HR | HR Without Ego

“Because I Said So” Management is Weak Leadership

I put a lot of thought into my decisions. I hope you do as well. I want to make sure if someone, seeking to understand, inquires as to my decision-making process, I can point to how I got there.

I care about people and how my actions may affect them. I truly care. This is not a weakness. I don’t care too much. In my opinion, you can’t care too much. You can certainly care too little – but not too much.

In the same token, if I make a suggestion, it’s simply that – a suggestion. Getting emotionally attached to your big idea clouds the process. Is it really a great idea, or do you feel that way because you came up with it, and you are not open to the input of others?

While I put considerable thought into my decisions, they are very rarely absolute. My work is in a state of continuous improvement. Who doesn’t want to be better? Sign me up! I’m constantly reading, listening to podcasts, and seeking feedback to be a better leader, professional, boss, friend, and mother. I want to make good decisions and do the right thing.

My litmus test: What’s my reason? Why do I care about this particular request or guideline? If the possibility of “because I said so” would even begin to enter my brain, that tells me that I am making a decision to make my life or job easier, and not for others. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but that’s weak. Being a leader isn’t about making our jobs easier. Leadership is selfless. Leadership is finding creative ways to say yes instead of always saying no.

I once had a person on my team who was dedicated, passionate about her work, and also happened to have a life outside of work. Telling people to leave their personal life at home is ridiculous and quite frankly impossible, and I’m proud of us as leaders that we are realizing that. People have stuff. Giving them a hard time about their stuff doesn’t make it any easier and certainly doesn’t allow them to focus on their work. This rockstar on my team had stuff, and you know what? I let her go handle her stuff and still do her job. I certainly could have told her that her personal stuff had nothing to do with her job and made a “because I said so, and I’m your boss” decision. No one wins in that scenario. She appreciated being treated like a human – with compassion. She worked hard and was loyal and cared about doing a good job. My hope is that if she is put in that situation in the future with someone on her team, she remembers to offer compassion instead of judgment or criticism.

Check your ego. Do the right thing. Be kind to one another.

How to Make Decisions in Business

How do you make decisions? Are there charts, graphs, spreadsheets, pages of data? Yes, data is important, but so are the humans in our care. Do you include input from those affected, if possible, in your decision-making process? Perhaps you could glean insight from another perspective that would completely change how to approach a situation.

We learned the difference between right and wrong long ago, and it would appear that we have forgotten how simple that litmus test can be. The bottom line in any decision first and foremost should be “what is the right thing to do?” If you can’t do the right thing, go back to the drawing board and work harder. It’s not always easy to do the right thing. There can be considerable pushback – it’s not always the easiest, most cost-effective, etc. However, doing right by our people is priceless in terms of trust, transparency, and confidence in leadership.

As leaders, we have a responsibility to do the right thing by our people. This is why we are in positions where we have been entrusted to serve others. It is our great privilege to serve our people, and they are trusting us to keep their best interest at heart when we are making decisions that often have a ripple effect in our organizations.

We must have the courage to make the right decisions – to do that right thing. We also must work hard to ensure that we are making our workplaces a safe environment with a strong culture of integrity. We must empower other leaders in our organizations and support them in their courageous efforts.

I’m not naive. I know this isn’t easy. I also know that there are times when tough calls have to be made, jobs have to be cut, locations have to be closed, layoffs have to occur, pay has to be frozen. In times like this, it is in the best interest of the business overall to make these decisions. We are preserving the business and the ability to continue to operate by making these moves. This is for the greater good. I’ve been there. I’ve done that. I once had to lay off 20% of the workforce in the morning and co-star in a commercial for the business in the afternoon. Yes, it was brutal.

While it’s sometimes inevitable to do these things, you always have a choice in how you conduct yourself in the process and how you treat others.

Always behave with integrity in your actions.

Always treat those affected with the utmost care, compassion, and respect.

Always provide as much information behind decisions as possible. Letting someone know just how difficult the decision was can help them feel a little less like their hard work was in vain.

Always take responsibility for your actions. Do not blame “corporate” or “your boss” when delivering the news. Make sure that you understand the why behind what happened so that you can speak to it. People lose respect for you when you are reduced to a headpiece for “the establishment.”

Do the right thing. Ask questions when something doesn’t seem right. Teach your teams to do the same.

Believe in Yourself #GuestPost – My Dailey Journey

This week, I was fortunate to be a guest on Wendy Dailey’s blog! I was an early guest on the HR Social Hour podcast. Jon & Wendy started this podcast a few months ago, and it is well worth the listen if you aren’t already subscribed. Wendy and I met on Twitter several years ago, but we have not yet met in person. We are putting plans in motion to remedy that. Please click the link to view the post and check out Wendy’s other content on her blog! Believe in Yourself #GuestPost – My Dailey Journey

How to be Patient at Work

In your career, you are not going to agree with every decision is made. If you have already experienced this, you’re thinking “Duh” in your head, if not, wait for it, it is inevitable. It’s not always negative, either. There have been plenty of times, especially early in my career, when I may not have understood or agreed with a decision at first, but it turned out to be the best thing for the company.

We are in a service-oriented career, and we want to help people. I care about the people I serve and support, and if you are in Human Resources (or any iteration of it), I’m sure that you do, too. As my good buddy Steve Browne says in his book HR on Purpose, “If employees are a pain point or source of frustration for you professionally, then get out of human resources. It isn’t the career for you.” If you haven’t read his book, download it or pick it up today.

This is not to say that those making the decisions do not care about people. I feel that is a common misconception. Having been the one making unpopular decisions at times, I can promise you, I cared.

Full disclosure: Patience is not one of my virtues. My team is giggling at this right now, and my husband is sighing, I’m sure. It’s a work in progress. I do, however, have an appreciation for having patience in the workplace, and I greatly admire those that exercise patience.

To be a great leader, and to serve people, you must exercise at least a modicum of patience.

Being patient at work does not mean that you are blindly following orders, without question, without a second thought. It does, however, mean that if a decision is made, and you don’t understand the rationale, respectfully request more information, asking your questions, etc. Focus on the issue or the situation – not the decision maker(s). Assume positive intent that those that made this decision have done so with all the information available to them at the time – some of which you may not be privy to, and that the decision was made in the best interest of the business overall.

If you are the person that will inevitably deliver this news, it is imperative that you make sure that you are clear on the rationale and underlying understanding of the decision. YOU WILL BE ASKED. Be prepared for the questions.

Choose your moments to challenge wisely. You don’t want to get a reputation for being the person that continuously pushes back or challenges decisions. Do not behave in a way or create a reputation for yourself that you are difficult to do business with. If and when you do pose a question or respectfully challenge a decision, you will have greater impact if you have typically demonstrated support from your position.

That being said, even if you believe that you have a valid business case for why this decision is either not living the company values, is not the right thing to do for the employees, etc., your belief is exactly that – a belief. If your feedback is taken under advisement (or not) and there is no traction, do not take it personally, focus on understanding the rationale, and move forward. Becoming emotionally attached to decisions will emotionally highjack you.

At the end of the day, our role is to support our people. Whether we agree with what has happened or not, we must trust our senior leadership to make the best decision for the business overall, and we must do our best to support our people as the decision impacts them. They will take their cue on how to react and handle things from us.

Demonstrate patience.

Transparency Counts

Transparency counts in all aspects of HR. You don’t have to air all your dirty laundry, but please be real. This is especially crucial in communication with candidates. In #NextChat today, the topic of communicating with candidates and transparency came up. I feel very strongly that when a candidate is making a LIFE CHANGING decision such as possibly leaving a long-term employer, relocating, or even taking their first job, the decision should be made with the most accurate information possible.

Please do not sell your opportunity to the candidate. No one wins in this scenario. You will violate all trust with the candidate, and they will inevitably leave anyway, leaving you to source this position again. Be real. If you have problems, let the candidate know. Invite them to come in and meet the team, including the leadership team, and ask questions. Show them a “day in the life” of the position. It’s great if the candidate hits it off with you over the phone or in person, but they have to work with their team, remember?

If the candidate’s role in the organization will play a pivotal part in addressing your culture issues, let them know that you are aware of the issues currently in your culture, and you are committed to improving it. One step in that is with their role, and this is how they fit in that. Not everyone is cut out for being such a crucial member of the team from the start. That’s okay. You want the person that wants to get their hands dirty on day one in this case, so you need to make sure that your candidate knows that.

Please also be transparent about job responsibilities and duties. When I was hiring an HR Assistant to take 15 years of paper employee files to electronic, I said so in the interview:

“I want you to have an accurate idea of this position. You see those filing cabinets and that scanner? It’s a pretty cool scanner. It can scan 26 pages front and back in 1 minute. Your first task will be converting those files from paper to an organized, electronic system.”

I needed someone who was like “That scanner is cool. When do I start?” not “Ummm…that sounds horrible…I thought I was going to get to solve world peace here?”

The best compliment you can get in HR when you are recruiting for your own organization is for the candidate to tell you after they were hired that their expectations matched their reality. It’s great if they were excited over the phone, found the environment engaging, and are still psyched on Day 1, right? It’s equally rewarding when someone knows there is a challenge, is ready to get to work, and after some time, you both see the results of the team’s hard work.

Be real. Thank me later.

Want to Really Make a Difference? Blog.SHRM.org

With #SHRMLeg wrapping up this week, I wanted to share the post I wrote for the SHRM Blog after my testimony as a call to action for HR to join the SHRM A-Team! I still remember the excitement on the Hill that day and could chat for days about being an A-Team Member!

Want to Really Make a Difference?

By Nicole Roberts, SHRM-CP, PHR

Why did you go into Human Resources? What about HR attracted you? For me, I wanted to make a difference. That has always been the most rewarding part of my job. Many of you will say that you want to have a “seat at the table.” What about having a seat at the table with the Department of Labor? What about having a seat at the table in a Congressional hearing? Sound like a way to make a difference and represent our profession? Join the SHRM Advocacy Team.

Why did I join the A-Team? SHRM gave us the opportunity to have a voice, and I took it. I started out by following the links to the e-mails and completing the templates on the SHRM website to contact my Representative on key issues. From there, I joined the SHRM A-Team. Last year, prior to the start of the Annual Conference in Orlando, the DOL held two listening sessions with SHRM members, including many from the SHRM A-Team. It was fascinating to hear the questions they asked us and to get a glimpse into where the possible changes to the law were headed. My organization had a vested interest into the possible changes, and I was fortunate to have a seat at that table.

I stayed in touch and remained active with the A-Team. However, it wasn’t until this summer that I fully became an advocate. The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections was interested in hearing testimony from a SHRM member on the need for FLSA modernizations, and as a member of the SHRM A-Team as well as a participant in the DOL listening sessions, my name had come up. It was never a question of whether or not I wanted to participate. This is what we dream of, right? We actually get to go and TALK to Congress? Sign me up.

To say that it was the coolest day of my career is an understatement. While it was the most nerve-wracking experience, it was also a great honor to represent our society of hard working Human Resource professionals. Kelly Hastings, Lisa Horn, and I spent the entire afternoon prior to the hearing going over my testimony and fine tuning each word to make sure that we made the most of my five minutes. Nothing compares, however, to the outpouring of support that I received from Steve Browne and my Ohio SHRM members. That was just one of the many days that I was proud to be a SHRM member.

via Want to Really Make a Difference? | Blog.SHRM.org

Failure is Feedback…

I saw a post on from the fabulous Sarah Hathorn on Twitter a while back:

Sarah Hathorn‏ @SarahHathorn Jan 31

I thought to myself. “Right. It’s feedback.” So I replied to her:

“Failure is feedback. It allows us to change our approach and improve the process. #leadership“

Stop and take an honest inventory of your view on failure. Do you view failure as an opportunity to improve, or do you view it as being “less than” or “not good enough” because Plan A didn’t work out? What drives those feelings? Where is your focus and mindset?

I was talking to a friend of mine about the idea to this post and he said “I fail every day.” I love that. He didn’t say “I quit every day.” He said he failed – this implies he’s trying daily. We don’t have all the answers. We are not always going to get it right, but we are 100% more successful when we try than when we are paralyzed by fear of failure.

Did you know that there are over 534,000 videos that talk about how many times some of the most successful people failed before they got it right? These are meant to be inspirational videos. If they can do it, I can do it. Right? Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs, J.K. Rowling, Henry Ford, all faced adversity and failure, but they stuck with it. They kept going.

Below is one of my favorite quotes by J.K. Rowling:

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

― J.K. Rowling

In some cases these people faced monumental setbacks, but they didn’t let it define them. They continued to try. They rebounded until they succeeded, and then they continued to work hard and continue trying new things.

In order to dare to do great things, two important aspects must occur: you must put yourself out there to try AND you must engage with others who encourage continuous learning and continuous improvement. Far too often we engage in cultures where there is such a stigma around failure and so much effort is placed on perfection and the pursuit of it. Spoiler alert: no one and no organization is perfect. We could all save a lot of time and heartache striving to something unattainable.

We see it every day in the news – especially lately with the #MeToo movement: organizations learn somewhere along the way that a catastrophic lapse in judgment has occurred, and in many cases, lack the courage to admit it, learn from it, and make it right. We all make mistakes. We are all human. Why do we try so hard to convince those around us otherwise?

The Power of Vulnerability

“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.”
― Brené Brown, Rising Strong

I was on the phone with one of my amazing members of my team when she was interrupted by an employee entering her office. She put me on hold, but I could hear the employee talking. The employee had a question about her paycheck. I listened as the employee asked her questions. I heard silence as I could tell my team member was thinking of what scenario could have happened, then she proceeded to ask questions.

Not one time did she defend herself or seem to be reacting to the apparent mistake or misunderstanding. She genuinely sought to understand so she could determine how she could help her. I was so proud to have her on my team.

I know I say I have an amazing team a lot. I do. They are some of the most talented, caring people I have had the privilege to work with, lead, develop, and learn from.

After she had a pretty good idea of what happened, she explained to the employee what happened and how to prevent it in the future. She also explained that she would take care of the correction, and confirmed that it was okay that it was on the next paycheck or needed a manual check cut. The employee confirmed the next paycheck was fine, thanked her, and left.

She got back on the phone and asked me questions about how to best audit for a situation like this in future processing. As we chatted, she realized that she had misspoke in her direction for the protocol for the future to the employee. Within minutes, I was bcc’d on a message to the employee, thanking her for coming to gain clarity on the issue. She then explained how she was wrong in what she had told her for future steps, and she wanted to let her know and clarify the proper process.

Once again, I was proud she was not only a part of my team, but that our employees had such a wonderful human being taking care of them. She’s only been with our organization for less than 90 days, and there are bound to be mistakes in the learning process. She could have reacted defensively and immediately pointed out how the employee didn’t follow the protocol or blamed something or someone else. She didn’t do that. She didn’t react. She was vulnerable and asked questions to focus on the problem and how to best remedy it and prevent it from happening in the future.

The power of vulnerability met the employee where she was and made her feel like they were in it together to find a solution. I hope we all approach problems like this.

Hello, I’m Here to Help…

“The value of our lives is not determined by what we do for ourselves. The value of our lives is determined by what we do for others.” –Simon Sinek

I’ve been a fan of Simon Sinek since before it was cool. If you aren’t familiar with his stuff, check him out and thank me later. He’s going to be at #WorkHuman this year, and although I’m not able to attend in person, I’ll live vicariously through you all that do. If it wasn’t the same week as my kids’ spring break, I would have lobbied a lot harder to get permission to attend, but packing up the family to head to Austin while Mom is geeking out in a conference all day is not what I consider “Mom of the Year” criteria, so I’ll let you all enjoy, and I’ll read all the tweets.

The thought of “Hello, I’m Here to Help” has been a frequent one lately. HR is the epitome of servant leadership. We are here to help. That is why we have our positions. We are here to help our employees, our management teams, and the company. This is what we are trained to do. We know what we’re doing, and we take a great deal of pride in being that resource.

It has come to my attention lately that while we’re here to help, how we help is not always how we may have originally offered. The theme of HR Without Ego is real. We are servant leadership, here to help. However, we don’t dictate how we help. We approach conversations and prepare for meetings with an entire scenario laid out how we plan to offer our help and support. By the end of the meeting, we have scrapped Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. We collaborated on Plan D, and while it’s not what was originally planned, we are supporting the solution. We need to focus on the end game when offering our support and not be emotionally invested in our original plan.

There are also times when our help is not accepted. Take a deep breath, accept that fact, don’t take it personally, and move on. It’s okay that our help was not accepted. We must focus our efforts where they are best utilized. There is always something to do, someone to support, and focusing on what we can’t do will only drive us crazy. Change your focus. Change your mindset. After all, we’re here to help…

Has HR Lost the Trust of Employees?

It was a nice little Sunday. We went to the Cincinnati Auto Expo. I had been looking forward to this all week. When I was a little girl, my Dad always had a “race car.” He had a ’76 Corvette for most of my childhood, and would take my older sister and I to car shows. My Dad lives in New Mexico, and I miss him dearly. The Auto Expo was the highlight of my week to connect with my Dad, thousands of miles away. The Expo did not disappoint. It was wonderful. I sat in several cars, breathed in that new car smell, reminisced about my childhood, and life was good.

We got home, I settled in with a nice cup of tea, and my husband forwarded me this article that took my breath away within the first few sentences “Human resources has to be one of the greatest bait-and-switch professions one can join today.” OUCH. I had to read on. Surely there was more to the story. There seemed to be some serious pain here for such a statement. “…the field often attracts starry-eyed idealists, people who seek a mission-oriented, perhaps even noble profession for their careers. They join thinking they are going to make a difference.” Yep. That sounds like me, 14 years ago. I wanted to help people and make a difference. That’s still one of the things I love the most about HR. We have the potential to make an impact.

The article goes to on to describe scenario after scenario where corruption occurs in the organization, calling them “HR abuses.” I bristled as I read the accusations against my beloved profession, but again, I read on. After all, perception is reality, right? Isn’t that what we coach and teach others? We have to manage perception? And just like there’s no crying in baseball, there’s no ego in HR. If there is a perception that we are not there to support our people, we need to talk about that – no matter how hard those conversations may be.

The crux of the article explained how various apps and third-party agencies could coach employees to have difficult conversations when faced with situations at work, calling this “network-based HR resources that can be responsive to worker concerns in real-time.”

Rather than looking outside of the organization for support, HR Pros, let’s challenge each other to open our doors, open our ears, take down our walls, and talk to people. Really talk to people. Spend time with managers, coaching them, sharing resources to help refine communication skills, empowering them to be better leaders for their teams. Encourage our leadership to live a culture of accountability. HR can’t “fix” the issues. Despite popular opinion, that’s not our role. We’re not “fixers.” We are supporters, coaches, facilitators, and it is up to us to ensure that our organizations not only see us for who we are, but utilize us in that manner. I accept the challenge. Who’s with me?