Heart at Work with Trina Sunday

60. Better Rooms. Why HR Need Community More Than Ever

• Trina Sunday • Episode 60

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 15:21

What if the thing sustaining great HR leaders isn’t resilience, but community?

In this solo episode, I talk about why so many HR and people leaders feel emotionally isolated despite being constantly surrounded by people, meetings and professional networks. I talk about the hidden weight of people work, the science behind contribution and connection, and why genuine support systems matter more than ever in leadership.

I also share why I believe the future of HR will be shaped less by bigger stages and more by better rooms. The kind of spaces where people stop performing, start connecting, and support each other through the real challenges of leadership. If you’ve ever felt exhausted trying to hold people and performance together at the same time, this conversation is for you.

What kind of support system do you have around you right now? And are you building the kind of community that helps people thrive, not just survive?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and continue the conversation with you on LinkedIn

SHOW NOTES: https://trinasunday.com/get-inspired/ 

Trina Sunday is a human-first leadership strategist, HR advisor and creator of the HEART Work™ model, helping HR leaders and People & Culture professionals build workplaces where people and performance thrive side by side. With more than 25 years of experience across HR, organisational development and leadership advisory in Australia, Asia and global leadership communities, she works with HR leaders and executive teams to strengthen leadership capability, shape workplace culture and drive human-first organisational transformation. Through the Heart at Work with Trina Sunday podcast, leadership programs and advisory work, Trina is passionate about empowering HR professionals to move beyond compliance and lead the future of HR with courage, clarity and influence.

Get Inspired 

This Space Is for HR Leaders Who Care Deeply About Performance and Equally Deeply About People


I think one of the weirdest things about modern HR is that we’ve never been more professionally connected and never more emotionally alone doing the work. We’re in webinars, leadership forums, LinkedIn threads and conference ballrooms, constantly surrounded by people. And yet so many HR leaders quietly feel like no one actually sees the weight of what they’re carrying.

So today I want to talk about community, contribution and service to others, and why I think the future of our profession may be shaped less by bigger stages and more by being in better rooms.


Welcome to Heart at Work with me, Trina Sunday.

This space is for HR leaders who care deeply about performance and equally deeply about people.

For more than 25 years, I’ve been asking one persistent question. What are the real conditions for happiness at work?

Because when humans come first, something deeper shifts. How people show up, how leaders decide and how work feels.

Here we explore what it really takes to lead with courage, compassion and clarity. And we pull up a chair to the conversations HR leaders do not always get to have.

There’s heart here, but there’s also depth.

If you’re ready to build workplaces where people and performance thrive side by side, you’re in the right place.

Let’s get to the heart of it.


What Genuinely Sustains Us as Human Beings


The Reality of Doing People Work

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what actually sustains us in leadership over the long term. Not what gets us promoted, not what makes us look impressive online, not what gets us invited onto panels discussing the future of work while everybody quietly eats dry banana bread pretending to network.

I mean, what genuinely sustains us as human beings doing people work.

Because if you work in HR, people and culture, organisational development, leadership, or any role where humans are essentially your full-time emotional group project, there’s a very good chance you’re carrying more than what most people around you realise.

We’re balancing people and performance, empathy and accountability, culture and commerciality, executive expectations and employee realities, wellbeing and business pressure. Often all before lunchtime.

And somewhere inside all of that, I think many of us have become professionally disconnected from each other. Not socially. Professionally. Humanly.

Which is strange because technically we’ve never been more connected.

We’re in Slack channels, Teams meetings, webinars, LinkedIn conversations, WhatsApp groups, conferences, networking breakfasts, leadership forums, constantly surrounded by people.

And yet many HR leaders I speak with are quietly feeling very isolated doing the work.

And honestly, I think it’s costing us much more than we realise.


Why We Chose This Work

And here’s the thing I keep coming back to.

I genuinely believe that many of us entered this profession because we wanted to help people, not manage people. Help people.

We wanted workplaces to feel fairer, safer, more hopeful, more human.

Because work impacts almost everything. Our confidence, our mental health, our relationships, our identities, our sense of belonging, sometimes even our sense of purpose.

Work follows people home into our relationships, into our parenting, into our sleep, into our self-worth.

And HR sits right in the middle of that, whether we acknowledge it or not.

But I think many of us are trying to care deeply inside systems that do not always reward humanity in return.

The bureaucracy, the politics, the endless restructures, the pressure to protect brands instead of people, the expectation that we somehow hold everyone else together while quietly burning ourselves to the ground.

HR people are honestly incredible at creating psychologically safe spaces for everybody else.

But we’re absolutely terrible at admitting when we ourselves are cooked.

Some of us are one passive aggressive executive email away from starting a goat farm in Denmark.

And honestly, I think many of us are quietly grieving the kind of work that we hoped this profession would allow us to do.

Not loudly. Quietly grieving.


The Science of Contribution and Connection


The Helper’s High

What’s fascinating to me is that science keeps reinforcing something many of us instinctively know.

Human beings are wired for contribution.

Researchers often talk about something called the helper’s high. Not the performative version you see online, but the real one. The feeling we experience after we genuinely help someone else.

And interestingly, it’s not just emotional. It’s physiological.

Acts of generosity and service trigger the release of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. All the good stuff.

These are the same chemicals associated with trust, calm, wellbeing, belonging and connection.

So for lots of us, helping reduces stress, improves our mood, strengthens our social connections and helps us feel better about life.

Even increased longevity.

And honestly, this explains a lot about HR people.

We are essentially a workforce of emotionally overcommitted people accidentally chasing neurochemical rewards through usefulness.

Like organisational labradors.

You need help with that. Absolutely.

Would I like to take on another emotionally complex workplace issue at 4:47 pm. Apparently yes.


What Actually Makes Us Feel Fulfilled

And the weird thing is, helping generally does make us feel good. Not in some fluffy inspirational quote kind of way. Scientifically.

Because humans are wired for contribution.

Maybe that’s why modern leadership culture feels so strange sometimes.

We’ve built our professional identities around being impressive, productive, visible and high performing, but not necessarily around being deeply connected.

And yet the research on happiness keeps pointing us somewhere far more human.

Towards contribution.

Towards connection.

Towards usefulness.

Not performative service. Actual human usefulness.

Helping somebody. Supporting somebody. Encouraging somebody. Making another person’s life lighter.

And maybe that’s why some of the moments we feel most fulfilled are not actually about us at all.

They are the moments where somebody finally feels seen. Where somebody gets an opportunity. Where they feel less alone. Where they grow because we believed in them.

Or they leave a conversation with us feeling more hopeful than when they came into it.

Because at our best, this profession has never just been about policy.

It has always been about people.

And maybe that is the science talking.

But honestly, some of the people in my community genuinely are my dopamine.

The people who challenge me, encourage me, ground me, make me laugh, remind me what matters and help me reconnect to the purpose of the work when things get heavy.

That’s the power of community.


Why We Need Each Other More Than We Think


You Need a Bench

I think many of us underestimate how much we need each other in this profession.

Every athlete has a bench.

Every elite sporting team has a bench.

Not because they’re weak, but because nobody sustains high performance alone.

And yet many of us are emotionally crossfitting our way through organisational chaos with no real support system behind us.

Just vibes and caffeine.

We need a bench.

And I do not mean superficial networking or collecting LinkedIn connections.

I mean real people.

People who sharpen our thinking and challenge our blind spots.

People who tell us the truth.

People who encourage us, sponsor us and remind us who we are.

People who help us hold our perspective when we lose it.

Because we spend so much time creating that safety for everyone else that we forget we deserve that support too.


The Moments That Actually Change Us

Some of the biggest moments in our careers do not come from formal programmes.

They come from people.

A quiet conversation.

A recommendation.

A mentor.

A sponsor.

A person saying you are not crazy.

You should go for that.

You do not have to do this alone.

That is the stuff that changes us.

Not another competency framework in size 11 Calibri font.

You want loyalty. Help someone before they have to ask.

You want someone to value your leadership. See the potential in them before they fully see it in themselves.

Sponsor them.

Speak their name in rooms they are not in yet.

Share opportunities.

Make introductions.

Use your influence intentionally.

Because some of the most important leadership moments happen quietly.

Not publicly.

Not performatively.

Quietly.

And I sit on a lot of those benches as a mentor, a sponsor, a cheerleader, a confidant and an ally.

And I will never tire of it.

Because that, to me, feels like being of service.


Why Most Professional Spaces Miss the Point


Content vs Connection

Most professional events are designed around content consumption rather than human connection.

We sit in rows or at tables. We get talked at.

We panic network in the 15-minute break while balancing a tiny coffee and a stale croissant, trying to remember everyone’s name.

Some conferences feel like professional speed dating for emotionally exhausted adults.

Everyone is wearing lanyards, pretending they are thriving.

Now look, learning matters.

And some of the insights you hear from speakers are genuinely interesting.

But information alone rarely changes people.

Community does.

The conversation after the session.

The perspective shift over a drink.

The moment somebody says the thing you have been carrying privately for years but never quite had language for.

That is what we remember.

Not slide 63.


The Power of Better Rooms

I think the future of our profession may be shaped less by bigger stages and more by better rooms.

Rooms where contribution matters.

Where people participate instead of perform.

Where conversations continue after the session ends.

Where nobody is pretending they have it all figured out.

Because creativity burns brighter in person.

Together.

It just does.

It is heart work.


Creating Spaces That Actually Matter


The Thinking Behind People Unconference

That is a huge part of why I created the People Unconference in Perth this July 2.

Not because the world needed another conference.

HR people already have enough opportunities to sit in dimly lit ballrooms pretending they are energised while quietly running on caffeine, survival instincts and corporate trauma.

I wanted to create a genuinely human room.

The kind of room where conversations feel real.

Where people participate instead of perform.

Where smart, thoughtful humans can exhale a bit and stop pretending they have everything figured out.

Because meaningful community rarely happens by accident.

It has to be designed.

The energy in the room matters.

The people in the room matter.

The way people are invited into conversations matters.

And honestly, I think many of us are starving for spaces to feel more honest, generous and connected right now.


Contribution Over Consumption

Yes, there will be thought-provoking conversations and insights from outside HR.

But the part I care deeply about is contribution.

One of the most important parts of the day is our not-for-profit challenge, where we use our collective thinking, experience and humanity to support real community challenges.

Because many of us are not just looking to consume ideas.

We want to contribute.

To be useful.

To help.

To serve.

And at our best, that is who we are.

My hope is that people leave with more than just notes they will never look at again.

They leave with people.

People who challenge them.

People who encourage them.

People who become sounding boards, collaborators and trusted voices.

Maybe even part of their bench moving forward.

Because this work can be heavy.

And none of us were supposed to carry it alone.


Final Thougths

If you are looking for your people, or maybe just a reminder that there are still good humans working alongside you, I would genuinely love you to be in the room with us in Perth on Thursday 2 July.

You can learn more at trinasunday.com.

Thanks for listening. I cannot wait to have you in the room.

Thanks for spending time with me.

If this conversation challenged you, clarified something or simply reminded you that you are not the only one holding the tension between people and performance, then it has done exactly what it was meant to.

This work is not easy, but it is necessary.

HR has a new future, and it leads with heart.

If you found value here, subscribe so you do not miss what is next.

Share this episode with someone who also believes that work can be better.

If you want to go deeper, you can explore the Heart Work model, the programmes and the growing community of HR leaders at trinasunday.com.

Because when HR leads with clarity, courage and compassion, it does not just change workplaces.

It changes lives.

Until next time, keep asking better questions, keep backing your voice and keep putting humanity at the centre of performance.

Let’s keep heart at work.