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Your Strengths, Your Goals, Your Growth

Professional Development

An outdoor portrait of a man with a slight beard, wearing light-colored glasses and a gray sweater over a brick red collar shirt. He is smiling. On the left is the text: "[Recognition] is like love languages — everybody's is different. We need to meet people in theirs." — Doug Rowe, HR consultant NC State's Poole College of Management

Apr 29, 2026

Find a Way To Recognize Every Employee

For many leaders, employee recognition can feel like one big to-do list item. Doug Rowe, HR consultant at NC State's Poole College of Management, says meaningful recognition starts with understanding your people by communicating consistently and building relationships over time.
Event graphic for "Decoding the DNA of Career Growth" at NC State on May 20, 2026, from 1:30–3 p.m. at Talley Student Union. The flyer features headshots of facilitators Juanita Barkley, Career Development Coach, and Ursula Hairston, Assistant Vice Chancellor for HR Strategy. The background is a black-and-white image of the campus belltower and trees.

Apr 28, 2026

Get Help With Decoding the DNA of Career Growth

During Our Extraordinary Pack Employee Appreciation Week, the University Human Resources Employee Career Development (ECD) team will host a special event on May 20 called Decoding the DNA of Career Growth. If you’re not familiar with the ECD team, this is a preview of how they’re helping NC State employees shape what’s next in their careers.
Attendees at a workshop

Apr 21, 2026

Register for Decoding the DNA of Career Growth

Decoding the DNA of Career Growth is an interactive workshop that will focus on the real drivers of career growth — technical, human and strategic skills.
A woman in a peach-colored sweater laughs during a meeting or training session, seated between two colleagues in a professional indoor setting.

Mar 26, 2026

Academic Assistance Program: Updated

North Carolina's Employee Learning and Development Policy, formerly known as the Academic Assistance program, has been updated in a way that opens new doors for full-time, permanent university employees.
A group of people practicing yoga on a sunlit lawn surrounded by brick walls, lush greenery, and agave plants.

Mar 23, 2026

Well-Being Isn’t a Perk — It’s a Professional Strategy

NC State wellness advocate Kelly Vance offers her perspective on how to thrive at work.

A photo collage featuring three images of Pablo Campos, a counselor at NC State. Top left: A professional headshot of Pablo, a man with curly dark hair, a beard, and glasses, wearing a red, yellow, and blue plaid shirt, smiling in a bright indoor hallway. Bottom left: An outdoor selfie of Pablo wearing sunglasses and a blue neck gaiter, tilted against a backdrop of jagged, snow-covered mountains under a blue sky. Right: A vertical shot of Pablo in profile, looking out toward a vast, sunlit mountain basin filled with snow, scattered pine trees, and rocky peaks.

Mar 20, 2026

When Your Brain Is in Survival Mode, Your Career Pays the Price

Counselor Pablo Campos explains the psychology of stress and how it impacts decision-making.

Headshots of Rebecca Zuvich and Meredith Towery. The left photo shows a blond Zuvich dressed in a black blazer and white tip. The right photo shows a blond Towery in a black blazer and black blouse.

Feb 24, 2026

How To Ask for and Champion Professional Development

Discover how employees can advocate for professional development opportunities and managers can empower their teams to ask.

Feb 24, 2026

Build Your Brand Before You Need It

Nikki Price, assistant dean for culture, talent and human resources in the College of Sciences, shares how she built a professional brand that commands attention.
A triptych of three smiling women, each in a separate portrait against a backdrop with the text "NC STATE UNIVERSITY." On the left, a woman with blonde shoulder-length hair wears patterned glasses and a light grey sweater. In the center, a woman with long black twisted hair and tortoiseshell glasses wears a black top over a green scarf. On the right, a woman with dark brown shoulder-length hair and a dark floral blouse.

Jan 29, 2026

Feedback Without Fear

Feedback shouldn’t be a “gotcha” moment, it should be a tool for growth. University Human Resources experts share the frameworks that make having difficult conversations easier and explain why leaders should model vulnerability by asking for feedback themselves.
Here is the alt text for the image: **Alt Text:** A word cloud arranged in the shape of a smiling face with heart-shaped eyes. The graphic is filled with multicolored words representing positive character traits and professional skills. Prominent words include "teamwork," "integrity," "resilience," "creativity," "empathy," "tenacity," "honesty," "collaborator," "courage," "growth," "kindness," "perseverance," and "self-starter."

Jan 28, 2026

Your Strengths, Your Goals, Your Growth

In the December edition of Pack Your Potential, we invited readers to share the qualities they most admire in themselves. But that was just a preview of a more meaningful process: individual goal setting.