Don't fear the reaper

DISCLAIMER - You all know that I work in HR for a company - this post has NOTHING to do with my job or company. It is written in response to the recent news of enormous layoffs in some of Americas largest and most respected companies.


Whether you call it a "downsizing", a "rightsizing" a "redundancy" or a good old-fashioned "layoff" - it still means the same thing - people losing jobs. This topic is about as scary to most of us as DEATH or TAXES. The loss of a job is traumatic, and I don't mean to trivialize it here. No matter how frightening the topic, you need to consider the possibility as you plan out your career. Here are some key points to consider from someone who has been on both sides of the issue.

1. Lifetime employment is a thing of the past - the average worker today will have 6 or more employers through their career so you cannot bank on having your Father's "20 year and a gold watch" career. Whether it is done at your choice or that of your employer(s), you will change jobs before too long so don't set your heart on being there till you retire.
   
2. Like the Godfather said; It's not personal, it's business. No matter how it may appear, the reasons behind layoffs are rooted in a business need. You may disagree with the need or the logic applied, but you have to understand that it's not done to target you personally. Sure there are cases where it is, but you have a better shot at being killed by lightening while holding a winning lottery ticket, standing on a pot of gold than being truly "targeted" in a layoff, and an even smaller chance of proving it... so just go on as if it's not personal.
   
3. Only the fittest will survive. Generally the folks who survive a layoff process are those who are best prepared. Being fit in this context has less to do with physical fitness and more to do with career fitness. The exercises that keep you fit in this regard are; keeping your resume up to date, building and maintaining your network, pursuing career and personal development opportunities and continually assessing the environment both in you company and in your field (especially with regard to who is hiring). The best and most prepared among us don't really "survive" a layoff because we are gone before it can touch us!
   
4. What does not kill me makes me stronger. As stated earlier, losing a job is traumatic. Your income, lifestyle and pride are all in jeopardy, but if you keep these points in mind, you can survive and prosper. Losing a job through firing or layoff has been the catalyst that launched some of the most impressive careers in history - you can use this forced change to help you jump into a new future - something you may have feared doing up till now.
   
5. Victim or Victor - the choice is yours. Given that this can happen to almost anyone at any time, your ability to avoid being laid off at some point in your career is slim and you can have very little control over whether or not it will happen to you. The only thing you can completely control is how you respond to it. Many go into "victim" mode - they grieve, rage, fume and harbor resentment... none of these actions will get you a new job. You have to make a conscious decision to beat your circumstances by applying a rational, reasoned and disciplined approach to moving on and accelerating your career beyond this hurdle. The choice to be a victim or victor is completely up to you.

YOUR MISSION
Start preparing yourself now. Don't wait for the handwriting to appear on the wall. Keep your resume up to date, keep growing and developing yourself and your network and always keep up with your industry for opportunities.

Back to school for the kids - what about you?

Summer is over. The kids have all returned to school. New bookbags, sharp pencils and a whole new world of learning in front of them. What about you? When is the last time you cracked open a book, studied a new topic or read anything besides the directions on bag of microwave popcorn?

Normally, I use this little pulpit of mine to preach about business learning, career management and all things HR'ish - today's rant is of a much more personal nature. Today we beyond professional development and focus on personal development.

I'm taking a cue from my kids and am starting some studies of my own this fall, and am devoting some time to a more academic pursuit beyond the development I am continually doing to further my career; I'm studying history. Now as you my have guessed by the theme of this little blog'o mine, I have spent some time in the military and have quite an affinity for all things green and explosive, so my history studies will focus on military history - ancient military history.

Now that I have shared a bit of my inner nerd, what is your passion? Do we have any closet-poets in the crowd? Perhaps a budding ornithologist in our midst. It doesn't matter what your non-work pursuit is as long as you have one. Such non-work stuff is widely accepted as a vacation for the mind, and let's face it... couldn't we all us a vacation now and then?

YOUR MISSION:

Find some area you are passionate about and invest some study in it. Whether it is history or world economics, you will surely gain insights that will benefit you along the way.

Carry on!

It's my career, stupid!

Who remembers that snippy little political bumper-sticker "It's the economy, stupid!"? Well, I have a renewed version of that little quip for 2006 - "It's my career, stupid!"

Regular readers of my blog will know that I totally believe that every person's career, development and work-life balance is up to them. It is my view that no one else can manage your career like you can. You should ask for, and take all the developmental opportunities, career options you desire. If you don't claim what you want, than shame on you for not trying. But for those of us who do actively look for opportunities only to have them fall by the wayside of the boss's goals, shame on the boss!

This interesting article in Workforce Management is a pretty good wake-up call for those among us who have to lead and manage others. I still hold to my beliefs that you alone bear responsibility for managing your career, but the boss who fails to provide you with training, tools and opportunities is a problem too. And according to this study, it is clear that fewer of us are willing to tolerate having our careers used to grease the skids for the the boss' ambitions alone.

To the bosses among our ranks, the message is clear - your people are yours to win, or to lose. Either you help them win, or you better start getting your recruitment strategy ready, because you WILL lose them - and when word gets around about why these talented people are leaving, you better start packing your bags too because good companies wont allow poor managers to cost them talent for long.

YOUR MISSION:

Take a check of your team. Who has development needs that you can help with? Who would benefit by being put on, or in charge of that next project? Have you even had an "aspirations and desires" discussion with them? Start investing in your team today by asking these questions and revisit them frequently. Always put your team's needs in the equation when deciding what to do. If you follow this advice and act in their best interests, the worst thing that can happen is that they'll see that you care, and the best outcome is that they wont leave, will continue to grow and add real value every day.

The clock is running down on summer 2006 - have you had your Picnic yet?

Ok, so it's only summer in the Northern half of the world - I promise I will re-post this in December for all those living South of the Equator.

But seriously, the general themes of summer - pool parties, picnics, bar-b-ques, etc all seem to put people in a pretty happy place. The kind of happy feelings that are associated with these activities could never be mixed with any kind of business meeting ----- or could they?

I read a fun article in careerjournal that tells about how some companies are leveraging their annual corporate picnic to get a mix of business and pleasure. This article came complete with some good ideas and even a pretty cool recipe for Ranch Beans!

Now I am not suggesting that you try to whip up a big corporate cook-out, but you might find it a valuable investment of your time and a small amount of money to arrange a simple covered-dish type picnic with your team, or just taking your team out for ice cream at ColdStone.

YOUR MISSION

See if you can find a way to couple some sort of picnic with doling out some much deserved pats-on-the-back. Maybe you could even invent a few new team awards - gag awards, or serious ones to point out the best in your people and to celeberate successes. Who knows, you might start a new company tradition. Go for whatever type of shindig you dig, but do something that your team will be comfortable with and enjoy before the summer is gone and we head off to that crazy time called the 4th Quarter!

Carry on!

Harassment by any other name...

Pop - Quiz!!

Your best employee, Liz has just told you that Tom is harassing her. What do you do?

Well, if you are like most managers, the second thing you do is hit the panic button (the first is to pick yourself up off the floor!). This is a tough situation and requires you to be at the top of your game. Now I'm about to say something that might get my HR-witch doctors license revoked, but you can manage this situation. HR should be involved, but not every company has a real HR function - so just like the Boy Scouts say, you've got to "Be Prepared".

I stumbled across a pretty good article in Forbes that spells out a good plan of action and some key "do" and "do not" advice. This is good stuff for the average manager. You are at the point of decision and you are the key to action so knowing how to keep your cool and process the information effectively and promptly could mean the difference between being stood up at the Company's Annual meeting and being cited as the "Boss of the Year", or being stood up in front of a jury to explain yourself - the former is ALAWAYS preferable to the latter!

Let me give you one more little tid-bit on point from my Secret HR Voo-Doo book - ALWAYS err on the side of caution to protect your people. Keep the matter as low key as possible - you are not hiding it, ignoring it or avoiding it, but you cannot make it look like a matter to panic over. Guage your response to the level of the threat to your staff and balance your response between keeping everyone safe and maintaining a calm envrionment.

YOUR MISSION
Take a moment during your next team meeting and discuss the topic of harassment with your team - your message has two parts and is VERY concise -
1. We dont tolerate harassment in any form, from anybody here. Full stop!
2. If you feel you are being harassed by anyone - speak to me or (some other competent company authority) and we will deal with the situation promptly, confidentially and ensure that any wrongdoing is halted - full stop!

If you spend 5 minutes covering this in your next team meeting (oh, you do have those - dont you?), and document it in your minutes (oh, you do record minutes of your meetings, dont you???), you can greatly improve your chances of heading off and surviving a harassment incident.

Carry on!

Work Life Balance ? Confucius says YES!

In this never-ending pressure cooker we call business, it is a commonly held belief that we have to be committed and running at 110% of capacity to stay in the game. In fact, a number of studies support this by pointing out that we don't even take all of our vacation, or that if we do take vacation, we still stay connected. What kind of vacation is that???

Some say that the best ideas have all already been had, and in this matter, I believe Confucius has cornered the market! He said "To go too far is as bad as to fall short. While I dont claim to be a Confucian scholor (or any kind of scholar for that matter) this little gem really stands out. He's telling us that running at full speed will keep us from achieving all we can, but the WSJ.Com article by Hunkar Ozyasar tells a much more compelling tale. While we are all so busy running full-throttle just to keep up, we are missing key messages, opportuniteis and our lives! Letting up on the throttle, just a little bit will give you the time to THINK! Stopping just long enough to check your compass may be all the break you need to see how far off course you have run and take corrective action.

YOUR MISSION
STOP!!!! Take a little time to assess just how much time and energy you are expending each day and examine if or how this exertion is helping you meet your goals. If it's not... it's time to make a course correction to a pure focus on YOUR GOALS! I'll bet keeping this focus will help you find the time you need for your family and your sanity.

Better meetings - the Cranky Middle Manager way

Think about the last meeting you attended. Was it a meaningful and productive use of your time, or did you sit in a room with a lot of other "victims" and try do drown out the discussion by immersing yourself in your crackberry?

It's a sad but very plain fact that most meetings are horrible! The unfortunate part is that while we all see this, very few try to actually do anything to help. Thankfully, there is a new voice on this topic. You may know Wayne Turmel from his Cranky Middle Manager Podcast.

I have know Wayne for a while now and he's one of the rare breed of middle managers who "gets it". He has a very informal and engaging style to get his message across. Judging by the size and loyalty of his audience, I'd say that they think he's onto something - I surely do!

Wayne has recently published an e-book titled "Meet like you mean it - The Cranky Middle Manager's Guide to Painless and Productive Meetings". I have had the opportunity to read this and I dare say that Wayne has nailed it. Sure, this book may not sit well with the starched collars at IBM or Accenture, but for the rest of us living in the trench-warfare we call work, it's a great read. I know more than a few organizations for which this should be required reading!

YOUR MISSION:
Take Wayne's book, or any other on the topic of running effective meetings
and read it - then pass the knowledge on to every meeting-calling knuckle dragger you know. Stand up for your rights and demand that if you have to have meetings - do it like you mean it!

Summertime and the livin is... CRAZY!

Ok, now I'm on two weeks with no posts... I don't even know where the time has gone. Like most folks, I am trying to fit in as much work/life balance as I can, but as much as I love blogging, work/life balance doesnt leave a lot of room for blogging in the summertime.

But in this situation, just like almost everything else in guerilla world, there is a lesson to be learned: Balancing is harder than it looks!

I love to blog but I also love to do other things like camping, floating in the pool and enjoying meals, drinks occasionally, hangovers with my friends. Summertime is much more conducive to the beaches, beer, binges and ballgames than blogging, so it is easy for blogging to get lost. Warm weather, cold pools and good friends are WAAAYYY more fun than sitting at a keyboard!

But, I claimed to have a lesson here - and that is that it is ok to NOT get it all done! Some things, no matter how important they may feel, are not as important as others. Sure, I am passionate about my little blog here, but I am sure that I wont really regret missing a few posts along the way as much as I might regret not having spent some quality time with my family and friends.

YOUR MISSION:
STOP! Take a deep breath. Now take stock of the important things in your life. Are you spending enough time on them. Can / should you steal some of your life back from work/school, or whatever else is taking you away from these important things? Imagine that today is your last day - will you face that day with regrets? If so, you need to re-evaluate and get back to the balance you know you need.

Where does the time go???

Wow! I just realized I have not posted in over a week. Seems odd that someone who professes the virtues of self-development should forget to invest the time in his own development.....

But it's a topic worth talking about; we all know we need to work on our development, but we allow things to get in the way. Vacations, work schedules, even the World Cup will easliy invade our precious time in a way to make development take a back seat. So let me ask you - when is the last time you invested a little time in your own development? If you are like most of us, you cannot remember!

One technique that I've heard of to stay on track with your own development is to schedule time in your calendar for it. Simply block out a recurring meeting for an hour a week, or two or whatever works for you and devote that time to "sharpening the saw". You can decide what type of development activity best suits you, your goals and your timeslot, but make a clear commitment on your calender not just to take the time, but also about what you intend to accomplish - reading Jack Welche's newest book, listening to The Cranky Middle Manager Podcast or refreshing yourself on the corporate mission, vision, values and goals... all can be worthwhile development actions.

YOUR MISSION
Crack open your diary, Outlook or whatever you use and block a recurring meeting RIGHT NOW! Dont let anything short of a fire alarm keep you from this appointment and then TELL YOUR BOSS and YOUR TEAM what you are doing.... "I'm going to my development appointment" will send a message that you care about development and are using it to become a better player.

What do Footie, the MLB and jewelery sales have to do with the business?

Could I have picked more obscure topics - probably not! So what do those things (and a million other random items) have to do with each other and your business? They can all be great ways to connect people in the workplace to one another, and that can be a great differentaitor in how people feel connected to the workplace.

Football (in either flavor- American or European) is a major passtime - even the most buttoned down person you know will chat to you about exploits of their favorite team. Same holds true for Baseball and just about any other prefix to -ball! Jewelery and Avon enthusiasts aboud in most offices too. These are all great opportunities for people with like interests to connect and bond.

Since the folks in our office already share the common bond of working together, some of us presume that's enough for them to be sociable about. But the truth is that just sharing (or surviving in) the same office space does not help us grow to understand and appreciate each other. Adding in common threads of human pursuit - be it ice hockey or air hockey - gives a common non-work connection for people. This can foster interactions that transcend the co-worker and help us understand and appreciate the PERSON!

Honestly, how many of us have blown-off a request from a co-worker? Dont lie - it's sooo unflattering - we've ALL done it! On the other hand we are far less likely to deny a request from someone we know, care about and may even call "friend". Call it friendship, comradarie or anything else - emotions that transcend the workplace are far more valuable and rewarding for all concerned.

YOUR MISSION
Identify one common thread with 3 other employees in your company - could be on your team or not, it doesnt matter - then engage them in that common thread. Talk about World Cup news, Basketball playoffs, summer fashions... whatever! Just open a non-work door for communication and shared interests and see what blooms.

Growth through giving

Charity begins at home, but shouldn’t end there. – Scottish Proverb

The best leaders among us are recognized by many traits. We often describe leaders as; smart, brave, loyal, strong, dedicated, fearless, etc... Odd how when you ask most folks for words to describe great leaders, they leave out words like generous, self-less, charitable and compassionate. I submit that if you really want to describe the greatest leaders of our time, these words must be included.

Charity takes on many forms – you can be charitable to your staff, to your company or even to your competitors, but the truest forms of charity have less to do with business for they will be seen as a tactic in the business world. The most telling examples of charity that set great leaders apart from the pack are those done with a sincere intent to help, and to lead and encourage others to join in the cause.

I’ve had the privilege of working for some great leaders along they way and they helped me find the courage to commit to charitable works that give me an opportunity to give something back to the world. While I know in my mind that I am putting myself in a “good light” by doing these charitable things, my heart drives me into the work with no consideration for any benefit I might derive – giving is my reward alone.

Ok, so here’s the shameless plug – I am volunteering in an American Cancer Society program named “Relay for Life”. It’s a 24 hour relay event where members of my team will be walking on a track for 24 hours straight to raise funds, awareness and even the spirits of cancer survivors. I have lots of personal reasons to do this. I figure that many of you have the same reasons to engage in some charitable cause. I would, of course appreciate any support you would care to lend. If you would like to know more about this event or to see how you can help, please visit my Relay For Life site – you can see all sorts of information about this event, how you can help or just leave a message of encouragement to our team or the survivors we support.

YOUR MISSION
Find some charitable work to engage in. There are hundreds of ways you can give back to the world – Disease prevention and cure groups, religious groups, youth services, domestic and substance abuse… the list goes on and on. You can surely find a way to help by contributing your time, talents or resources – whatever the cause, you can find a way to contribute. You’ll be glad you did!

"New Media" - the next development wave

The fact that you are reading this post says a lot about you. It shows that you are tech saavy enough to find (or at least stumble across) a blog and that you are actually concerned enough about your own development to actually read this. You are already taking part in the next big thing in personal / professional development - New Media. The laymans terms version of new media is this whole mess of blogs, wickis, portals, podcasts, etc. - all new and exciting avenues to get our message out into the public domain and strike up a conversation.

If you scan over to the right border of this page, you can see a short list of some of my favorite blogs, pages and podacasts. Some I listen to for fun, but many are helping me take charge of my personal and professional development. I do this because the realities of time, work and a long commute make it difficult for me to engage in some of the more traditional development activities like reading, taking courses to pursue my next degree or engaging in certification courses. Just because I lack the time or resources to pursue my development the old fashioned way does not mean I cannot continue to learn and grow every day.

All it takes to successfully take advantage of all the education out there is a computer, an mp3 player (note that I didnt cop-out to apple and say I-pod) and a little investigation to find podcasts that cover the topics you want to develop your skills on. You can download and listen to podcasts almost anywhere and there are thousands of them on almost any topic you can imagine. Beyond the podcasts, you can get short snippets of information from any blog, wiki or portal that has an RSS feed and have those "headlines" show up in your email or even as a little pop-up window on your PC.

A simple HR-weasle like me cannot hope to understand it all, let alone explain it very well, but I can tell you that I get a lot smarter every day because of all of this voodoo.

YOUR MISSION:
Stop by any one of the links to the right of this post (in the upper right hand part). Just use them as an example and lauchning pad for your own trip into the world of new media and self-directed development. Once you get comfortable in this new world, share the wealth and give your direct reports an assignment to do the same thing for their own development!

Bon chance, mon ami!

And you thought all the managment stuff was just for "business"

You have to admit it. You thought that all my rantings were focused on business only. It probably never entered your mind that the stuff we discuss here can have equal play in almost any walk of life.

Beyond my "day job" as a Human Resources weasle, I have a part-time volunteer gig as a Firefighter - that's right.... one of those nuts who drives the big red truck and runs into burning buildings against the tide of smarter people running out of them. I raise this not to introduce you to my odd vocation, but to bring to light how even the Fire Service adopts the concepts we cover here to improve how they work. Let's face it - if you think managing a bunch of customer service reps at "Widgets-R-Us" is tough, imagine leading a bunch of rough-edged Firefighters in a real fire!

Chief Alan Brunacini of the Phoenix, Arizona Fire Department is one of the most down-to-earth leaders I have ever encountered - this guy "gets it" and has dedicated a lot of his career to helping grow better leaders for his organization. Probably the most impactful thing I've read from the Chief is his Boss Power Process . This simple little document explains loads about how management concepts transcend industry, region and language - great leaders all follow the same path.

YOUR MISSION:
Look for new and inspiring examples of leadership and leaders / teams who live the values you aspire to, then copy what they do! Immitation is indeed a great form of flattery.

Feedback - the breakfast of champions

Feedback - the very word can strike fear into the hearts of most of us. I'm willing to bet it brings you to a cold-sweat just the way it does for me. It's an unfortunate thing because correctly timed and delivered feedback is one of the best performance enhancers around (Sorry Barry Bonds, you should have tried this before experimenting!)


The reason so many of us dread feedback is that it is too often done wrong and almost always focused on something we didn't do well. There is another side to feedback - positive - though many managers seen to have forgetten that it exists. Positive feedback should be seen as part of the reward for doing something right. I don't want to oversimplify and bring in the Pavlov's dogs example, but when we get rewarded for behaviors, we are much more likely to repeat those successful behaviors.... seems like such a simple concept - too bad we seem to ignore it.


Even the downside of feedback is good stuff for us if timed and delivered properly. One of the best examples of how to deliver feedback comes from one of my favorite podcasts; Manager Tools. The guys who run this podcast really "get it". They have a simple and very effective approach to giving feedback that works for positive as well as negative feedback. The real beauty of this model is that if you follow it with your team as part of the normal course of business, you will find that they accept, and even seek feedback to ensure they are on track and delivering great results.


YOUR MISSION
Go check out "Mananger Tools" and listen to their podcasts on feedback then start using their techniques today. It may not be comfortable at first, but neither climbing a mountain - it's tough work and it's often not pretty, but the benefits you'll reap will make it all worthwhile. Carry on!

Sharpening the saw

I’m back after taking a week off to “sharpen the saw”. I didn’t actually do the whole Steven Covey thing. I’m talking about something much simpler here. My well isn’t deep enough to get into all the spiritual and holistic things Covey recommends, so I, like all good guerilla fighters, stayed with the more pragmatic and tactical things.

I’m an HR person and I work with a team of HR people who are stationed in North America, Europe and Asia. This past week we all got together in sunny New Jersey for a week long team meeting. Now, contrary to popular belief, a room full of HR people does not break out into spontaneous songs and group hugs! We actually do have fun, but during our team meeting we are all focused on learning new skills and sharpening old ones. We worked on how to identify the best people to hire to help our company, how to develop the people we have on hand to perform their best and how to become more aligned with and supportive of the business.

We surveyed our team by asking the following two part question:

1. When did you learn the most in your career?
2. When were you most engaged?

Ask yourself those questions – then read on…..



Not surprisingly enough, our results mirrored the results of numerous studies – We all found that we learned more and were more engaged when we were involved assignments which pushed us beyond the limits we thought we had. We had to think, learn, grow and be responsible for our results. No one in our group really believed that they learned or grew from courses they took or seminars they attended.

This is the tactical “saw sharpening” we all need to engage in. We need to take charge of our development and seek out opportunities to learn, grow and do great things. We might fail at the assignment but you cannot fail in the goal to learn and grow.

YOUR MISSION:

Take charge of your personal and professional development TODAY! Start looking for opportunities to sharpen your saw by taking on new assignments that will stretch you and force you to learn new skills.

We keep score by the numbers, don't we?

We keep score by the numbers. A simple concept, right. How many touchdowns, homeruns, goals, etc… is the way we gauge how well our “team” is doing. It’s all measurable and simple to understand and the livelihood of the team and management hang in the balance.

Isn’t odd then that while we find it perfectly acceptable to track the performance of our favorite sports teams by number, we seem to have such a hard time doing it for ourselves? Seriously, unless you work in Finance or Sales, using numbers to track team performance is somewhat of a black art. Sure, most of us can speak about attainment against revenue targets, but do any of us get below the easy stuff and look at the more strategic things?

When is the last time you looked beyond your revenue numbers and checked on other important “scores”? Turnover rate, time to hire, alignment of performance scores to company results, employee satisfaction / engagement? None of these is quite as exciting as hitting that big sale home run, but believe me, if you are not paying attention to these other measures, the likelihood of long term success for your business is pretty darn bleak. There are too many studies to link to (not to mention a mountain of common sense) to support the supposition that an engaged workforce are the best resource to achieve business success…. They succeed better, stay longer and become an absolute “talent pump” brining in new referrals and building new skills. It is alarming that such a commonly understood cause and effect relationship between these things and organizational success should go largely ignored by front line managers.


YOUR MISSION:
Get your HR people to tell you about the turnover stats, time to hire metrics and employee engagement measures of your staff. Understand these numbers and what they are telling you, then ACT on the information to improve!

Blogging - Friend or Foe

The fact that you are reading this post tells me that you know a thing or two about blogging. It's among the latest tech inspired trends and pretty much anyone with an agenda or a desire to share has at least given blogging a try. At their best, blogs provide people with a way to engage in the exchange of ideas, at their worst, they can cause career meltdown.


In this little blog 'o mine I try to share ideas, info and techniques to help you manage your staff and your career. I, like most of you, can get pretty passionate about the things I blog about. The trick is to find a way to let your passion out without getting yourself into a whole passle of trouble. As an HR geek, it stands to reason that I have a whole box full of the comany's dirty laundry, but to expose it would be stupid, rude and career suicide.... so I leave out the details and keep myself active on the payroll for another day.

While a quick Google of the web will bring up lots of examples of people claiming they got fired for blogging, the truth is that people dont get fired for blogging; they get fired for what they blog! Now, let me put my HR Wizard hat on - If your company has a policy about blogging, follow it! I know that sounds terribly HRish of me, but believe me - even if the blogging policy is a rag and infringes on your first ammendment rights, you are better off to swallow hard and live with it, because while the ACLU might defend you if you get canned, they won't pay your rent while you are between jobs! In fact, I'll stake my HR secret decoder ring that you won't be fired for blogging about your hobbies (PG-13 or better), your cat, or even something as potentially tricky as management IF you leave out questionable, objectionable, or confidential information. But if you go off on a blog-rant about what an idiot your boss is, the ingredients for your company's new "secret sauce", or how you and the VP of Sales are shaggging..... you will end up on the bad end of the situation - start practicing this pharse in prep for your next job - "Would you like fries with that?"

Used for good rather than evil, blogs are a powerful weapon in our war against bad management, but just like any weapon, you have to weild it wisely or risk putting your own eye out!

Your Mission
Lace up your boots and march boldly into the blogosphere! Use blogs as a tool to learn and refer your boss and subordinates to blogs that you find helpful in your career. The extra credit exercise - IF you have a passion to do so, and have something important to say - try your hand a blogging. Heck, if I can do it, anyone can!

HR takes one on the chin... again!

Ok, so it's not news to many of you, but last summer's bombshell diatribe by Keith Hammond "Why we hate HR" sent shockwaves through the inner sanctum of HR and the business world all jumped on this HR hate-fest. As a card carrying member of the HR collective, I too was stunned and a bit put off. Who was this Fast Company nerd (c'mon kids - have you seen his picture?) to fire such a shot across the heretofore invincible HR machine? Doesn't he know who we are??? Then, as soon as he started the firestorm, he went underground - some sort of sabbatical, which I took as code-word for "hiding under a rock like Salman Rushdie"!

Well, time heals all things (at least for those of us with short memories or attention spans). Last week I was innocently listening to a podast from one of my favorite sources - Landed.FM and was surprised to hear the host interviewing the culprit of the aforementioned attack on HR. I was riveted - expecting the host who is a real HRish kind of guy tangle with his prey. To my surprise, the interview went in a whole different direction.

The short version is, after hearing Hammond's well moderated explanation (well done Peter!) I had to admit, this guy was actually right - HR has put itself in a position to be hated! We keep saying we're a "strategic partner" and demanding our "place at the table", but we are not delivering to earn that. Hate is a pretty strong word, but in business emotions are just that simple and BOY, have we earned this!

Ok, so why expose you to this raw nerve for HR... Simple! You need to have talented people - HR is supposed to deliver candidates with talent AND help you devlelop your staff to have the right skills to compete for business!

Your mission is to get nose to nose with your HR people and tell them you need them to deliver. Hold their feet to the fire to help you acquire, develop, deploy and retain great talent.

This is just one more important part of being a Guerilla - they take on every enemy that gets in their way, and they try to convert even their enemies to be their allies.

Carry on troops!

Mentoring - The guerilla's secret weapon

Mentoring – The toughest job you’ll ever love.

Ok, how many of you remember the Peace Corps recruiting slogan – “The toughest job you’ll ever love”? It speaks of a higher calling to serve the commuinity, where the rewards far outweigh the effort you put forth. Wow… talk about an altruistic focus!

As guerilla warriors, you too have a good and noble cause - to rid the world of bad management. Ok, so it’s not so noble a cause as curing world hunger, but one has to choose one’s battles and while both are daunting challenges, you can make a big impact on our cause with little steps today.

According to the soon to be published Guerilla Manifesto, we always look for simple tools and techniques to make the biggest impact - leveraging small efforts into huge results - in that view, mentoring could be considered the guerilla's secret weapon. Mentoring is the relationship where a more experienced person provides a structured and focused learning opportunity to a lesser experienced person. We’re going to focus on your role as the Mentor today.

It would seem at this point that mentorships are a one-way street with the mentee getting all the benefit, but I can assure you that you the as the mentor, you will be getting an even greater benefit. In being a proper mentor, you will need to brush up on parts of your game where you may not be at the top of your form. You will need to listen, coach, collaborate and leverage your knowledge and contacts to provide your mentee with the best resources to develop in the areas you have agreed to work on. It’s like the old US Army training doctrine – if you want someone to develop expertise on a subject, have them prepare for and deliver a training session to their peers on it; they invariably end up much smarter on the topic than they were before. The same will hold true for you in your mentoring engagement.

So, your task is to get in touch with your HR folks, Staff Development, or even your boss, colleagues and friends and seek out an opportunity to give someone with less experience the opportunity to benefit from what you know. If you do it right, you’ll come out with far more than the thanks of the mentee; you will surely learn and improve your standing in the process. You will achieve true win-win! Even better, by providing a great mentoring experience to your mentee, you can invest them with our mindset and gain another ally in our battle - expanding our reach and influence over all the bad management around us - And that’s how guerilla’s get it done.

So what have you done for me lately?

Doesn’t that phrase absolutely grate on your nerves? It surely has caused me a few grey hairs over the years, but it doesn’t have to have a totally negative connotation. Over time, I have gained a different perspective on that phrase and see a valuable business use for it.

Since we are all about being better managers, and better managing those above us on the corporate food chain, let’s see how this little phrase can be incorporated into our Guerilla arsenal.

“What have you done for me lately” is something we should all be asking every day – directed at those we work with and to ourselves. No, I’m not saying you should put up a whiny front with your co-workers, just use it as a catch-phrase to keep your mind focused on constant improvement.

Directed at your subordinates, the phrase should be geared towards driving their focus on the things they are responsible to deliver to the organization; revenue, tasks, widget production… whatever. It can help guide your conversations to check on their progress and open an opportunity for them to ask you the same question of you – how are you supporting their drive to success.

That question has the same 360۫ application between you and your boss with the same potential benefits and results. If you are daring, you can even take this question a few steps further - ask it of yourself with reference to how well your are balancing work & life, progressing against fitness goals, or to gauge how you are doing in almost any other endeavor designed to benefit YOU! That’s probably the most valuable application of all.