From Kendra’s Desk: Reflections on a Decade at Turning the Corner

Kendra Prospero, CEO

I love to look back over the last ten years and reflect on all the companies Turning the Corner has helped (nearly  300!) and all the individuals we’ve served. Thousands of people have reached out to us over the years.

We’ve written close to 1000 resumes, career-coached over 700 people, trained over 600 managers, and spoken to over 10,000 people!

It’s from these many conversations and experiences that we’ve become experts in HR.

Here’s the thing: It’s YOU who have taught us—and you’ve made us really good at what we do.

Trend spotting: The best and worst of HR

Since we have a birds-eye view of all the best and worst practices in HR, can often spot trends before they happen. For example, in 2015 I gave a speech to the Boulder Economic Council that predicted the need to have more flexibility for workers. It’s never made sense to me to force a schedule onto people unless it’s directly linked to the way a business earns revenue. That was six years ago, and I told that audience that they needed to “Flexbilize to Survive,” and to treat employees like adults.

And today, nearing the end of 2021, I know for a fact that Turning the Corner survived the pandemic—and even thrived—because we’ve had a hybrid work model since day one.

An unexpected advantage

What else has a decade taught us? Well, one advantage is that we eat our own cooking every day. We experience everything firsthand at TTC before we share it with our clients. It’s why so many of our clients appreciate our approach; we’re no-nonsense because if we can’t make something work for our own team, there’s no way we’re going to force it onto our clients.

I know that our process works because we experience it every day. Running a “values-based” organization is a perfect example of this. For ten years, we’ve had strong values that we’ve used to inform how we hire, fire, manage, train, govern, and promote our team members. And we’ve also had very little bad turnover over the years. As we’ve rolled a values-based approach out to our customers, we have seen that same magic work in their organizations to this day.

I now believe that getting really clear on your true expectations and values and then hiring for those is the single most important thing an organization can do to make their employees last.

Job seekers, you are our inspiration

From our job seekers, we’ve learned that a job search can be a soul-crushing experience. Our hearts ache every day when we hear your stories. But your struggle is our anger inspiration—it gets us out of bed every morning to know that we are helping end suffering in the workplace. And that’s also why our mission maker is training managers to be great bosses.

A common phrase that people love to say is “you don’t leave a job, you leave a boss.” Unfortunately, this is true.

We’ve discovered that there are 13 reasons someone leaves a job and ten of those reasons have to do with a poorly trained manager. That’s why we put together our leadership and management program to change this.

It stands true to this day: Companies must invest in teaching managers these crucial skills if they are serious about keeping their employees.

Thank you!

Over the last ten years, we’ve had many delightful and heartbreaking experiences. And today, I can confidently say it has taught us to be deliberate, pragmatic, and cutting-edge.

Thank you for your continued support of us—here’s to all we’ll accomplish in the next decade together!

At Turning the Corner, we believe that meaningful work that we enjoy is one of life’s greatest rewards—it’s why we do what we do! Our mission is to end suffering in the workplace and empower businesses to thrive through various HR services and training opportunities.