(upbeat music) - We continue our conversation about women business leaders with Krishna Powell, Founder and CEO of HR4 Your Small Biz.

She was with us in 2018.

Go back on our website.

You'll see SteveAdubato.org to see that previous conversation.

Krishna, how you doing?

- I am doing great, it's good to see you.

- It's great to see you.

How about this?

You told our producers and you said you spoke about this at the New Jersey business and Industry ninth annual Women Business Leaders forum, that there were, there were two new generations in the workforce of women.

Who are we talking about?

- So we are talking about Gen Z has now entered in the workforce.

So those are like your 22, 23 year olds.

And then we also have the alpha generation coming in.

And so those are your young people who are having, who have the summer jobs.

- What would you say to those?

Let's play this out for a second.

We happen to have a very young, talented, I believe she's 25, Caroline, I think she's 25.

She's a talented marketing professional, hardworking, diligent with great upside leadership potential.

My prejudice I'll put out there.

I'm not convinced she's the norm.

Translation, my bias is that I sometimes think, and help me on this 'cause you know it, I don't.

That a disproportionate number of younger people are not willing to have the grit, put in the work, put in their time to learn and grow.

And, in part because of this.

Am I oversimplifying it?

- Well, I won't say they're not willing.

A lot of times they just have not been taught.

They don't know what it looks like.

If you think about it, they have spent the last two to three years with the pandemic in four walls.

They didn't have anyone grooming them.

They didn't have the face-to-face conversation.

They didn't have the interaction.

And then we boop, dropped them off in the workplace now and say go out there work, be successful.

They don't know what that looks like.

- They don't know what they don't know.

- Exactly, exactly.

So it's now our responsibility to teach them.

So a lot of times we think, you know, Krishna, they should come in already knowing this.

For my generation, for your generation, yes.

We came and we were groomed, we had internships, we had summer jobs.

Summer jobs are scarce now.

There's not even the jobs available for them like there was for me growing up here in New Jersey.

And so you have these young people now and they're in the workforce and they're like, someone has to teach me, someone has to show me, someone has to explain to me the why.

You know, a lot of times we think that they should just do as they're told and they're like no, this is the generation.

- Why am I doing that?

- Exactly, exactly.

- Tell folks, I screwed up out of the, out of the box.

I should've asked you while we put up your website Krishna.

Describe HR4 Your Small Biz.

What is the business?

- So HR4 Your Small Biz, we are a boutique human capital consulting firm.

So what that means is that I show leaders how to manage a multi-generational multicultural workforce.

What does that look like having this diverse workforce?

So it doesn't matter if you're a small business or a large business.

- You could be talking about our production company right now so go ahead.

- So that's, I mean for the first time in history, we have five generations in the workplace.

We've never had that before.

Five.

And they're not holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

- Why?

No, we're not.

You're seeing heads going, going no you're not, we're not holding hands.

So, so should we as leaders of these organizations, businesses, should we want, should we want and try to encourage if not force people on our team, five generations to be holding hands and singing Kumbaya or saying that ain't gonna work.

Go ahead.

- It's not gonna work.

I mean, think about it.

We have family members, we have, some of us have children and we don't sometimes like our own children.

That's okay.

- It's true.

- You don't always hold hands and sing Kumbaya as a family.

That type of conflict and challenge is expected.

And so as a leader you have to help guide your team through it and help them to understand and appreciate the strengths that each other bring to the table.

This is a smart, brilliant generation.

They've learned the art of working smart.

They don't necessarily know how to work hard.

That's for us to show them.

So together we combine their smart with our strong, there's nothing we can't do.

- And this for us.

Anxiety, mental health.

Your business deals with and helps organizations, businesses deal with, first of all how to help team members dealing with mental health, anxiety issues.

How does a small business deal with that?

- So, well, patiently.

Unfortunately what we're seeing is also with the younger generation, more mental health issues than the previous generation.

So we do have to build and allow for parameters and space for them to work through if they have anxiety and stress that shows up, and help guide them through when things get difficult.

They don't necessarily always have the tools to handle the stress.

Think about it.

You by yourself, you have five jobs.

- Before you talk about what we should be doing, I wanted to ask you, do you believe there is more anxiety and mental health issues in the workplace or that we're more aware of it and what's causing it?

- So there is more mental health issues in the workplace.

The pandemic really brought that to fruition.

There were people who did have challenges, but unfortunately when the pandemic happened, they weren't able to get those resources and support that they needed to help adjust to the solitude, to adjust to all the changes that happened.

And even those who were doing well before the pandemic happened, it was a very stressful time for all of us.

And so now you come back into the workplace and you still have that stress.

People have had, you know, deaths in their family and losses and et cetera, and they have, they're still working through that.

So yes, there is the levels of anxiety and stress is much more greater than it was before the pandemic.

- Before I let you go, I've asked every leader who's ever come on this question, where does your grit, G-R-I-T come from, your grit?

- My grit comes from my community and those who have come before me.

I salute those who have come before me.

I have those such as Rosemary Stiniger and Henry Moses and Gloria Moses and those who have come before me that I learned from them what hard work looks like and what passion looks like and what purpose looks like.

And how do you combine that with the knowledge you have and the responsibility to share it forward and give it forward and make sure that you leave things better than the way you found them.

- You know, how many people, women and and men, are gonna say that it was Krishna Powell who helped me find the grit in myself because I saw it in her.

And without it, we can't succeed, the passion.

I'm off my soapbox, I won't do that.

Hey Krishna, it was great having you on.

Let's not let it be five years till the next time you're on.

Krishna Powell, founder and CEO of HR4 Your Small Biz.

This has been, and by the way, thank you so much, Krishna.

- Thank you so very much for having me.

- My pleasure.

Folks, this has been a program dedicated to women business leaders in the state we've did in cooperation with our partners and friends at the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

We thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you again soon.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by NJM Insurance Group.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

The North Ward Center.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Johnson & Johnson.

PNC Foundation.

The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

And by The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by BestofNJ.com.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job and projects on track, working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

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