Catching up with Kelly Lewis
The time we spend at our desks can take up a lot of our time. And while what we do to make a living is important to our lives, it isn’t the full picture of who we are.
So we've set out to discover how our team spends their time during the work day and once they clock out.
Kelly Lewis leads TurnkeyZRG’s purposeful commitment to the development of people and culture across the sports, media, and entertainment industries, focusing on the identification and magnification of talent stemming from underrepresented groups. Kelly also oversees TurnkeyZRG’s diversity, HR, community, and philanthropic searches.
Read on to learn more about Kelly.
I wake up every morning at 5:20. But I always hit my alarm for an additional 10 minutes because, transparently, it's a little too early in the morning---and I know what you are thinking, that extra ten minutes isn’t helpful, but for me it is. I go to a Black-owned workout class that's women-centric. It's a small boutique gym where we're working on our fitness, taking care of ourselves, celebrating our daily wins, and holding each other accountable.
Sometimes I’ll have breakfast, but I’m usually not really hungry at that point. And then I transition into getting started; checking emails and Linkedin, responding to text messages, and reading SBJ and other platforms; I like to stay abreast of what’s going on, whether in sports, HR, DEI, or education too.
Oh, and I make sure I speak with my mom to see how things are going.
When I get really busy, the team is my support; but being busy is always good.
I am a verbal communicator, often openly sharing my thoughts and emotions. So, I call other people on my team to walk through issues and process solutions. I take my job very seriously; as I deal with people’s lives. Whether from the client side who needs to make the right hire or from the candidate side who is taking a leap of faith.
From an organizational standpoint, I have a checklist of things I need to prioritize. My biggest focus right now is asking myself what I need to do vs what can I do. Having a dual role, there is always a task. Somethings, there are times when I log into my computer to respond to emails at 10 pm or continue prospecting later than I anticipated. My thought is that I have the time, to do it. Luckily for me, Turnkey is an organization with people who will tell me to log off the computer when I'm sending things later than I should.
They see me as a person, who happens to be employed here. I will say, in 2023, I have been very intentional about giving myself a break. Now that my Apple Watch is fixed, I am always paying attention to how much I'm sitting down and my water consumption. I can’t be great at my job if I don’t take care of myself.
Similar to a trend in candidate desires, I enjoy working for a people-first organization, having flexibility, and being able to work for a company that sees and values your worth.
Part of my role is doing exactly this. Connect with candidates to deeply understand their desires as well as their competencies. When it comes to the talent place, I have seen people place so much emphasis on I can do that job, while not asking themselves is this the best environment for me and my talents? Each team, league, union, and company are different; while the role on paper may seem similar, organizational, geographical, and scope can differ. We want a perfect synergy—I need your personal and professional needs met.
This is particularly important for underrepresented talent, as there are often additional societal factors impacting job satisfaction.
Having office hours has allowed me to offer constructive criticism to prospective candidates. This could range from resumes to career mapping to actual job placements.
People are just looking for the opportunity to talk with somebody, especially diverse talent.
They want to tell their story and get some feedback along the way. While we have seen great momentum in the placement of women and racially ethnic talent in our industry, there is a lot of strong talent who want to ensure their candidacy could never come into question. I want to support them in whatever way I can.
It’s a mix of specific and more general advice. Many people don't know how to maximize LinkedIn or how to create the best impression with their resume, so that is pretty broad advice. What information can be described in quantifiable results? Are we using action verbs? When it comes down to a specific person, we get more in-depth. I would say it’s more executive or life coaching. That includes fixing confusing lines and figuring out how to show progression in their career.
If you haven't been promoted in years, has your scope changed? How can we illuminate that in your resume? Maybe instead of just saying, “I've been a senior manager from 2011-2023, and here are my 3 bullets,” you focus on the major projects you worked on to show the career progression. But generally, I'm telling people that there are things that people who are hiring want to know.
When I look at someone’s LinkedIn, I should get enough information that my interest is peaked, and I want to have a conversation and connect with you.
I often get asked if I see Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as something we’ll need 15 years from now. The answer is yes.
We have seen DEI ultimately morph throughout the years, specifically affirmative action/ compliance, to the inclusive experience focus of today. Organizations’ priorities continue to evolve along the way, but the baseline of effective DEI strategies and tactics is to ensure there's a place of inclusion and belonging for everyone.
I believe there's much misconception about who is included in the conversation of everyone. Most think this work only benefits People of Color or underrepresented groups, whether that's women, people with disabilities, or people who identify on the LGBTQ identity spectrum. That might be due to the proximity bias of working with particular voices involved in leading these efforts or prioritizing initiatives for a specific aspect of the company or societal populations. But truthfully, effective and efficient efforts are for more than just these groups.
The goal is to make sure everyone feels represented, seen, valued, heard, and supported.
It’s evident that DEI roles and priorities are going to continue to evolve. While the data shows there is an ongoing need for companies to focus on the “D—diversity” in DEI. We’ve seen more of a transition of an intention to support the environment and atmosphere conducive for all facets of diversity to thrive.
Organizations are shifting priorities from labor and workplace rules to employee-centric. Starting initiatives that are growing talent and creating spaces where individuals have the leadership experience, coaching, and connectivity to advance their cultural competencies.
We are seeing more states take part in pay transparency. Which as we know creates an opportunity for employers to uncover and address potential pay inequality.
There are practitioners who have been given the opportunity to do more than talent acquisition. They are being intentionally embedded in all aspects of business; hence illuminating gaps and opportunities within our business model. Every organization isn’t here yet, I think, the next step in the iteration of DEI is hiring someone who understands all facets of a business, who is not only thinking about internal DEI, but external barriers and chances of impact.
That will require having people focused on a DEI impact that enables the organization to withstand some of the things we're currently seeing in the marketplace because some states are beginning to push back on DEI initiatives.
If you're only focused on getting diverse photos on your website, you're not equipped to take on the challenges of positioning an organization to take a stand effectively.
You're going to see people begin to cross collaborate very intentionally with departments. Legal, community impact and DEI departments should be the best of friends right now. Of course, DEI and HR should be working together.
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ABOUT TURNKEYZRG
Founded in 1996, TurnkeyZRG is a highly specialized talent recruitment/executive search firm filling C-level, senior-level and mid-management level positions throughout sports, entertainment, music and media. Over the past 25 years, TurnkeyZRG has filled more than 1,400 positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. TurnkeyZRG helps teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas, theaters, college athletic departments, events, sponsors, agencies, media companies, private equity companies and other clients identify, recruit and hire the very best management talent. Turnkey now benefits from ZRG’s global footprint, full array of industry practice groups, data-driven, analytical search tools, and technology investment in changing the way executive search/talent recruiting is done. TurnkeyZRG becomes a tech-enabled disrupter of the prior executive search model.