Get Motivated – The weekend is just over this HILL!

Recognition is not one size fits all! Get it right

Now get back to work!

Guest Post Intro: As a Corporate Trainer, Motivational Speaker and Employee Recognition Strategist; David Kovacovich is always asked what differentiates the great people in the workplace. The best answer he can summon is that they never allowed themselves to give in to their doubt. This is a story of a young man and his belief that he can achieve anything. Feel free to connect with David at his Blog or Twitter.

March Madness is upon us and a friend of mine who does not follow sports asked me why people got so excited about this basketball tournament. The best response I could come up with is that people love to see an upset. When she inquired as to how a mid-major school could beat a national powerhouse I told her, “I guess they didn’t know any different”.

In addition to narrowing the basketball competition to 16 teams this past week, the NCAA wrestling championships were held. To play hoop with 4 other teammates requires a different type of motivation than that of being on the wrestling mat alone. By this measure, the odds of ‘an upset’ in College Wrestling are far more difficult.

Ignoring the Odds
Kyle Dake became the first ‘true freshman’ to win an NCAA Wrestling National Championship in 5 years. Why was Kyle able to rise above the extraordinary pressure of beating 5 people that were more experienced than he was? He didn’t know any different.

You’ll see from this clip that Kyle Dake is incredibly confident….and why not. He put himself in the company of the best in the country because he let his talent speak for itself, didn’t listen to his critics and did not get caught up by those who believe there is no way a Freshman can win the National Championship.

In the work place tenure often comes with entitlement while the unadulterated confidence of young people is met with a raised eye brow. What a shame! The unfortunate thing is that very few people have the self confidence of Kyle Dake. They become a product of their environment and their effort to win gets redirected into water cooler complaints, the navigation of office politics and the promotion of their work beyond the work itself. The biggest tragedy in American Business is our intimidation by the motivation of our employees. If you fit the aforementioned description you should not be in a leadership role. One day that door will swing shut for a final time and your legacy will not be the policy you wrote or programs you implemented but the people you empowered to use their confidence to help the team succeed.

Think about the potential (Don’t ignore talent)

My guess is that Kyle Dake will not pursue a career in the WWE. So when you see him in front of your office four years from now with his resume in his hand: take him in, help him understand how to channel his motivation in an effective manner and let him carry your legacy. Believe me; He is strong enough to carry it!

Not one of those posts: I usually try to be pretty informative and insightful in my posts but this is not one of those posts. This is a random thought post.

I came across a post “Decision Making, Social Media & Corporate Branding” written by @ImSoSarah. A quick synopsis of the post, from my perspective, is that everyone has a brand  (now trendily… if that’s a word) and all people/companies try so hard to manage that brand. The thing is that many people connect, friend and follow others not necessarily for the corporate information and deals that you have, but more for the off-topic and quirky information that is sometimes randomly put out.

Trendy Terms: Me personally, I could care less about trendy terms, yet I do understand the power in those terms like “brand” and peoples perception of that brand. I personally believe in seriousness, humor, connections and information. I try to do all four within my blog, twitter feed and my other digital footsteps. At the same time I try also to be serious and valid in the topics I present.

My comment in her post was the following:

The funniest thing about branding (corporate, business and personal) is that depending on who you are, what you do and where you do it – people act like they are not human.  Thing is we have quirks, we cuss, have gr8 & bad times, we say and do stupid things. Yet somehow we try so hard to cover it all up.

No one has to put it all out there but by putting something out that isn’t manufactured, always polished and plastic-surgery-perfect… people get to see that you are human!

And wouldn’t you or any one of us rather spend time with a HUMAN rather then a BRAND! I sure would.

Main Point: So to clean it up… it is better to have real connections with real people who actually do real things!

Brands suck… HUMANs Rule

Guest Post Introduction: My name is Chris Haskins I am a senior at St. Norbert College studying Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources.  Along with my classes I am also an active member of my fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and treasurer/player on SNC’s lacrosse team.

In May I will, sadly, be saying goodbye to SNC to become a “real person”, as my friends and I call people we know who have graduated.  Since graduation is coming up I’ve been doing some thinking about my future.  Where am I going? Where is my intended field going? How am I going to get there? The normal “Holy cow I’m about to graduate” breakdown, but the results have been interesting.

You want to call us to action… show me how?

A lot of the progressions in HR that we’ve covered in the classes I’ve been in have dealt with getting the strategic seat, and confirming that HR isn’t the company’s babysitter anymore.  While this is a great and achievable goal there doesn’t seem to be a lot of material teaching students how to do this.  We know that we have to be able to show how our actions add value to the company, but in all my time spent in the classroom and all the articles I’ve read I’ve yet to understand how to show value other than making a good hire over a bad one.  While I’m glad that HR as a field is moving in a strategic direction it would help to know how this is being done to keep it going.

Small Steps… Growth

Another area that I think is ripe for progression is in small organizations.  Right now it seems like most of the innovations in HR come in large and medium sized companies that have resources to support a larger HR department.  However, those people that are in the HR department all by themselves are still stuck in the babysitter role.  The next innovation I think will be a tool to let these HR professionals become more able to think into the future rather than have to worry about the dress code or company picnic.

Room to be Creative

The other problem I see is that there are only a few positions within HR that really get to be creative.  This may stem from my experience in the small HR department I interned with, but it looks to me like only the head of HR and recruiters really get to use the knowledge that is acquired in the classroom. The rest of the department has their areas of experience and don’t touch anything else.  This is why I think the idea of rotating positions is so great, because everyone gets to experience all the areas of Human Resources.  I don’t want to end up just being the “hiring guy” where all I do is interview, hire, and train employees.

Experience Needed…  Career Path?

The last thing I’ll talk about is what the career path for an HR professional seems to be from a graduate’s perspective.  First off, since starting my job search a few weeks ago I’ve realized how hard it is to break into HR.  It seems like unless you have at least two to three years of experience you’re out of luck.  However, with that said, it seems to me that this is the first generation of graduates that are looking specifically to get into HR.  In the past it most of the professionals were in other business roles that eventually lead to HR, but it wasn’t their first choice.  My ideal path would be starting in a general business position to learn what business is like in the real world then move into an HR position.  From there I’d like to be able to find an organization that allows for a rotating HR department, so I can try everything to see which I like most, and then become a specialist in that area while still learning about other areas in order to reach my overall goal, as of now, to be the head of an HR department.   I do realize that this is probably not going to happen, but it’s at least a starting point.

I’d like to thank Mr. McCall for giving me the opportunity to be a guest blogger for him.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this post.  If you’d like to follow me on Twitter my name is @ChrisHaskins (original I know), and also my normal blog location is at: http://hrlaxer.blogspot.com.  There are only a few blogs there now, but as I dive deeper into HR I will continue to post more and more. Thanks again.

Special Thanks to Matthew Stollack, @AKABruno for asking students for their interest.