{HR} Leadership Is Not For The Weak

Essential competencies for high performing HR professionals include being a cultural steward, talent manager, operational executor . . . and having a thick skin.

Listen, let me just save you some time and <wasted> energy. If you are not pleased with a decision I've made or frustrated because I don't see things your way and get the urge to call me names, you'll have to do better than "obtuse and obstructionist."

Really, professionals should be able to communicate without name calling but in those cases where that doesn't happen, you have got to know . . . "sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never harm me." They used to, like when I was 4 and the big girls came up to me and taunted, "Mona Lisa, are you going to cry? Are you going to cry?" Yup, I cried, but no more.

Big girls, big words, artistic taunts and ridiculous slams aside, there is something that does catch my attention: questions about my motives, my intentions or my credibility. 

Credibility. It's the thing that keeps me up at night, has me second guessing my actions and replying my conversations. And at times, it is the thing I insert into situations where it has no place being.

What else do I know about credibility?

Well, a lot actually and I am going to be talking credibility and leadership today at the 22nd Annual ALAMN Educational Conference and Exposition Leadership Boot Camp. All very fitting because I've stepped foot in a boot camp or two back in the day.

ALAMN members and guests, welcome to the blog and I look forward to speaking with and learning from you today.

A Day In The Life Sunday: No Nice and Easy For Me

My husband and I are absurd savers of money.

Truth be told, I get nausea when I spend chunks of cash. Even though we are virtually debt free, we've ramped up our quest to keep our money close to home in response to his job loss.

Some things have to go. So, we are:

• Very regrettably parting ways with the cleaning lady;
• Bundling our internet, phone, television services;
• Switching from boutique to bulk as I say goodbye to Alice and hello to Sam;
• Eating at home more and out less; and
• Reevaluating home and auto insurance rates.

Some things have to stay - family vacations, hair salon color and designer frames.

We are not into deprivation so are scaling back intentionally and not without some thought. I know that this will carry us much beyond our current situation.

How do I know this?

By my own irritation at myself when I look back over the years and realize just how much money I've blown. I spent it because I had it and now, I want it back. Hmph.

If you've cut costs in your household, what made the biggest difference for you? And what was your non-negotiable? You had a non-negotiable, didn't you? I do.

There is simply no Nice and Easy for me.