Archive for the ‘Development’ Category
Teaching Twitter
Posted on: November 10, 2011
- In: Development | Engagement | Training | Twitter
- 4 Comments
My main learnings are as follows –
- Having a co-sponsor for training sessions is brilliant: someone who is not from the same background as you, who ‘gets’ Twitter but uses it differently. This was enormously helpful when coaching two of the exec team who were particularly cynical about its value
- Think carefully about the language you use to convey the potential gain for those that you are coaching. They clearly won’t be interested in building an HR network, but they will take note of the fact that they can access opinion pieces and be ahead of the news
- Show them how to use it on whichever medium they are most likely to regularly use…for most of my coachees on their blackberry or Iphone
- Think about how to show individuals what is meaningful to them – hashtags that will be of interest for them to check out, how the business you work in or its competitors is already using Twitter, how it can build engagement between key groups
- Tweet questions to your followers so that you can demonstrate the interactive nature of Twitter
- Don’t over-hype or over-sell its value – it’s the quickest way to lose credibility
- Accept that it isn’t everyone’s chosen method of communicating, but that most people will find some gain from using it…or at least from understanding it better
- Expect unexpected questions – I was surprised that some of the questions centred more around how number of followers build up, rather than the mechanics of how Twitter works
- Remember that Twitter can be overwhelming, noisy and confusing at first for new users
- Follow up to find out if there is anything more they would like to know
- Even when individuals appear to be quite proficient at using Twitter, they are often keen to find out more and learn by asking questions
I’m going to be rolling out more training soon: to the rest of the exec team, to the global HR team and then to the rest of the business. The great thing is that I’m learning more each time I do it and am really enjoying it ;).
What have I forgotten? I’d love to hear about your experience of teaching Twitter to others too.
Learning To Change
Posted on: November 3, 2011
- In: Development | Feedback | HR | Management | Motivation
- 3 Comments
In advance of the management training for HR that will be delivered over the next couple of months, the team have completed 360 feedback questionnaires and the effect is already transformational. The conversations that it has opened, the reflection and self-awareness that it has brought, the willingness to accept feedback, adapt behaviours and to allow others the space to change and move forward have all been fantastic. It’s very early days, but the seeds have been sown for this to be a very powerful intervention indeed.
It’s easy to overlook the effectiveness of 360 feedback – in many ways, we ought to be able to provide feedback in a more regular way without requiring the formal framework. The fact is that sometimes we all need a bit of a nudge to articulate what we think is fantastic and less endearing about our colleagues…and that experiencing it together as a group seems to have created a huge amount of positive energy and goodwill. The timing of any 360 feedback exercise is undoubtedly critical to its success and it seems we have embarked on this at the right moment, where things are starting to come together and behaviours have not yet become ingrained. Fingers crossed!
I’d love to know what your experience of team 360s is and how you have energised your team…let me know 😉
(Just Like) Starting Over
Posted on: October 13, 2011
- In: Blogs | Development | Learning | Social Media | Twitter
- 3 Comments
It has been fascinating to do and I wanted to share some of what I am learning here.
- Starting over on Twitter is hard, even if you do know what you are doing…trying to tap into hashtags that group the information that you are interested in takes some investment in terms of time and effort
- Not all topics have a ready built community.
- Networks and engagement take time to build. It is relatively easy to find people who tweet out links of useful stuff, but far harder to identify people who are genuinely interesting, interested and keen to engage in conversation
- Following is easy, encouraging people to follow back is sometimes trickier. If after a couple of attempts to engage in conversation, they don’t respond or follow back, then their content has to be really good for me to continue following. This has made me also re-evaluate how often I follow back on my main account and resolve to do so on the first contact.
- Blogging is the same process, whether or not anyone reads what you write. When a post on the new blog attracts more than a handful of readers and any comments, I am genuinely delighted. It makes me more appreciative and reminds me how far this blog has come
- The experience you have in using Twitter is pretty much defined by the calibre of people you follow and those that follow you. The former generates interesting and thought-provoking content for your timeline, the latter is predominantly where engagement and interaction lies.
- In order to keep improving my new user experience, I have been open-minded and proactive about who I follow, and also reasonably disciplined in unfollowing those whose tweets are not of interest to me, are overwhelming in volume or simply annoying
- No surprise, the best source of new tweeps to follow comes from looking at the ‘following’ lists of the people who I enjoy following.
So, it has been and continues to be an interesting experience and one that I would recommend to anyone, not least because it helps to contextualise why many people are initially wary or unconvinced about using Twitter. And it is very good practice to go back to the beginning and start over…and see what else you learn!
Have you started over lately? I’d love to hear from you.
- In: Development | HR | Leadership | Learning | Management | Performance | Time Management
- 4 Comments
So, why do we find delegation hard to do and what myths are we kidding ourselves with that prevent us from doing it properly? Some that immediately spring to mind are below –
- It’s just easier to do it myself.
- I don’t have time to delegate
- I have no-one I can delegate to
- No-one else will do it as well as me
The truth is that until we take control of our workloads, stop running around like headless chickens and start properly planning what tasks we are able to ask others to do, we will always struggle to delegate effectively. The above myths are exactly that – we know logically that delegating tasks and projects makes our lives easier, but it does require personal organisation and regular follow-up, as well as support to the individual you have delegated it to, who may well be developing their skills through the experience of taking it on.
Some other realities? Sometimes we resist delegating tasks, because they are actually easier and more comfortable than the ones that we really should be focussing on. Sometimes by doing things ourselves, we feel the false glow of supposed indispensability. Sometimes, by not delegating, we deprive others of development opportunities that could help them grow. And all of these can become vicious circles of our own and others ineffectiveness, before we know where we are.
I, for one, am going to try to take back control of my ballooning inbox, start afresh tomorrow as I mean to go on….and get back to some serious delegating!
Is it just me…………….? Now that I would love to know 😉
- In: Careers | Development | Learning
- 9 Comments
When I was 2 I wanted to be called Gillian….Gillian, Gillian, girl in a million…!
When I was 10 I wanted to be a pop star. And yes, I do cringe writing that 😉
When I was in my early teens I wanted to be a primary school teacher, a nurse and a social worker. Careers advice at school pointed me towards being a translator or interpreter, although I was never convinced
When I was in my late teens I had no idea what I wanted to be. I chose University subjects that I thought sounded interesting…and studied German and Theology
When I was 21 I had a very ambitious and career-minded boyfriend who helped me realise that I wanted to be in HR and I started my job hunt in earnest
When I was 23 and in my first HR role I wanted to be like my HR Director boss and was determined to make the most of every opportunity I was given
When I was 24 I fell in love and wanted to be married
When I was in my mid-twenties I wanted to be the best HR person in my organisation, take on projects, manage people, be recognised, get promoted, work as hard as I could and learn everything about every aspect of HR
When I was in my late twenties I wanted to be a Mum and sincerely believed I would give up work to bring up my baby twin daughters. Fast-forward a year and I wanted to be a working Mum for at least one day a week to keep my options open and my brain stimulated
When I was in my early thirties I wanted to be back in a senior HR role that challenged me and enabled me to deliver value to the organisation and fulfill my ambition. The senior role emerged, but before I was fully able to balance my work and home life in the way that I needed to…and before too long I had to take a sideways/backwards move to avoid complete disaster on work and home fronts
When I was 34 I wanted to be back in a senior HR role again…and this time my children were older, I was wiser and I have been able to achieve the balance that eluded me previously
Now that I am 35, what do I want to be? I want to be there for my husband and for my children as they grow, to be the best I can be at work and at home and to continue learning and stretching myself, personally and professionally. And on a good day, when everything goes as it should, I am fortunate enough to be able to say….I want to be exactly where I am now. That’s the luckiest thing of all.
What did you want to be when you grew up? I’d love to know
- In: Development | HR | Responsibility
- 11 Comments
Day 3 of my blogging experiment and this is a topic that has got me thinking. I find to hard to disagree with the overall statement that this blog is based on: to my mind, an individual should always be accountable for their own career development and make the decisions that are right for them. Who looks after your career if not yourself?
But it’s also true that none of us operate in isolation. And if we examine this more closely, we may find that there are other stakeholders involved for each of us. These may be family or friends, colleagues or mentors…individuals whose opinions we trust and listen to. Charlie Judy (@HRFishbowl) wrote a great article on ensuring that you develop your own personal board of directors – a hand-selected group of trusted advisors with diverse perspectives dedicated to furthering your career. So, just because we take personal accountability for our own careers, it does not mean that others will not help you look after and nurture it.
What of an organisation’s responsibility towards its staff? How much of a role does it and should it play in helping individuals to further and develop their careers? Succession planning, skills development and employee retention are all good reasons why companies should take an active stakeholder role in the careers of their staff, however I suspect that whether the individual feels invested in, valued and listened to in this way varies enormously by organisation and also potentially by sector.
The only person that really looks after your career is yourself? On face-value perhaps, but there is much food for thought here in how we manage our own careers and also how our organisations provide a supportive environment for learning and development.
I would love to hear what you think.
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This post is the third of my blogging experiment, where all of the post topics have been generated by others and there has been voting taking place on which topic I should blog on each day. If you haven’t voted for a topic yet, please do – I will be tackling the topic with the most votes every day for the remainder of this week. In the event of tie-break votes, I will make the final choice between the two most popular myself 
- In: Development | Feedback | HR | Leadership | Management | Performance
- 22 Comments
Ouch. Is it just me that recognises some element of truth in the above question? I have had the pleasure of working with some great HR line managers over the years, but I have also at times experienced a considerable gap between what we say to line managers as HR advisors and what we do ourselves as people managers. And I am also sufficiently self-aware to recognise that whilst I excel at some aspects of people management, such as providing individuals with development, mentoring, encouragement and regular feedback; there are plenty of other areas where I definitely “could do better”.
Rather than HR being the function that attracts and retains the worst people managers…lets face it, there are plenty of other functions in most businesses that have their share of these too…it is perhaps the gap between the people management values that we advise and espouse to others and those that we at times struggle to attain within our own chains of command that contributes to the view that HR are the shoddiest line managers of all.
In my view, some of the reasons that HR doesn’t always reach the high standards we articulate to others are as follows –
- “Too Nice”?
I doubt I’m alone amongst my peers in preferring the motivational and developmental part of being a manager, than the relentless driving up of standards, systematic performance management and delivering of unpleasant messages. The truth is that to be better people managers HR has to excel at both sides of the coin
- Suspicious minds
HR people can be quite suspicious by nature – we are often looking for the catch when things seem to good to be true. This trait can at times be useful….but who wants to work for someone who is anything less than trustful of them? I have seen it many times that trust between HR colleagues can be a fragile concept and it takes time to grow and develop…perhaps we need to get over this a little and give people the benefit of the doubt rather more than we do.
- Control freakery
HR managers with control freak tendencies? Yes, I bet you know a few too…. 😉 Combine this with line management and it can become the ugly step-sister to the mistrust mentioned above. An unwillingness to delegate, the belief that things will only be done correctly if you do it yourself, a tendency to micro-manage…incredibly corrosive to the confidence and development of the individual that works for you and definitely not a good example of great people management skills.
- Fight fire with fire
Oh, the fire-fighting in HR. We’re just always so busy dashing here and there and fixing everyone elses issues, we are often overwhelmed by the sheer number and scale of the tasks ahead. And when it comes to prioritising, there can be a temptation to allow the tenets and discipline of good people management to slip for our own teams. Needless to say a slippery slope and one that can turn us all into poor people managers if we don’t guard against it.
- Do as I say, not as I do
Excellent at giving other managers advice on dealing with issues, HR is often rather less good at following its advice for its own staff. Perhaps also a factor in this is that the internal function of “HR for HR” rarely, if ever, works as effectively as it should. It’s all a bit too uncomfortable, a bit too close to home, a lower priority than working with managers elsewhere in the business.
So if HR aren’t perceived as great people managers, what do we need to do to get better? In four words: take our own advice. Let’s face it, we know how to do this stuff, we advise managers on it all the time and we do it well…let’s take some time to honestly appraise where we’re doing well and where we could do better. And how about being really revolutionary and asking the people who work for us for their feedback? Now that could be a great starting point.
What do you think?
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This post is the first of my blogging experiment, where all of the post topics have been generated by others and there has been voting taking place on which topic I should blog on each day. If you haven’t voted for a topic yet, please do – I will be tackling the topic with the most votes every day for the next five days. In the event of tie-break votes (and there is one for tomorrow’s post as it currently stands!), I will make the final choice between the two most popular myself 😉
My Summer Homework
Posted on: August 28, 2011
- In: Development | Family | Feedback | Flexible Working | HR | Leadership | Responsibility
- 6 Comments
- Autonomy
Towards the end of our camping holiday, once of my daughters told me how much she had enjoyed being more independent and doing more things for herself whilst we had been away. Just little activities like going to the playground within the campsite on her own, doing small jobs and walking from the bathroom back to the tent on her own. She asked me about how she could be more independent within our home environment and between us we came up with some suggestions which we have been putting into practice since. My point is simply this; that we all love and need some degree of autonomy to feel valued and to create a sense of achievement, whatever age we are.
- Delegation
Very easy to talk about, harder sometimes to do and maintain. I have found that getting my children to do things that I have usually done for them generally takes many times longer (at least at first) and requires no small degree of patience on my part. I am determined to stick with it though and have been encouraging them to do a task for themself, checking it over once they confirm that they think it is done and then giving them feedback about what is right and what still needs to be improved. And then the hard bit (when you’re as impatient as I can sometimes be!) – giving them the opportunity to complete the rest of the activity and starting the whole feedback loop again. It’s actually working quite well and they are definitely improving and learning new skills already…and I know I am putting into practice something that I undoubtedly need to do more of at work.
- Doing things that scare you moves you forwards
Swimming lessons have always been a challenge, given that my children hate getting their faces wet or splashed at all. Last week during their regular weekly lesson, the instructor encouraged all of the children individually to dip their heads completely under the water. I was amazed when she gained agreement from each of my daughters in turn that she would fully immerse them in the water and that both of them allowed her to do this. Not only this, but that they didn’t cry or wail afterwards…even though they did look a bit shocked at themselves and the whole experience! They trusted her, as I did; she understood their progress well enough to perceive that they were perhaps ready for a step forward in their development. And in doing something that they had been truly scared of, my daughters gained a new confidence and took a huge step forwards in their development.
- Learning
Two lessons here really. The first is that when we stop learning, we can forget things very quickly – when one of my daughters told me after a couple of weeks of the school holiday that she couldn’t remember how to spell our surname, I realised quite why the teacher had asked the parents to continue with some reading, writing and number work over the holidays!
We all learn better when we are doing something in an enjoyable way and when there are rewards and recognition associated with it. I have been doing some mathletics work with both my children over the summer, essentially fun maths-based games and activities that you complete on the computer. For every set of ten questions a child completes, they earn credits which they can either save up or spend on ‘buying’ a wide range accessories for their online avatar. This, plus a number of other ingenious ways of providing reward and recognition within the work, is amazingly effective in increasing motivation and interest. Now I just need to work out how we can implement some of this in the workplace!
- Feedback and praise
Feedback is fairly meaningless unless it is linked to a specific achievement. But having two children of the same age can make this quite tricky when they achieve things at different rates and particularly when one twin seems to be ahead of the other in many situations, albeit temporarily. When one of my daughters managed to swim backstroke on her own (with the aid of a float) for the first time, I really praised her….and then had to deal with the tears of my other daughter, who felt I was being unfair in praising her sister more than her. Cue much explanation and reassurance, more tears and finally a smile, when I promised I would be just as proud of her when she managed to do it (which she did the very next day!).
As far as I can see, although it can be tough at times, we have to be honest about achievements, praise appropriately and specifically for them, but also make sure we give positive feedback for progress and effort across a wide range of different scenarios, so that everyone has the chance to be included in praise and recognition…we all need some positive feedback on the things that we are good at, at home or at work.
- The constant of leadership
Regardless of how relaxed we are over the holidays, how much fun we have and whether we are at home or away, I’m always (rightly!) in a position of responsibility for my children. In the same way, regardless of the strength of relationships with my colleagues and any ongoing internal or external factors, I remain accountable for the HR activity in my division. Leadership is a constant and consistent part of the role…both when we do and when we don’t feel like it ;).
So that’s my learning over the summer, or my homework. I’d love to know what yours has been!
Social Vanity
Posted on: July 27, 2011
- In: Blogs | Development | Influencing | Values
- 7 Comments
Social media has a plethora of opportunities for individuals to feed their vanity…klout scores, follower numbers, blog subscribers, page views…all of which we make our personal decisions about, in terms of which, if any of them, are important to us.
I have been pondering the vanity question for a while and whether it matters that there is undoubtedly an element of this to most social media interaction. For me, provided I am aware of this aspect of it and honest with myself about it, then that’s fine. At the end of the day, humans respond to recognition and praise, feedback and interaction and always have done, regardless of what form it takes.
So for now, with some caution and self-awareness and in small doses, I am embracing my social vanity…how about you?
Presenting HR
Posted on: July 17, 2011
- In: Development | Engagement | HR | Presentation Skills
- 6 Comments
Two very different audiences, two very different presentations. Yet some of the learning was the same –
- People love pictures. In both presentations I included a lot of pictures, with minimal bullet points. This made a huge difference with how the audiences engaged with the presentations and helped prompt me with the points I wanted to make
- Meet your audience where they are. In both of these instances I thought quite carefully about what the audience’s prior knowledge of the subject was and what their preconceptions might be. In the case of my colleagues at the senior managers conference, I was also honest with myself about what their current frustrations were likely to be and worked to address them
- Simplicity is fine. HR isn’t complicated, it is only us as HR professionals who sometimes contrive to make it seem so. If I can’t explain what my team do simply and clearly, without jargon, then shame on me
- Be credible and honest. Don’t over-promise, over-egg your strategy or exaggerate your achievements…nothing loses your audience more quickly
- Engage with your audience. Unsurprisingly the children were far more vocal than the adults. It was so sweet watching them stretch their arms in the air, desperate to ask a question, or more often, make a statement to contribute.
- Choose the key messages you want to emphasise and accept that people won’t remember more than a few key points. Shorter and more succinct is often sweeter, particularly if you are speaking towards the end of the day, as I was on both occasions 😉
- Prepare well and practise, so that you feel as confident as you can be
- Smile
- Breathe
- Slow down
- Be positive!
- Enjoy your moment, even if like me, presenting is not your most natural mode of communication 🙂
I really enjoyed both experiences and felt like I learned a lot through delivering both presentations. I’d love to hear what you think and what your learning has been from any similar situations.
The HR Juggler 