Category Archives: The HR Rules

Homing From Work

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This might be the phrase for 2014.  Every year we get stupid business phrases that become part of our lexicon:

  • “Use it or lose it!”
  • “Necessary Evil”
  • “A seat at the table”
  • “Thinking outside the box”
  • “Silo Mentality”
  • “At the end of the day…”

For 2014 I’m calling it – “Homing from Work!”

Fast Company released an infographic recently that had some interesting facts about how, especially in the U.S. (I have to say stuff like that now, because I have this international audience, which in itself is funny since the most international I’ve ever gotten is Canada and Mexico! Which I don’t really even consider international, they’re more like Northern and Southern suburbs of the U.S.) , workers are working more hours, and feeling like they have a healthy work/life balance.  Since 2011, there has been a 30% increase in the number of people working more than 9 hours per day, and 80% of white collar workers feel they have a solid work/life balance.

That doesn’t sound right, does it?!

Well, there’s a bit more!  93%! Yes, 93% of workers take care of personal business and family needs during their work day, while at work.  63% increase in surfing and shopping online – more women than men! Surprise, surprise. If you make over $100,000 you’re more likely to exercise during your work day. Workers under 30 are 76% more likely than workers over 50 to visit social networking sites while at work.

Now, that sounds about right!

“Homing from work” is nothing more than what it’s always been, but now we have a term for it!  Basically, you have some personal stuff that needs to get done, but you can’t do it after work or the weekend, so you do it at work.  It’s been going on since the 9 to 5 was invented!  The one thing you need to be aware of, though, is it works both ways.  If you want to “Home from Work” that’s cool, but don’t give me grief when you need to take a call from home or catch up on something during the weekend.  It’s not either/or, it’s both.  You can’t do one without an expectation of other.

I know you’re checking into Facebook at work. I know you’re booking your airline tickets for your vacation at work. I’m fine with that, but don’t act like I owe you something if you need to work an extra hour one night, or put in some hours from home.  Hoomie don’t play that.  Go ahead and home from work, just know that it comes with an expectation of working from home.

5 Traits of Lousy HR Leaders

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The things you can always count on in life are: death, taxes and a lousy HR leader in your organization.  I think I saw that on a t-shirt at SHRM National one year!  The reality is, HR leaders are selected a little different than most leaders in our organization.  Most leadership is selected this way (right or wrong):

1. Perform really, really well

2. Get promoted into a position of leadership, whether you can lead or not.

I call this ‘Best Performance Leadership Selection’.  This is the selection process for leadership by roughly 97% of organizations worldwide!  You’re great at your job, you will be great as a leader.  Pretty sound selection process, right!?

HR leaders are selected almost the same, but with a slightly small difference:

1. Have really long tenure in the HR department at your organization.

2. Get promoted into a HR leadership position.

Sound familiar?  I call this ‘I’ve Been Here The Longest Leadership Selection’.  This is the selection process for HR leadership in roughly 97% of organizations worldwide! You might be great at your job, but we don’t really care, you’ve been here longer than anyone else in HR so now you’re the leader!

Sometimes reading what we do, in black and white, is depressing…

The problem with this type of HR leadership selection (besides the painfully obvious things) is we usually end up with lousy HR leaders.  Here are the traits of really lousy HR Leaders, just so you know if you have one or not:

– Rely on Faulty Metrics to make Major HR Decisions, and fail to track results. Well, we’ve been using time to fill and turnover for the past 20 years here, why would we stop!  Also, let’s keep using these subjective measures to determine if we are successful, because, well, hey, they’re subjective and at the end of the day I want to show our executives we are successful, whether we are or not.

– Not Championing Weighted Risk.  Lousy HR leaders love to cover their own ass more than any other single thing they do.  In HR we advise of risk, and give opinion on how to move forward.  Lousy HR leaders will not champion risk at any level, for fear it might come back on them.  Organizations take risk every single day. It’s not HR’s job to eliminate risk, it’s our job to champion appropriate risk and be all in with our business partners.

– Not Having the Tough Conversation.  Most leadership fails at this, but HR can’t.  We have to be the coaches for all other leadership in our organization.  If anyone knows how to have a tough conversation, it has to be HR.  Yet, most fail at this miserably.  Lousy HR Leaders are superficial and shallow in their opinions and directions, and don’t seek clarification on things in the organization that people are leaving to assumption.

– Not Aligning their Vision with the Organization’s Vision.  This is a definite sign of lousy leadership.  If your group, department, function leader can’t create a vision at their level that aligns with the organization, they have no direction.  Another sign of lousy leadership is when your leader just uses the organization vision and can’t break it down to a functional level.  This is just flat out lazy.

– Not being able to Lead Employees Equally Different.  Yes, all employees are created equal.  That doesn’t mean that all employees are treated equal. There is a fine line between treating everyone the same, and making people feel equal.  I want all my employees to feel like no one is better than another, but we also have to have a fundamental organizational understanding that at certain points and times some employees must be treated differently, for the good of the organization.  Lousy HR leaders are uncomfortable with this concept because it’s easy to just fall back on ‘we treat everyone the same.’

The Secret to Great HR

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(I’m on vacation, that’s not a secret, but this post is because it ran in Jan. 2010 almost no one read it!)

I was given a gift this past holiday season – my brother bought me Bill Simmons’ latest book, The Book of Basketball– which is quite possibly the greatest book ever written, all 700 pages of it. It’s not just about the NBA (although it’s pretty damn comprehensive on that subject), it also has many leadership and life lessons as well.  One of my favorite parts has to do with Piston great and Hall of Fame guard, Isiah Thomas*, explaining to Bill the “Secret” of basketball – to the point of what it takes for a team to win a world championship in the NBA.  Boiled down into a sentence or two, the secret to winning, according to Isiah, has to do less with great individual players and more about a group of really good players, foregoing personal statistics, for the good of the whole.  Sounds simple enough – we all get that – but then why do so many great players miss this easily understood concept?**

Don’t worry about yourself (and your own success), worry about your team’s success, that is, if you truly want to be successful.

I started to think about this concept in all other areas of my life.***  HR isn’t difficult, usually, for the most part, it’s a fairly straight forward concept – get great people, keep great people happy, customers benefit, profits come, stakeholders happy, repeat.****  But, there has to be a secret, because probably 80% or so, of HR Pros out there, don’t get it and aren’t helping make their organizations better through great HR.

So, like Isiah, I’m going to share The Secret To Great HR.  I know what you’re thinking, why would I do this – I could easily go all Malcolm Gladwell on you and write a book, and be a thousandaire, or something. But I’m not, I’m giving it away free because I like karma better than money*****  and I see it as my gift back to all the HR Pros out there who could use the help right about now.

The Secret To Great HR –

The secret is extraordinarily simple, it’s all about a few close relationships.  Depending on what type of organization you come from, it has to do with the relationship you have with those who are running operations. First, every organization has some type of operation – meaning every organization produces something – product, service, etc. Even in church, the pastor runs operations – sharing the gospel with people, for example.

So, in your organization, to have great HR – the leadership in HR, must have a great relationship with the leadership in Operations.  I’m talking husband/wife great relationship******* your best friend in the world type relationship, someone you could go on vacation for a week, and share a hotel room type relationship. The blocking and tackling of HR isn’t difficult – but becomes incredibly difficult without support from your operation’s partner.  People miss this – and it’s very simple.  Instead, in HR, we work to make new processes, new programs, better orientation, more specific recruiting plans, user-friendly HRIS, etc.  Then, we get completely frustrated when we can’t get rank and file to follow some very simple steps to make it all run extremely smooth.

Why?  Because mostly we do this, without operations really buying into, or even wanting, our latest and greatest new thingy we just put together – For them, by the way!  If you have a strong relationship with Ops, they will tell you what they need, help you design it, roll it out for you, and make their own processes to ensure it’s followed.  Wow! Doesn’t that sound nice? All because of a relationship.*********

PS: *****If you don’t get the use of “*” references, read The Book of Basketball******

PPS: It’s my inner dialogue thoughts

*I liked Isiah, being the huge Piston fan that I am – but really more of a Joe Dumars fan – when I was 16 my Dad got tickets to see the Pistons vs. Lakers (my other favorite team – being that Magic is a Sparty) and after the game I got my picture taken with then rookie, Joe Dumars and 7′ 5″ Chuck Nevitt – I can still remember the conversation: Me “Joe great game”; Joe (looking completely exhausted and pissed he had to take pictures after a Sunday game on national TV with the Lakers, with some fans, who only got the chance because Tropicana or some other sponsor told him he had to do it) “Thanks” – Smile – click – interaction over.  I’ll be a fan of Joe the rest of my life!

**I say simple enough, but let’s face it most people are idiots and don’t get this, and really only worry about themselves.

***So, besides work, that means youth sports and how to keep my wife happy

****I always find it amazing how you can use a shampoo-rinse-repeat analogy in almost any conversation.

*****Not really, I like money a whole lot, but I’m really hoping this blog thing turns into a TV deal – so I got to give a little away for free – wet the appetite so to speak.

******I know some might be thinking husband/wife aren’t a great relationship analogy – but that’s because you didn’t find your soul mate – sucks to be you – sorry.

********It helps to go out drinking with them as well – after a couple of drinks, somehow what they really want from HR comes out!

Attention Employees: Get Healthy, Or You’re Fired.

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(I’m on vacation, I originally posted this on Fistful of Talent in August of 2009 -way before Obamacare, but still rings true!)

I love companies that have had enough and aren’t going to take it anymore (Network clip). I also love listening to the workers, of said company, complain about how their company is “being intrusive” because they are being “forced” to take care of themselves.  The Wall Street Journal has an article entitled When All Else Fails: Forcing Workers Into Healthy Habits that uncovers the latest employer, AmeriGas Propane Inc., which gave its employees an ultimatum: get their medical checkups or lose their health insurance.  Isn’t that wonderful!?  Here is an employer who loves its people so much, they want to make sure they are going to be healthy and actually survive to collect their paycheck. Talk about employee engagement.

So, what is wrong with this?  Well, let’s just hear from one skeptical AmeriGas employee:

“Dennis Price Sr., a 48-year-old propane-truck driver in the company’s Warrenton, Va., office, says he was “a little shocked” by the idea at first. “I thought it was an invasion of our privacy,” he says. Mr. Price had never gotten his cholesterol checked, and generally avoided doctors.”

Sounds like he’s taking his god-given-all-American right to be unhealthy – nothing wrong yet. What say the unions?

“Labor officials say they object to the idea of mandated health tests. “This is a personal health matter,” says Gerry Shea, assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO. “To bring it into the workplace and tie it to benefits is inappropriate. It’s like Big Brother.”

Sounds like more god-given, all-American wisdom – boy I can smell the apple pie cookin’! What about management?

“Despite these efforts, Mr. Katz (VP of HR) and benefits director Carol Guinan found themselves in April 2007 chewing over some unpalatable numbers. Besides annual health-expense increases of 10% or more, the company, which self-insures its health plan, had paid more than two dozen insurance claims in the previous year for amounts greater than $100,000. Its workers had high rates of diabetes and heart disease.

 

The program, dubbed Operation Save-A-Life, was unveiled in August 2007 and took effect the following January. Each worker received a DVD at home to explain the effort and discuss cost and health statistics. One fact: AmeriGas employees younger than 60 were dying of natural causes at nearly three times the expected rate for that age group based on actuarial data.

 

AmeriGas estimates that more than 90% of its workers have gotten the required exams. Use of cholesterol drugs rose 13.6% in 2008 from a year earlier. For diabetes drugs, the increase was 7.7%, and for asthma medications and blood-pressure medicines, it was 7.4% and 2.5%, respectively.”

Damn management – they always have more to say and have all those fancy numbers!

The article, also, points out two specific examples of the screens catching one employee’s breast cancer, self-admittedly, earlier then she ever would have caught it herself. Also, the screens caught another employee who had liver disease and was able to reverse the effects by early detection.

I know there is a gray area here where companies can go overboard, but in today’s competitive world for talent, you can’t tell me that most companies aren’t trying to do the right thing.  Is making your employees go get a health screen a bad thing?  Probably not. Is firing them because they have high cholesterol after the screen a bad thing? Depends on their performance…  Just kidding… the fact of the matter is we have a broken healthcare system and most employers have to do something to reduce costs. So they can either interview under the precursor “does this person look young and healthy”, or we can allow them some slack to help make their own workforce a bit more healthy.

The Great Job Lottery!

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(This originally ran in 2011 on The Project. Only 14 people read my stuff back then, so you probably missed it!)

You know what’s funny (well, I think it’s funny anyway), I refuse to play the Lotto. Any of the games: PowerBall, MegaMillions, etc. Until they get above $100 Million!  Once they get above $100 Million, I’m all in.  Here’s the funny part, I get it, I get how stupid the whole thing sounds.  I know I’m more likely to get hit by lightening, while running with siccors, next to Kevin Bacon, I get the odds.  I get that I’m actually making my chances of winning even less, by only playing when the numbers are higher.  To me, That’s funny!  Why in the world do I still do it, when I understand the odds I’m facing?

First, the Lotto is really the last great American Dream.  It use to be get a great job, marry, buy house, etc.  Not anymore.  All we have left is the Lotto baby.  So, if I’m really going to live the American Dream, I don’t want to “just” win $5, 10 or even 50 Million! I mean, can you imagine actually winning the Lotto and only winning $1 Million!  You can’t retire and quit your job on $1 Million after taxes, you would still have to work.  But not only that, you would probably have to work even harder because you would be all ghetto rich and go buy a house and other stuff you can’t afford.  So, if I’m winning, I’m winning the Big One or nothing.  It’s my dream, go get your own.

So, what does the Lottery have to do with HR?  It’s the concept that a very small number are going to win, and most are going to be living the “real” American Dream of living check to check, average work environment, average leadership, just plain average.  But! for a slight few, they win the job lottery.  Even some in HR will win the job lottery.  I use to think, there was no such thing as the job lottery.  The people working for those “Great” companies, getting those “crazy” benefits, and “outstanding” quality of life, well they were just the tops in their field and the recruiting departments of those teams searched the entire universe to find the best.  Right!? I mean don’t tell me it could be right place, right time! I stumbled into a 7/11 looking for a roller hot dog and Slurpee and the clerk talked me into spending $1 more dollar on a ticket and now I’m the richest guy in my trailer park…it couldn’t be that…could it?!?

I believe in every great company, they are great people employed, doing great things to keep their companies on top.  I also believe, in the worst companies, you will find great people, doing great things, just trying to keep their companies afloat.  In fact, those great ones, at the worst companies, might be even a little better than their counterparts at the best companies.  I also believe that every company, even the great ones, have “pretenders”, people who live off the reputation of the company they work for, and try and pin their company’s reputation on their chest as their own.  I know this because I run into many of the “pretenders” professionally, and within minutes of having a real conversation with them, it’s painfully obvious, they are not their companies.  That’s how the Lottery works.  It doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t show favorites, it doesn’t force you play, it just does.

Don’t believe me? You are probably at a great company, and I must be wrong!  Check out your demographics.  I’ll bet 75%+ of your workforce comes from within 50 miles of your location.  So, what you’re telling me, is you live in some “freak” community where 75%+ of the people just happen to be the top in their field!  No you don’t, you just happen to have one very common trait with many of your co-workers, you all were in the right place, at the right time.  You all won the job lottery!  Don’t be defensive, there isn’t any need.  I’m not going to be defensive when I win the $100M and someone says, “you’re only rich and powerful and where polka-dot shoes because you won the lottery!” For which I’ll say, “Yes, yes I did. No get back to work, ironing my underwear.”

Embrace you good fortune my HR brethren, I’ll even celebrate your good fortune with you, but please don’t act like your G*d’s gift to HR because you were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

7 Habits Of Remarkably Likeable HR Managers

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Ripped from the pages of Inc. Magazine’s recent article 7 Habits of Remarkably Likeable Bosses, I give you…something slightly different:

7 Habits Of Remarkably Likeable HR Managers!

1. They are named “Kay”.  Have you ever really not liked someone named, Kay!?  Kay just seems like a friendly lady with at least 3 cats and grandchildren, a whole lot of grandchildren.  Kay is helpful.  Kay will give you a hug when you need it.  Kay brings in really good comfort food with funny names like “Redneck Bunt Cake”.

2. They dress up on dress up days at work.  You know what I’m talking about.  They wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.  They wear their normal sweater on Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.  They aren’t afraid to be apart of the festivities.  People like people who are involved.

3. They order right mix of cookies for the conference room.  Don’t even think about discounting this as ‘remarkable’!  Have you ever been late to a meeting and had to choke down an oatmeal raisin cookie!?  Likeable HR Managers know you need at least a 3 to 1 chocolate chip to raisin mix at a minimum, really high performers will forgo all raisin cookies all together.

4. They are forgetful.  You know that one holiday party where you had too much to drink and hooked up with a coworker, and your HR Manager saw? Yeah, don’t worry, she forgot on purpose, because she doesn’t want your one bad decision to haunt your entire career with the company.  Likeable HR Managers tend to forget your misdeeds (that are forgivable) and remember the value you bring to the organization!

5. They Drink the Kool-Aid.  A likeable HR Manager is one who is also an organizations cheerleader.  They support top managements decisions, and in turn help others in the organization to see the benefits as well.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Getting everyone to move in the same direction is a very powerful trait to have.  Some will view it as they are just followers, I view it as a great strategy to build influence.

6.  They cuss at your CEO.  You wouldn’t actually know about this trait, because besides being remarkably likeable, they’re also remarkably professional and only do this behind closed doors of your CEO’s office. But they do it, and they’re the only one who does it and gets away with it.  It keeps your CEO from going crazy train, and they appreciate it, as long as it stays between just the two of them.

7. They don’t rake sh*t.  You know what happens when you rake sh*t that’s been lying stagnant for a long time?  It stinks. That’s just like problems in your organization that have been laying dormant for some time.  You begin digging up and turning over stuff, you’ll find stuff that stinks.  Many times that stuff has been taken care of and is water under the bridge. No reason to rake sh*t, unless you just like the smell.

For those who will hate on this and say “I don’t want to be liked, I want to be respected!” I say, “Why, not both!?”  It’s not a one or the other choice, you can have both.  The HR Pro who can be respected and likeable is the HR Pro I want working for my team!

In The Trenches

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Okay, HR fans, here’s the game, I give you a real-life HR scenario and you tell me how you would handle it if your were the HR person in charge of handling it. Got it!?  Here’s the issue:

You’re a Regional HR Manager of a major chain of Pizza restaurants, most of your business is home delivery.  This means you primarily have location managers, pizza cooks and drivers.  It’s a random Tuesday in the Detroit metro area and one of your drivers leaves on a delivery to local address.  When the driver arrives to the address and goes to the door, there are two armed men there to rob him of his $37 and change, and of course the pizza. 

Unbeknownst to the would-be robbers and you, your driver grew up on the streets of Detroit, and he is legally carrying a concealed weapon of his own (gotta love the D!).  He decides he’s not giving up his $37 or his Pizza without payment, and he let’s off 3 shots into one of the would be robbers and takes off.  Your driver didn’t get hurt, didn’t get robbed, but he also didn’t deliver that pizza!  The shot robber was discovered by police at a nearby hospital and booked, the other robber has yet to be found.  (By the way – this is from an actual story in Detroit this week!) You get the call from one of your District Manager who wants to know what she should do with your driver, who is looking to return to work, he’s got a family to feed.

Now, what do you do Mrs. or Mr. Regional HR Manager of Jet’s Pizza?  (a very good pizza place, by the way.  Also, little known Michigan fact for those who don’t live in Michigan – for some reason Michigan is like the large pizza chain capital of the world with both Little Caesars and Domino’s being started and headquartered in Michigan. No one knows why.)

Classic HR theory would have us look at our policies and past practices.  What? You mean you might have had this happen before?!  It’s Detroit, it might have happened earlier that evening.  You have a policy against your employees shooting your customers? Again, it’s Detroit, the policy might actually spell out when it’s alright to shoot customers.  Regardless, something will happen to this young man. Will you fire him, do nothing, set him up with EAP, reward him so other employees do the same, etc.?

Hit me in the comments and let me know what action you would take if this was your HR shop.  I’ll follow later with what action I would take

Earthquake Leadership

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There was an earthquake in L.A. last week.  Did you feel it? It was almost an non-event.  I only knew about it because a few of the people I follow on Twitter were making fun of how ‘small’ it was when it happened and cracking earthquake jokes.

It is telling, though, in watching earthquake reaction.  The reaction of people in an earthquake is almost verbatim of how a below average leader behaves in almost any organization.  Let me ‘drop’ these two facts on you of what happens when there is an earthquake:

1. Everyone looks around to see if anyone else felt it.

The group need for validation is very high in an event like this. “Did you feel that?”   You know if you felt it or not, why do you need validation that someone else felt it!?  Below average leaders do this.  They don’t respect their own ability to make a decision, or move a certain direction, so they look for constant validation from the group.  “Mary isn’t doing very well, is she?  What do you think?  Maybe we, I mean I, should let her go. Do you think that is the right thing to do?”

2. Organizations evacuate the building you are in.

Science, and history, have shown us, over a long period of time, that the safest place to be in an earthquake is not running down a stairwell of a building, or in an elevator, and then out into the open street – with pieces of building falling down upon you.  But, when an earthquake happens the first thing that organizations do is start evacuating the building.  Even though they know it’s not the smartest thing, there is a necessity to do some sort of action.  Even a negative action.  Below average leaders like to do something.  If I’m doing something, I must be leading.  If I’m not doing something, I must not be leading. Action, even ineffective action, is something below average leaders do in times of uncertainty.

Earthquake leadership, you definitely know what it is when you ‘feel’ it and see it!

 

 

 

3 Ways To Make Your Office Productive During March Madness

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For those that know me, I’m a huge basketball fan.  Pro, college, AAU, high school, hell, if you really dig into my past you would probably find me hanging out at some playground breaking down the defense effort of a pickup game between grade school kids.  So, when March Madness time comes around each year I’m like many of your employees.  I’m trying to find the best ways to work and watch basketball, or at the very least stay up on my brackets and see who is getting upset!

With all the hype over the past few years about lost productivity, do to March Madness, in the workplace.  I felt it was my duty to provide HR Pros with some helpful tips and tricks to get the your staff to highly productive during this time of year.  Here’s my ideas:

1. Put up TVs throughout the office.  Let’s face it, you really only have one or two hoops junkies in the office, and those folks usually spend vacation time to ensure they don’t miss a minute.  Everyone else just wants to see scores and highlights.  They’re a casual fan.  They’re willing to work a perfectly normal day, and will probably be just a productive, if not more, with the TVs steaming all the games in the background.  Plus, if you get a close game or big upset, you’ll get some team excitement in the air.  This also stops most of your staff trying to stream the games on their desktops for the entire afternoon.

2. Call off work those afternoons.  Let’s face it, March Madness is pretty close to a national holiday as we will ever get.  Doesn’t matter if you’re female or male, young or old, what religion you are, we all love the drama and excitement of March Madness.  Just close the office.  Make a deal with your staff to reach certain goals and if they’re met, take them to the local watering hole yourself and have some fun with it.  Employees like to rally around a fun idea.  You don’t have to make everything fun, all the time, but once in a while it helps to lift productivity.

3. Shut off all access.  Yep, you read that correctly. Have IT shut down all access to anything related to March Madness.  Threaten to fire any employee caught checking scores on their smart phone, or calling a friend to see how it’s going.  Fear!  Fear is a great short-term lifter of productivity.  Whether we like to admit it, or not, it’s true.  If you went out right now into your office and told the entire staff at the end of the day you’re firing the least productive person, you would see productivity shoot through the roof!  You would also see about half your staff, the half you want to keep, put in their notice over the next 4-6 weeks.

The reality is, most people will do business as usual.  While the CNNs of the world love to point to the millions of dollars American corporations lose during March Madness, it’s no different than so many things that can consume our thoughts in any given day.  I do think HR and leadership, each year, lose out on a great way to have fun and raise engagement during March Madness.  It’s something most of your staff has some interest in, and depending on your city and the schools your employees went to, it can get heightened pretty significantly.

For the record, I’m not picking Michigan State.  I want to with all my might, but I’m nervous that my bracket mojo would work the opposite, so I’ll pick someone else, and feel awesome when Sparty wins and I lose my bracket!

 

Client Respect and Love

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I dropped a vision on my team a couple weeks ago.  I think it’s important for any leader to do this, but it’s also important that it be completely authentic and transparent.  I say ‘dropped’ on my team, because that’s exactly what I did.  I didn’t let anyone know I was ‘working’ on my vision, because I wasn’t.  It came to me.  Like a vision.  It took me about a week to get the thoughts down in my own style, and add a grammatical error or two.

I’m not sharing my vision with you.  It’s for me and my team.

I will share a concept from it.  I want to work with clients who want to work with us.  Not just work with us, but want to partner with us.  Now, I know we throw that word ‘partner’ around a bunch.  My vision of a partner is a client who respects us and loves us.  We have to have both, love and respect, to get to my vision.  Respect isn’t enough.

In HR many times we will say something like “I don’t need that hiring manager to like me, as long as they respect me.”  That’s just a nice way we lie to ourselves that this will be a functional relationship.  It’s not.  You need more than respect, to be wildly successful.  You need Love.

I want love.

I want respect.

I want to work with clients who respect what we bring to them from a skill and support side.  But I also want clients who love us, and we love them.  That I look forward to talking to them, to seeing them, and they feel the same way.  That isn’t easy.  But it is something I think we owe to ourselves.  To work with people we love to work with, whether it’s those sitting next to us as coworkers, or those clients we work with daily.

I don’t care if I was selling staffing solutions, or the cure for cancer, my vision would not change.   I don’t care if I’m running a business or running a department, my vision stays the same.  In HR you have ‘clients’, all those who you support.  Are you trying to get your clients to love and respect you?  If you reach that level, where they do, it will make your job, your life, glorious.