Guest Article: End Your Week On A Positive Note by Melissa Fairman

 

I just wrapped up my week on an incredibly positive note at the Northeast Ohio Women’s Leadership Conference.   I realize the “incredibly” in that sentence is redundant but it fits.  The conference featured women in leadership positions from a variety of areas: hospitality, distribution, supply chain, manufacturing and healthcare.  Topics included: executive presence, networking, being the only woman in the room, developing our teams, removing bottlenecks, and of course, pursuing our dreams. Overall,  the day was positive, inspiring and helpful. Speakers offered real advice and resources to help women grow as leaders and people.

 

You can click through the photo’s above to get a feel for the day and in the last photo some of the aftermath, I put a quote from the conference on my office whiteboard, it was too good to pass up! More photo’s and the tweet stream are below:
#wlcneo Tweets

I’ve also been doing some creative things over at PIC.  First,  an article on work/life balance/integration: The Way We Work Has to Change and I was featured on the third episode of our PIC podcast series.  Topics included: gas at work, “voluntary” overtime and why does everyone hate HR. Click below to listen to the full podcast or wander over to Itunes and download for your mobile listening pleasure:

 

 

Article source:Melissa Fairman - End Your Week On A Positive Note»

Check out more of Melissa Fairman's work at HR Remix

Guest Article: Wellness Isn't About the Workplace by Jay Kuhns, SPHR

Now before my HR friends get all wound up hear me out. Let’s think for a minute about what wellness is ultimately intended to achieve:

- lower benefit plan costs

- fewer missed days of work; and,

- theoretically a healthier workforce

Let’s be honest. Do you actually believe large employers have launched program after program simply because they felt a passion for the personal health and “wellness” (which is a very odd word if you think about it) of their workforce?

Um, no. It’s capitalism, remember? 

So What Is the Deal?

If any of you are still reading let’s take this a step further. I’m a fitness fanatic. I work out a lot, push myself (too) hard…and eat healthier than I have to. I’m motivated to stay healthy and strong. But it has nothing to do with any workplace program that was ever launched at the organizations where I worked…and I’ve launched some really good ones!

When was the last time you heard a woefully out of shape colleague announce to the team “thank God the company launched that wellness program, now I can finally get healthy!"

Um, never.

In my view there are only two instances when workplace wellness programs make an impact. 

1. Financial incentives are put in place.

2. The employee experiences a personal health crisis or scare.

That’s it. No amount of pedometer propaganda or limited availability of sugary drinks in the cafeteria can come close to the power of money and the fear of dying.

Nothing.

So Why Even Launch Wellness Programs?

The answer here is simple. Once employers understand what the real drivers of these programs are (save money, reward employees who either are motivated by money or literally are scared to death due to their own lack of motivation and now poor physical health) only then can real progress be made.

Be honest with yourself about why these programs are useful.

Align your incentives properly.

Make sure your leaders participate as role models.

How About You

Are you fired up about wellness program that are based on grandiose ideas but in reality are not aligned with what really matters? Make the changes necessary, and get moving. For the minority of employees that will truly embrace your program it will make a world of difference.

And that makes all of it worthwhile.

I’d love to hear from you.

No Excuses. 

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Article source:Jay Kuhns, SPHR - Wellness Isn't About the Workplace»

Check out more of Jay Kuhns' work at No Excuses HR

Guest Article: The Wonders At Your Feet by Jay Kuhns, SPHR

There are times when we believe we have built the perfect team. We convince ourselves that once those final few pieces fall into place all will be right in our world of work. We so desperately want things to be smooth and steady.

But that's not how work happens.

So Much To Do
For any of you that have glanced at my blog over the years you know I am a big fan of lists. When I say lists, I mean digital lists. (Post it notes and stacks of paper are so 1985.) The upside of using lists for everything in your life means you're super organized. The downside is that you can feel pretty overwhelmed at times.

Don't let the lists become your world. They are a tool...they are not the boss of you! They are a system to help you keep your priorities moving in the right direction. They are an asset, so stop thinking about them as a daily liability.

Teams Are Stronger Than You Think
When we realize some of our team members are struggling, and combine that with our never ending task list we can feel like throwing in the towel.

However, all is not lost. Nor is the road ahead as bumpy as we may think. Challenge yourself to do the following:

- identify and recognize the strong players on your team and what they've done to overcome adversity, rise up and meet challenges, and push themselves to a new level

- summarize the huge amount of work that you and your team have completed in the last six months

- push those who are lagging behind very, very hard

You Are Stronger Than You Think Too
Some days the cumulative weight of pressure at work can bring us to our knees. But today is not one of those days. 

Your focus, commitment to world-class work, and unwavering intolerance for anything less than exceptional has helped you get this far, and it will power you ahead into the future.

Do not lose sight of the impact you have on the workplace, or on the lives of those around you.

How About You
Are you looking at the days ahead with a sense of loathing; or, have you decided to take a look around and appreciate the wonders that have been lurking just beneath the surface? Now is the time to keep pushing, and to keep making the difference you make every day.

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Article source:Jay Kuhns, SPHR - The Wonders At Your Feet»

Check out more of Jay Kuhns' work at No Excuses HR

Guest Article: Name-blind recruitment: A step we need to take? by Ross Clennett

In my first year as a recruiter, back in 1989 London, I was working on an enthusiastic young candidate. She was confident, capable and interviewed well. Whenever I followed up with the client after forwarding her resume, I was greeted with a range of rather odd-sounding reasons not to interview her. When I asked my manager for some help, she took one look at her file and said ‘her name's a
Article source:Ross Clennett - Name-blind recruitment: A step we need to take?»

Check out more of Ross Clennett's work at hisblog

How to Excel as a First Time Manager

Receiving a promotion or stepping up in your role is a great achievement. However, becoming a respected and effective manager is a challenge unto its own. New managers often feel a sense of unease surrounding increased expectation to perform, along with adjusting to the responsibility of managing those who may have previously been their peers. Managers are generally the subject of scrutiny by frustrated employees in a workplace. Building good rapport is an important first step for any good manager. These are 5 steps a new manager can take to excel in their position.

1)    Training: 

Whilst some people are intrinsically good managers whether it be through their openness, communication (especially listening) skills, confidence or their general manner, it is always worthwhile to build on your current skill set. Taking up the opportunity to undertake a course in management either within your company if it is offered or externally can have lasting profitability in the long run. You may like to consider finding a good training program and getting all of the managers in your company on board!

2)    Effective mentoring: 

A manager who is able to mentor their team effectively is able to highlight an employee’s strengths and coach them in improving their weaknesses, in an engaging and respectful manner. Besides increasing employee productivity, this will also enable employees to reach their full potential.

3)    Character Judgement: 

One size doesn’t fit all and a good manager knows it. A manager should be able to tailor their managing strategy to each individual under their instruction in a way that promotes their best performance. This is achieved by acknowledging and respecting individual differences and is reflected in an employee’s work performance as a result of increased job satisfaction.

4)    Effective delegation:

A good manager knows they can’t do everything and is aware that another employee may have more knowledge and expertise in a particular area than themselves. To delegate effectively means to lose total control. This takes trust, respect and confidence in an employee’s abilities. By using effective delegation skills, a good manager can assign the right tasks to the right employee based on what they know about each individual’s strengths, knowledge and skills.

5)    Outstanding communication:

This doesn’t just mean telling. It means listening with intent and genuine consideration, and keeping an open forum with all employees. Creating a respectful and committed communicative environment increases employee self-worth, and confidence within their manager. Again leading to increased workplace satisfaction and productivity.

The way in which a manger conducts themselves can have a significant impact on the overall morale of a team and the productivity of a company. By using our five tips to tackling a management role, you are on your way to excelling in your new position. 

Guest Article: How Your Brain Works During Training by Ben

I’ve been reading a slew of books lately focused on neuroscience. One line in the latest hit me, and I thought it would be interesting to pull together some of the thoughts from a few to share. Here’s the tidbit (emphasis mine):

What do [scientific] studies show, viewed as a whole? Mostly this: if you wanted to create an education environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you would probably design something like a classroom. If you wanted to create a business environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you would probably design something like a cubicle. Source: Brain Rules

Wow. We have known for a while that classroom training was losing its luster compared to social, video, mobile, and other informal delivery methods. However, this is a stern indictment of the most commonly used method of training, with 40% of companies using classroom-based instructor led training (ILT) more than half the time.

Attention, Focus, and Work

Another book that quickly hooked me was Two Awesome Hours. The basic premise is that we were not meant to sit at a computer for eight plus hours a day working at a single repetitive task without breaks. That’s what robots are for. Josh Davis, PhD, says some people can get as much done in two good, productive hours as others can in an entire day. The concept has to do with a few different elements of work, but the part that has been most interesting for me is working on focused activities when I’m most “on.”

Making decisions isn’t a limitless activity. We have a finite amount of willpower and every small decision we make chips away at that reserve. In the book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath, the authors examine the metaphor of the elephant and rider. The elephant (our subconscious) makes many small underlying decisions in our daily work and life. The rider (our conscious brain) makes larger, more complex decisions, but it has a limited amount of power to guide the elephant when tired, overtaxed, etc. That applies in the context of our work, where we make hundreds of decisions every day.

In other words, when you have that golden hour of focus and intensity in your workday, use it for critical thinking and other thought-heavy tasks, not for responding to emails, making phone calls, or chatting with coworkers. Then fit in those more routine/mundane tasks when needed. All too often we waste that precious time doing things that require little brainpower but ultimately leave us unprepared to handle strenuous mental work.

I recently read that more workers are opting to work from home as a way to avoid distractions and focus more intently on projects. Always seen as a nuisance, we now realize that interruptions of any kind have a more profound impact on work than previously believed. This experiment shows that it’s not just time that is affected by distractions, but overall work quality as well.

 The Learning Impact

What does this have to do with learning? Pretty much everything.

Brandon Hall Group’s principal learning analyst, David Wentworth, recently shared some amazing insights into how companies are transforming the classroom environment to be less traditional and more interactive. The way we structure our classes, for the most part, hasn’t changed over the years. But there are now phenomenal examples of companies pursuing more interactive methods of training, whether blended with the classroom approach or entirely separate. Like it or not, the most effective method for training, according to those organizations we surveyed, is still classroom-based ILT. But that doesn’t mean it has to stay the same as it was 10 years ago.

These principles that apply to work in general apply to the world of learning and development. Here are a few examples of how neuroscience can help us make better training decisions:

• Don’t put people in a lecture for three hours and expect them to be attentive, alert, and engaged. Break up the session with discussions, opportunities for application, peer interactions, etc. This helps to ensure the content not only sticks, but has some real-world examples to make it more concrete.
• What we see is more powerful than any other sense. Expecting people to multitask and read your slides while you talk is going to limit the effectiveness by forcing learners to split attention among your words and your text. In fact, John Medina, author of Brain Rules, suggests tossing your text-laden PowerPoint slides in favor of image-based ones that support your topics without overshadowing them. Studies show that we have an amazing capability to remember imagery, but only a mediocre recall rate for text.

I’m not sure that I will be ready to throw away my beloved slides anytime soon, but these ideas have given me something to consider next time I’m putting together a deck for a presentation. What are your thoughts on how our brains are wired for learning? Is the classroom giving us the results we need, or is something more needed to improve the retention and value of existing training.

This originally appeared on the Brandon Hall Group blog

Article source:Ben - How Your Brain Works During Training»

Check out more of Ben Uebanks' work at Upstart HR

Guest Article: Future Shock by Jay Kuhns, SPHR

I don't consider myself much of  futurist...in fact...the world of work is changing so fast it's almost impossible to stay current on  a daily basis. 

But...

One thing is very clear about the future of work. It starts with leaders...formal and informal...making a difference in their organizations.

Risk
As a long time healthcare leader I've discovered a few truths:

- healthcare is a risk aversive industry (understatement of the century right there)
- healthcare has unlimited potential to improve how it recruits talent
- most healthcare leaders are too scared to make the moves necessary to differentiate themselves from their competition

This is where you come in! You have the opportunity to leverage all of the knowledge you've accumulated over your career, and pour it into a new way to work. Starting today.

The complicated dynamics of our industry, and in particular hospitals, often force the progressive leaders among us to a life of playing it safe and doing the same old things. Today I'm calling out anyone who espouses that old school strategy!

Risk is important for a reason...because there is a big reward!

Shock Your Competition
Shifting mindsets can be powerful, long before you pull a team together to develop your digital talent acquisition strategy. (Remember, digital strategies should be your primary strategy!)

Here are three steps that will not only help you lead the way internally, but will also help you blow away the prehistoric thinkers leading your competition:

1. Go social, now. If you aren't active on social media you have not been paying attention. Open you accounts, start posting, sharing and engaging. It matters more than you think.

2. Focus on building your leader brand. If you're not actively involved in your "space" you are invisible. It doesn't matter what your resume says...the world has changed. Get active using contemporary tools and make a difference.

3. Stop being afraid. It's okay to step out and try new things. You will be the only one in your organization doing it. So what? Leaders go first...so let's go!

How About You
It has never been easier to promote your leader brand, your organization, and the difference you can make in the world of work. Get started today! You can do it!

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

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Article source:Jay Kuhns, SPHR - Future Shock»

Check out more of Jay Kuhns' work at No Excuses HR