Category Archives: Things

Sackett Holiday Letter 2013

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Each year I write our family holiday letter, this is the one being sent out this year. Enjoy.

I didn’t write a letter last year, I posted it on my blog.  No one read it.  Welcome to the life of an HR blogger.  So, now I’m spending a small portion of my kids’ college savings to tell you what we did this past year, because apparently you don’t have Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.  #WinkyFace 🙂 (If you’re over 40 you’ll have to look up “#WinkyFace” on a thing called The Google)

Keaton (16) – Had ACL surgery on December 12, 2012 – which consumed most of his 2013 with rehab.  Ended up starting on varsity baseball after only 5 months of rehab as a sophomore, hit over .400, selected to participate in the USA baseball 16U National Team trials in Cary, NC.  So, apparently you only have to have one good leg to hit!  He’s driving. It scares us.  He’s working. We like that.  He has a girlfriend. She’s in college. He’s playing varsity basketball and he likes to say “you know how Texas A&M has the 12th man, well DeWitt now has the 13th man!” Since there are 13 players on the team, and he feels he’s #13. 

Cameron (15) –  Cam had his first varsity swim season and got honorable mention all-conference as a freshman.  As a sophomore, this year, he tried out and made the top choir in DeWitt High – The Chamber Choir. He also got a major part in the school musical Avenue Q, and continues to swim way too many hours each week.  We aren’t sure what keeps him going! He’s the tallest in the family, which in our family is like being the tallest of the seven dwarfs.  He’s competing in Business Professionals of America. And he has decided to make me work until death, as he wants to attend Duke University.

Cooper (10) – Somewhere along the way Coop has found my sense of humor, which I know scares his Mom to death!  He still is a gamer.  Early riser.  Loves his Mom.  Hates to fail at anything.  Ultra-competitive.  Found out he loves Volleyball, like Mom and Dad.  Still plays baseball, because Dad makes him. Would rather be climbing trees and running around outside with the neighborhood tribe. 

Coop Quotes:

·         “Now I’m Ready!” Taking off his shirt, and throwing it to the side mid-match playing tennis against Dad. Then Dad did the same, it wasn’t as cute!

·         “It would be much easier if the candy came to me.” Oct. 30th when asked if he was ready to go Trick or Treating

·         “Shouldn’t you know this as my guardian?” to Dad when he didn’t know how many vitamins to give him in the morning and Mom had to leave early to work

·         “Let me know if you need help.” To Kim as she parented Cameron, after she told Cooper she can handle it.

·         “If you touch these lottery tickets, I will cut you!” Coop to the entire family at the Martin family Christmas party white elephant gift exchange. He’s fascinated with scratch and win tickets.  He’s good at math, but hasn’t figured out what odds are yet!

 Scout (7 in dog years) –  Yep, we got another dog.  He’s a Mini-Australian Labradoodle, and we got him in August at 9 months old. Long-story-short, a family with 5 young kids couldn’t handle a new puppy.  We got him.  He’s my dog, but Kim is slowly trying to win him over, it won’t work.  He’s dumb, but he’s really cute, so it’s okay. Besides Scout he also goes by Sugar Bear Bear, Chub Chubs, Scouterbout, and Stink.

Kim and I are about the same, maybe a few more gray hairs.  She still works part time as a Physical Therapist and full time as a Mom. I still work full time as a President of a company, and part time as Dad. We spend way too much time taking boys to events, and we are starting to realize that soon this will be over.  College scares us, more than high school, primarily because it cost way too much!   

From our family to yours we wish you all the success and happiness in 2014! Go Green!

The 3 Worst Holiday Client Gifts

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It’s that time of year when you start receiving holiday gifts from HR Vendors.  My own company even does it.  For the most part we send out a holiday card to the vast majority out our contacts, but those ‘paying’ clients or ‘Friends of the Company’ (former or future paying clients) we do something special.  Most companies go through the same kind of decision making process when determining what should you do for your clients.

Some companies really get creative when determining what to send their clients. My friends Kris Dunn and Shannon Russo, who run the RPO firm Kinetix, decided a few years back to give out books to their clients and friends of the company.  Not just any books, they really dug in and got creative around a book that thought would challenge how people where thinking.  They would put together a thank you note and send out the books.  It’s different, it’s eye-catching, it’s memorable.  I’ll say, though, Kinetix is not the norm.

My friend, Eric Winegardner, at Monster.com personally makes peanut brittle each holiday, packs it up for hundreds of clients and friends, and sends it out all over the country.  It isn’t easy. It’s very time consuming. He could easily shop it out and buy store bought stuff.  It shows that he cares.  It shows that he is thinking about you.  Whether you like peanut brittle or not, it becomes a personal gift from him to you.

The norm is boring, safe and sometimes laughable.  Let me give you examples of the worse corporate/client holiday gifts:

1. Pinup Calendar!  Okay, I have to bust on a company that I actually like a lot (their new Open Web tool is awesome!), Dice.com!  But, they send out a Pinup Calendar each year, and I’m not sure if its meant to be a joke, or if one of their executive’s spouses runs a calendar printing company and they are forced to send these out, but it doesn’t fit their brand at all!  “Hey, we’re a tech company, take this 1970 pinup calendar and put in the wall next to your 26 inch LCD screen with your Outlook running on it.”  My grandpa had a pinup calendar in his garage he would get from the gas station!  I’m not sure who makes the Dice.com calendar decision, but I would love to hear about it!

2. Pre-printed Holiday Cards!  You know the ones that say something like “Happy Holidays from the Gang at HRU!”.  You shove it in a pre-printed envelope with a pre-printed address label of your client that your admin ran off an excel mail merge.  It says ‘Classy’!  “We care so much about you as a client that we won’t even sign our name to the card!”  Really!? I don’t care if you’re sending out 1500 cards, sign your freaking name on the cards. It might take a couple of hours and your wrist will hurt, but you’ll live.  Your clients deserve your very least!

3. Company Logo Coffee Mug!  No one really wants your crappy logo coffee mug, unless you’re going to spend some real money and get something that is really nice.  No I take that back, we still don’t want your expensive logo crappy coffee mug!  Again, what this says to your client is: 1. You must drink coffee and 2. You must drink coffee in our crappy mug and think about us!  I don’t drink coffee. Send me Diet Mt. Dew with your logo on it and I’ll drink every last drop and sign your praises in a caffeinated baritone that would make angels blush!

So, what should you do to show your clients you really care about them and want to thank them for another year of doing business?  It doesn’t matter, big or small, but make it something personal to them, not to you.  If your first thought is: “what is something that is cheap that we can throw out logo on and send it out” — you’re doing it wrong! If your thinking what does this client (the individual I have a relationship with) really into, and what’s something I can send them to show them I was thinking of ‘them’ specifically when they open it — you’re doing it right!

BTW – for any HR Vendor reading this – I’m totally into Gin, Michigan State University and Sprinkles Cupcakes!  Have a great holiday season!

 

Secrets of a D-List Conference Speaker

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Just got through another fall conference season and I think I’m starting to pick up a few things and understand the game a little better.  I’m definitely not an A Lister, or B Lister, hell I’m not even on the C List, but I like to think I’m a Top 10 D List Conference Speaking selection!   As you run around the circuit speaking, those A and B Listers will definitely give you some pointers, the C’s won’t, they’re all high and mighty about how they’re no longer on the D List, so they kind of hold stuff close to the vest.  It’s a great education that spans much more than just your ability to go on stage and “Dance Like a Monkey“.  The Conference Speaker education has to do mostly with human behavior and likeability.

Knowing I only have a few secrets I wanted to share them with you before I get dropped from the D List, either up or down, we conference speakers only have small windows in time to share our very specific knowledge.  Here are my D List Conference Speaker Secrets:

  • Everything should be sunshine and rainbows!  The best content you can produce is actually content that challenges how someone does their job. Think – “5 Reasons You Suck at HR and How to get Better”, but while that content is great, it bombs on the speaking circuit.  People want to come and hear speakers tell them that they made a great life decision to be in this career/position they are in, and here’s 3 Silver Bullets that will change your life forever and make you prettier and thinner. By the way, that’s my 2014 Conference Season Session: “You’ve Made Great Life Decisions: 3 Things You Can Do Today To Be Prettier and Thinner”.
  • There are no Silver Bullets, but you always have to have Silver Bullets.  Let’s face it we live in a USA Today society.  We want to be told quickly how to make everything better, without doing any work to make it better.  That can’t happen, but as a D Lister, it’s my job to sell you on the fact that you can do that. That’s why there is a lot of Dancing on the D List circuit.
  • The differences between an B Lister and a D Lister is that the B Lister is usually a lot better looking, taller and much more polished in their Dancing ability.  The knowledge content usually isn’t really that different, the B Lister is just much better at how they share that knowledge.
  • The differences between an A Lister and D Lister is that the A Lister is selling an ‘idea’ and that idea is usually something they’ve trademarked and written a book about. Think: 7 Habits, Good To Great, First Break All The Rules, Who Moved By Mercedes, etc. Or, the A Lister is famous for something (business, political, sports type celebrity) and they are sharing their own story about how they became famous and while you’ll never become famous the same way, they try and make you feel like you could also win the fame lottery, but you can’t.
  • When being paid to speak, for all those under A List status, who gets paid and how much has a lot to do with how much someone making the pay decision likes you personally.  That’s hard for a lot of speakers to take. Some have great content, but they aren’t very likeable or even approachable.  Some have crap content and aren’t even that good at speaking, but are extremely likeable. Those people get paid!
  • Having a book makes you ‘smarter’.  It really doesn’t, but on the speaking circuit it does.
  • Being a Practitioner makes you know more about a subject. It really doesn’t, but on the speaking circuit it does.  This one is really funny! Because conferences now say ‘we want practitioners’ to speak.  Do you realize those speaking as “consultants” where great practitioners that were so good they made a career out of selling their knowledge.  They were the 1% best practitioners.  But, no, really, let’s listen to Mark from Albuquerque explain why his hiring process he just developed is so cutting edge…

That’s it, the only D List secrets I have. If I get to the C List I’ll let you know what else I find.  My guess is it will have to do with being able to negotiate first class travel, or least I hope it does!

5 Steps To Kicking A Twinkie Habit

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Rerun Friday – adapted from a post originally ran on The Project in December 2011. Enjoy.

I was reminded last night that success doesn’t just come to you, and it might not necessarily be about hard work and attitude – like your Dad would always say.  To often we (the collective lot of us!) want to believe success is like the lotto – at least to often we hope to get success that way – one day you don’t have success, then the next day success somehow miraculously finds you!

Sorry. Doesn’t usually work that way.

But one thing we over look is how important success is to finding success.  Here’s what I mean:

Directions for Being Successful –

Step 1: Find a little success

Step 2: Find another little success

Step 3: Find another little success

Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 each day

Step 5: You are successful

I know, directions are hard to follow for some people, so let me give you an example.  You feel like a failure at everything – job is going well (or you don’t have one), relationships suck, you’re a little soft around the middle (i.e., fat) – basically you feel like a failure, nothing is going in the right direction.  Guess what? When you wake up tomorrow you won’t magically be successful – no matter how hard you wish it, pray it, want it.  You have to find some sort of success, no matter how small.  Maybe that success is eating one less Twinkie than you did the day before – yesterday I ate 8 Twinkies – today I only ate 7!  Don’t let someone tell you that’s not a success, because tomorrow I’m only going to eat 6 and before you know it I’m going to kick this Twinkie habit!

I works with everything.  Not recruiting enough candidates for your organization, can’t get anyone to pick up the phone and talk to you – today make one more call than you did yesterday – only 1 – that is a success, because tomorrow you’re going to do that again, 1 more than the day before – small success steps until you’re just one big giant bag full of success!

People who are successful and throw it in your face suck!  They suck because they act like they’ve always been successful, but they haven’t.  It came to them a little at a time, until they could no longer feel what failure felt like.  You see success is like a drug – you need a little to want another hit, it’s addictive.  That’s why you need to feed your mind a little everyday – we can all find those little successes each day – the key is to find them every single day – don’t miss.

12 Things Happy HR People Do Differently

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I always like to surround myself with happy, positive people – I have enough pragmatism for us all! – you should see the people I work with – it’s like one big happy convention everyday at work.  Which is great for pick-me-ups, not so great if you’re just having a bad day and need to punch someone!  It’s not say everyone is happy, every second, but I think when you search out happy people, for the most part – they are usually happy.  I going to list 12 things that Happy HR People do more than non-Happy HR People – see if you see yourself in any of these –

1. Express Gratitude – When I let someone know how truly thankful I am for what they do, or did, it makes me feel happy, and I’m sure it makes them feel happy.

2. Cultivate Optimism – I start everyday truly believing I can accomplish anything I set out to today.  Not in a naive way, but in a way where I don’t feel anyone is going to put up a roadblock in front of me – except myself.

3. Avoid over-thinking and Social comparisons – I know so many people that struggle with this one.  I’m truly one of those people who feel so happy and excited for others when they find success.  I always think that they finding success will have a positive impact to me finding success – so let’s just all be successful together! To many people think the opposite.

4. Practice Acts of Kindness – Just yesterday I almost let someone cut in front of me in traffic! Oh wait, that probably doesn’t meet this criteria!  So, I struggle with this – I like to think I’m a kind person, but I see so many people who are so much more kind than I am – I know I can do better!

5. Nurture Social Relationships – This is why I love HR!  We are put into a position within our organizations where this is/should be the majority of our job description.  We get to build relationships everyday, and we are getting paid to do it – isn’t that wonderful?!

6. Develop a Strategy for Coping – I’m a move forward person – this isn’t to say I’m going to forget about what just happened – I learn from it – but I move forward.  My organization needs me to do this – you take a step back on a Monday – it’s my job on Tuesday to take a step forward – not stand around and laminate about Monday. That’s how I cope.

7. Learn To Forgive – I think my wife would say this is by far my greatest strength – I Forgive – don’t hold grudges. It’s just not something I want to carry around – there is too much great stuff in my life not to forgive and move on.  Again, I don’t want to confuse forgiving someone vs. forgetting what someone did – I can move forward, but it just not might be as it was before – that life.  But I won’t be carrying around your issues anymore!

8. Increase Flow Experiences – Flow is a state in which it feels like time stands still.  Watching my sons play sports, listening to my son read aloud to me, laughing with my wife as we sleep in on a Sunday morning, hearing my sons laugh as they tickle each other.  In the end of life – you will never feel like you had too many of these experiences – you will definitely feel like you had to many “work” experiences.

9. Savor Life’s Joys – I love lying in bed, with the windows open and listening to it rain.  Sitting on a perfectly still, calm lake and seeing the ripples of the water.  Watching my sons concentrate when they are writing or doing art and seeing their tongue move around in their mouth, without them knowing they are doing it.  And Diet Mt. Dew – that’s pretty good to!

10. Commit to Your Goals – Have you talked to someone recently who set out to run a marathon or lose so much weight – and they did it!?  Talk about happy!  Committing to, and reaching your goals drives happiness beyond that which you can imagine.

11. Practice Spirituality –  I’m not a church goer, but I know there are forces in life bigger than myself.  Being able to understand we are just one small little piece of what’s really going on, helps put life into perspective.

12. Take Care of Your Body – It’s crucial to your well being – and I know most of us can do much better than we do – but don’t ever underestimate how important this is to the over scheme of your happiness.  Energy is such a critical part of maintaining long-term happiness, and picking yourself up when we hit rough patches.  It’s just that they keep making these stupid restaurants that prepare such wonderful food! 😉

(adapted from 12 Things Happy People Do Differently – by Jacob Soko)

 

 

Fillin’ Buckets

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Earlier this week my youngest son got to lead a small part of an assembly for the third and fourth grade classes at his school.  He was really excited about his part, he got to get up in front of everyone at the end and kind of lead a cheer — you know kids love being loud at school!  I asked him what the assembly was about, and he said, “fillin’ buckets”.  “What?”, was my reply.  He said, “you know, you can say some things that will fill someone’s bucket, or you can say some things that will empty their bucket.”  My reply, “Oh, you mean like making deposits into someone’s emotional bank account.” His reply back,  “No, filling buckets, it has nothing to do with banks.”

Fillin’ Buckets. Simple, yet hard.

Today, I want to make it easy for you to do two things: 1. Fill your own bucket; 2. Fill some buckets.

Here’s a list of things that will help:

1. Surround yourself with positive people. Even if it’s only one person.  Even if it’s only yourself.

2. Connect at a deeper level.  Anyone can talk about the weather or what TV show they watched last night.  Strive to go deeper.

3. Hug someone who doesn’t expect it.

4. Spend a little money on someone else.

5. Take 5 minutes to appreciate all that you have.

6. Eat lunch or dinner outside.

7. Tell one person, you don’t normally talk to, one positive, genuine thing about why you like what they do.

8. Unplug and listen.

One last tip.  Leaders, as many of you are that read this, tend to be bucket fillers, because it’s part of the ‘job’.  Great leaders are genuine in this, but it’s harder than it looks, because many times our employees feel like we might just be doing this because it’s part of our role.  Catch 22.  How do you combat this?  Fill the buckets of those above you.  Leaders rarely get their buckets filled.  Try it, you’ll be amazed at how it makes you feel.  There’s something remarkable that happens when you start filling buckets, you realize it doesn’t matter who it is that you’re filling, it feels good!

What am I doing today?  I’m fillin’ buckets!

 

How Many Hugs Is Too Many?

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My post on The Rules About Hugging At Work is one of my most read posts ever.  Check it out.

As you know – I’m a hugger.  If we meet and you believe we are friends because we connected on Twitter 2 years ago — well — you’re getting a hug! That’s how I play.

I wanted to give you an update to my Rules About Hugging At Work.  Some of you know I have 3 sons, 16, 15 and 10.  Apparently, your kids listen to you when you talk around the house.  My ten year old started 4th grade this past week and his teachers felt like they needed to add some Sackett Hugging Rules to the 4th grade — they’re not as much rules as they are limitations.  I know what you’re thinking — No — we don’t go to a Communist private school.  I send my kids to public schools, I mean it did wonders for my grammar, so they should be just fine.

Yep, my boy Coop (seriously how could you resist him in the pic above!?) likes to hug like his old man.  What did ‘Dad’ do about it when he heard the ‘fuzz’ came down on my little man?  Not a freaking thing!  I told him to hug away – just follow the rules:

– No bathroom hugs

– No hugs from behind

– Only linger if you feel the other party is hugging back.

What kind of a world do we live in where a 10 year old boy is told he’s hugging too much?  He the sweetest, most kind, kid I know.  I’m glad to know this is how we turn our young boys into men — hugging limitations.  Well played America.

Enjoy Ari Gold – he gets it – no one ever stopped him from hugging! (NSFW)

The Crack of the Bat

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I’ve been around baseball my entire life.  Started out playing little league, moved to high school and my sons all started playing when they were 4 and 5 years old.  I was never good enough to play past high school, but I love the game.  As Labor Day is upon us I recall sitting out at the campfire with my folks listening to the great Ernie Harwell call the Tiger’s games on AM radio.

Great announcers make the game come alive in your head.  You can actually see your Tiger rounding third, hear the crack of the bat and imagine the play at the play as if you were sitting right there watching the game.  The announcer made the game larger than life, and when you finally arrived at the stadium to watch a game in person the experience was just like you imagined it.  No letdown, no hype, you walk through the tunnel and arrive in heaven.  The grass is greener and uniforms are as white as clouds.  You can smell the hot dogs and the cotton candy.

I know most folks today love football, I’m also a huge fan.  But going to a baseball game takes me back to my childhood.  It’s my religion.

Enjoy your holiday weekend.  Go take your family to a ball park.  Teach your kids how to keep score with paper score sheet and pencil.  Walk around the stadium so you can see the entire thing.

I miss listening to Ernie. Check out Macklemore’s tribute to his childhood announcer, Dave Niehaus, and go to iTunes and buy the song, the proceeds all go towards the boys and girls club:

Opportunity, Looks A Lot Like Work

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In a world where everyone is completely insane over our celebrity culture – I can buy into this message from Chris Kutcher at the Teen Choice Awards:

Great message for the pre-teens who were probably watching this live – but also for the millions who now watching on YouTube.  As a father, I find it hard every day to find great message and role models for my sons.  I’m not saying I want my kids to look up to Ashton Kutcher, but hearing him say that it’s cool to be smart, that its cool to work, well, I can buy into that.

Last week I wrote a post on the only 3 career paths that are available for new graduates are: College, Military or Prison.  I forgot two:

1. The Lotto (Which is really the last great American Dream! And yes, I do consider ‘Lotto’ a career path! Just look at how many people play it hoping to make it their career!)

2. Work

What I mean by ‘Work’ is actually working one of those ‘crappy’ jobs that politicians and the media keep putting down as not ‘real’ jobs.  Those ‘crappy’ jobs (sales, service, etc.) are actually real jobs — if you make them real jobs.  Yeah, you won’t make much, but like Kanye said “He got ambition baby look in his eyes. This week he mopping floors, next week it’s the fries.”  Those crappy jobs, worked by someone with passion and dedication, can turn into something really good.  Maybe not in 1 year or even two years, but eventually they do.   I’ve worked and had a W2 job since the day I turned 16.  I’m not the smartest, I’m not the sexiest, but I go to work — everyday.