I was on the phone yesterday with George Larocque who is an HR advisor to HR technology companies worldwide. George also does some consulting with companies on selecting HR technology, research, etc. He’s one of the few people in the industry that I listen to, primarily because I know he knows his stuff and isn’t trying to sell me something! Check him out!

George described what he did as being an interpreter between HR and Talent leaders, and HR Technology vendors. The vendors tend to talk about stuff that practitioners could care less about. “We’re mobile first!” Really!? We don’t care, just show me how it works on mobile. George can speak HR and Talent, and he can speak HR technology, so he’s perfect to ‘interpret’!

He got me thinking about that concept. I loved how he described his role, and I feel like many times when I speaking at a conference and talking HR tech, I’m doing the same thing. I taking in all these buzzwords and concepts, and then just breaking them down in a way that real, in the trenches HR leaders and TA leaders can then easily understand what the heck all of it means.

I think Leaders, in general, do a lot of interpreting as well!

They mostly have to interpret the bullsh*t our c-suite is selling, into real actionable stuff for all of us in the trenches doing the work each day! The best leaders I ever worked for could take all of this crap and repackage it in a way that made sense to me and my peers, so we knew what direction we were actually going, and what needed to be done.

Let’s face it, the best CEOs in the world are really good at this as well, but far too often you don’t work for one of the best! You work for someone peddling bullsh*t. The problem with the bullsh*t language is it’s really hard to understand because there are no straightforward meanings for the bullsh*t words and phrases.

Leaders who are great bullsh*t interpreters have the ability to hear the bullsh*t words, know the bullsh*tters motivations, and piece together what is actually being said. Then, they will take this interpretation back to the people and rephrase it in a way where we don’t try and kill the bullsh*tter!

I like it. I like believing that I can interpret most bullsh*t as a leader. Thanks, George! If you’re going to be out at the HR Technology Conference, you can find both George and I filtering through mountains of bullsh*t! Come find us!