#10 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

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For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

Hey, we made it – the Top 10 – if you’ve stuck with me this long – Thank you.

My #10 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s 1998 album Black Star and from the song K.O.S. Determination. The actual line is rapped by Talib (but I love me some Mos Def!).  Here’s the line:

”At exactly which point do you start to realize, that life without knowledge is death in disguise”

The one thing I’ve always done my entire career – is to keep learning.  After graduating with my undergrad I went back and got my Master’s in HR on nights and weekends.  After getting my master’s I went after my SPHR, which I’ve continued to hold and re-certify since 2001.  3 years ago I started blogging and found it actually forced me to research what I was writing about, and gain a better understanding of so many more things in HR that I never would have looked into personally.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Outliers – he explains his 10,000 hour rule.  Which basically is, if you want to “master” a subject or skill you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice.  That’s like 3 hours per day for 10 years.  But in HR, I don’t think we need to be “master’s” – I’ll settle for “Expert” – let’s say 5,000 hours.  That’s doable right!?  We have roughly 40-50 years of working in our various careers – becoming an “expert” should not be hard – but you do have to make a concerted effort to get there.

It’s one thing I encourage and support within my team – continue to educate yourself and get better.  If you’re a recruiter – be an expert recruiter. Read everything you can get your hands on – watch videos – attend seminars – create new sourcing methods.  If you’re a compensation pro – go after your CCP – then blow up your compensation model and make one that will put your organization in a competitive advantage.  Be an Expert.  You won’t get their without knowledge.

Got’em Right Off The Boat

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Don’t know if you’ve seen this, but a company called Blueseed recently announced their plans to build a ship to house Technical start-up workers off the shore of San Francisco, far enough off shore to in ‘International’ waters.   Makes you trying to get around the Visa issue just a little easier, now doesn’t it!?  What we’ve run out of H1B’s for the year – don’t worry about it – just hire them and put them on the boat!   Gives a whole new meaning to “off-shoring”.

Here’s the explanation from Blueseed:

As a foreign national, to legally earn a paycheck in the United States, you would need a valid U.S. work visa. To live and earn a paycheck aboard the Blueseed vessel, you will only need a passport.

If you are outside of the U.S., you’ll have to enter the U.S. first before boarding the Blueseed vessel. The best way to do this, and to be allowed to legally come to mainland, is to obtain a B1 (business) or B2 (tourist) visa. These visas are easier to obtain because they don’t grant the right to work in the U.S., are usually valid for 10 years (check validity for your country here) and are often combined into a B1/B2 business/pleasure visa. Nationals of 36 industrialized nations are exempted from this requirement for travel periods of up to 90 days, under the Visa Waiver program.

I like it.  I like when someone finds away around the system legally – or so they’ve interpreted it to be legal.  It’s creativity, in business, at it’s best!   We have a problem (not enough technical workers) – we’ve found a solution (building a big barge and anchoring just off the shores of the United States for you to hide house such workers).  It causes everyone to have an instant opinion – you either think it’s legal or that it’s not legal, or you think it’s good for business or bad for business – it’s polarizing.  It’s change.  It’s fun!

I’d like to see some company take it one step further – put a floating work place in International air space!  Sure that would make your work place 12 miles straight up in the air – but can you imagine the base jumps down to the ground!  Talk about an extra benefit for your employees – even your employment brand would rock – “Working Here Is A Thrill A Minute!” or “Jump Into Your Career with Us!” – I mean the ideas are endless. Plus, with my airspace idea you won’t be hampered by just living hear water – you can move that sucker anywhere on Earth!

So, what do you think about Blueseed? Good idea or cheesy-creative attempt to get around U.S. Immigration and Labor Laws?

 

3 Things HR Professionals Should Stop Apologizing For

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Fast Company recently had an article – “3 Things Professional Women Should Stop Apologizing For“, which were:

  1. Their Financial Expectations (I.E., pay us the same!)
  2. Their Physical Appearance (I.E., Sorry we aren’t club ready – I was up with a sick kid all night!)
  3. Their Professional Accomplishments (I.E., Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I can’t brag about what I do great!)

It’s a great article, check it out.  This got me thinking about all things we Apologize for in HR – that we should stop apologizing for – so here’s the Top 3 Things HR Pros should stop apologizing for:

1. You Getting Fired!  Oh, boy this could be #1, #2 and #3!  I can’t tell you how many HR folks I’ve trained over the past 20 years that I’ve specifically said “When you let this person go – Don’t apologize!”  I mean truly, what are you saying! “I’m sorry you are terrible at your job, or made the decision to sexually harass your co-worker – you’re fired!”  When you really think about it – it sounds funny.

2. You Not Getting Promoted.  This is almost the same as apologizing for getting fired.  Instead of apologizing to someone for not getting promoted, how about you give them a great development plan so they can actually get promoted!  Organizations can be big hairy breathing things – sometimes decisions are made and you won’t no the reasons.  HR Pros shouldn’t apologize for you not getting promoted – but they should help you navigate the political and organizational landscape.

3. You not liking your Boss, your Job, your Pay.  Ugh!  We tend to apologize for all these personal ‘happy’ choices a person makes.  The last time I checked, I never forced anyone to take a job, or forced them to accept the pay I was offering them, or forced them to work in the occupation or career they chose.  These are their own personal choices – if you don’t like it – LEAVE!  Go be happy somewhere else.  I hope that you’ll be happy here – but I can’t force you to be happy. I’ll try and give you a solid leader, with good pay and challenging work – but sometimes what I see as solid, good and challenging might not meet your expectations.  That’s when you need to make a happiness decision!

So, what should you apologize for a HR Pro?  I can think of two things that I apologize for on a regular basis: 1) Things I can Control (If I control it, and I screw it up, I need to offer you an apology); 2) Surprises!  (I might not be able to control surprises – but they suck when it comes to business and your livelihood – I apologize for surprises because in HR it’s my job to make sure those don’t happen to you as an employee).

#11 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

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For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

The #11 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from Kool Moe Dee and was inspired on his song Death Blow from his 1991 album Funke, Funke Wisdom,  by none other than LL Cool J – who Kool Moe Dee had a long running Rap Feud.  Kool Moe Dee was the first rapper to ever perform at the Grammy Awards, but this album was probably his worst and signaled and end to his rap career.  With all of that – it still had some great lyrics, including this one on his song Death Blow:

“You’re young and dumb and quick with the tongue.”

One thing I’ve learned to appreciate over the past 20 years of my career – is patients.   At one time I was very young, dumb and way to quick with my thoughts.  I’ve had a handful of really great mentors over my career and they all had one very important trait that I’ve worked to learn from – the ability to listen, take in information, process it carefully and then, react appropriately.  Even when what they were being told – wasn’t something they wanted to hear or even agree with.

In every organization, as a leader, you are going to be put into positions that you will struggle to support fully.  Usually, if you have patience, you’ll be able to work through that gap between what the organization is requiring of you and how you can support it and truly believe in “it” as well.    The nice thing about being young, dumb and quick with the tongue – is that you grow up being able to recognize this trait in others!  So, I get plenty of reminders of how to keep this in check, slow down to go fast and react in a way that will eventually help the organization and keep me satisfied as a leader.

 

Video Interviewing for Cavemen

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When I start to think about adding something like Live Video Interviewing or Video Screening to my HR/Recruiting Toolbox – I instantly go to about 100 reasons why we can’t do that in our environment!

It’s too Technical!

It will take too much time!

It will cost too much!

I’m not smart enough to make this happen – and I don’t want to look like an idiot in my organization!

The Kris Dunn and I are two 40ish white guys – who normally struggle changing the clocks on our VCR DVD players – so we get it – we get your feelings – this HR technical stuff, is well, at times, just too technical!

So, we decided to do something about this for our fellow HR/Talent Pros – we’re doing a free, live webinar on the 5 Ways to Use Video to Raise your HR  & Recruiting Game.  Our intent is to break this down so even your Mom and her iPhone can show you how to add video into your HR Shop – whether you have a 1 person HR shop or a 100 person HR shop – we’ve got some ideas for you.  If you haven’t used any video let in your HR Shop – this is a must see Webinar – it will blow your hiring managers away and help you fill reqs so much faster – and the value proposition is ridiculously cheap!

Kris and I have gotten to play around with this and through trial and error, and a few IT folks yelling at us, I think we have some simple ideas that can help you begin.  Plus, for all those who register for the Webinar – we’ll provide you with a Tool Kit to help give you some step-by-step instructions to get started – again For Free. Why do we do this for Free?  I would ask myself – well we don’t!  We have a sponsor – HireVue – who pays the technology bill to allow us to provide it for Free!  Win-Win for you.

Sign Up Today – unfortunately we have a “Technology” limit of how many people we can accept and our last Webinar filled up very quickly!  (isn’t that such a cheesy sales line!)

 

Rookie Hiring Mistakes

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The New York Times recently had a good article titles “The Top 10 Rookie Mistakes for Entrepreneurs” which looks at the top reasons people usually fail when starting a new business.  As you can imagine many of the reasons where typical: expense control, fiscal responsibility, having a strong value proposition, etc.  But out of all 10 reasons there was one glaring omission on why so many new business owners fail – when it comes to hiring and the HR side of the business:

11. Holding on to Bad Hires too long.

This might be the biggest Rookie hiring mistake ever – it definitely is something we can all relate to – I don’t know of one leader that at some point in their career hasn’t done this!

Here’s the problem with this mistake:

  • You want to believe that your hiring process works – so, the person just needs more time.
  • You want to believe in the person – I mean all people want to do well, right!? – so, you give them more time.
  • You want to believe you, as a leader, can help the person through this – so, you give them more time.
  • You want to believe that you don’t make hiring mistakes, that’s for other idiots – so, you give them more time.
  • You want to believe, period. So, you give them more time.

This happens to the best leaders in the world – usually numerous times – before they get how bad this is for themselves and their organizations.

I think most people see ‘holding on to bad hires’ as a sign of weakness.  “Oh, you know Tim, he doesn’t have the balls to just go and fire Joe!  If Joe worked for me, he wouldn’t have made it one day!”  We hear this kind of stuff from our managers all the time!  The truth is, this has nothing to do with weakness – this has everything to do with Hope.  We never hire someone thinking “Oh, boy this gal is great, I can’t to fire her in 90 days!”   You don’t hire, to fire.  That’s why this becomes so tough.

Only after we get scared and hardened from enough bad hires – do you truly understand what the negative impact is, to hanging on them for too long.  Many people will say – they are “long to hire, and quick to fire”, but that’s a lie.  The majority of us are quick to hire, and long to fire.  It’s a rookie mistake – one we all do, or have done.  So, what am I telling you?  When you know.  When you truly know (your gut tells you, your metrics tell you, your peers are telling you) that you’ve made a bad hire – do the right thing for you and your organization.  Remember – you didn’t fire them, they fired themselves.

 

 

#12 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

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For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

The #12 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from the Nicki Minaj’s 2011 song Fly, featuring Rhianna.  Most white folks know Nicki Minaj, not from Rap, but from how her song Super Bass was sung by that little English girl on You Tube and got about 13 trillion hits:

Yeah it’s cute – screams stage Mom – but it got her on Ellen – what have you done in your life!?

They’re actually lyric I love from Nicki’s song Fly – the first is from hook and sung by Rhianna:

I came to win, to fight, to conquer, to thrive
I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise

But that isn’t Rap – so I also love this part by Nicki:

I hear the criticism loud and clear
That is how I know that the time is near
So we become alive in a time of fear

Unfortunately in leadership to many of us had this experience in the corporate world.  The vultures start circling, the private closed door meetings seem to happen more often and you start getting invited to less of them!  What’s very ironic to me, that I’ve witnessed during my HR career, is how people pick up their performance as soon as the criticism begins getting louder and they know the end is near.  If they would have just did this to begin with – they never would have been in this situation to begin with – and now it’s too late to really do anything about it.  The wheels have already been set in motion – your dead man/woman walking.

My advice – work every day like you’re about to get canned – because even though you tell yourself that your not, you really are only one mistake away from getting your walking papers (especially if you’re working in a large corporation).  That isn’t negativity or sour grapes – that’s a reality that we all try to suspend because the enormity of living in that situation would be miserable.  So most of us just ignore it.   And don’t be fooled – this isn’t just a large corporation problem – it can happen anywhere.

I don’t think it’s a bad thing to work like you’re about to get fired – many will think it is – but I think it keeps your job in perspective.  How important is your job to you, really? I mean really?  If you come back saying – it’s right up there with my family and other beliefs – than treat it that way.  Too many of us take our job for granted – even after the most recent recession – and we shouldn’t.

The Value of Returning Moms to your Workforce

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I overheard on the radio about this Australian company who is rewarding returning mothers to their workforce by paying them Double their salary when they return to work, for the first 6 weeks.   My first impression was – “Oh hell No – don’t let any of my female employees find out about this!”

For those who don’t know I run a very young company – not young on experience – young on average age of employee.  It comes with the territory – most 3rd party recruiting companies have a fairly young workforce.  Get new recruiters right out of college, train and grow them into your culture – make them part of the “family”.  There’s something else that comes with all the fun and energy of a young workforce – a ton of weddings and a ton of babies!   We have the standard punchlines – “Don’t drink the water here!”, etc.  But the reality is, in the last 10 years – there hasn’t been a time when someone in the office hasn’t been pregnant.  It’s now part of the culture.

The Australian company got me thinking – no, not about paying my returning moms double – that’s crazy talk! It got me thinking about how valuable my returning moms are to my company.   It’s a huge worry I have every time one of my employees comes in to share their awesome news.  “Hey, Tim I’ve got something to tell! I’m pregnant!”  My response – “Awesome! I’m so happy for you!  Who’s the father?”  The “who’s the father” line is joke – I usually the know the father – remember – we’re a family – not much happens that we don’t know about.  I honestly feel so excited for them.  Internally, though, I’m going “Oh, Shit!”, because I know I’ve got a realistic 50/50 shot at getting that person back after they deliver.  That’s nature – I love my job, but once I hold that baby in my arms – I love it more and I’m finding out a way where I don’t have to leave them all day.

So, now I understand why this Australian company is rewarding returning mothers.  Give them a little extra incentive to return – knowing how hard it is to pull them away from their baby and start this new life as a mom and an employee.  Life just got doubly hard – we’ll give you double the pay!  You deserve it.   As HR Pros and Organizations, we tend to struggle to really understand how difficult this transition is.  We welcome the people back, we understand the sleep deprivation and the separation anxiety – but we honestly have no idea how hard it is – unless you’ve gone through it yourself.

I love returning moms for these reasons:

– They get hard work and sacrifice! 

– They can juggle a hundred things at once!

– They have perspective of what is important!

– They work doubly hard to maintain a balance in their life!

So, what is your organization doing to ensure your returning moms are going to return?   I know if I could afford it, I would pay them double, but beyond that what else?  Think of what new Moms need – a transition plan to ease back into their “new” life, flexibility, encouragement, understanding and maybe a big bottle of wine and a sitter every so often!   When we talk about the cost of retention and engagement – this is what we are talking about.  Finding ways to keep your best – in my world – My mommies are my best!

 

Just Make It Better

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If your sitting in your HR office right now reading this, about to create some new HR stuff – stop – your wasting our time (and by “our” I mean all of us employees in the organization).  “Wow – look who woke up on the wrong side of the week!”

It’s not that I don’t think being creative is important – it’s Hugely important.  Being creative in HR just isn’t important.   I know you think it is – that’s because you want to be creative – so you make yourself believe that’s important.  But the reality is – anything you can do – I can do better.  No, not because I’m better than you – I mean I probably am – but that isn’t the point.  I can do it better because – all I’m going to do is take what you’ve already done – and make it better.

In fact I’ll do a few more things while working on improving your thing:

1. I’ll make it cheaper

2. I’ll make it more simple to use

3. I’ll make it fun to do

See – stop being creative – and just start making things better.

From an article in Fast Company:

The line between becoming a pioneer and a “me-too” flop can be unclear when you’re in the weeds of development. Uncertainty is an easier destination to arrive at than confidence, especially when the truth is, there’s no such thing as making anything that’s really new. Everything is an evolution of something else. But you can make something better. When in doubt, ask yourself if you’d use your new product instead of the market leader’s. If the answer is yes, keep going. If it’s no, then stop and rethink.

This obviously talks about products – but services and what we offer in HR are very similar.  Is what you’re doing in HR better than what your competition is doing in HR?  If yes, carry on. If no, make it better.  It isn’t hard – it will take some hard work – but it’s not mentally challenging.  When I see people unwilling to make their HR Shops better – I know one of two things are at play: 1. They’ve given up on the organization, and they need to go, or 2. They are fundamentally lazy, and need to go.  It’s a painful truth most leaders just don’t want to realize.

Just make it better.

#13 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

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For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

The #13 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from Kanye West.  For those who listen to Kanye – he has some great lyrics, but not many you would consider in terms of shaping your leadership philosophies!   But I persevered, digging day and night through his catalog to find one – for you – HR Rap fans – all 3 of you.   From Kayne’s 2003 The College Dropout album and song “All Falls Down” – here is the #13 Lyric:

“We all self conscious, I’m just the first to admit it”

I believe to be a great leader, you have to have great self insight.   To me the lyric represents this philosophy.   In fact, I’ll go as far to say that is the single most important trait to the individual success of any employee – having strong self insight.   This a primary factor I look at when hiring for my team.

Think about this for a second – the main problem we run into as leaders is understanding how to utilize the strengths and opportunities of those employees we are given to perform a function.   But we must also know our own strengths and opportunities to truly be effective in leading.  Without this understanding, I’m guessing it would be very hard to actually judge this of your team – mainly because if you lack self insight, your team will see through this immediately.  You will have no credibility, and your ability to lead effectively will be greatly diminished.

Am I self conscious?  I don’t think I’m “overly” self conscious, but I can admit, at times I can be self conscious.  I know which times those are, and I’m careful not to let those feelings cloud my judgement.  Great leaders have the ability to understand their own “self-filters” they put on themselves – and adjust their decision making accordingly.  No one is perfect on this and for most it takes years to really understand all your self imposed filters.

So, do you know what your filters are?  Have you asked others – or done a full 360 assessment with subordinates, peers and supervisors all involved in one sample?  Try it – it will scare the hell out of you and at the same time be the greatest personal learning you’ll ever have!