIS role is the question.

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Dani Woods (14:39): Ooh, that's how I moved. So I had started in HR operations and then moved into HRIS. And I think it's honestly probably the easiest transition compared to if you worked in maybe total rewards or other functions, maybe even IT. So if the person has Workday, it makes it a lot easier.

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What I did is I started jumping in with HRIS. And I would be their testing lead, which they're going to love that because they need help with it. I would help architect the processes and then work with op because operations typically owns it. I would work with my leader on redesigning it. And then I would work with the tech team and I figure out how they would do it. So I started with a lot of curiosity and then I convinced my boss that I need to go through some Workday trainings because it's going to make me more effective and age our operations. Cause I understand the system. So when employees come, I can find any efficiencies and it worked.

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So, and then if you wanna actually just kind of start configuring, if your company has Workday internally, normally I encourage voicing that you're interested in it, that you wanna learn it and because the talent is also typically more affordable if they bring someone internally versus externally. And then you're gonna change your resume completely to start talking more of like processes and reporting and architecting and it might not be as hands-on configuration, but the configuration is actually the easy one. If you take a couple of Workday classes and you come from an operations background, because HRIS teams are typically automating operations and operational processes like employment verifications, you're in the right spot because you own that process.

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Logan (16:16): That's good. So next one is what to do if you have a boss that you take ideas, suggestions, presentations to, and they go nowhere, slash, sit on them and don't move them forward to parties that may be interested.

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Dani Woods (16:30): That's a great one. Unfortunately, you're going to face this a lot with leaders that starting processes and creating new features, takes a lot of work, takes a lot of effort, takes a lot of mental capacity, and some leaders just don't want to do it. If you genuinely can't move forward with it, I would start finding maybe other ideas, maybe documenting it, and continually, maybe even building it. I used to build things on the side. So let's just say I want a Workday assistant. If my boss didn't let it go through, because that's happened in the past, I would build it myself. I would literally plan the change management for it and learn it. And then I would hold onto that. And then it took me going to two different companies to actually get it, because I could not get it through leadership.

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So my point is, is at some point you've got to feel some fulfillment and you're not going to change your boss's behaviors, and you're not gonna get them to inherit anything they don't wanna do. So it's either you figure out how to find the fulfillment by staying there and continually doing it and learning, or you decide on if that company is for you or not. But at the end of the day, you're gonna face that everywhere you go because some companies just aren't ready for a lot of change. And if you do want a lot of change, I would go more towards like the tech side of the industry because they are a rapid fire and all they want is so much change that it's overwhelmed.

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Logan (17:48): Yeah, that's a good call. So next one, how do you convince ELT executive leadership, HRIS should be a team and that it's not just a one or two person operation?

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Dani Woods (18:01): I'm in the middle of this actually right now. So yeah, this is, this takes a lot of education around what leaders think of HRIS. I think sometimes the software is sold to us and we think, I've literally been told, we've been told by a client, hey, we can go ahead and implement with one person. One person's not running Workday.

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So I would take a look at all of your modules. I would take a look at what needs to be fixed. So I normally do like a heat map or something. Like I'll say you need 30 enhancements and benefits, 15 in HCM, put it on a heat map and show them that based off of the amount of work that is needed to stabilize the system, in addition, anything new is how many hours. And then I would do a little bit of math and take that and figure out how much head count I need.

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So I turn it into, it's a big numbers game. Now I maybe feel like I feel overwhelmed and I'm like, are you kidding me? I can only have one person. I don't want this. This is overwhelming, but that doesn't resonate with budget owners. What resonates with them is that they either give you headcount to keep this system stable or they have to accept the risks associated with this, which is if you don't have an integrations developer, great, fantastic. You got 50 integrations.

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So your option is you can either bring someone in that knows integrations. You can go with a contractor or you can go with a partner. The other two are a little bit more expensive. So then you start talking about where could I hire this person if budget is an issue? Is it cheaper to do it in a different countries? Can I do go ahead with the US in different states? Like there's different ways to kind of finagle.

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Logan (19:36): Yeah, that's the way that you phrase that is like how execs are gonna think about the business in general. It's cost and risks. And I think that's a very great way to put that. Okay, one of the other questions that we had chatted before that I'm actually gonna toss in is how do you balance being seen as technical enough without becoming the team's default troubleshooter?

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Dani Woods (20:02): Hmm. Yeah, I figured this out maybe just a year ago. So I've been spending my career really struggling with this because I'm known as the expert and I love that, but it's not long-term, it's just not scalable. So the way that I put it is I think you need to know how the system works, that you can jump in if there's a fire. So if there is an issue with absence, you can jump in and help your team member and be a resource to them.

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Because the last thing you want is for that analyst to say, my boss isn't really paying attention. They're not really in tune with what's going on. They don't understand it. So they can't advocate for me. You're going to lose. They're going to lose a lot of respect for you. So if you can day to day know what they do and their domains and let them own it, then you get to be that senior architect. You get to help your team. And then at the leadership level as well, they know they can come to you and you can fix it, but that doesn't mean you should fix it. You're going to have your team members do it, unless it's something confidential, then you will go ahead and do it.

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Logan (21:00): Nice. All right, so next one. As you are hiring a new payroll HRIS director, what would be the must-haves to lead the HRIS function? Yeah, all right.

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Dani Woods (21:14): Okay, so this is someone that is kind of a dual hat. They've got payroll and they have HRIS at the same exact time. So number one, you're gonna need integrations and number two, you're at a bare minimum, you're gonna need an analyst. Probably two to keep the lights on. That's lights on. And then, I'm sorry, did you say you have a Ferrari and you're driving a Honda Civic? Is that what I heard? That, again,

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Logan (21:35): That is what we have.

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Dani Woods (21:36): that adds to the equation. Then, I would say these are the teams that you need to keep this stable. And it's funny enough, the, I don't know, six, seven different teams that I have been on, they all had a bare minimum of three hands-on individuals. Whether they make that director hands-on, because sometimes they do that for cost savings purposes, you still need a functional person and you still need a technical person. However, if you've got payroll and financials, I would say you're probably looking at four people. And then it depends on the amount of countries you have. It's not on the actual size of the company in HRIS. I noticed it's the complexity of the different countries. And if you've got EORs and PEOs that are totally going to shape your system.

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Logan (22:19): Yeah, and then I guess if you take that and plug in our answer from before about costs and risks, then you've got your way to build that four-person team there. Okay, so next question. How can someone demonstrate senior level capability and leadership purely through skill and performance without having the traditional years of experience, so that aiming for roles like director before 30 sounds legitimate and reasonable?

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Dani Woods (22:45): Hmm. So how I actually ended up getting here is after completely being told that I wasn't going to, like in so many roles that I had, even being a senior analyst, one thing I figured out is, like you said, if you dress for the job you want, typically gonna get it. So I, it took a lot of confidence buildings, maybe a little bit of like brainwashing to be totally honest, because even to me, you know, being in a senior director role at the age that I am under 30, it seems a little not feasible to certain people.

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But looking back is every single stair that I would climb. I started off with not believing in myself that I could do it. And I didn't have it on paper. I would notice myself when I would talk, I would kind of like maybe lower my voice, feel less confident. And people started reading that. And one day I kind of had it and I was like, I'm done. I had an executive tell me, she was like, yeah, I just don't see it in you. Like, I just don't think you're ready for anything. When I was like, I was a senior manager at the time. And I was like, you know what? You may not see it, but I do. And this may not seem like I could do this before a certain age, but I'm gonna do it anyways, because I don't care what you think.

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So then I redid my whole resume. I actually took a look at my experience and I started hearing what I had done and I realized I was operating at such a higher level. So what I would challenge this person who chimed in is a lot of people come to me and they come in and they're like, yeah, I'm just an analyst. I have literally found out that just the analyst is operating at a senior level and they just don't show for it, because they haven't convinced themselves that they can't do it, so it doesn't seem feasible.

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Logan (24:32): Yeah, that's a, you always, you never like hearing when somebody is told they can't do something like that in a professional setting. At least I don't. It's just, it's a, you gotta have the growth mindset. Yeah, believing in yourself is important. Okay, so as you're growing in businesses, because businesses are ran by numbers and metrics, to measure success. What metrics define success for a director of HR technology and who owns measuring that?

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Dani Woods (24:59): So I have found that I'm not going to find it in reporting of what I have defined as success. Mine is my team members want to come to work on Monday morning. I can feel that there's calmness in the business. Normally the businesses I walk into, like especially in private equity, that's typically where I operate in, is everything is so chaotic and broken. And by the end of it, when I'm ready to hang my hat up, is the business calmer? Is HR upbringing a different level than they were in the beginning? And that's actually how I define it.

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So I used to sit here and pull metrics on like, what's our response time and how many projects did we close and how many modules did we launch and all these new features. You can put as much features out there as you want. But if your team members are turning over, they don't want to show up because you are overworking them and the business doesn't care about your new feature because they don't even know about it because you didn't communicate properly. That doesn't matter. And at the end of the day, I think that you have to create and establish a team that can operate at a high capacity and they aren't constantly in fire drills. And that, to me, is success.

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Logan (26:09): That's good. I once had a, as I had become a new people manager, somebody tell me like, do you want your team to be known for throughout the company? And like the common sense success, like all of that, like you have to almost have a little bit of that vision ahead of just doing stuff. Dani, is there anything else you want to cover here to give the audience confidence in making that next step in their careers, whether that's going from technical HRIS to director or something else. Is there something you would like to leave everybody with?

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Dani Woods (26:49): Say at the start of it is, know, part of the story and I think the theme this week is do not let someone else define your career path. I've seen a lot of layoffs happen, especially on social media. People are leaving, you know, toxic cultures of different areas and that doesn't have to be your story. That doesn't have to be what you remember of your past employer or your history. But one of the best things you can do, use that as fuel to get to actually where you want to go.

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Logan (27:20): Yeah, that's really great. I'll do a little mic drop here for, don't let anybody define you.

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Dani Woods (27:25): You forgot to say LFG and then you got a mic drop, you know?

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Logan (27:29): Yeah, you know, I don't really want to buy another mic and I don't know if my desk will actually take the blow of my mic, but you know, hey. Dani, I really appreciate jumping on, I hope everybody got value from hearing Dani talk us through some career coaching. Dani, thank you for joining us today.

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Dani Woods (27:46): Yeah, and sign up for our newsletter. I am going to do the commercial here, so

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Logan (27:51): yeah, you should sign up for the newsletter. Dani runs that and so you can listen to all of her expertise and not me.

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Dani Woods (27:57): [laughs]

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Logan (27:58): Awesome. Thanks everybody for joining in.

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Logan (28:00): Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Pulse, the podcast that has real conversations with HR leaders linking people to performance. HRBench is the people analytics platform that turns HR data into business strategy. It connects to all your tools, HRIS, ATS, payroll, surveys, whatever you're using. In just a few clicks, you get over 45 metrics instantly visualized in boardroom ready dashboards, benchmarked by industry and company size. Book a demo at HRbench.com and we'll build you a custom benchmark report using your data.