Archive for the ‘Learning’ Category
(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: Blogs | Engagement | Learning | Trends
- 10 Comments
So, last week was my blog experiment, where I wrote each day on topics with the highest votes, suggested by others. The original motivation for the experiment was to cure a temporary sense of writer’s block, but I found that I experienced and learnt much more besides.
On a pure measurement level, it was interesting to see what changed and what didn’t. The traffic to my blog increased substantially – but given that I usually post once or twice a week, that was no surprise. When I look at the overall page views for last week though, what is striking is that most posts get around the same number of views, with two exceptions, which were retweeted and then viewed by people outside of my usual network. In the interest of transparency, you can see the posts which received the most views below –
Whilst it is probably true that titles of blogs make a difference, there was also a huge increase to blog traffic in some ‘power’ RTs – it was notable with the ‘Why Are HR The Worst People Managers Of All?’ post that once the CIPD retweeted it, it led to a spike in page views and further RTs. Similarly ‘The Only Person Who Really Looks After Your Career Is Yourself’ was retweeted by @Jobsitejobs, leading to increased readership.
What else changed? I gained around 30 new followers, certainly more than an average week and my Klout score increased by 5 (I’m sure it will drop back soon enough ;)). I was fortunate to have some great comments on all of the posts that I wrote, but the numbers of comments are broadly in line with what I am lucky enough to usually expect. Perhaps interesting to note, there were no new subscribers to my blog during the experiment.
So these may be the ‘tangibles’ in terms of what can be measured, but of course the real story and learning for me goes much deeper than that. My main reflections are as follows –
- Rather than writer’s block, what I was really experiencing was a dip in creativity and lack of inspiration of topics to blog about. Whilst I worried that I was being lazy asking others for ideas, what I discovered was that people were keen to contribute ideas and thoughts
- Through blogging on topics that were not originally mine, I stretched myself out of my comfort zone, which felt at times nerve-wracking, but ultimately rewarding
- The topics that were suggested were almost all completely different to anything that I had previously considered writing about
- I loved the interactive process of asking for ideas and getting people to vote on them
- I have huge respect for individuals who blog on a daily basis in addition to busy, demanding day jobs…doing it for one week was just about fine, but it hasn’t tempted me to make it a permanent commitment!
- I missed the reflection time between blogs
- I am not by nature an experimenter…but found I enjoyed it and learned from it
- My readership may be small compared to many others, but I’m truly appreciative of the support and level of engagement I receive. Small but perfectly formed, perhaps?!
So, all in all, I enjoyed last week very much and will continue to reflect on the experience and learning I gained from it. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.
- 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
The HR Juggler 