HR Pros: Get Out and Go Make A Difference

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HR Florida in my rearview mirror, I have had some time to reflect on my few days in the company of 1600 HR professionals. The place was hopping!

Sessions aside, the best part of being there was meeting or reconnecting with friends and colleagues face to face. Nothing beats meeting someone new or sitting across from someone you haven't seen in months - or years - and reconnecting like it's only been a few days. That's what social media does.

Go Granular

Every conference needs a catch phrase and I found mine Sunday morning at the pre-conference Hack Lab session with Talent Anarchy. Want to innovate? Make a small change. Innovation is a series of small changes that happen over time - not over night - and small changes make the biggest difference.

The message was pointed and the challenge for the HR professionals in the room was thinking small. Do you want to improve the use of individual development plans in your company? Creating a new career development program is big and overwhelming but creating a guide for mentor/mentee meetings that incudes review of the the IDP is not.

Got an idea for change? Break it down. Now, break it down again. Break it down to it's smallest component. In other words, go granular.

Start Helping

Another session I enjoyed was Reality-Based Leadership by Cy Wakeman. One quote from CY sums up this session for me, "When you are judging, you are not helping, serving or leading."

So, stop judging and start helping. As leaders, we spend too much time negotiating the non-negotiable. It is the role of a leader to change mindsets by eliminating triangular conversations:

  • "Wow, good to know you have a problem with Sally. Have you talked to Sally about that?"
  • "Joe has a problem with submitting the info you need timely. How can you help?"
  • "What can you do to help Karen with XYZ? "Can you commit to that?"

Facing a moment of panic or overreaction? Ask, "What do you know for sure?" and "What can you do about that?"

Take Aways

From Trish McFarlane and Steve Boese's session, How Social Tools Can Empower a Global Organization to John Nykolaiszyn's session, Let’s Occupy: Building a Sustainable College Recruitment Plan and Talent Pipeline! and many sessions in between, there was strategic HR knowledge for the taking.

The take away I have from the conference is that HR pros have access to the same tools resources and opportunities and what they choose to do (or not) with them determines their success. This is not rocket science people.

HR pros, get out and go make a difference.

Photo credit: Dave (the HRCzar) Ryan