Taking and Ignoring Advice: A Day in the Life Sunday

I walked into two conversations on Friday where colleagues were discussing what they were giving things up for Lent. I am giving up Vitamin D. I am not doing this for sacrifice or symbolization, but because I went from Vitamin D deficient to almost-toxic in less than 30 days and my provider told me to step away from the D.

Photo credit: iStockphoto

If I did what she told me to do the first time around instead of taking the advice of another who said, "you are at least four months away from regularizing your levels" and dramatically increasing my daily dose, I wouldn't need to schedule another lab draw. Ouch. Less learned.

So, who else am I not listening too? The list is too long so let's take the easy route and list some advice I am following:

• Exercise. I went to the gym three times this week. The workouts weren't anything for the record books but I did it. Yeah!
• Speak. I am speaking in April. Speaking is about as unnatural an activity for me as you can get and this is me trying to take it all in stride.
• Cut back. I only went into work early 3 days last week. That's progress and I'll continue to work on it. Promise.

I remember a cross-country ski clinic I participated in a while back. Reviewing a tape of my ski around the course, the instructor replied, "So many things wrong here."

A review of a tape of my days could evoke the same response but all-in-all, there are so many things that are right.  If I were a person who gave things up, I'd give up the perspective that "there's something wrong here." Oh, what the heck, I'll give that up anyway and see what happens.

What about you? What have you given up to better yourself or your situation? What advice are you not following? What advice have you taken?

Good Hires Don't Just Happen

Every job has it's ups and downs and the downs are less frequent when you surround yourself with good people. I am pulling from the archives to remind us all that good hires don't just happen. You have to do the work.

iStockphoto

I recall an interaction I had with a hiring manager as a young HR professional:

Me: You have to check references.

Hiring Manager: Why? He did great in the interview.

Me: Because, you have to.

Hiring Manager: No, I don't.

Me: Yes, you do. You have to know who you are hiring.

Hiring Manager: I do know who I am hiring. His name is Joe and he's a rock star.

Turns out, the hiring manager did not know Joe like he thought he knew Joe and Joe was more rock than star. Instead of an, "I told you so," as I walked the rock star out the door, the hiring manager received a not-open-for-discussion, "reference checks required."

In hindsight, I would have gotten my point across better with the hiring manager if I had taken the time to teach vs. tell but hey, I was young. I was HR.

If I were to do it again, I would share what Gilt Groupe's CEO, Kevin Ryan said about reference checks in his Harvard Business Review article, Building a Team of A Players:

"The hiring process typically has three elements: the resume, the interview and the reference check. Most managers overvalue the resume and interview and undervalue the reference check. References matter most. . . . when someone does not succeed in a job, it's generally not for lack of technical skills - it's because of intangibles that don't come up in an interview. Is he attentive to detail? Does she work well with others? How does he treat his colleagues? References are the only way to learn these things."

You don't spend $1.59 on a dozen eggs without checking each and every egg ('fess up) so how could you hire an employee for your organization without checking him for cracks?

I've griped about reference checks, too. Each time I silenced the little voice that was trying to tell me, "no," or said I said something like, "I am self-aware and a great judge of character" it backfired on me and I made a hire I later regretted.

Guess what? I am not as good a judge of the intangibles as I think I am and neither are you. Reference checks required.

Do the work. Make good hires. It's worth it.