This is the first in a new series called tips and tricks. Supervising others is one of the most difficult jobs one can have; it is also one of the most important. Below is a list of tips for supervising others that I picked up along my career path. What can you add?
A common understanding in the learning field is that the best way to learn is to teach someone else. During the past year, I have had the privilege to learn a great deal from my HR students. What my students taught me this year: HR is still misunderstood in many organizations. Many of my students [...]
Recently, I got asked another question and the answer required a little more thought on my part. One of my HR students asked, “How do you know so much about this stuff?” After thinking about that for a couple of days, I discovered that the answer is that I am a true student of HR and all things related to people in the workplace. I read a lot of books, I read a lot of articles, I spend a great deal of time on websites, I attend professional development seminars and conferences, I teach HR, and I am actively involved in my local ASTD chapter. I am constantly seeking the most up to date information and I love research on the topic. I am a true HR Nerd.
HR is full of different roles and responsibilities and there are a ton of buzzwords that we love to throw around in organizations. We also love to use creative titles for people in HR. Companies do this for a variety of reasons, but mostly is a marketing campaign. We need some good marketing in HR, but we also need to realize the best marketing is providing a service that people want and need. Results happen and a key to HR success is tying all that activity we do to business impact. Below are some of lessons I was reminded of this year tied to the importance of HR and what we do. There a few buzzwords and rhymes thrown in for fun.
s the year comes to a close and I begin to reflect on the previous twelve months, I realize as adults we are always learning and re-learning important lessons. Many of the lessons I learned this year were simply reminders of lessons learned years ago. Below is the beginning of my list and will serve as part one for the Twelve Lessons I Learned (or Re-Learned) This Year blog series. These lessons are universal in many areas of life.
Learning requires action and sometimes failing. There are a number of failures that I have learned from throughout my career. One of the most painful for me was in my early days of multi-unit management. I had just been transferred for the first time out of my hometown to a new city with an entirely new group of stores, employees and customers. Coming into this new environment, I was a little cocky. I had been a rock star store manager and after my promotion, I led a rock star district of stores. My team was good and my stores were very profitable. So of course, I assumed if my new team wasn’t comprised of rock stars, I could have that turned around in no time. Unfortunately, the time frame it took for that happen was quite a bit longer than I expected. The main reason, I thought it was about me and my talents. It wasn’t. I took over a team of rock stars who just didn’t know it yet. And everything I did when I got there communicated that they weren’t.
As stated in my previous two posts, training sessions can be a dreaded activity by many. Despite research that tells us lecture is not learning, it is still the most used delivery method. And with current updates in technology the lecture is often supported with a deck of PowerPoint slides filled with the words being spoken by the presenter often times while reading directly from the screen or his printed copy. It is not surprising that this is the most common method. It is the easiest to develop and control and it is what learners often expect. This may just be why they dread coming to training.
A career in HR can be very rewarding, but like accounting it isn’t for everyone. It is important to figure out what aspects of work excite or motivate you.
Most employees in companies today are all too familiar with the concept of the performance review. Just the mention of this often dreaded occurrence of discussion with one’s supervisor where they get to critique every move you’ve made during the year while you sit ideally by is sure to send negative feelings throughout the mind’s of employees everywhere. The performance review generally has a similar effect on managers and supervisors as well. So why is this performance review so dreaded and loathed by many?
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
