My HR Practice

If you are an aspiring HR professional, there are two words you must find a way to insert into any conversation with a business leader -- "Competency" and "Model".  Using these words will make you look smart and educated and send a message to the business leader that she needs you because you know about something she won't admit that she's never really understood. Do a Google search on the phrase "competency model" and in 0.40 seconds you will gain access to 331,000 hits.  And if you are brave enough to go deeper, you'll look at searches related to "competency model" and find the following: competency model examples; competency model definition; leadership competency model; competency model template; core competency model; cultural competency model; technical competency model; and  competency model for managers Let's go ahead and look at #2, competency model definition.  In 0.31 seconds Google returns 1,550,000

When I wrote "The Seven C's of Employee Engagement," I led with Customer Capability. Here's the reference: C ustomer  C apability  may be the most important and yet most over-looked "C". Employees must be proud of their product and/or service and how it enables customer success.  Ask employees to design, sell, make, deliver, service or bill for products or services that are a poor value for their customer, and over time they will offer less and less of their discretionary effort.   I promised to write more about this later.  So, here it is.   How many times have we heard in sports that " winning cures what ails a team ?"  In basketball, the Miami Heat's LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Eric Spoelstra (the  coach ) seemed to struggle to get along during the season.  With those struggles was a sense that, together, they simply did not appear to make each other better.  Then came the NBA playoffs and a first round series win and al

Being the parent of three wonderful young men, all of whom decided to pursue college dreams, required that I prepare myself to answer questions about college selections and careers.  And, being a career HR practitioner and one whom, on occasion, people would seek out for advice, required that I have some sort of framework through which I would offer my thoughts. I should also disclose that I come from an upstate New York, middle class family where my parents had six children in six years and my father could not afford a single day of unemployment. Not one.  So, he made decisions that always resulted in the safest, if not most lucrative path to maintenance of weekly income.  Meaning, my mental model and associated framework is, admittedly, conservative. Here's what I told my sons: "Sons, all companies do seven things. D esign . They conjure up a product or service that they think may have a market.  M arket . They test to see if there is a market for what they&

We've all seen the studies that speak to the impact on productivity of employees who give their company their discretionary effort.  The person who pulls an all-nighter to be ready for a customer presentation.  Or the one who travels tirelessly to connect a company globally.  When our employees go "above and beyond" to achieve, we say they are engaged.  And we all want to know how to make more engaged employees. My experience teaches the there are seven "C's" of employee engagement.  I must credit IBM with the beginnings of this framework, as I learned most of this from my time with IBM in Chicago.  I've tested this informally ever since and have yet to find a framework that is more memorable and relevant. So, what are the seven "C's" of employee engagement?  Here goes: C ustomer C apability (I'll count two "C's"' here) C ompensation C areer C onnections C ommunity C ulture C ustomer C apability may

Across the years and settings that make up my career, I have been blessed to work with a few phenomenal leaders.  People who walk into a conference room and are noticed; even by the person from Finance sitting with her face in her email.  People who, not by virtue of their position alone, but by their very presence make others want to impress them. People who radiate energy and accomplishment.  People who pay for dinner! Huh?  People who pay for dinner?  Yes, people who pay for dinner.  You see, there is one thing I have observed about people who have the label "phenomenal leader"; those being led are always looking for the crack in the armor or the subtle, ever so discrete manifestation of one's true self that reveals that this person isn't so phenomenal after all. That crack, for most of us, comes during the work day when faced with the stress of missed commitments, failure of our teams to perform and realization that the complexities and challenges of the m

If you work, be a recruiter.  What?   Let that sit with you for just a minute. If you work, be a recruiter.  That's it... no qualifiers needed.  This doesn't say " If you work as a manager " or as an " executive " or even as an " HR professional ".  It doesn't say " if you work in private sector " or " a growing business " or " for yourself ".  Nor does it say " you can be a recruiter " or " you should act as if ..." No matter what you do for a living or for whom you do it, discipline yourself to be a recruiter and my promise is that you will differentiate yourself, positively, among those with whom you work and you will find a level of interest and challenge in your work that is energizing.  And you never have to hire a soul! Who am I to promise this?  I've been gainfully employed as an HR professional since 1986. In 2013 I will celebrate my 27th year of consecutive practice in thi