Bernie Borges [00:00:01]:
Two years ago, Seagate, a 46 year old technology brand, faced a devastating blow, losing 50% of its revenue and 35% of its workforce. Through a strategy that’s anchored in trust and connection, the company survived and has emerged with a stronger sense of purpose and fulfillment. This episode is a story of how deep can connection, trust and shared purpose can fuel fulfillment in the workplace, even during some of the most challenging moments. And my guest today is Kristen Pasquale, Vice President, Communications, Culture and Community at Seagate Technology and also a fellow speaker at the HR Wellness and Executive Summit. Kristen, welcome to the Life Fulfilled podcast.
Kristin Pascual [00:00:53]:
Thank you, Bernie. And thank you for everyone tuning in. I’m so happy to be here today and talk about the concept of fulfillment.
Bernie Borges [00:01:01]:
Fantastic. Well, we’re going to get to the story that I just summarized, the experience at Seagate, but first I want to begin with your backstory because you’re in a very interesting role at Seagate. Give us the backstory. How did you get to that role?
Kristin Pascual [00:01:15]:
Oh, gosh. Okay. So I won’t start with where I was born or any of that, but I think it’s important to explain that my background is and marketing. So I started my early career was marketing, investor relations, PR, really. I’ve worked in tech since 1999. So yes, right when it came online, in fact, I received my Ms. In marketing right as the Internet was born. So completely disrupted the marketing funnel and all the fancy schooling I just received.
Kristin Pascual [00:01:43]:
But I stumbled into internal comms as our company was growing. I was working for a company called Citrix and for a CEO who I adore and respect, Mark Templeton, who had said we’re doubling in size and we need an internal comms function. And for me, that was the land of town halls and newsletters. And I kind of turned my nose up at it, but did what I was told and then discovered the real magic behind it. So for me, internal communications became about how do you align leaders and employees. There’s oftentimes a big gap between what a leader knows and what an employee knows. And so how do you create trust and transparency in an organization and then connecting your culture to your strategy? Because that’s where the magic is. And then how do you drive performance from the inside out? So I’ve worked in internal comms role since then.
Kristin Pascual [00:02:39]:
I was hooked and I said there’s no going back to marketing or pr. I love the authenticity of it and being able to help shape meaning in people’s lives. So I’ve taken leadership roles at Citrix and HP and Then now my current role at Seagate, which I love. I have the honor of leading communication, culture and community.
Bernie Borges [00:03:01]:
Okay, thank you for that backstory. It sounds to me, Kristen, like you have really embraced internal communications as a strategic communication tool for leadership for the company and really to provide clarity and alignment. And I think that’s a great segue to the story that I kind of opened up with. Right. Seagate’s a company that I’ve known for quite a long time. I used to live in California, they’re based in California. So I’ve known the brand for quite a while. What I didn’t know was because I haven’t been following the company, you know, closely.
Bernie Borges [00:03:35]:
I didn’t know about this financial downturn.
Kristin Pascual [00:03:37]:
So I started Seagate almost four years ago and I walked in, shook everyone’s hand, and then the bottom dropped out. Um, so there’s nothing that makes internal comms more relevant than a crisis, I will say that. But we had our work cut out for us. It was a multi year market downturn. So not anything on the technology end, but really just a market issue. We shouldn’t be standing here today, given everything that we had to do. And on top of the workforce reductions, it was also no bonuses, salary reductions, no promotions, consolidations. You’re operating from shoestring budgets.
Kristin Pascual [00:04:16]:
So it was bleak. And this was in the middle of bringing to market a game changing technology called Hammer. That’s the key ingredient in our secret sauce for hard drives. It’d been 20 years in the making, which it’s almost unfathomable thinking about the length of time it took to bring this to market and the conviction of our team. They started right when I’d entered the workforce. So high stress environment, high stakes, and no short term payoff at all. So those are truly the hardest moments for any company. But that’s when communication matters most.
Kristin Pascual [00:04:53]:
And we learned that it’s not just communication. But then when you prioritize connection, employees can withstand incredible pressure. So some of the ways we did that, we prioritized transparency. Even when the news was hard, we really forced the hand to stand in front of employees and do it in small, informal settings. We called these connect sessions. Well, it wasn’t just our CEO and C suite. It was any of our executives that were at a site where we knew there were rumor mills or the water cooler. We would get them in a room with employees and help them have.
Bernie Borges [00:05:31]:
So these are in person? These are in person events?
Kristin Pascual [00:05:33]:
Absolutely. Way, yeah. And that’s the other thing I would point out is that when you don’t want to be behind a zoom meeting, when you’re delivering bad news, you want to be as real and authentic and stand in front of people as possible. And that even when you have to deliver bad news, that’s what’s going to build the trust and the respect between the employee and the leadership team. So the other thing we did, Bernie, is we increased employee listening, and we didn’t do it. We had Pulse surveys, but we also use these Connect sessions is two way conversation. We created a mythbusters dashboard. We actually called it mythbusters.
Kristin Pascual [00:06:10]:
So, for example, we had employees tracking the corporate plane, and they were seeing it go to Hawaii, they were seeing it go to all these exotic places, and thinking that our executive team, that they were on holiday when in fact we were leasing the plane. There’s a revenue stream for us. So that’s just an example of how you can really say, hey, you know, this is what the real deal is.
Bernie Borges [00:06:33]:
Right.
Kristin Pascual [00:06:33]:
We didn’t have HR present, and I’m a huge fan of our HR team. They’re truly strategic business partners, but when you have them in the room, you can’t help it. It sounds an unintentional message.
Bernie Borges [00:06:45]:
Okay, so you mean these connect sessions that were in person, you’re saying that’s where HR was not present. It was just an executive along with employees?
Kristin Pascual [00:06:55]:
Yeah.
Bernie Borges [00:06:56]:
Okay.
Kristin Pascual [00:06:56]:
Yep. And it was okay that leaders didn’t have all the answers. In fact, that’s one of the things that we trained them on. Don’t feel like you have to fill the air. It’s okay to say, I don’t know, but let me see if I can find the answer. What mattered the most is that they showed up with empathy.
Bernie Borges [00:07:14]:
Yeah. And how much was your CEO involved in these meetings?
Kristin Pascual [00:07:19]:
He was the front person. Our CEO flew site to site to stand in front of employees and have the conversation. He wasn’t taking a salary. Our CFO wasn’t taking a salary. But he wanted to instill belief and remind them that we’ve been through hard times before, and the way we got through it was leaning on each other. And that sounds really Pollyanna in some ways, but that’s truly who we are as Seagate. We do really hard things at the nanoscale really well together.
Bernie Borges [00:07:52]:
Yeah. Kristen, one of the things that I point out often is that while my whole thing is fulfillment. Right. This is the Life Fulfilled podcast.
Kristin Pascual [00:08:02]:
Yeah.
Bernie Borges [00:08:03]:
And in this conversation, we’re talking about the. What I call the career pillar. Right. Because it’s work, it’s our Career. And I realized that oftentimes the word fulfillment may not necessarily be used in conversation, in taking actions, but it seems to me that inherently that it was part of the strategy. So maybe you can speak to that. How are you driving fulfillment among the employee population during this time?
Kristin Pascual [00:08:35]:
It’s a really great question, and I have some standout stories. And so I’m going to use a couple stories to illustrate from the employee lens. For example, we had engineers who didn’t feel seen, and until they got into this session with our CEO, we had people on the factory floor that he was sitting down and meeting with. And so hearing engineers speak about hammer and the belief that they could do it, we didn’t deliver it right away. Right. This wasn’t, oh, we’re delivering it as we’re going through this downturn. It was, we have some critical things we have to do and prioritize with the stress of all of this. In the background, we saw one employee, you know, rolling up his sleeves and asking, how can I help? So he partnered with another employee.
Kristin Pascual [00:09:23]:
And it was. It seems like a small thing, but he figured out that by turning down the thermostat at our campus, he was saving the company a couple hundred thousand dollars. So everyone was asking the company and our CEO and in these connect sessions, what can I do to help and what is my role in this? So I think we really ignited something with these sessions. And I’m going to share one more story, because this is the one that hit me the hardest. Connection isn’t just about top down. Our ergs became more than affinity groups during this timeframe. They were more like lifelines and safe harbors for employees to share their anxiety and worries, but also, you know, that sense of belonging to. I had an erg leader tell me this was when I was traveling, that the group, it was our pride group, is what gave him the courage to come out to his family.
Kristin Pascual [00:10:19]:
And he was actually getting married that day. It was the same day they had legalized gay marriage in his country. So that really hit me. Our ergs gave him support to fully own his personhood. And for me, that’s what fulfillment looks like. It’s not a life without struggle. It’s a life where struggles, shared, and courage leads to belonging.
Bernie Borges [00:10:40]:
Yeah. I often say that in the workplace, personal and professional fulfillment really is the best recipe for total fulfillment and for just an engaged workforce. Not just professional fulfillment, Kristen, but personal fulfillment as well, because then people. And I know this is obvious in the conversation we’re having, but people feel valued and seen when they’re experiencing that personal fulfillment. One of the things that I talk about in the context of when I teach my fulfillment centric leadership framework, especially in a workshop environment, is I talk about recognizing achievement across three levels of complexity. Not just the medium and high, which is pretty much the world that we mostly live in, is medium and high complex activity, but the low complex work activity as well. So I’m wondering, do you have some examples of recognizing wins, no matter how big or small they might have been, to really, again, reinforce fulfillment?
Kristin Pascual [00:11:41]:
Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. And we did something a little counterintuitive during this time. We launched a new recognition platform. And it was for exactly the reason you mentioned. It’s to all those little moments that matter. That’s the backbone of a company. And so if you don’t acknowledge, if you’re only acknowledging the people that are hands on, either with our customers or the technology, you’re missing the people that are in supporting roles and they oftentimes get overlooked. We had over 15,000 recognition moments the first month we launched, and it’s grown since then.
Kristin Pascual [00:12:18]:
And it wasn’t recognition for a prize. It was just the act of recognizing somebody. I’d also say that community isn’t just about big events or volunteering. It’s built in these everyday moments where managers support, recognize, and foster a sense of shared purpose with their teams. There’s no higher calling than being a people manager. And if you are not focused on how to recognize moments that matter for your employees, you’re missing kind of the heart of it. Manager quality is the single biggest driver of culture and engagement. And I would argue also employee fulfillment.
Bernie Borges [00:12:59]:
Exactly. And a stat that we’re all familiar with, it comes from Gallup, is that 73 in the U.S. 73% of managers, frontline managers, are disengaged. 73%. That’s a big percentage. And we really. That’s part of the. What I feel called to do.
Bernie Borges [00:13:16]:
And I think clearly, Christian, from the little time that I’ve known you and the conversations we’ve had, I think you’re in that same camp as well. Okay, let’s step back a little bit and kind of look down on the experience and maybe speak strategically to what you learned from it. And you know, if you were to do it again or if you were to advise someone else, maybe in another organization, how to approach this whole internal communications, whether it’s around a crisis or not, what kind of advice would you give?
Kristin Pascual [00:13:50]:
Yeah, well, first of all, I think in my Experience companies, whether they’re going through M and A gone bad or a market downturn, or they’re going through any sort of transformation. If you aren’t understanding where your employees are and meeting them where they are, you’re going to miss the mark. So you need to be able to really listen, to understand and then you create the communications and you do that with clarity. You do it. Compassion and consistency. There was an M and A project I worked on. When we walked in, it was a country that was completely out of our ballpark. We hadn’t done the right cultural assimilation.
Kristin Pascual [00:14:33]:
And when we walked into the town hall, employees were there with black armbands in protest. We had parents of these adult employees calling us, telling us that we had ruined their children’s marriage prospects because they didn’t want to be acquired by an American company. So when you look at something like that, it becomes a question of what is your North Star? And ours became. And there was a young woman, I have to tell this part of the story. She stood up and very dramatically put her hand on her heart and said, I feel as if my heart has been turned to ash. It was a very, very dramatic moment. So we used that as our North Star for how do you create an in state vision for transformation? And it all became about that high touch in person, finding shared connection, understanding. It took a long time to build.
Kristin Pascual [00:15:29]:
We actually were bringing engineers together, doing rotations at different campuses to really build that trust. We spent a lot of time in that country to show employees that we were committed. And I think that’s what it takes. If you’re going to go to all the trouble of investing in a company, multimillion dollar investment, you would be a fool not to take that part of it seriously. It’s probably the most important aspect is corporeal integration.
Bernie Borges [00:15:58]:
Sure, sure. Another important aspect that I think we might take for granted. But I’m going to ask you to comment on it because clearly you have a lot of experience dating back to Citrix and even in current day Seagate. And that’s executive buy in. Again, it’s an obvious thing, but I’d love for you to just comment on it because it’s very important.
Kristin Pascual [00:16:19]:
Okay, so executive buy. You can’t. I mean really, if you’re trying to drive any sort of significant change, if you don’t have executive buy in, you’re going to fail. You just will because you have to get them aligned at the top and really understand what you’re doing. And I have some techniques for that. One is A very rudimentary technique. It’s an FAQ document and it’s a horrible, horrible user interface. Right.
Kristin Pascual [00:16:46]:
Nobody likes reading through an faq. But every single one of those questions represents a decision and something that an employee will potentially care about. And so we use that as a tool. Break. Wait, is that really what I meant when I said that? And are we really doing that? So yes, that’s really what you said and that’s really what we. You intended to do. So I’ve seen a lot of decisions reversed as they’re going through and because what it does is it weaves an experience. Right.
Kristin Pascual [00:17:13]:
They start to see how all this fits together. My most favorite tool is using employee voice. So I can go in with data, I can go in with trend lines, I can show engagement scores. But when you start using what employees actually said to illustrate the point, it hits leaders here. Right. And so it beca. And they’re little stories. Each time they submit a comment that becomes a story.
Kristin Pascual [00:17:39]:
Our CEO reads every single comment that comes through our engagements surveys and he’s religious about it.
Bernie Borges [00:17:47]:
Well, that kind of leads to a point that I’m thinking in my head because I have seen executive buy in delivered as words but not action. And in the end it lacked authenticity and it flopped.
Kristin Pascual [00:18:04]:
Yeah. I mean, imagine if we had just gotten in front of a zoom camera and said, here are all the things that you think are the myths and we’re refuting those. This is what is really going on. It would have come across as defensive, it would have come across as uncaring. But being in the room with them and having. There’s an alchemy that happens when you can be in the room with somebody in a small scale setting and have those conversations. So yeah, and you can’t bring all employees together that way, but you can certainly train your leaders and dispatch them and help them understand why this is so important.
Bernie Borges [00:18:42]:
Right. I want to come back to the connect sessions because again, in the context of if you’re giving someone advice on how to structure internal communications, and in your case your example is through a crisis, how would you advise someone to actually set up and deploy connect sessions?
Kristin Pascual [00:19:02]:
Well, the way we do it, we kind of experimented. Right. So whenever you use the word going to experiment, it’s a lot easier sell. So that’s another way to get your leaders aligned. We’re going to try it out and then if it doesn’t work, we’ll pivot. But it’s really, when we send invitations out, there’s a pre submitted question Right. So that people can go ahead and put their questions in ahead of time. But then it’s also training them.
Kristin Pascual [00:19:27]:
It’s, we don’t want them scripted. It’s really honest dialogue. If it were me, I would be asking employees, what’s one thing you wish leaders understood right now? That’s going to open up all kinds of great dialogue. I think it’s also about knowing who’s in the room and doing your homework ahead of time. Find and acknowledge a contribution that might otherwise go unnoticed, especially if somebody’s in a supporting role. Ask them about fulfillment. When have you felt the most connected or valued here? What did that feel like? So you ask a lot of questions and that’s what gets the dialogue going. I think the other thing that’s important is let them know what the ground rules are.
Kristin Pascual [00:20:07]:
Right. These are the guiding principles of this conversation. And that was anything goes, but let’s also remember our values and treat each other with respect. So you can disagree. But it’s also that the tone of we’re not in here to tear each other down. This is really about connecting. Well, the way we’re structured is we’re very site based. So if you have, and I know a lot of companies are going back to office and that’s not this conversation.
Kristin Pascual [00:20:33]:
But when you have a critical mass at a site, you really can train your local executives there or C suite. They travel, they’re committed.
Bernie Borges [00:20:42]:
That’s part of right now, all the examples that you’ve shared. Of course, the one we’re discussing today is Seagate. But if you look at, you know, your career experience, they’re all big brands. So how do you scale something like this? Right. Because you’re talking about in person connection events. How do you scale that?
Kristin Pascual [00:21:01]:
They are committed to traveling to our sites. And so we have somebody that has an exec calendar and then we see where our execs are traveling. And we also look at employee sentiment and understand where those hotspots might be. We partner very closely with our HR business partners. They’re a great conduit for that. And then we plan a strategy. Our leaders are very well equipped and they know what to do. So we grew this over time, too.
Kristin Pascual [00:21:28]:
That’s the other thing I would say is don’t try to do a mass connect program at once. Start somewhere where, you know, there’s a hotspot that’s high stakes and grow it from there. Prove it out.
Bernie Borges [00:21:40]:
All right, well, Krista, as we get close to wrapping here, maybe we can talk about some key takeaways from this conversation because you’re sharing in this 20 to 30 minute conversation, you’re sharing a few decades of your experience and beginning with your marketing communication. And then of course, you transitioned into internal communications. And I love your point that there’s no going back to marketing and PR because of the calling and sort of your own fulfillment, your own career fulfillment by harnessing your skills, your talent, your expertise for the purpose of internal communication. So maybe, you know, what are some key sort of takeaways that you’d like to leave the listener with as it relates to this entire conversation.
Kristin Pascual [00:22:22]:
Well, I really like to bring it back to the concept of fulfillment because ultimately, and you, you raised such a good point. I have found fulfillment in what I do personally. And knowing that that’s also what I can affect in other people’s lives is owning this function. There’s no higher calling for me other than being a mother. I’ll add that one in. That’s for you kids. All right, so if I’ve had to leave listeners with just one insight, it’s this connection, trust and transparency. They’re not soft skills, they’re leadership skills.
Kristin Pascual [00:22:57]:
And that’s what’s helping organizations build resilience. And when you can do that, that’s also what’s going to lead employees to finding fulfillment, even if you’re going through really hard times. The other I’m going to give you one more. Fulfillment, for me, is not a destination, it’s the journey. And it’s shaped by struggle. It’s shaped by great moments. It’s shaped by growth, ownership, and then knowing what you do and who you do it with matters.
Bernie Borges [00:23:29]:
Well, I couldn’t agree more. I could not agree more. One of the things that I say often is that fulfillment is the second most powerful emotion in our humanity, second only to love. And in most cases, when we experience the emotion of fulfillment, Christian, it’s immutable, meaning that that fulfillment experience, nothing can take that away. That’s what immutable means. Right? It’s permanent. And that’s why it’s such a powerful emotion. And the examples that we’ve discussed here today and the stories that you’ve shared with what’s been experienced at Seagate and even previous to that in your calling of internal communications is an example of not only fulfillment in your career, but driving it through the organization.
Bernie Borges [00:24:17]:
And that’s why I feel privileged to take this message out and not limit it to just personal fulfillment, but also bring it into the career pillar. And your storytelling today has been fantastic. Where can my listener connect with you and just learn more about what’s going on in your world.
Kristin Pascual [00:24:35]:
Yeah. Thank you. So find me on LinkedIn. I’m Kristen Pasquale at Seagate on LinkedIn. So easy to find. And then check out our website. We have some cool hard drives that will help help your data game. One thing I’d like to add, if it’s okay with you, Bernie, it’s been fulfilling to be part of this podcast, first of all.
Kristin Pascual [00:24:55]:
So thank you for having me. Seagate had its highest stock in history yesterday, which is a big, big deal. But what I care more about is that our employee engagement scores are also historically high. So that’s really what matters. And that’s. And I would argue that that has a lot to do with why our stock is performing as well as it is.
Bernie Borges [00:25:16]:
Your last point is exactly what was on my mind. So you kind of stole that point for me, Kristen. I was going to say exactly that. That’s no coincidence. When employee engagement is high, performance is terrific, and performance then translates to great results, that in your case, because you’re a public company, gets reflected in the stock price, then that is fantastic. So I thank you for joining me for this episode. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and look forward to seeing you at the HR Wellness and Executive Summit.
Kristin Pascual [00:25:47]:
Me, too. Thank you so much, Bernie. And thanks, everyone.
