This is installment two of a blog series about lessons I learned this year. Most of the lessons were just reminders of things that I learned awhile ago, but 2011 served as a as a year to be reminded of them. Below is a list of three more lessons all dealing with change.
How often does this very notion go on in your organizations? When was the last time you tried to sell your employees on some magic? Surely you can think of time when you spun the message to sound more positive or left out some details in a communication. Eventually like the kids, they will figure it out. However, unlike the kids, they can leave. Or they can stay and offer just a little more effort and put in a little less time.
In my last post, I discussed the positive effects of gratitude. During this time of Thanksgiving, it is easy for us to be thankful for the things in our life that we love and enjoy. However, how often do we show gratitude and give thanks for the things that were difficult for us or for things that were unpleasant? It reminds of the commonly used notion of Feedback as a gift. As much as it is, it can be hard to realize it when the gift you are receiving is negative or unflattering.
n the early days of my retail career, I knew I had reached the ultimate level of success, when I could leave on vacation and return to no other messages than, “welcome back.” See before I reached this point, I would come back to work (most of the time a day or two early just so I could what was really going on in my absence) and there would be a long list of things that I needed to handle; there would be all kinds of things ranging from angry customers, to incomplete projects, to a dirty store. Somewhere after years of getting frustrating by this, I figured out how to engage and develop a team of employees to give whatever was needed to get the job done. Up to that point, I had always been really good at setting expectations and keeping people focused at work while I was there, but what happened when I left?
Before cell phones and mobile devices, decisions sometimes had to be made at a moment’s notice by someone other than the boss, or the leader, or the person in charge. As a result, I think we spent more time developing the people who might have to make those decisions. And people were learning from having to make those decisions. And succession planning was occurring very naturally. And leaders had time to think and to reflect.
In an previous post, I discussed the many different views of HR’s number one priority. Despite the view from which you see HR, most would agree that HR has a responsibility for talent. From talent acquisition to development and retention, HR has responsibilities. However, this very concept that HR owns talent can be a source of frustration for many. For the HR professional charged with the responsibility of talent, it can be frustrating when managers fail with their talent. For the managers who believe HR owns talent, it can be frustrating when HR can’t fix their problems. And what about the employee? What about the talent caught in the middle feeling like their manager isn’t leading them to success and HR doesn’t care?
Are interested in working in Netflix? Do you think that talent is your number one priority in HR? Then you shouldn’t apply at Netflix. In a current job posting on their website, Netflix clearly spells out what they are and are not looking for in a Director-HR. The message is short and doesn’t mention anything about company benefits or essential functions. But, it is effective. It is to the point and my guess is that it will weed out a number of candidates that don’t fit.
Over at the HRCapitalist blog, Kris Dunn asked the question, “Why Don’t We Coach Employees More Than We Do?” This is a great question and to quote Dunn, “confrontation sucks.”
During my career, I have been given a few nuggets of wisdom from people with whom I have made contact. Upon truly understanding their meaning, those words shaped a paradigm shift in my thinking that transformed the way in which I did my work or lived my life. Other pieces of wisdom I heard simply reaffirmed what I already knew, but perhaps provided a unique way in which to describe or communicate the concept. One of those concepts seems to be rarer today than when my career started and I thought I would share it with you.
n multiple recent posts, I discussed techniques for building training that is more likely to result in actual learning. And while I believe that effective training is an investment that will yield a very positive ROI for companies, organizations cannot ignore where the majority of actual learning takes place. The majority of learning in an organization is a result of informal interactions. Employees learn by observation and dialogue with peers, leaders, managers and others. They learn limits by watching reactions of their supervisors and the consequences that come with pushing the limits. It is also within these same interactions with peers, leaders and managers that can make or break the learning transfer after a training session. So while training and HR departments are building programs to develop skill sets or improve performance, the real change happens in the culture. And the culture is built by all those interactions and observations that occur “back on the job.”
Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 15 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. [Read more ...]Provided by
