Category Archives: General

The 1% Solution For Work and Life (Book Review)

how to make your next 30 days your best everToday I get to review the book The 1% Solution for Work and Life by Tom Connellan. I have been doing a lot of reading on working smarter, being more productive, and developing solid work habits lately. With all the balls I juggle, it is often more than a little crazy. When my friend Rebecca reached out to me to see if I wanted to review this book, I couldn’t wait. The last book review I did for them was fantastic, and I hoped this one was on the same level. Lucky for me, it certainly was.

I am a fan of business books written with a narrative story embedded. It helps to put yourself into the situations the character is facing. You can sympathize with the troubles and celebrate with the triumphs. So before I was two pages into the book, it already had that going for it. :-)

The plot

The basic storyline is this: Ken’s life is barely hanging on by a thread in some places. He is sick and tired of just struggling to maintain that level of performance, and that prompts him to start a conversation with a friend who is doing quite well. The friend shares with him an interesting phenomenon illustrated by Olympic athletes. Apparently the best athletes in the entire world are approximately 1% better then those who are just really, really good. It’s not a 50% difference or even 10%. And if they can be the that good by being 1% better, why can’t we be 1% better at lots of little things in life? Continue reading →

DriveThruHR-remote training, certification value, and more

Whew! As you can tell by the title, we covered a lot of stuff today. Wait, you didn’t hear? I was the guest today on DriveThruHR with Bryan Wempen and William Tincup. We talked about the day job (manager training and selecting a performance management tool), HR certification and its value to employers and professionals, HRevolution, Project:Social, and more. I highly recommend it not because I talk a lot, but because there are some great tips in there for getting involved and making a difference in your own piece of the world.

Click here to listen to the episode

Frustrations can be blessings in disguise

Sometimes you are totally blown away by how things turn out. That’s what prompted the video below. I was totally frustrated with a situation that was going on in my life. However, when I looked back after some time, I realized that it was actually quite a blessing that things turned out like they did. After you watch the video, I’d love to hear some ways that might have happened in your own life!

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Xtreme HR Career Story Challenge

My friend Chris Ponder at XtremeHR is asking people to share their own career stories. I’ve talked about my HR career before, but I thought it would be fun to participate in his project as a showing of support for this great idea. The back story of the challenge. I was supposed to answer the questions he asked in several shorter videos, but after being snowed in this week and having all kinds of crazy stuff come my way, I just shot it in one long video (my longest ever). This is my career story thus far with more detail than you ever imagined. :-) At the very end I am on the verge of a coughing fit and you can barely understand me. Sorry ’bout that!

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This series was a lot of fun, and he will be doing something like this quarterly if you ever want to participate. Just in case you wanted to find them, here are the 3 sets of questions I answered.

What do you do on the first days at a new job?

My friend Stephen started a new job this week. His post about first impressions is a fun read and will transport you back to the first days on the job. Click over and read it (should only take a minute or two). He asked for some tips/advice on how to spend those first days, and I wanted to share a few of my own thoughts here.

I am proud of you, my friend! They are very lucky to have you on board. I’m in the exact same position as you. Our company is split between two main locations, and I’m trying to support both areas. If possible, plan a trip to the other locale and give them plenty of notice in advance so they can prepare questions for you. I had that opportunity after being here only a few weeks and it was a great opportunity to meet them and make them more comfortable with me.

Find out what your senior leaders believe in. Like Steve mentioned, find out what is best about their culture and commit yourself to that. I found out that our senior leaders firmly believe in our core values, and I now try to tie those into any project I’m working on so it will have their support.

On the flip side, find out what they like least, but like Lisa said, keep from “doing” anything about it until you have time to see the big picture. There will be plenty of time later to fix what’s broken. The thing to do now is find out what is broken and why it hasn’t been fixed before now. Is it because it’s too costly, takes too much time, is a pet project of an executive, etc.?

Two things I’ve taken to doing when I first start a job:

  • Immediately schedule a 1 month review with my manager and get it on the calendar.
  • Start a draft Word document and write down everything you do that takes more than a few minutes. At the end of the day/week/month, you will be amazed at the things you’ve done since starting, and it will help you when you sit down with your manager to see if you are focusing on what is important to them.

Anyone else have ideas for the first days on the job?

Management, game changers and hire my friend

I am constantly amazed at the ability of people to write great content day in and day out. It might not always be the same person or the same blog where I find a gem, but it’s amazing that this stuff is out there free for us to enjoy. Okay, enough wonderment. Let’s dig into some great reading!

5 minutes, use it for more than just another task

The best way to use the last five minutes of every day? It’s a little reflection to make sure you are on the right track. Seriously, skip the last few minutes of “if I can just get one more thing accomplished” and slow down. Look at what you spent your day on and see if it was what you had planned. If it was, did you get as much done as you expected? If not, what threw you off track? Are you now behind on other projects? It’s all about taking some time to look at the big picture instead of being trapped in the day-to-day.

Busy=Happy?

Sometimes my manager stops and tells me she worries that I have too much on my plate. Well, the other day I was able to toss back the piece of research about busy employees being happier. It’s interesting that people with too little to do were the most unhappy. We sometimes think that people enjoy being lazy at work, but apparently there’s a balance in there somewhere between being slammed and having some time for other things (like the reflection activity mentioned above).

New managers? Check it

With a new set of managers growing into their responsibilities at work, I’m always looking for ideas on how to help them grow in their supervisory skills. This is a big picture overview of some of the common new manager pitfalls, and it’s well written.

Hire my friend?

I know a great HR pro who is in the Chicago area and is looking to get back to work. She has been blogging for a while and has some great insights into leading others. If you are looking for a talented professional with great experience, Sabrina might be the person for you. Find her on LinkedIn if you want to learn more about her skills.

Game changers

The last piece is a great one that I found on Fast Company. It’s all about questions game changers must ask. I have no idea if I can be considered someone of “game changer” status, but I love asking questions and challenging the status quo. The big ones for me:

  • Do you have new ideas about where to look for new ideas?
  • Have you figured out how your organization’s history can help to shape its future?
  • Do your people care more than the competition?
  • Are you learning as fast as the world is changing?

Check it out to see more and decide which ones you need to ask in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Anything special you’ve read recently? Share it in the comments.

Being influential, communication, and culture shock

sticking togetherI have been writing the RocketHR blog for almost 18 months now, and at times it’s an interesting existence. I try to write with a little less opinion and silliness that pervades my other blog, because I am not only representing myself but my chapter as well. Recently that got a lot easier as several other SHRM chapters and state councils have started using blogs to reach out to their members and share information. Today we’re going to kick off a rotating series to promote other SHRM blogs and help others to learn more about the best chapter blog in north Alabama. Let’s dig into the good stuff that others have shared!

Greater Cincinnati HR Association

It’s a big question, and we all would love to know: who is the most influential person for 2011? I think you will be surprised by who has the opportunity to make the top of this list in this great post by Steve Browne.

Illinois State Council

We hear a lot about communication these days, but this neat story about communicating up and down the line by Dave Ryan takes us back to a time when tools for sharing were much simpler. While he talks about a method that is old-fashioned, I still love telling people that the best way to be “social” is to pick up the phone!

HR Mouth of the South (HR Florida)

My current employer is really focused on a few things, and one of them is communication. We try to make it more difficult than it really is, but doing it consistently and in a timely manner is the basis for simple communication. This piece by Joyce Chastain will make you stop and think about how you are doing in this area.

Birmingham SHRM

My friends in the Birmingham SHRM chapter have been busy of late, but this post from their archives is one that I really enjoy. Often when we think of relocation, it’s in hard numbers and how things will work for the company. We rarely think about the effect on employees and any potential culture shock from the change.

And there you have it! Four great SHRM blogs that you should check into. Thanks for supporting these other chapters and state councils and for keeping RocketHR going strong!