A while ago I was listening to a blogtalkradio interview and one of the interviewees said that HR wasn’t her passion. Now I’m paraphrasing – that’s not a direct quote and it was months ago. But what stuck with me is that her former profession was not her passion. She felt the things in her personal life were more in …
If ‘Everyone’ is Responsible, is Anyone Responsible?
Hiring decisions are often lengthy, arduous, complex undertakings, where even the best, top-performing organizations can only hope to achieve more ‘wins’ than losses’. Think about it. What percentage of your organization’s hires in the last two years would you, (or more importantly, your managers), classify as quality hires? About half? More? Do you even know? Hiring is hard, while simultaneously …
The Truth in Baby Shit
For those who have babies, you’ll readily understand the metaphor. If we pay attention to it, baby shit is an indicator. Turns out… lagging and leading indicator. You can tell a lot about the health of your child from things exiting said child. And, for the record, men who don’t change diapers are weak, pitiful human specimens. Period, end of …
Crying at Work – Dealing with the Serial Crier
I’ve been thinking a bit about crying at work of late. No, I don’t mean I personally have wanted or needed to cry at work but rather, whether and when it’s okay to let the ‘ol water works flow in the office. This article from Time magazine on the same topic also found its way over to me which was all …
There’s No Such Thing As Black People Music…
Turns out… we’re all riddled with biases. Newsflash! While we secretly wish that wasn’t the case and/or that we were somehow above it, we’re not. And for the cynics amongst us, allow me a moment to prove it to you. Imagine a scenario for me… you’re interviewing candidates for a critical role within your organization. During polite conversation the candidate …
With Candidates, Are You Nice or Helpful?
I received an email this week that pleasantly surprised me. I had met with the email sender, a 2010 graduate, about a year or so ago as a favor to a friend and she was writing to say thanks. To rewind a bit. This gal – she had a good resume. She was clearly smart given she was graduating from …
HR and Donuts…
I met a sales guy a few years back whose comment about HR just stuck with me. I had asked him about selling to HR professionals. He bellowed “Hell, I love HR… all you gotta do is bring donuts to the meeting.” Donuts to the meeting, I thought. Surely this guy was full of shit. But nope. He wasn’t. And …
Afraid… of Me?!
At this point it’s not new news that fear in the workplace can cripple productivity and ruin your culture, but are you creating fear without even knowing it? My friend Louisa called me yesterday at 2pm in a mini-tizzy because her boss’s boss had come over to her desk and requested a meeting with her for the next day. She …
Essential HR Skill #19 + #20: Skepticism + Getting People to Spill Their Guts
My friend Toby is what I call a “Believer.” Toby has never met a person he did not trust or an idea he did not believe. He wants to believe in people, he’s not big on asking lots of questions or thinking badly about people and he just buys into whatever he is hearing. Toby’s typically a smart dude, but …
5 Things to Create a HR Fight Club Over
Piggybacking on the FOT blogpost from Steve Boese a few days back, “Top 5 HR Time Sucks”, I was inspired to create my own top 5 list. This is a list of things I think are worth taking it on the chin for in corporate HR. So many of us are trained to, heck even demanded to, “know our place”. I …