Author Archives: Ben

Own Your Own Growth

I saw this image in the footer of someone’s email the other day, and I thought it was pretty interesting. The phrase “own your own growth” immediately turned my head, because I believe we are all in control of our own knowledge growth and development. It’s a part of being passionate about what you do. Here are some other things that occurred to me right off the bat.

First, it’s obviously an encouragement to take charge of your own growth and development. Don’t expect someone else to walk up to you and hand you something to learn right at the exact moment that you need it. Start building your knowledge early and anticipate future stresses on your limits (and plan accordingly). My advice? Push your own boundaries before someone else does it for you.

Secondly, the ring across the top talks about some of the various opportunities for growth that are available to us. Some are obvious, but costly (education). Some are cheaper, but it’s sometimes difficult to get high quality information (webinars). However, at some point most of us have been through some, if not all, of the list.

Formal education
Training
Certifications
Seminars
Webinars
Coaching

And finally, something about the tree took me a minute to figure out. There was something profound in there, but I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Then it dawned on me. The tree growing from the ground reaches up and out and is visible to everyone around us. They know when we have the knowledge or skills to do something, because they can physically see us accomplishing the task.

However, the growth and development underground is something different. That signifies to me that we have a lot of knowledge just below the surface. People have the skills we need, but some of them just can’t be seen at first glance. However, this pool of talent is always there for us to individually pull from if we are in need, because we realize it’s there. The key for a lot of organizations is finding out what is below the surface when it’s not readily visible.

Anyway, that’s just a few of the thoughts I had from this simple image. What do you see? Are there other tools for growth not listed in the bullet point list above?

Attracting, retaining, and engaging members of your SHRM chapter

In November I released the free Rock Your Chapter guide to the public. The intent was to create something to help local chapters and state councils to attract, retain, and engage their members. Since then, the guide has been downloaded over 200 times! I just want to thank everyone for their support and ask that you continue to share this tool. Many chapters have a change in leadership with the new calendar year, and this would be a great way to get a jump start on new ideas for 2011.

Rave reviews

I’ve also had a lot of great reviews/testimonials from the volunteer leader community. It’s amazing to get the support from everyone that I have received. A quick sample:

Ben hits the nail on the head. “Rock Your Chapter” rocks!!
Posted by Lori Goldsmith, SPHR, GPHR

Thanks for putting your ideas on paper and working to make us all better.
(Cincinnati HR)Â Posted by Julie Johnson

This is great stuff! I will share with the Guam and Saipan chapters and let you know the results. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
Posted by Katherine Gillespie Dote

Nicely done. Finally had a chance to download and read. Will happily pass along to others as well!
Posted by Bradley Galin, SPHR

Great book Ben. I printed it, read it and have sent links to my Chapter Board Members. I also posted a link on both the Georgia SHRM State Council LinkedIn Group and the Georgia SHRMState Council Membership LinkedIn Group!
Posted by Kevin Smith, SPHR

Can you help?

I love giving these things away for free. The best part for me is knowing that it’s helping a person somewhere that I don’t even know, simply because someone like you shared it with them. Here are a few ways you can help me (and other chapters in your area):

Send an email to your local and/or state board with the link to this page
Share the link on twitter
Post it on your local chapter or state council Facebook page or LinkedIn group
Tell other volunteers you know about how much you enjoyed it (assuming you did!)
Tell me about how it helped you so I can make the next one better

Thanks for the support, everyone! Click here if you want to download the guide or see the reviews.

Teaching your supervisors the basics of management

I ran across this site recently and had to laugh. It is a common theme that I’ll get a call because I’m the “computer guy” in the family. With Teach Parents Tech you have the option of sending video links directly to those who need assistance. That allows you to indirectly teach your parents/grandparents/in laws/whoever how to do computer tasks from simple (changing your computer’s clock) to advanced (changing your email address).

Why can’t we do that?

Then I started thinking about other applications. What if you could do the same for your supervisors? What if there was a neat way like this to teach them the basic principles of good management? Would you use the tool?

For instance, a new supervisor runs into a situation (giving feedback on poor performance, motivating employees in a slump, giving a presentation to senior management, etc.). They don’t have someone available to ask for help, so they pop onto the web and find the video that corresponds with that particular situation.

No, it’s not a perfect substitute for an in-person chat with someone who already knows how to do the task, but it’s better than going into the situation blind-folded. Just a little bit of preparation could go a long way in most instances.

A few situations I think would be neat to cover:

How to give accurate, honest feedback
Why documentation is essential
The wide world of terminations
Harassment, discrimination, and lawsuits, o my!
Safety and security in the workplace
How to train someone
Coaching and mentoring your staff
Building and managing teams
Developing and pursuing a vision
And tons more!

What do you think? Are there other scenarios that you think supervisors run into on a daily basis that they could use some training on?

#HRevolution blogging team

So… You are a huge fan of HRevolution. You just can’t get enough information about the event, and you love sharing it with others. Well, I have the gig for you!

As the PR/web guy for HRevolution, I am looking for a few people to help me as the event gets closer. Traditionally I have tried to keep all the platforms humming, but as the event has grown, it has gotten even tougher to keep all the balls in the air. Plus I am excited about offering some special tools for attendees this year and need some help getting those out to everyone.

That’s where you come in.

What I need

I am looking for people to assist with the following pieces for a few minutes a week. This isn’t a full time job or anything, but it might take 15-30 minutes per week (and maybe slightly more as we get close to the event date).

Updating the HRevolution blog
Generating discussions and comments on the LinkedIn group
Updating and interacting on our Facebook page
Getting email updates out to our email list
And other top secret stuff I can’t mention here :-)

What you get in return

There are some big benefits of helping out, and here’s a short list to help you decide if you want to help.

You get to interact with some of the smartest, nicest people in the HR/recruiting space
You get a peek into this fun event and how things run behind the scenes
I’ll have something special to give my blog team at the event

Think this is something you’d be interested in? Shoot me a quick email and we can discuss. I only need a few people, so contact me quickly if you want to assist.

Management blog reviews

Recently John Hunter reached out to me to participate in the 2010 Year in Review Carnival. Being one of those people who says “yes” to everything, I jumped in and chose three different blogs to review. All three of them are new to me, but there is some great content! Let’s get rolling. I’ll link to the blog and then provide links to my four favorite posts by them in the previous year. If you see something you like, feel free to click through. Each link opens in a new web browser window so you don’t lose track of this page.

Making IT Clear

Two Questions to Ask After Each Project is Completed-want to do better next time? Look at these two critical questions to help you improve.
Which Do You Have? A Job, a Profession, a Career, or a Passion? I love the breakdown on these terms. Sometimes it’s tough to admit we have a “job,” but maybe that admission is necessary to help lead us toward our own passion?
6 Things I\’d Like to Tell Your Boss about IT-Love the down-to-earth points in this one. Great overview of where tech stands today.
The 7 Biggest Challenges of a Manager-I enjoy writing about managing people, and this post outlines some of the most critical points for managers to understand. Fantastic stuff.

Lean Leaders Blog

Connecting is at the Heart of Developing People: Relationships-This post brings us back to the fact that any organizational changes, mentoring, or engagement is useless without first forming a personal connection with the receiver.
Your Culture is Your Brand-Best quote from this post: “Successful people and organizations work on culture and then work on it some more and never take it for granted.“
Thanks Chief, but you really aren’t in charge…The talk that has to happen-It’s always tough telling a superior or senior leader that they can’t do something, but sometimes that talk just has to happen. This is a great explanation of how to make that conversation less painful.
Know the Goal…Are you being productive, or are you just busy? This post kicks off with a quote by Heinlein and frames the whole idea nicely. “In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.“

Girl’s Guide to Project Management

Get Started Using Social Media on Your Projects: Take the free course! I love finding great, free stuff. If you click Â this link you can find out how to get a free email course on using social media for project management. Neat stuff!
Zombie Project Management-I am a fan of zombies here (as long-time readers know), and this post is just another example of how zombies are destroying our organizations from the inside out. Check it out!
Scope creep, shopping-style! We’ve all had scope creep knock us on the back of the head while we are hip deep in a project. This is a little personal story about how Elizabeth realizes her project is out of control.
Project Management Book Reviews-This one isn’t a post. It links to a category about book reviews, because as I scanned the archives of 2010, there were more than a dozen of them in there, and I think they are valuable tools to help people read more. If you’re looking for books on project management, this is the link for you!

And just like that, we are finished! I had a lot of fun checking out the great posts and hope you find something valuable in there. Like what you see? You can find more at theÂ Curious Cat Management Carnival 2010 post.