Author Archives: Ben

Do more of what you do well

That’s a semi-strange title, but it really does have more meaning that you might think. I recently was turned on to the amazing work of Marcus Buckingham, and I absolutely love what he advocates. Wait, you’ve never heard of him?

His big “thing” is pushing people to follow their strengths. You know those people who tell you to work on your weaknesses? He says to ignore them if possible and get even better at your strengths.

Here’s a little snippet from “The Truth About You” that I’m reading right now.

When it comes to your job, the “what” always trumps the “why” and the “who.”

People tend to take a job because of the “why”–“I’m joining the Peace Corps to help the disadvantaged” or “I’m going into politics to make a difference” or “I’m going into sales to make a lot of money.”

They stay in a job because of the relationships they build, because of “who” they work with–“I like my colleagues. They know me. They expect things of me. I don’t want to let them down.”

But then, as time drags on, they eventually become aware that “what” they are actually doing isn’t what they want to be doing…. So they quit.

Sounds like the stone cold truth to me, and to be honest, it hits a little close to home as well. I joined my organization based on the “why.” I have stayed because of the “who.” And if I can’t get enough of the “what” that I need to stay sane and engaged, I’ll move along. It sounds like the life of a mercenary, but there are too many years ahead (even for a forty year old, there are still at least twenty years of work ahead if he/she wants it!) to stay in a job that isn’t satisfying mentally and emotionally.

I’d like you to try a little experiment. I want you to see how much time at work you can devote to your strengths, and then delegate, drop, or minimize any weaknesses.

So, what are strengths and weaknesses?

Buckingham says that your strengths aren’t necessarily what you’re good at. Why? Well, just because I’m good at folding laundry doesn’t make it a strength, right? Strengths should make you feel strong when you do them. You should finish the activity energized.

On the flip side, weaknesses make you feel weak. If you finish speaking in public and want to pass out on the ground, then that’s probably going to count as a weakness.

With that in mind, why not give it a shot? Try to spend more time working on things that make you feel stronger. It might not be a big change for you, but what if you were able to squeak out an extra thirty minutes per week doing things that revitalize and inspire you? Would that make a dramatic impact on your outlook on work? I bet it would.

Give it a shot. Let me know what you think!

SHRM’s Social Media Guy Dishes on #SHRM10

Despite the intense annoyance he must have felt after meeting me ;-), Curtis Midkiff, SHRM’s new Social Media Guy took the time to do a short email interview to talk about the event and what he sees for the days and weeks ahead. Whatever your thoughts on SHRM may be, this guy is doing some great things, and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

So, Curtis, we’ve seen you here before on the blog in the days ramping up to SHRM10 (meet Curtis Midkiff). Out of all of your predictions for the event, do you think it went as well as you hoped it would? What was the best/worst part?

I think that the overall engagement effort went as I hoped. Continue reading →

The quietest guy you’ll ever meet…

AKA Eric Winegardner Interviews Himself

I had the opportunity to sit down with Eric Winegardner from Monster during the Monster/Smartbrief on Workforce video series. If you’ve never met me in real life, let me just say this: I’m shy. I’m quiet. I don’t really talk a heck of a lot.

That might surprise you, but it’s true. It takes some people a while to realize it, but I really do know and understand that you learn more by listening than by talking.Â So I was more than a little nervous to sit down with this brilliant guy and talk on camera. Maybe I’ll get better with practice (I certainly hope so!), but here’s all you have to go with for now…

(Subscribers may have to click through to view)

By the way, I counted. I talked for one minute and twenty seconds out of a four minute video. I’m so glad Eric is chatty and saved me from mass goofiness. :-)

Eric mentioned redefining the value of a SHRM membership. I’m definitely on that. We talked about my passion being something that attracts others. I have more than enough to share. Eric touched on music selections at SHRM conferences (which should be a universally acceptable topic!), and my brilliant response was what? “I don’t listen to music.” It’s true, but I should have winged it with something ultra-cool. :-) I usually just ride in silence and record notes and ideas that roll through my head. I wrote a few more thoughts about what I thought of the annual SHRM conference over on the RocketHR blog for my local SHRM chapter. Check it out!

Find the rest of my SHRM10 coverage here

What’s the Annual SHRM Conference like?

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Annual SHRM Conference in San Diego, California. It was a big surprise to be able to attend, and I gained some valuable insights that I can’t wait to try out at work. I was writing about my experience throughout the event, and if you’re interested, you can see everything on the SHRM10 page. Now, for those of you who haven’t attended, I’m going to talk about what the event is really like.

Bigger than you can imagine

Thousands (11,000, to be exact) of HR professionals all in one place. When the keynote sessions were going on, there were 12 giant screens set up all over the room so that everyone could see during the presentation. The conference center was probably half a mile long and took me more than ten minutes to walk from one end to the other at top speed. Just… Wow.

Expo floor is massive

I never realized there were so many vendors in our space. There were hundreds and Â hundreds of booths dedicated to all kinds of things, from certification to payroll to background checks and more. And while I’ve heard stories about the mad rush to grab stuff, I still wasn’t prepared to see thousands of normal, everyday HR pros bounding down the aisles looking for something else to pick up and run with.

It’s a hit or miss with speakers

Nobody can ever quite tell how a speaker is going to perform. Some of them did amazingly well, and others just didn’t hit the spot for the crowd. I was very excited to see Steve Forbes speak, but it was mostly about finance and fiscal policy; that caused a lot of the HR pros in the crowd to do some uncomfortable shifting in their seats! I wasn’t really excited to see Marcus Buckingham speak, but his keynote was simply amazing. I’ve since started reading one of his books and can’t wait to put my hands on another.

Session content was a balance, too

Some of the sessions I went to were wonderful, and I took a lot of notes (and even wrote about some, too). Others didn’t turn out so well. I went to two or three sessions where the speaker read off of slides or just didn’t hit the topic the session was supposed to be about. That’s fine, when that happened I just left or started talking to someone in the crowd. I did my best not to waste any time during the event.

Connections-the name of the game

I’m not one of those people who networks for the heck of it. I try to have meaningful conversations with people I find interesting, and if anything sticks, then that’s fine with me. I had the opportunity to connect with some amazing people, including a former SHRM CEO, the former Chief Human Resources Officer at Yahoo, and more. It’s going to be amazing to see where all of this ends up!

The bottom line

If you are interested in going, it’s going to be a big expense. But if you can do it just once in your career, it might be enough to provide lasting value. Even if you’re not able to do it ever again (and who knows if I will be able to!?!), hitting it that first time is going to give you a lot of insights into our profession. And if you do decide to go, shoot me an email. I’d love to give you a few tips. :-)

Anyone else ever been? Have anything additional to say?

Lessons for a lifetime-My #SHRM10 Recap

All I can say about my experience at #SHRM10 is “wow.” I’m still trying to digest all of the lessons from the event, but I can already say that it was completely worth my time and sweat investment. There were 30% more attendees at SHRM10 than at SHRM09, and I think that was a part of the enthusiasm that buzzed around the event.

What did I learn?

I learned more about strategic planning, creating a better experience for job candidates, and serving others. I learned that being involved in the social world before the event helps you to make connections and build upon them once you arrive. I learned that the Monster and Smartbrief teams (and by default, me!) work their butts off to make the experience amazing for everyone.

Here are a few other lessons I’ve learned and a few that I’m still digesting.

Connections

If you’ve ever heard me or another socially-active person mention events, we probably mention connections as a benefit. While it seems somewhat vague, I’ll put it this way: I have a list of 30 people to follow up with who most people would salivate to connect with. Why do I, a little old HR guy from Huntsville, Alabama, get to reach out to them? I’m not completely sure, but I think it has something to do with my passion for the profession and my desire to see things improve. I can’t think of any other reason they’d be interested. :-)

Even if I had done nothing else during this event other than talk and meet people, it would have been completely worth the effort. How’s that for value?

The day job

It seemed almost like an afterthought, but I did get some great ideas to carry back with me to my day job. While I didn’t get to see all of the sessions I wanted (some of those suckers fill up fast!), I did experience a handful of solid, value-packed speakers who challenged my thinking. This list is going to be the frustrating one, probably. While I’d like to work on the 50 things we’re doing wrong, in reality I just can’t find the time to do all of them. But if I can make a few small changes (just a few, mind you), and it has a positive impact on my workplace and the overall organization, I think I might be okay with that for now.

Questioning my path

One thing I didn’t expect was questioning my career choices. I had multiple conversations with Eric Winegardner from Monster, Jennifer McClure from Unbridled Talent, and Gerry Crispin from CareerXroads. All three of them are superstars in their own right, and all of them encouraged me to continue growing and developing in my career.

One of the most profound statements I’ve ever heard from Eric (and it wasn’t this one) was this: move up, not out. So many amazing HR pros eventually take off and leave the profession instead of continually climbing to be Directors, VPs, and Chief HR Officers. We need more great people to ascend to those positions instead of leaving them to the people with seniority by default (even if they don’t have the skills or passion to be great at it).

Jennifer asked me what I wanted to do with my career. I didn’t have a quick answer to that, and she reminded me that as a recruiter, I needed to know what I wanted before it was offered. For example, if she called me to recruit for a position I seriously wanted, but I sounded unsure, then I’d probably be passed over completely for the job even though it was a good fit for me. I need to figure out what I want to do next so I can seize the opportunity when it comes along.

Projects and partners

While I’m active quite often, it’s never as fulfilling when I’m working alone. I love love love getting the opportunity to help someone else to finish a difficult task or build something new. It’s so much more exciting and fun to share things with other people.

Mike VanDervort shared a great idea that I can’t wait to assist him with.
I’m on the lookout for ideas I can share with Matt Charney, because he was so helpful throughout my conference experience.
Bryan Wempen and John Jorgenson (among others) are great local/state SHRM leaders, and I am seriously thinking about partnering with them to develop more resources to better serve their members.
Chuck Salvetti, the guy in charge of student and young professional stuff at SHRM, has asked if I would volunteer to help get the young professional group up and running smoothly. I’ just sent in my application, Chuck!

There are others, but I don’t want to let all of the cats out of the bag just yet.

Keep the flame burning

While I’m completely and totally on fire right now, it won’t last. I’m going to try to stave it off for as long as I possibly can, but the experience will fade from my mind and other stuff will clutter up my brain. How in the world can I keep it going? What if I don’t have an Uncle Andre hanging around to help keep me on the right track?Â If I could have learned one thing at SHRM, it would have been how to keep the spirit and enthusiasm all year long. Exploring that oneÂ could be a complete post in itself, but if you have your own suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

SHRM membership in my future?

I was prompted by some amazing people, including Gerry Crispin, Nancy Newell, Sue Meisinger, Tara Mauk Arthur, China Gorman, Nancy Slotnick (and more), to join SHRM. I still haven’t made the leap just yet, but I think it’s going to be sometime in the near future. To top it off, both Gerry and Sue offered me this deal: if I don’t get my money’s worth in value from SHRM membership, then they will pay me back out of their own pockets. It doesn’t get much simpler than that, huh?

What you missed if you weren’t there

If you haven’t seen it yet, there was some amazing content generated from the event. Below are some of the best resources I’ve seen so far (and a few of mine thrown in because I’m me :-)).