Monthly Archives: November 2012

Seeing the Big Picture (Book Review)

Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build your Credibility, Career, and Company by Kevin Cope

Okay, I’ll admit it. I requested a copy of Seeing the Big Picture by Kevin Cope because I wanted to pick up a few tips. I have always had a weakness of working “in” the business as opposed to working “on” the business. That applies to this blog and to my day job. I get bogged down in the day to day details and never take the time to step back, look at the wider landscape, and see what things could be improved on a higher level.

I was a little skeptical that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted when the book started with discussions on cash flow and net profits. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the great content and probably took more notes in this book that I have in many others dedicated exclusively to the HR/recruiting space. And that, in my opinion, is a very good thing.

seeing-the-big-picture-kevin-copeHighlights from Seeing the Big Picture Continue reading →

What Are Your “Undiscussables?”

Recently I was reading an article and it mentioned “undiscussables” as dictated by workplace culture. It is a fun word and an interesting concept that I’d like to explore it briefly here. undiscussables corporate cultureYour corporate culture has norms, expectations, and core values that people are expected to follow. But it also has things in it that nobody talks about, because it’s uncomfortable. They’ve been around so long that people have allowed themselves to forget or ignore the issues.

Remember, it’s not only what you do, but what you allow, that frames your corporate culture (for better or worse).

Examples Continue reading →

Human Resources Job Titles-The Ultimate Guide

HR’s career ladder is never quite clear. So who cares? Human resources job titles mean nothing, right?

Human Resources Job Titles

Climbing the career ladder of HR job titles…

Wrong. Even if you really don’t care about it, others will judge you for better or worse the instant they see your job title. Today we’ll look at some of the various common titles as well as some career development choices you’ll have to make as an HR pro (generalist, specialist, or recruiting tracks).

Human Resources Job Titles-Ultimate Guide

Table of Contents

  1. List of HR Job Titles and Duties
  2. Progressing Up the Ladder
  3. Specialist vs. Generalist
  4. Recruiting-HR’s Cousin
  5. Education’s Role
  6. Additional Resources on HR Job Titles and Careers Continue reading →

Stupid? Annoying? You’re Fired.

Recently I was looking through the terms of a web service that I use, and I found this statement buried in there.

We can revoke your [company name] account at any time. Sounds harsh, right? We’re unlikely to ever do that, unless you do something truly annoying or stupid. We’re not going to list the annoying or stupid things you can do to make us mad, because that’s like a magnet for stupid and annoying people. Just don’t do stupid stuff with your account, and we’ll leave your account alone.

It reminded me of an at-will statement that I would probably put into our employee handbook (if we had one). Let’s translate it to “HR” speak: Continue reading →

Change-Friendly Leadership (Book Review)

Change Friendly Leadership by Dr. Rodger Dean Duncan

change-friendly-leadership-book-reviewWhen I got my review copy of Change Friendly Leadership, I was transported back to my college days of studying change management. It was a great course and I had a phenomenal teacher, so my thirst for ideas related to managing change well started early. Good thing I found this book! I have two pages of notes and I’m not even finished going back and digging into all of the pages I’ve flagged for further review. There may be another review in the future or even some posts on subtopics to delve deeper, because this thing is full of solid advice for business leaders trying to work within the change process.

Okay, now that I’ve built it up, let’s peel back the layers and dig into a few of the key points of Change-Friendly Leadership.

What I liked

  • Training failure-The author quotes a study by ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) that says that despite record amounts being spent on training in the workplace, less than 30% of training is being implemented. Continue reading →

Management Mistake From Undercover Boss

This common management mistake affects all organizations

management mistake undercover bossI don’t have cable. I watch 1-2 shows online, but I’m otherwise not enslaved to the TV. Recently when visiting my wife’s parents’ home I caught a few minutes of an episode of Undercover Boss. It was an interesting show, but when it got to the end and the CEO started making decisions, I realized again how common this specific management mistake really is.

At one point during the episode, a truck driver had tried to train the CEO on how to drive the truck, and he failed miserably. At the conclusion of the show, the CEO promoted the truck driver to be a supervisor over the other drivers.

What’s the lesson here?

Technical experts shouldn’t automatically become managers of other technical people. Continue reading →

Wisdom Meets Passion (Book Review)

wisdom meets passion dan millerWisdom Meets Passion by Dan Miller and Jared Angaza

I’ve been reading and listening to Dan Miller for over 5 years now. In short, this book is more greatness. I ended up taking very few notes for a few reasons. First, this book is full of things that I live every day, so I didn’t take great notes on those areas since I have a lot of experience with following passions, (trying to) learn from those with wisdom, etc. Secondly, it’s just engaging to read it. It’s not the typical business/career book with a lot of sound bytes. I’ve tried to pull a few together for your benefit below.

What I liked

  • 10 steps to education and getting rich (not what you think!)-I’ve omitted the details here (get the book!), but you can find this list on page 66. These seem so innocuous, but imagine doing even a small handful of these actions every single year. Every. Year. In 10 years that’s over 100 books, 30 training events, 10 new skills, etc. It’s exponential growth! Crazy to imagine doing it all at once, but very doable when you look at reading just one book per month…
    • Read 12 books this year
    • Attend 3-4 seminar/training events this year
    • Subscribe to 2 great magazines
    • Listen to 3-4 podcasts and read 3-4 blogs per week Continue reading →