You did it! Right?

Great weekend?  Fabulous!  Last week was busy wasn't it & I'm sure this week will be too.

You read Friday's post here didn't you?  Great!

So you had that phone call... You emailed some folk to arrange to talk... You committed those fantastic plans to paper and shared them... Yes?  Great!  How did it feel?

Oh I'm sorry...  You didn't have time?  You didn't read the post?  Nothing happened last week worth sharing?  Really?

You're better than that I'm sure.  Have another think...

What made last week stand out?  What can you take from last week and do something with this week?  Who are you going to tell about it?

Before the tide of this week washes you into Friday, find the energy to do something with whatever last week washed up on the beach. If it's elusive and you can't find it, reach out and ask for the help of a friend to do a bit of beachcoming.

If you're not quite ready yet then watch this video and find your story for tomorrow.

Thanks to @KingfisherCoach & @Brainpicker for sharing this video.

Will it go 'round in circles?

It's the end of the week and we've all been very busy.

Lots of talking. Lots of thinking. Lots of inspiration.

It's OK.  It's Friday and the weekend is coming to rest our weary minds.

But there's the problem... as a salve the weekend can't help but take away some of the energy you have built this week. If you're not careful those great ideas will stumble...  Will it go 'round in circles?

Maybe that's as it should be.  Or maybe you want to turn those plans into something more than just talk, thoughts & dreams.  Maybe you've got a song but perhaps you haven't got a melody yet.

Do yourself a favour...

Pick up the phone and tell someone your dream.  Email some folk and arrange to talk about how to turn that dream into a plan.  Write a blog about what you are committing to do and invite people to join you.

Take some inspiration from @RafaDavies  and read what he's doing here.

Listen & watch this group of people come together and do something.  Feel the energy.  Then do something!

If you don't will it go 'round in circles? Have a great weekend!

Bigger, Better, Faster, More?

Here I am just before my son's swimming lesson and we're talking about what he wants to concentrate on today. He wants Bigger, Better, Faster, More!

I'm not a swimming teacher but I can see that all his enthusiasm and love of the water is actually having a negative impact on his swimming ability. What he wants is to swim as fast as he can and race his friend up and down the pool. Yet, the more he tries to swim quickly the less likely it is that he will actually swim fast. It's frustrating him.

We talk about what's getting in the way and how he could achieve his goal of swimming faster. Trying to go quicker ironically isn't the solution and he knows it. He's got an idea...

He gets in the pool and swims his first length slowly. I mean real slow. The kind of slow that feels agonising to watch.

Here's the thing though. Having swum a length, he sees that he's not really much slower than when he goes helter skelter. His swimming though is effortless and something clicks.

During the lesson he tries a little experiment - all his own invention. He tries swimming fast and swimming slow and he notices the feedback from his teacher. Sure enough, slow works pretty well and praise is forthcoming. Fast is when the teacher critiques.

In the car he's tells me about his little experiment. His conclusion is easily made - "I need to stop trying to go so quickly and slow down. When I slow down, I can concentrate on my technique and that's how I'll build my speed."

I could see it. His teacher could see it. Sheesh most of the pool could probably see it!

However, he needed to see it. He needed to find a different way of behaving to reach his goal. He needed to make the change himself.

What made it happen?

There was a caring conversation. There was a safe environment. There was an expert on hand to give feedback and even critique. He'd had a good day. He was enjoying learning. He was willing to experiment. The sun was shining. All these things surely helped.

Each and every one of is capable of doing similar.

Perhaps sometimes we all need to behave a little differently. Perhaps sometimes we all need to seize the moment and experiment. Perhaps sometimes we all need to let go of the Bigger, Better, Faster, More?  

My Year in HR so far

The lovely @MJCarty over at XpertHR is running a fascinating series on different peoples experiences, learnings and observations of the year so far in HR.  You can read the whole series here including my own post below..

Well here's the thing - I don't actually work in HR. Having spent many years in organisational leadership roles, I now run my own change consultancy practice. I'm a bit of a gamekeeper turned poacher, which I think is much more fun than the other way around!

So "my year in HR so far" comes from the perspective of talking to and working with leaders who want to develop their business through their people. Perhaps that is in fact the ideal definition of HR...

It's been a busy and rewarding year so far. As I've spoken to and worked with organisations, I've noticed that there is increasing interest in how people and organisations can change and develop. I think this trend is especially important for those involved in HR.

In the modern world, the ability to respond quickly to the environment, adapt and change is essential to any business. As a consequence there is increasing demand for those people who can make change happen in a commercial context. Not just in a people context. Not just in a learning context. Not just in a change management context. I'm talking about change and development as an intrinsic part of commercial delivery. I'm talking about Change Leaders.

Commercially astute, Change Leaders have the courage, motivation and initiative to create a better future for the organisation. They are committed to enabling the performance of the organisation at many levels. With high standards and equally high ethics, they recognise that major change requires new behaviours and skills. They know that people are the key to any successful change.

As I've thought about this, I've found myself contemplating three statements that I think are increasingly relevant to the HR agenda:

1. Organisations are perfectly designed for the results that they get.
2. Ethics are the fundament of good business and good leadership.
3. Labelling and codification does not create best practice. It creates orthodoxy.

I believe Change Leaders work with the above firmly in mind, embracing the human aspects of work, to release potential and deliver business performance.

The opportunity for organisations and especially HR is in finding, developing and recognising Change Leaders - they are very likely the key to your organisation's future.

Being Human

Reflex Praise

A recent blog from Doug Shaw on Employee Recognition talked about the importance of immediacy and authenticity in recognising achievements at work.

I think that at the heart of employee recognition is a true appreciation of the individual and a need for reflex praise from the organisation.  Reflex praise is akin to the praise and feedback that we all received as children as we took our first steps or uttered our first words.

Reflex praise is about being human and recognising in others what they can achieve as much as what they have achieved already.

Are you being human?

So as a manager or leader what do you think of your employees?  Are they just a resource to manage your business processes or have you chosen to work with other humans with potential?

Your view of your employees is fundamentally this simple.  It will drive your actions and behaviours and ultimately the performance that you can expect from your organisation.

“My people are just a resource.”

We are often employed to perform a particular range of tasks or business functions but do you see your employees just as resources to achieve these needs?  Do you behave and act in this way?

If this is how you see your employees, then aren’t the softer aspects of organisational management irrelevant?  You will want to monitor and measure performance of course.  After all you want to know that your employees are managing the business processes properly.

However, wouldn’t anything further be unnecessary?  An Employee Engagement survey wouldn’t be of any benefit would it?  You won’t be great at it, as you don’t believe in it, and your employees will see it for what it is - irrelevant.

If you think that you employ people as a resource to manage your business processes, then why would you try to behave as if you don’t?

If you don’t believe that you employ people as a resource to manage your business processes then don’t act as if you do…

“I’ve chosen to work with other humans with potential.”

It might feel like a fluffy statement but actually it’s a fundamental statement, especially for a manager or leader.

We choose who we work with.  Sometimes the choice might be compromised by circumstances, lack of information or even our own poor decisions.  However, we do make that choice and must take accountability for it.

The people we chose to work with are human like ourselves, like our family, like our friends.  Our relationships are not the same but they are human, have needs and enormous potential.

So why wouldn’t we behave in a way that recognises employees as humans with needs and potential?  Why wouldn’t we behave in a way that recognises the consequences of the choices we make as managers or leaders?

Yes, it requires that we are to some extent open and vulnerable but we can still maintain the professional relationship that we’ve chosen to undertake.

More importantly we can be human.

Three tips for Leaders & Managers

1. Think about your organisation.  Will it achieve its best results by seeing employees as resources or by treating them as humans with enormous potential?
2. Look at the way you manage & lead and think about how your actions are perceived.  Are they congruent with your beliefs?
3. Look at the processes your organisation uses with its employees.  Do they support the above or are they in conflict?