BlogHer '10 Ticket Winner

I have an extra BlogHer ticket and I am giving it away.

I put it out there last week and here's the cool thing about social media - and free stuff. I was introduced to five very cool women: 

• A medically savvy Mom of two and wife to the sweetest Hubbie on earth and owner of two fur babies of the feline persuasian blogs at Pop and Ice. She'd like her favorite male blogger, her husband, to join her at the conference.
• Artist Vicki Boatright, known as “BZTAT” (pronounced bee-zee-tat), specializes in whimsical drawings, paintings and prints of companion animals and blogs at BZTAT Studios. She is trying to learn half as much as her cat does about blogging.
• Lorraine Woodward, aka Little Miss Tottenville, blogs at I want to love YOU better whatever it takes and says she is a good blogger who could be a GREAT blogger with some help . . . and it's her dream to attend a BlogHer conference.
• Sarah blogs at MainLineMoms.org and is dedicated to supporting a community for Parents in the Main Line Region. She'd like to attend to learn all she can on behalf of her sister, Ann Marie, who blogs at Household 6 Diva from Germany, building a community of military spouses from around the globe.
• Maria, a NYC based recent college graduate and aspiring wordsmith/ entrepreneur, is about to launch a co-blogging site and support group for early stage tech entrepreneurs by tapping the experiences of others to share resources and advice.
• Shannon Myers, posts occasionally on Walton Search and for other recruiting sites and speaks at recruiting conferences, is starting her own blog after contemplating doing so for years. She is also building a site for women to connect locally in her county.

And the ticket goes too. . . Sarah at Mainline Moms. Sarah's  committment to building a community to support moms with little ones and Ann Marie's committment to building a community of military spouses - it all hit too close to home for me to pass up.

Sarah, enjoy BlogHer and send your cliff notes my way!

How To Make Exceptional Staffing Decisions

One of the most important things a leader can do is staff their department to deliver. A leader's job is not to know it all. A leader without anyone on their staff who can design a recruitment strategy better than they can or who is better at [fill in the blank] than they are, is not doing their job.

More telling than seeing who a leader selects for a position is taking a look at who they did not.

It's comfortable, and easy, for leaders to select people like themselves or like others on their staff. It's not a stretch for a leader to evaluate a candidate's skills against need, traits against culture, and like-ability against team dynamics. Nor is it a stretch to consider experience and accomplishments to predict (re: crystal ball) contribution and initiative.

The interview, evidence of performance, references, and yes, even instinct, indicate to the leader that there is one person for the job. It all fits except for one thing and this is the one thing could make the difference between a solid selection and an exceptional one. For some leaders, herein lies the stretch.

Once the skills and culture fit boxes are checked and it's time for a leader to make a decision, the questions begin to flow (admit it, you've thought it too): can I manage this person who is older/younger than me, will they test or stretch my leadership skills, what if . . . he has ideas I hadn't thought of, she wants my job (and she'd be good at it too), he'll fill in a much needed gap and people will realize that I had not, she'll raise the bar and others will be threatened, or [fill in the blank].

These questions have absolutely nothing to do with the candidate and everything to do with the leader.

It's a fact. We are human, we get pushed out of our comfort zone and we feel threatened. Take it from someone who succumbed to the madness, let the good ones get away, and has lived to tell about it. Acknowledge the discomfort but don't let it drive your decision making process. Some of my best staffing decisions were made from outside my comfort zone.

How about you?

Photo credit iStock Photo