Your turn challenge

You may have noticed I haven't blogged for a while. My last post was on courage at the end of November 2014.

I'm in a rut. I've lost my mo-jo. Sigh. I have all the excuses under the sun. I hadn't had a holiday in ages. I moved country. Work has been really crazy. I'm tired. I'm not feeling creative. Excuse after excuse. I'm been trying to figure out what the issue is (apart from all the excuses) and have come up with nothing. Nothing. And still I haven't blogged.

One of the things I have discovered is that when you do something as a community and contribute to a community it makes a difference to you getting started and keeping going. The photo-a-day challenge by Fat Mum Slim is a great example. So is weight loss and getting fit with Michelle Bridges.

I subscribe to Seth Godin's blog and get his wise words delivered to my inbox every day. Friday's post on getting unstuck really struck a cord. Winne Kao Seth's Special Project Lead had failed to post a blog post everyday and has created the your turn challenge. The idea is to join a community committed to posting every day for 7 days. It starts tomorrow.

I'm in! I love blogging and need to get back into it and I'm counting on my community (that's you my reader) to keep me honest. Arran is also doing the challenge with me. As an incentive to my readers, the first 3 people to commit to, and complete the challenge with Arran I, I will send you a copy of Seth's latest book What to do When it's Your Turn (and it's always your turn). I ordered two books and was gifted three. I would love to share Seth's messages.

I know what you are thinking....you are not a blogger, you don't have a blog, you don't have time......come on! It doesn't matter. Maybe this is your time to start? Give it a go! what do you have to lose?  You can write about whatever you want and if you don't know what to write about there are prompts to help you each day. Check out the instructions here. It starts tomorrow. Are you with me?

Courage

Is it possible to have a favourite competency? A competency is just a name to describe a behaviour. For example, "organising" is a competency to describe a person's ability to pull together resources, such as people, money and support, to get things done*. So, is it possible to have a favourite behaviour? Do I sound like a HR nerd? Don't answer that.

image credit: www.blastr.com

Anyhoo, I have one. It's called "managerial courage" and it's hard to come by. What is managerial courage? I know you want to know. Lominger define it as:

• Says what needs to be said
• Gives feedback that is current and actionable
• Directly deals with people issues
• Making hard decisions when needed*

The thing is though, you don't see much managerial courage in organisations. Maybe we don't see much in society in general. I see a lot of people who won't take tough stands, who won't give feedback when needed, won't step up to and deal with issues, avoid conflict and won't take the heat. Leaders who hide behind the decisions of others and blame others for decisions. Leaders who are highly critical of their peers but are unaware of their own behaviour and it's impact.

Every now and again you do come across someone who has courage. It's usually not the beating on your chest, superhero type of courage. It's usually quieter, honest and with humility. I like the term wobbly courage. I have written about it in another blog for a leadership development program, and I was reminded of this term this week.

Wobbly courage is a term I love. I think it perfectly sums up the kind of courage we need to have to be successful and to be a good leader. Leadership is very little about that superhero type of courage where you become your alter ego, puff out your lycra swathed chest and swoop in to save the day in a difficult and dangerous situation. 

A discussion with an underperforming employee or a challenging customer is never like this. Giving feedback to someone more senior or providing some development ideas to a peer can be tough. Good leaders will have the courage to have these types of conversations but can you say you have felt like Superman or Wonder Woman? I can’t. Many times when I need to have a difficult conversation with someone or have to terminate a person’s employment I feel sick and want to put it off. Sound familiar? I have definitely gotten better at these conversations and working through these processes and so probably seem confident, but I’m very wobbly on the inside.

What is Courage?

There are all kinds of competency models that give examples about what managerial or leadership courage is. The Lominger Competency Libray is a good one but HR people like me also spend lots of time and energy developing them. They are usually boring. 

What are some of the things that resonate with me and some of the leaders I work with?

1. The ability to make tough decisions and follow through (even when you are feeling wobbly)
2. Saying the things that need to be said (even when it’s really hard)
3. Dealing with the hard situations (even when you don’t want to and it sucks!)
4. Showing up and facing up (when you would rather stay in bed with the covers over your head)
5. Knowing that you don’t and can’t know everything (the more you know the less you know)
6. Being generous with your time and knowledge
7. Including others in your problems (we seriously can’t do it all ourselves)
8. Being open, not defensive (see number 5)
9. Being able to look people in the eye and speak to them from the heart (being  authentic)
10. Having standards both personally and of others, and expectations of meeting them....but courage to accept when we fall short.  

What would you add?

*Definition taken from Lombardo, M M. and Eichinger, R W. FYI For Your Improvement: A Guide for Development and Coaching (2009)

Leaving basics

Joining a new company in a new job is usually pretty exciting. Also nerve wracking but the unknown newness of it all is great. Well I think it is. Usually when we are joining a company we are on our best behaviour and out to impress. Some of us when we leave, are not. That's not to say that managers and companies always treat their employees well when they leave. They don't. Some examples I have seen:

• Being critical of an employee choosing to leave when obviously* said company is so good that how could anyone want to leave! I mean really.
• Lying about the reasons an employee is leaving the company because, again, how could anyone want to leave such a great company*
• Excluding the employee from all meetings that employee would normally attend during their notice period even though the employee did a good job during their service.
• "walking" an employee because they resigned. I understand this if the employee is in a sales role or going to a competitor, but in some cases it just seems, well, a bit not nice. In these cases the employee doesn't get to say goodbye to their peers and/or direct reports and I think that reflects badly on the company to the employees left.
• Attempting or actually withholding benefits that the employee is due.

*said with extreme sarcasm

Sometimes it's hard to leave some companies with dignity but I think you should. If you can. Here are some tips:

1. Un-subscribe from all your email lists - this includes shopping sites, hotel deals and holiday teaser type emails. The trouble with these lists is that once you have left your email will be forwarded to someone else in the company, for business continuity. If your email is filled with such emails the company may have wished you had left earlier. That's what personal email addresses are for. Only use your work email address for work related content.
2. Do not send one of those parting emails to the CEO or equivalent where you tell him/her and usually a number of  other senior people what you really thought about working for the company. Worse if your company hasn't shut this down, do not send an email to "all users". Most of us work in pretty small industries. This one will come back to bite you at some point.
3. Don't steal stuff. Customer lists, stationary, products or work that you have done including documents. If you want to take examples of your work, just ask. I have never been refused. Stealing some suff will just piss annoy your previous employer. Stealing some things will cause legal action to be taken against you.
4. Return all the company property in your possession.
5. Keep up the good work. If you can and if it's possible. Leave on a good note.

Would love to hear the stories you have about people leaving companies badly! Hit me up.

Change the routine?

Wow I’m tired. I’m feeling ratty. I need a holiday. I get to this point every year about this time. I think we all do. The difference for me this year is that I haven’t really had a holiday all year. Work has been crazy busy with lots of changes and in July my family and I moved countries. Pooped I tell ya!

On Wednesday I changed something in my routine. It was a small thing but it made me ridiculously happy. What was it? I had lunch at McDonalds. Yep. At this point, if you were hoping for professional and exacting insights into human behavior and how to manage yourself, you should probably leave the building.

You see I was just sick of everything. Sick of work, sick of not exercising, sick of the food I was eating and the clothes I was wearing. Just sick of everything. Have you been there? Just changing one thing made a big difference. Normally I have lunch with a work colleague and we visit one of the many hawker centres around the industrial area of Singapore we work in. The food is cheap and delicious and the service is quick.

On Wednesday being completely sick of everything, including Asian food, I just wanted a Big Mac from McDonalds. And that’s what I had, with fries and a coke and some nuggets with sweet and sour sauce. Followed with a festive chaser from Starbucks. It. Was. Awesome. I got back to the office and was able to focus and get some work done that I had been putting off, and I don’t think it was due to the 2 days of calories I had just consumed. I was so into my work that I worked past when I should have left to pick up my son. Was in the zone all because of a small change in routine. 

Yesterday I wore jeans to work. On a Thursday. I'm changing it up all over the place!

When has a change in routine made the difference for you?

Me or Team?

I was having a great conversation recently with a leader. He was telling me about a conversation he had with one of his team. The team member was telling the leader about all the things that he had done and achieved. He constantly said “I” did this, and “I” did that. The leader was not impressed.  You see the team member was leading a large team of employees, all working towards the same goal. The Manager was taking all the credit when he couldn’t have done it all by himself.

The same leader was also telling me how he emailed his boss to tell him about the great work his team had done. He boss replied with praise for the work he had done leading them. When the team does well it reflects positively on the person leading them. Conversely, if the team is struggling and directionless the leader will be blamed.

Is this a contradiction? What am I trying to say?

Well the thing is, the great leaders I have worked with and respect, don’t take credit for the work their team has achieved. Instead they praise and point out their great work to others, particularly those more senior in the organization. They are generous and modest.

Of course really good leaders have had a role to play in their teams doing well. They set the direction, showed the way, helped set goals for their team, gave feedback against their progress, listened and coached….

Less than good leaders and managers tend to either micro manage tasks, do the work themselves and take all the credit. They want to control seeing this as a form of power, which it is just not a very effective one.

So when can you talk about your very own achievements? When can you take credit?

Well, in a performance review you should point out the things you have done well. Definitely. But if they are the things your team should be doing you are in trouble. Also in a job interview you should talk about the things you did. Not the things we did. Interviewers always want to know the role you played in the success of the team or the organisation so they can see how you would fit.

In October I attended a HR Conference and I can tell you that sometimes it’s not that exciting. But sometimes it is and sometimes the speakers challenge me and how I view my work in the organization I work within. Professor David Clutterbuck spoke about talent and how we define talent, the definition is that it’s contextual and very, very difficult to define.

But something stuck. The thought that “talent” is not achieving for yourself but achieving for a greater cause or purpose. The same applies for leadership and that's the stuff I'm talking about here. Great leaders help people do better and always are complimentary and modest.

Public holiday wrap-up

Normally on a Monday I post a post, but today is a public holiday in Singapore and there has been swimming, lunch and laziness, so here is my wrap-up of the best reads from last week:

What the media tycoon told me about building success Written by Chris Savage this post arrived in my inbox just when I needed it. He talks about what you need to do to make progress, and it's so true.

I have been writing quite a bit about resumes including the top 10 do's, the 5 don'ts and some stuff on content and structure. Here are two great posts from the SVP (Senior Vice President) of People Operations at Google; The biggest mistakes I see on resumes and how to correct them and my personal formula for a winning resume.

Happy Monday.

Lisa xx

The Interview Series - what to wear

Tricky. Tricky. Tricky.

I think most people struggle to put a decent outfit together on a daily basis let alone for something important as a job interview. I mean you just have to look at people on the streets of any major city at lunch time. Unkind but true. Have some pride people! There is no need for dressing shabbily even if you don't have a lot of money. In Australia Target and K-mart have great pieces for work as do many of the slightly more expensive chain stores. Rant over.

So, unless you are going for a very creative job I think it's best to err on the side of conservative. You want the interviews to be interested in you and what you are saying, not be distracted by what you are wearing. Though having said that I did go to my last job interview with pink hair....more on that later.

The most conservative and dressy type companies include finance and banking, accounting firms and consultancies and some technology companies. Wear a suit in a dark colour and a nicely pressed shirt or women could also wear a business type dress like this:

Actually this kind of outfit would suit pretty much all interviews and companies unless you are going to a job at a funky creative cutting edge company.

But you don't always have to wear a suit. It's just an easy option. Other options include:

For men: dress pants or suit pants and a long sleeve business shirt. For a more casual company you could possibly do a short sleeve shirt but I can't say I like them. Lace up brogues or slip on more business type shoes. No sneakers. No thongs

For women: Tailored skirts or pants and a blouse or top, no t-shirts. Closed in court shoes. No sneakers and no thongs.

The last interview I went to I didn't have anything that resembled a suit in my wardrobe. I had been working in an industrial part of Sydney for an industrial distributor and suits weren't really the expectation. Plus I'm not really that fussed about suits (even though I am recommending them here). I also had pink hair. My sister was horrified! "what are you going to wear?"

I think I wore a red jacket and black pants to that interview, with the pink hair. You see I figured that this was me. I had really good experience for the job and figured that if they had an issue with my hair, well then maybe that company wasn't for me. You can only be this bold if you are confident in your abilities and yourself generally. I got that job but don't recommend you turn up with coloured hair or lots of facial piercings and visible tattoos. Most interviewers are still very conservative and even though these things don't affect your ability to do the job in most cases you won't get the job. Some exclusions are funky cool hairdressers, where coloured hair, tats and piercing are expected. As well as sneakers or thongs.

If you need some inspiration head over to Pinterest and do a search on work wear or work fashion.

Lisa x

Did you ever have a boss who changed your life?

Have you ever come across Gretchen Rubin? If not you can learn about her here and here. She is most famous for The Happiness Project and I wrote about it a bit here.

Any-hoo, I was on LinkedIn the other day, trying to find something interesting, which at times (in my opinion) can be difficult,  and came across a question posed by Gretchen. She asked "Did you ever have a boss who changed your life?"

Immediately I thought yes. Many have. Some good and some bad and most taught me something and as a result, changed my life and career in some way. Here are the three bosses that immediately came to mind.

1. The Store Manager
This boss was a Store Manager when I worked in retail. I was her Assistant Manager and despite her liking me, she didn't want to teach me anything and she was often rude to customers. She was insecure and nervous and I think quite a bit worried that if she taught anyone anything they might take over her job. I wrote about her here. She was very worried when she went on holidays back to the UK for a 6 week trip that we would all get along without her and she wouldn't be needed. Myself and the rest of the team really enjoyed that time she was away. We actually worked as a team and had happy customers.

How did she change my life? She taught me all the things not to do as a manager. She taught me to be generous and teach other people what I knew and to not be insecure about doing that. Managers and leaders who are generous with their time and knowledge will always be valued.

2. The Difficult Manager
I started work at this Australian listed company and from day one I knew it wasn't for me. I didn't fit the culture and my manager was a difficult person from start to finish. She was diagnosed with a debilitating illness when I worked there but I suspect I would have still struggled to work with her demands and style despite that. I tried lots of different things to work with this manager but in the end I just couldn't do it any more. I also wrote about her here

How did she change my life? She taught me that despite being able to work with pretty much anyone, if I don't fit the organisational culture I would fail from the start. I learnt that organisational fit is really important and that there are just some people that I won't be able to work with, and to keep trying is very unhealthy.

3. The Challenging Manager
There are challenging people who are bad for your career, and challenging people who are good for your career. This is a tale of someone good for my career. This manager was open to a debate, a verbal sparring and it was great. If I didn't believe in something I could speak up. He also made me realise the importance of the role of HR. I have worked in many organisations where it wasn't valued that much, but having someone point out that I helped manage the most expensive part of running a business was enlightening. This person was also the first to treat me as a true business partner and confidant, and I learnt so much about the business by just being there to listen.

How did he change my life? He gave me confidence to be me and to not be afraid of conflict, as conflict can help relationships in the workplace.  I also improved my spreadsheet skills immensely!

Did you ever had a boss that changed your life?

Lisa x

Interesting Articles - Weekly round up

During the week I often come across interesting articles on the web which I don't usually have time to read. You too? Sunday is the perfect day to catch up on your reading, so here are the top three articles from this week I thought you might enjoy.

1. Why getting fit makes you smarter

I have unscientifically written about this concept before. About how important it is to exercise to be good at your job and to feel good in life. I wrote about keeping your mind fit and taking a break.

2. Taking control of your career

Written by a company I have used for outplacement, this is a concept I truly believe in. We all must take control of our own career and life balance to be successful. Outplacement is a service designed to help people with their resumes, interview skills and to  find work when they have lost their job.

3. Career tips from successful Australian Women

This post is one of my favourite fashion bloggers Phoebe Montague a.k.a Lady Melbourne. You would think I would be following more HR type bloggers but man are they boring! Lady Melbourne is great blend of vintagy cool fashion.

Happy Sunday

Lisa xx

The interview series - 8 things not to do

Interviews can be nerve racking and hard, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't behave yourself. Demonstrate some common sense. The thing about common sense is that it's not common. Here we go. Don't do these things in a job interview. Please.

1. Throw a tanty
Well this seems obvious doesn't it? I've had a candidate do it though. When I was the HR Manager for a project in India we had arranged for the candidate to come to our Sydney office to be interviewed face-to-face with me, and on video conference with the Project Director in India. So firstly video conferences are often always a pain to set up, and secondly the video conferencing links in India are notoriously dodgy. In fact lots of things only work sometimes in India including power and internet. The day of this interview was no different. It took at least 30 minutes to get the video conferencing working and for the interview to commence.

While I was madly trying to get it all to work the candidate decided to throw a tantrum about the fact that I couldn't get the technology to work. Unfortunately for him this situation was a realistic example of what it would be like to work on the project and all the frustrations that go along with that. In no uncertain terms I told him that this was EXACTLY what it would be like working for this company and in the role he was interviewing for. He settled down and the interview commenced. The Project Director in India who has missed the tantrum liked him. I filled him in on the pre-interview behaviour. He didn't' get the job.

2. Interrupt the interviewer. A lot.
I had this happen to me recently. Was interviewing with two other senior people for a senior type role. The candidate was particularly obnoxious and actually held his hand up to stop me telling him something. He also interrupted the group of interviewers a number of times.  We couldn't stand this guy for an hour and there was no way we wanted to work with him. Ugh.

On the positive side we have a good story to tell over drinks with other work colleagues. Always a silver lining.

3. Be late
Don't be late. Ring if you are going to be late. Don't be late. Get your shit together. That is all.

4. Talk too much
If you go on too much the interviewers will switch off. They will start skipping questions and try to wrap up the interview early. Practice answering the questions succinctly. Having recently sat through a number of interviews with candidates who went on and on,  I can attest to the fact that you won't get the job.

5. Talk too little
There's a balance between talking too much and not enough. If the interviewers have to drag out information from you, it will be too much like hard work.

6. Ask too many questions
OMG. I once had a candidate come in for a first interview with a list of 20 questions. Let's get something straight, a first interview is a bit like speed dating. The company is getting a feel for you and how you will fit with the company. For you, it's about learning about the company and people and whether you can work there.

You should have some questions to ask. Genuine questions that you would like the answer to. 2-4 questions is way enough. If you turn up with a list of 20 questions wanting to know the ins and outs of everything, the interviewers won't be impressed, they will be wondering if you have a personality disorder that needs treatment.

If you are invited for a second interview you will have an opportunity to ask some more detailed questions. This is like a dinner date. There is more time to get to know each other and you can explore more about the company and job.

7. Criticise the company
Really? If you have turned up for an interview surely you might want to work for the company? Mr Obnoxious above (see point 2) also arrived at the interview with very detailed company information to grill the interview panel on why we had done things the way we had. There was a definite implication that stupid decisions had been made. We were definitely sure we didn't want him working with us.

8. Ask about salary in the first interview
The first interview is too early to ask about money. The company is still deciding whether you will fit the company and role so don't ask about what salary they are offering. This may depend on the skills and attributes on the best candidate.

If the interviewer asks you what salary you are looking for though, you should have an answer that is well researched based on your skills, experience, qualifications and what the market generally pays. You can work this out by reviewing the pay offered by various roles on online job boards.

So, have you done any of these things? I went to an interview once feeling very unwell and sneezed so hard in an interview that I ended up with a big handful of snot. I didn't get the job.

When did you not get the job? What did you do?

Lisa xx