Archive for the ‘Professional Development’ Category

As chapter president for Big Bend SHRM I am a voting member of the HR Florida State Council.  This year I am also volunteering as one of two Technology Directors that manage the council’s presence in social media.  On top of that I volunteered to be a member of the 2009 conference team.  Needless to say I love it all!

Roger loves stuffing bags!

Today was a long day for us at the HR Florida State Conference.  It began with me waking up at 5 am not being able to sleep because I was thinking about all the prep work left to do!  After a few hours of web updates, posts on Facebook and tweets I headed down to the conference team room to grab my radio and hit the conference center floor.  First big task:  stuff over 1,300 conference attendee goodie bags, with help from members of our incredible conference team filling in for missing volunteers.  After 3.5 hours, a few dozen paper cuts, a slice and dice from a pair of scissors and some much needed coffee and pastries, a cheer rang through the hall as the last bag was stuffed and ready to go!  With the bright green bags piled high we dispersed and found other tasks to tackle.

At this point I made my way up to help out in a pre-conference session, “Social Media + HR” presented by Kris Dunn from The HR Capitalist and Fistful of Talent.  The session was packed with 30 HR pros eager learn what Kris had to say.  We were also graced with appearances by two other fellow HR bloggers Jessica Lee from Fistful of Talent and Mike VanDervort from The Human Race Horses.

Kris did a phenomenal overview of why social media should be important to you as an HR pro, including answering the question “Who cares?” – “Your customers, your candidates, your kids, your employees and people who want to give you money as an HR pro!”  Kris thoroughly covered tidbits on Google Reader and its importance to an HR pro with a drive to learn.  Attendees had their laptops and followed his every move – slowly getting the hang of it. 

Next came a detailed look into Twitter.  With the help of Jessica, Mike and myself Kris was able to lead attendees to creating their own accounts and tweeting for the very first time.  This caused quite a few smiles across the room - that turned into lots of excellent questions.  By the end of the session everyone seemed pretty content and proud of themselves – maybe even a little less scared of social media!

As attendees began to flood the hotel and registration area I headed off to a technical rehearsal for our general sessions followed by a meeting with the registration team, making name badges for our blogging panel and finally dinner.  No sooner did I set my napkin on the table I was out the door to review pictures taken by our wonderful photographer from Jobing.com for our following day’s presentations.  I can’t forget helping the HR Florida secretary prepare gift baskets for our silent auction benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation and the SHRM Foundation.

Last but certainly not least I made it back to my hotel room just past midnight to right this update and head to bed.  Another early day awaits me but I look forward to each and every second of it!

We are proud to have our entire team attending this year’s HR Florida State Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida.  We will be attending with over 30 fellow members of our local Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Chapter, Big Bend SHRM.

Like in past years, we are amazed at the work the conference team has done to put on this huge event that attracts over 1,000 HR professionals from across the state of Florida and even a few internationally.  It starts with a fantastic group of pre-conference sessions on Sunday and then opens on Monday with a keynote by Christine Dumas, a lifestyle, consumer health and fitness reporter, and author.  On Tuesday and Wednesday we will be listening intently as the Honorable Alexis Herman and Edward James Olmos present their keynote speeches.  The concurrent session schedule over the 3 day event provides ample opportunity for top notch training and continuing education credits from the HR Certification Institute.

A bunch of other great conference events will be taking place while we are in Orlando, including a TweetUp organized by Mike VanDervort from Human Race Horses.  For example, we are very excited to attend the HR blogger panel, “Blogging & HR:  Can the two peacefully coexist?” facilitated by Florida’s very own HR Bartender, Sharlyn Lauby.  The panel will include some of our favorite HR bloggers including Kris Dunn from The HR Capitalist, Jessica Lee from Fistful of Talent, Michael Long from The Red Recruiter, Laurie Ruettimann from Punkrock HR, and Mike VanDervort as previously mentioned.

Stay tuned as we hope to get some live blogging and tweets out as regularly as possible throughout the conference.  Just look for the #SHRMFL hashtag when on Twitter.  Off to get our learn on!

You know, as the HR Whisperer, I’m really enamored with the whole idea of creating top performing organizations through positive behavior change. One of my favorite mentors, Cesar Millan, says, “A dog that doesn’t trust its human to be a good pack leader becomes unbalanced and often exhibits unwanted or antisocial behaviors.” It struck me that the same is true for people in organizations. We need to have strong leadership because in many cases our very business survival depends on a stable, organized and motivated team. Business survival instinct is perhaps one of our greatest natural motivators in the workplace and if a person is not guided well, it can not only result in unwanted behavior but total chaos in the long run.

So, I’m digging this concept and working it through in my brain as to how this relates to human capital and wouldn’t you know, I web-stumbled across an article recently published by Harvard Business Review (September 2008). Written by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis, “Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership” discusses new studies of the brain that show that business leaders can improve team performance by understanding not the psychology, but the biology of social intelligence. How cool. It struck me that scientists have discovered a biological underpinning to what makes a good leader great, which could toss more fuel on the fire in the “leaders are born, not made” camp. (Which I don’t subscribe to, by the way. I believe that anyone, given time and effort can change their behavior – even interpersonally. That’s why I’m in the business I’m in. Oh, I feel another blog topic coming on! <huge grin>)

More on the biology of leadership from Harvard Business Review:

“The salient discovery is that certain things leaders do—specifically, exhibit empathy and become attuned to others’ moods—literally affect both their own brain chemistry and that of their followers. Indeed, researchers have found that the leader-follower dynamic is not a case of two (or more) independent brains reacting consciously or unconsciously to each other. Rather, the individual minds become, in a sense, fused into a single system. We believe that great leaders are those whose behavior powerfully leverages the system of brain interconnectedness…If we are correct, it follows that a potent way of becoming a better leader is to find authentic contexts in which to learn the kinds of social behavior that reinforce the brain’s social circuitry. Leading effectively is, in other words, less about mastering situations—or even mastering social skill sets—than about developing a genuine interest in and talent for fostering positive feelings in the people whose cooperation and support you need.”

Wow. The idea that leaders need good interpersonal as well as functional skills has certainly been around for quite some time. As a matter of fact, Goleman coined the phrase, “social intelligence” to discuss this very thing. But what he and Boyatzis are talking about here is different – they’re saying that we have these things in our brains called mirror neurons that mimic what another person does. As social beings, when we “consciously or unconsciously detect someone else’s emotions through their actions, our brain’s mirror neurons reproduce those emotions and allow us to instantly share that experience.” Ever notice when two people are deep in discussion they tend to hold their arms the same way or cross their legs at the same time? That’s the mirror neurons in action. 

So, how can leaders take advantage of this brain interconnectedness? If it stands to reason that followers will create a social connection with their leader, it also stands to reason that they will emotionally feel whatever it is the leader is feeling and behave accordingly. If leaders are emotionless, don’t smile or otherwise engage their followers, they will not take activate the mirror neutrons in a positive way, leading to distressed and nonperforming followers, and thus the potential for business chaos. Body language plays a great part also. If a leader’s body language doesn’t jibe with what is being said, the follower will go with the body language. Bodies don’t tell lies, mouths do.

The bottom line is that when people feel good about what they are doing, when they have a social connection with their leaders, when they feel part of something that is bigger than them, those mirror neurons come in handy. Reinforce the brain’s social circuitry — if you want to motivate those around you, create a positive atmosphere. If you want higher performance or enhanced creativity, be in a good mood and show you care. If you truly want the best from your followers, kick those mirror neutrons into high gear and create an environment where sincere respect, fun, laughter and performance are a serious part of your business operations. Trust me, you won’t be sorry!