Are You Drowning In Your Position

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Tim Sackett

You know the crazy thing about drowning? It doesn’t look like you’re drowning! Read this from Mario Vittone:

Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled, before speech occurs.
Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.
Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water, permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.

Take away the eventually water death – and this seems eerily familiar to some of our employees…

As HR Pros/Hiring Managers/Supervisors we have people who are drowning in their positions right now – but we can’t “see” them drowning. Employees have natural things they do in terms of self-preservation, much like some one who is truly drowning. They begin to do: put in extra time at the office, they seem a little to stressed for normal work, they make things bigger than what they are (this gives them an excuse in case of failure), etc. – it gives you an impression “they’re on top of it” – but they aren’t. They tend not to ask for help – they don’t want anyone to know they’re in trouble – they can handle it on their own.

How do you spot an employee who is going under?

1. Look for employees who are disengaging with key relationships they need to have to get their job done. Why? Employees who are drowning – will disconnect from those who will be the first ones to spot them drowning – key hiring managers or peers from other departments – which buys them time from their own supervisors finding out they aren’t staying afloat.

2. They become defensive or blame shift – when this isn’t usually part of their normal behavior. Another mechanism they use as a life preserver – “it’s not me – it’s them!”

3. Drowning employees tend to cling to each other. Rarely will you see a drowning employee hanging with a top performer (that’s one more person who will see they aren’t making it).

How do you save an employee who is drowning?

That’s even tougher than spotting them! Because it takes you confronting them, and not allowing them to cop-out, most HR Pros/Hiring Managers/Supervisors find this very uncomfortable (hello Performance Management!) It basically takes you jumping into their role – deep – and pulling them out. Most of us don’t like getting our clothes wet and ruining our iPhone – so we try and throw them things to help instead – additional training, words of encouragement, EAP, discipline…sound familiar? When what they need is some full life saving – to push them up for air and take them to shore (you’re sick of metaphors at this point! – actually do the job with them for a while, so them how it should be done). You still might decide when it’s all done to let the person go – they just can’t handle the position – but some will actually learn from the experience and turn out to be really good.

10ish Questions with Cynical Girl – Laurie Ruettimann

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Tim Sackett

So, I completely stole this idea from Erica Moss’s 10 Questions with Laurie Ruettimann: HR Chick and Blogger at The Cynical Girl, partly because it was a great idea and partly because I know Laurie, a little – we jumped off a building together – Laurie’s Jump(notice Laurie’s Mission Impossible style landing, My Jump – and I know some other HR type Dudes who know Laurie (Steve Boese, William Tincup, Lance Haun, Matt Stollack and Kris Dunn) who have snarky humor like mine and would love to ask Laurie questions – but not the type of questions that Erica asked!

Erica’s post on Laurie was great – they both played it straight – it was nice and safe. I thought we could have a little fun with Laurie, if she was game – and she’s almost always game! So, here’s my 10 questions for Laurie Ruettimann – to protect the guilty I won’t tell you who asked which question:

1. How often do your interns write your posts?

(LR) Not often enough. They would be better if I had a few interns dedicated to writing about Human Resources and recruiting. Because I’m short-staffed, you get shitty posts about cats and hoodies.

2. Do you ever get tired of being sarcastic and/or cynical?

(LR) Tiger momma gotta wear her stripes, yo. Honestly, I am more of a hyper-introspective Debbie Downer than I am cynical or sarcastic. Much of my negativity is turned inwards. And yes, it’s a burden. Years ago, I told my husband that I wanted him to say ‘I love you’ more often. He laughed. He thought I was being ironic. And maybe I was. I don’t even know, anymore. So, uh, yeah, my tough-girl act gets old.

3. What will your next blog be called? Cynically Punk or The HR Cat Lady?

(LR) My next blog will be called ASK THE BLONDES. I’m working on it right now, actually. I have a writing partner. You just got the scoop. (That how we role at The Project – Sometimes you have to slap the interns around to get the best news – but it’s always worth it!)

4. If you were the head of HR at Jos. A. Banks (Laurie’s favorite Men’s store – Holla Sponsors!), how would you find people that can innovate the “Buy one suit – get three suits, five shirts and eight ties for free” discount space?

(LR) Easy. I’d look to China. Cheap labor makes anything possible. Just ask General Electric or Apple.

5. What role in HR could disappear tomorrow and no one would notice?

(LR) Payroll. In fact, its all but disappeared. We get paid through the power of computers and magic. (Do you hear that sound? That’s the silence from all those Payroll speaking engagements Laurie just gave up!)

6. F – Marry – Kill: Jennifer McClure, Sarah White and President Obama?

(LR) Marry Jennifer McClure because it’s easy to be with her. She brings me treats. F*%k President Obama because he’s a black guy. Kill Sarah White but only because she likes recruiting and HR technology a little too much for my tastes.

7. How do you reconcile the fact that you are neither punk nor cynical – but just a cat-loving former HR practitioner?

(LR) I used to be young and fun. Now I’m a hardcore punk rock feminist anarchist who drives a Volvo and does Pilates just to have a hobby. Sometimes I binge eat Ben & Jerry’s and think about my 20s. Thanks for reminding me of my sad and pathetic adulthood, Timmy. (Editor’s Note: that question wasn’t from me – you’re welcome!)

8. If you die, can I be your ghostwriter for The Cynical Girl?

(LR) You can be my ghostwriter now. I’m short on interns.

9. From you professional HR perspective, what was the deal with Skipper and Gilligan?

(LR) I never watched that show but I’m pretty sure he was doing her in the copier room. Wait, do corporate offices still have copier rooms? (Editor’s Note: Clearly you never watched the show – they were both male stuck on a island after a 3 hour tour)

Thank you Laurie, tell the interns they did a wonderful job answering the questions and for the photo they sent!

Thanks again to Erica – for such a wonderful idea!

Check out Laurie and her writing at The Cynical Girl – she’s a fantastic writer and I love her take on all things HR and Corporate!

Why We Pick Bad Leaders

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Have you ever worked for a boss that was horrible? That’s an easy question to answer, isn’t it! The person came immediately to your mind (for my staff reading this, if I came to your mind first, your fired! I tease – you’re not fired – just come see me after your done reading this…) Almost all of us, probably 99.99% of us, have worked for a boss/leader we thought was just God awful. It’s the perplexity of leadership. I like to blame the entire leadership book industry. Someone gets a promotion to a leadership position and they instantly get online for the latest leadership babble that’s being sold by some idiot that was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time of a successful company and now she or he is going to tell us how to be a great leader using 7 simple steps! BS!

But, really, why do we hire such bad leaders? CNN had an article recently that looked into this:

“The short answer is, we focus on all the wrong things, like a candidate’s charm, their stellar résumé or their academic credentials. None of this has any bearing on leadership potential. And despite claims to the contrary, even a candidate’s past results have little bearing on whether the promoted individual will succeed once promoted.

At best, a “track record” tells only half of the story. In a new position, the candidate will have to face new obstacles, deal with a new team, manage more people introduce new products and do it all without a clear road map.”

Ok, so we aren’t focused on hiring the right traits that makes a great leader. The reality is, in most of our organizations, we hire “next-man-up” philosophy. “Hey, Jill, is the best producer in the group, congrat’s Jill! you’re now the next boss!” About 90% of leadership hires happen like this – most of you will attempt to call that “Succession Planning” – but it’s not – it’s “convenience planning” and it’s bad HR.

Can we all agree to one thing (this statement is a setup because I know we can’t agree to this!)? Being able to do the “job” (meaning the specific tasks of the functional area you’re a leader for) has very little to do with one’s success at being a leader. Can we? And yet, it becomes the first thing we focus on when going to hire a leader. “Well, how good of a coder were they? How do you expect them to manage coders if they aren’t the best coder?” You’ve had this conversation haven’t you!? Most of the best leaders of all time, had very little functional skill of the leadership position they were successful in. What they did have were these things:

Integrity
Passion
Courage
Vision
Judgement
Empathy
Emotional Intelligence

We pick bad leaders because we don’t focus on the traits above. It doesn’t matter if the person can do the job of those they are managing – great leaders will overcome this fact very easily. If that’s your biggest worry, they probably won’t be a good leader anyway. When you have a great leader – the conversation never goes around whether the person can do the job of those they manage – it’s a non-issue. They can lead and leaders know how to engage those who can do to make their departments great.

Make HR Suck Less

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Are you working in a HR department that sucks? You know if you are, it’s alright, you can admit it – it’s the first step of changing it.

I bet I talk to over a hundred HR Pros a year that begin the conversation with – “our HR department sucks!” or “my company doesn’t get it when it comes to HR” or “Our HR department is terrible”. It’s not the outlier, it’s the norm. So, many HR Pros working in HR functions where the organization has the feeling that “HR” sucks in our company. If you’re not in one now – great – but chances are you have either been in one before, or eventually you’ll make a “grass is greener” decision and put yourself into this situation.

You know what? We have the power to make HR Suck Less. Yes, you do. Stop it, you do. No really, you do. Alright that’s enough, just play along with me at least!

Here are the 3 steps to making HR Suck Less:

1. Stop doing stuff that Sucks. But Tim! We have to do this stuff. No you don’t – if your HR shop blew up tomorrow – your organization would still go on. Over time you’ve “negotiated” to do all this sucky stuff – thinking it would “help” the organization, or give you “influence”, etc. Stop that. Give it away, push it out to other departments – start doing stuff that doesn’t suck, more than doing stuff that does suck. It’s not easy, but it can be done, little by little.

2. Get rid of people in HR who Suck. Some people get real comfortable with sucking. They wear their suckiness around like a badge of honor. You need to cut the suck out of your department – like cancer!

3. Stop saying that you Suck. We brand ourselves internally with everything we do – and if you say that you suck at something – the organizational will believe you suck at something. If you say we are the best in the industry at recruiting our competitions talent away from them – you’ll be forced to live up to that – and little by little you will live up to that and the organization will begin to believe it as well. Signs and Symbols!

Every single HR Shop who feels they suck – doesn’t have to suck. If you feel you don’t suck, but everyone else tells you that you suck – you suck. You’re just delusional and you keep telling yourself things like “we have to do this stuff”, “it’s the law”, “we don’t have a choice”, etc. This is the first sign you’re comfortable with sucking – you aren’t listening to your organization. No one has to suck – you can decide to do things in a complete different way. Perception is reality in terms of sucking. You need to change perceptions, not reality. You can still accomplish the exact same things, just do it in a way that people think you rock. Start saying “Yes” to everything – not “No”. “No” sucks.

Sucking less is a decision – not a skill. You all have the skills – you just need to make the decision – to stand up and believe – Today we will no longer Suck!

Hey Managers! Here are a Few Ways to Make HR Proud

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Guest Post today from Connie Costigan who is the Director of Marketing Communications for Halogen Software. This is not a sponsored post – this guest spot was given because I think Halogen is one of the few HR Software companies that get Talent Management, plus Connie is a good writer. Check it out:

I admit it. If I read one more book, blog post, or article on how to… motivate, engage, inspire, be a better leader, get results through my people… I might pass out from exhaustion. And it’s not that I’m not passionate about these topics.

It’s just that as a manager — not an HR pro — working in the talent management space, I probably review a lot more material on these subjects than most.

And so… I want to do it all — test every reasonably sound management practice I’ve ever read or heard about. In the past year alone my physical and virtual “management” bookshelf has become so full my brain can’t contain it all…. Thinking Fast and Slow, Drive, The Carrot Principle, All In, The Rules of Management, an HBR Management Tip of the Day, my awesome “Leader as Coach” training binder, FOT and the FOT contributor blogs, a slew of other great HR sites… it’s never-ending.

I know HR peeps, I know. This isn’t an issue for a lot — if not most — of your managers. You spend an inordinate amount of time babysitting them, trying to protect them from themselves, trying to get them to be stewards of your talent programs. And hoping they won’t screw up things that you care about — like closing that elusive candidate faster, improving engagement scores, reducing your voluntary turnover metrics, getting a decent ROI for the leadership development program you just rolled out… your list is endless too.

So, as a manager who wants to get better so I can make my team even better, I’ve decided to focus on just 5 key management mantras I can remember, to move the fly wheel bit by bit, and make my HR team proud. Here’s a rundown, and some of the resources I use for each.

Lead with “Why”. Some very smart people have taught me that the best leaders start with “why”. That means nurturing a culture of belief with my team that begins with why the organization exists (not just what and how we do it — but why!) Then they’ll understand why we’re going to do a, b and c to support it, and they’ll be inspired to come up with a brilliant x, y and z to help achieve it. So before kicking off a project, or assigning work, I explain the rationale and try my best to tie it back to the big “why”.

Understand Motivation. Yes Dan Pink has it right. There IS a surprising truth about what motivates us. But I’m not a mind-reader and I’m not going to waste my time guessing. If I care enough — and I do — I’ll ask. So I’ve started to use this Motivation Self-Assessment Worksheet with my team to figure out whether achievement, affiliation, autonomy, power, security or intellectual stimulation are their biggest motivators . (Shout out to Henryk Krajewski over at Anderson Leadership Group for sharing the worksheet). I try not to typecast and assume a team member will always be driven by the same motivator every time, but I do keep these in mind when considering assignments, projects, or how to inspire passion around an idea. And sometimes, if I can’t quite figure out their key motivator on a particular issue, I just bulldoze right over motivation, and push on to what’s best for the business. Because that’s my job too.

Foster Accountability. I think about accountability a lot. How managers should hold themselves accountable and jointly own team goals — achieved or not. How each of my employees’ goals is linked to our corporate objectives, making them accountable for those as well. How we’re all accountable to help deliver on our organization’s mission, to live our values. There’s even an element of accountability in connection to our development opportunities. If we’re investing in growth and development, and strengthening key competencies, then the team knows they’re responsible for putting their learning or new ideas into practice. Our internal commitments — to each other, to other departments, to our customers — are all about accountability. There’s no room for finger-pointing and excuses. We share an obligation to do as we say we will, and here effective managers go first. It builds trust. It builds engagement. It supports long term success.

Sustain a Culture of Recognition. I’m not talking about random ‘atta-boys’, where I run around saying ‘good job’, ‘good job’ about all kinds of work. I’m talking about recognizing the great effort and results that I want to see repeated. This is very specific and ties back to leading with why. When I give recognition for a job well done, I try to be specific about the behavior and to tie the result back to what it meant for the customer, for the business, for the team. The experts say it’s that very precise context that managers should strive to recognize. I try to be specific, and heartfelt. That can be a boon to motivation when done right. Thanks to Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick for the awesome volumes of material they’ve published on this front.

Have the Tough Conversations. When something isn’t working right — it can be a behavioral issue, a competence issue, a goal achievement issue, whatever — I need to address it… soon. So I tell myself: “put that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach aside and deal with it.” Constructive feedback shouldn’t be saved for the performance review. It’s a no-brainer. Managers should KNOW this because it’s a fundamental tenet of “managing.” If something has gone off the rails, or could, a tough conversation has to happen. And managers need to be prepared before having one. I use two great resources to help me. The first one is the brain child of Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett actually. I was lucky enough to collaborate with Tim and Kris on this topic last year for a webinar — “The 5 Faces Managers See During Performance Reviews,” and Kris posted a great synopsis over at the Kinetix website. It helps classify the typical employee profiles that a manager might face in response to feedback during the appraisal process. But since more often than not, I’m providing feedback outside of the appraisal cycle, I also like to use a framework from Jamie Resker over at Employee Performance Solutions — The 10 Most Common Responses to Performance Feedback and How to Respond to Them. Understanding these reactions and what to do if confronted by them helps give me the confidence to initiate an important conversation, rather than sweep it under the rug (a.k.a. be a lame manager.)

There you go. My top 5 day-to-day mantras for leading and managing. HR pros — you’re never a shy bunch — what else should or shouldn’t be on this list?

It’s Back! FOT’s Top 25 HR/Recruiting Blogs!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Fistful of Talent – which I’m proud to be a member of – is releasing it’s Top 25 HR and Recruiting Blogs. What’s really cool about this list – unlike some other lists I have poetically mentioned in prior posts – is this isn’t made up by some random analysis, of random metrics – this thing is totally un-apologetically 100% subjective! That’s right, we (the FOT Tribe) sent in our own Top 25 HR and Recruiting Blogs that we love to read -the blogs we are fans of – and we ranked them 1 to 25. Simple – yet very effective!

I’m not saying that it’s easy to pick the Top 25 – for starters no FOTer blog can be a part of our list – which right there eliminates probably the 10 greatest blogs on the planet! So, I might have to recommend to Kris that next year we call the list – The Top 11-35 HR and Recruiting Blogs! That being said we looked at hundreds of blogs – many of us have our personal favorites – many of us really like and read blogs that our out of the HR world – as our personal favorites. What I can tell you – is the Top 25 – are solid! If you are looking for a list of HR and Recruiting blogs to follow – you won’t go wrong with any of these!

FOT’s own Steve Boese will be doing his thing tonight at the HR Happy Hour – unveiling the winners and talking HR with some of the top HR bloggers in the business – go check him out –

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/steve-boese/2012/03/23/hr-happy-hour-141–the-hr-blog-power-rankings

HR Happy Hour Episode 141 – ‘The HR Blog Power Rankings’

Losing Your Job – Tebow Style!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Tim Sackett

By now most of the free world knows that Peyton Manning accepted the quarterback position with the Denver Broncos who already had a quarterback in Tim Tebow. Ouch.To be honest it was really the only way that the Denver Broncos were going to get out of this Tebow mess. I like the kid, but he isn’t one of the better NFL quarterbacks, and he certainly wasn’t going to take them to the Super Bowl. Now they have a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback in Manning – who, if he fails, will have at least accomplished one thing for the Broncos – he got rid of Tebow without the fans losing their minds! Tebow is a fan favorite, which is like saying, fat kids slightly like cake – Bronco fans, heck, NFL fans in general, lost their minds about Tebow run last season. Getting rid of him wasn’t an option for the organization – until something so good came along it made everyone forget how much they loved Tebow.

You see great Talent has a way of doing that – making you forget about your favorites. Do you have a Tebow in your organization? I bet you do – and you know if you tried to get rid of them, your employees would lose their minds, culturally it would be bad, productively it would be bad, moral-wise it would be bad. So, you don’t do it – even if the person really isn’t holding up their end of the bargain any longer.

So, what do you do?

You do what Elway did with the Broncos – you bring in better talent and cut bait with your employee favorite! You have to do this. You have no choice. To keep an under-performing employee, just because everyone likes that person – is HR death! But, what do you do if the person is an average employee and well liked, but you get a chance to bring in superior talent? You do the same thing – but you you have to very careful on how you make that transition. Unfortunately, the talent that you and I bring into our organizations usually isn’t as highly publicized as a Peyton Manning! So, we, as HR/Talent Pros, have to do some of our own internal PR work on the new talent.

What does internal PR on a new hire look like? It starts with getting your leadership team all on the same page – they need to be excited and 100% supportive of the new person. Then focus on the new person’s direct team/department. They don’t have to be excited – remember they just lost someone they love – but they have to be supportive. The best way to do this is through a structured transition meeting – where they get to learn about the new person, but also voice their pain of their loss – it’s good for both parties to be on the same page. The final step is to get of the news release to the rest of the organization if all the high points of the new talent. Be careful not to do this first, because people will instantly run to the new group and ask about it. A transition meeting has to be done, so they a ready to respond and be supportive of the new person. To often in our organizations we rush to “tell everyone” before the person starts, or soon after, it’s more important to wait on this communication and get those closest up to speed first.

No one ever wants to let go of an organizational favorite – but in HR it’s our job to increase the talent of our organizations – sometimes that means making an unpopular decision. The best HR Pros find ways to move the organization forward quickly and while be supportive.

Trying Not To Lose in HR

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I love March – primarily for March Madness and because I love basketball. I spent the weekend watching as many NCAA Tournament games as possible, including a trip to Columbus, OH to watch my Michigan State Spartans compete in the 1st and 2nd rounds (which technically is in accurate – it was actually the 2nd and 3rd rounds because of those stupid play in games on Tuesday and Wednesday are “really” the 1st round – but they’re not, we all know it – the only people who truly think that is the 1st round is the NCAA and the parents of the kids playing in those games – which BTW are the only people in those stands watching!).

While enjoying this pastime I heard very often the sports cliche: “They are playing not to lose versus trying to win”.

For those who have competed in sports (and for many in business), you know exactly what this looks and feels like. It’s playing keep away with the ball when you’re up 3 in the first half! No! Stop! Run your normal offense. It’s your favorite NFL team going into a prevent defense up 10 points with 15 minutes to play (Don’t do it – it’s going to “prevent” you from winning!). Playing not to lose is being conservative – maybe to conservative – to the point of you stop doing what it took that got you in the position to win.

We do this in HR.

Too many times we tell managers “No”, when we should be telling them “Yes” – we become some risk avoidant they we miss out on some very good opportunities for our organization. It’s not HR’s job to avoid risk – it’s HR’s job to measure the level of risk and work with our organizational partners to determine if they are comfortable with the level of risk we are about to take. Those are to very different things – many HR Pros misconstrue this issue. They try at all costs to avoid all risk, which isn’t necessarily the right thing for the business. They aren’t trying to win, they’re trying not to lose.

The next time you find yourself in a position of giving advice to your operations partners at work, ask yourself this one question –

Am I trying to make the company/organization better right now, or am I trying to eliminate risk?

Then determine, what should I be doing? For some of you the right choice will be to say – at this point, right now, I have to eliminate risk – it’s the right call. But for many of you, you will have to circle back and truly try to make your organizations better by managing the risk that is presented.

Spend today trying to win.

The First Lie You Hear in HR

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Many of you are now aware that Peyton Manning, All Pro NFL Quarterback, was released by the Indianapolis Colts (I wrote about here). Long story short – he was injured, he’s the back side of his career, he was due a boatload of money – Indianapolis made a business decision to let him go. There was this really heartfelt press conference with the owner of the Indianapolis Colts, Jim Irsay, and Peyton the day he was released where they both cried and talked about how much they loved and respected each other. But within all that – there was one Giant lie – one we hear all the time in HR.

Jim Irsay stood at the podium and said – This is not about money.

Boom! Liar!

It’s always about money – and this was about money. If Irsay would have kept Peyton on 1 more day – it would have cost his organization $28M. It was about and is about money – you don’t know if he’s going to perform at the level he has over the past 14 years, and you aren’t willing to risk $28M on that decision to keep him.

I can’t tell you how many times in HR I’ve hear this statement from employees who are leaving for another company – and 99.9% of the time they are flat out lying to your face! “Tim, I’m putting in my two weeks notice” “What can we do to keep you?” “Nothing – it’s not about the money – I’m looking for that next phase in my career” “So, you won’t stay if we pay you $100K more!” “Well, wait a minute – you would pay me $100K more?!” “No! I just wanted to show you it is about money – now go – I don’t like to work with Liars!”

That’s exactly how you do it – HR Newbies! When someone tells you it’s not about money – start negotiating and find that price – you’ll get to it pretty quickly. “But Tim, it isn’t about money – I want to spend more time with my kids – I need balance.” “I’ll give you a 50% increase” “You know my kids will sure like going to private schools, much more than public schools.” Everyone has a price – just some prices are more expensive than others – but never let anyone tell you – It’s not about the money – it is.

If Peyton would have went to Irsay and said – “Look Jimmy (I assume he calls him Jimmy) I want to do right by the Colts – I’ll accept the league minimum to stay hear” “Peyton, you got yourself a deal!” would have been the entire conversation. But Peyton is smart – he knows his value – as does Jimmy – so they cut him loose. We do this all the time with our employees. Mary from IT just came in and said she got a new job paying her 20% more – and we calculate how much that will cost to raise up Mary, and everyone else in her same position. We then look at Mary, shake her hand and tell her good luck. It’s about the money.

Moving Out A “Legend” Employee

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Tim Sackett

The Indianapolis Colts decided yesterday to part ways with their All-Pro, MVP, Future Hall of Fame Quarterback, Peyton Manning (BTW my wife loves him! My sons and I call him, her boyfriend). Here are some of Peyton’s accomplishments while in Indianapolis from ESPN:

-Manning killed it on “Saturday Night Live” (“I just thought about going out there for the second half, and a little bit of pee came out.”)

-Manning reported to the Giants Stadium interview room wearing a suit and tie — and no shoes or socks — after a night-game win against his brother Eli. He did it (and I was there) because he knew the East Coast sports writers were on a crushing deadline.

-Manning led the Colts to a pair of Super Bowls and won one.

-Manning engineered a comeback for the ages: down 21 points at Tampa Bay with four minutes left, and won the game in OT!

-Manning never made TMZ’s greatest hits.

-Manning prepared so thoroughly that he could have double-dipped as a coach.

-Manning had 63 games with at least 300 passing yards.

-Manning was proud of playing in Indianapolis.

Why did they do this (you might be asking yourself if you don’t follow NFL football)? Peyton got injured last year (neck), had major surgery, no one will know if he’ll ever be the same. He was due $28M if they kept him on the roster as of yesterday. And, oh by the way, they have the #1 pick in this year’s NFL draft that has at least one “can’t-miss” future Hall of Fame Quarterback. Some pretty good reasons, from a business standpoint.

But, you know what? It sucks!

It might be the right business decision – but it definitely isn’t the right people decision. Or is it? This is what we do in HR, right? We are constantly balancing business decisions and people decisions. The Indianapolis Colts will move on. Peyton will move on. But it sucks that they broke up the band! If the life cycle of an organization. Even your best most trusted employees will eventually leave – retirement, death, new opportunity – name your poison. It’s HR’s job to help the organization move on in a positive light, even when it’s so dark you don’t think there is any light.

The Indianapolis Colts did what was right for their franchise. Star employee at the end of their career – potential to pick up new start employee at the beginning of their career. It isn’t about one person – it’s about all the people in the organization – and that makes it a tough decision, but an easy decision. We usually try and cover this up in the real world by throwing an unwanted retirement party and giving out a nice plaque for all their service, only to find out 4 weeks later the person is back to work at our competitors and stealing our clients! The Colts will feel some of this as well – when Peyton goes and plays for another team and does well. It won’t make their decision wrong – it just makes it harder to swallow.

Like Winnie the Pooh said: “Don’t cry because it’s over – Smile because it happened”

The Tim Sackett Project

TA & HR Expert, Dad, Backup Point Guard on my over 40 men's team

Category Archives: The HR Rules