“I know that you are getting ready to fire me. I see the signs.” Being in Human Resources, unfortunately I have heard that multiple times, and each time it completely frustrates me. It typically means that no matter how much coaching we give someone, no matter how we try to turn a situation around to…
Advice for HR from HR: Change!
It is not often that I’m rendered speechless, ask anyone who knows me, but this comment did the trick. “You’re too smart to be in H.R.” Fortunately, speechlessness was better than my mouth pouring forth what was streaming through my mind which would have been even more inappropriate than comment. A few weeks later, I…
Hey Coach! Are you helping your team win?
No recruitment process is perfect. I don’t care what analytics are used, or what screening is performed – there is no process that is 100% certain when it comes to choosing people for your team. If there was, we would all be using it, no one would ever get fired and everyone would stay in…
Do not say this in an interview!
The candidate was sitting at the table. A confident smile on his face, relaxed and joking throughout the interview. He was very experienced and emphasized how he was the perfect fit for our opening: on point experience for the job, same industry, successful track record, and the positives continued. All I could think was: If…
Are you on the Manager Naughty or Nice List?
Are you on the Manager Naughty or Nice List? Here’s some tips on both. Remember you decide which list you end up on, and your team is always watching! Being in Human Resources, people come to me complaining about their leaders, unfortunately not many come to tell me about their great leaders, but it does…
Lessons from working with a tyrant
I’ve had the great opportunity to work with and for some terrible leaders in my career. Yes, working for terrible leaders can be a great opportunity. It teaches you resilience, thickens your skin, and it helps make you push yourself – for a while. My most memorable moment working with a terrible leader was when…
Breaking the chain of bad customer service
My husband walked into his HR Department needing one simple thing: a medical directory. (Yes, there was a time you picked a doctor out of a phone book type directory where all of an insurance plan’s doctors were listed. Dinosaurs existed once too. No, those two things did not exist at the same time.) When…
Crisis is your opportunity
We knew it wasn’t going to be a good meeting. The mood in the room was as chilly as it was beginning to be outside. The Board had just met and we knew our results were not where they needed to be. We were missing multiple targets and we knew we needed to make changes…
The worst interview question and other interview torture
Like you, I’ve been on many interviews in my career, and like you, I too have left my share of interviews shaking my head in disbelief. As many of you interview people, I want to remind you of the importance of the perspective from the other side of the table. Let’s start with the questions….
One of the things I look for when I hire leaders
I have been fortunate to have worked with some amazingly brilliant people. One of the most important lessons I learned from these driven and gifted people was how to “lead from behind.” I had a great example of this play out for me early in my career. There were two analysts I knew well, working…