“GOOD MORNING HUMAN RESOURCE PROFESSIONALS!”

In my five years working in the human resources field I have met a variety of personalities.  Some have made me excited to be an HR professional while others made me want to play hooky like Ferris Bueler.  A few even prompted thoughts of violently shaking the poor attitude out of them.  Seriously people, check your poor attitude at the door!

One thing I have tried to improve upon in my career is the ability to manage my attitude and reaction to others in the workplace in order to accomplish communication.  You can never fully prepare yourself to handle everything that may be thrown at you in human resources; all you can do is control yourself.

Volunteers (That's me on the left!)

This past spring I was a volunteer coordinator for ABC’s Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition for a build here in Tallahassee, FL.  The experience was one I will never forget; thousands of volunteers working around the clock to build a house for a family in need – in seven days!  Since I was “in transition” during that time, I took the night shift from 12 am to 8am, went home, slept, got up and headed back to the site every day.  One thing that stood out from this experience was the overall attitude of our volunteers.  Each day they showed up to donate their time and had to deal with extremes – cold weather, hot weather, sleep deprivation, dust, aches, pains, grumpiness and everything else one may come across on a construction site.  Most of the volunteers have full time jobs and other regular commitments but they continued to be invested in a project they were passionate about.  Regardless of these obstacles the morale of the volunteers remained positive.  These volunteers cared about the family and were invested in their work.  Shouldn’t this be how your employees feel about your workplace?

Establish relationships with colleagues in the office that you work with on a regular basis.  You do not have to be best friends with everyone but take the time to learn and figure out what makes your colleagues tick.  What do they complain about?  What makes them laugh?  What standards do they hold themselves to?  You will begin to learn how to best present things to these individuals.  Some you may be able to be blunt with and let them take initiative to complete a project.  Others you will have to hold their hand through execution.  In the end you should be able to develop a unique delivery mechanism for any interaction with these individuals.

By establishing these relationships and learning how to handle your attitude towards your colleagues, you will take a huge step towards a happier workforce who is typically more productive.  Regardless of why you work, the attitude you portray in the workplace is up to you.  Whether positive or negative the work will still be there.  Help create an environment employees care about and are invested in.  Don’t let the Debbie Downers ruin it for everyone else!

Now come on, get to work!  Say it with me HR professionals! “Move that bus!”