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!”
What a whirlwind of a week it has been here in Orlando, FL. I’m beginning to get used to a 5:00 am wake-up call, although this one seemed like it came in even earlier after the Vegas Night festivities! Up and out the door by 6:00 am to meet up with my buddy Michael Long of Red Recruiting to set up for his “rise and shine” session “Twitter for HR and Recruiting.” It was awesome to see such a large group of attendees for such an early session. Michael touched on the basics of Twitter like retweets and direct messages and then went on to discuss search capabilities perfect for recruiting. The audience was fully engaged and asked lots of excellent questions. A big shout out to Michael for giving us some face time as he was pulling double duty – attending the HR Florida State Conference as well as the Disney Institute. Check his blog out for full coverage.
The last general session began with the announcement of the 2009 HR Florida Volunteer of the Year, Lori Goldsmith, SPHR. Lori has tirelessly been the voice of certification since her early days in HR Tampa, and has continued to be the face of certification for HR Florida. Along with volunteering her time serving the HR Florida State Council in that role, she volunteered to step in as the program chair for the 2009 Conference when the previous program chair stepped down. Lori is a professional. She embraces the HR Florida State Council mission and values while continuing to improve on her skills and assisting others in improving theirs. Congratulations Lori!
Following the award we welcomed Battlestar Galactica’s Admiral William Adama (aka Edward James Olmos) to the stage for a keynote address on diversity/race relations. After joking with the audience he launced into one of the most intense presentations I have ever witnessed. Everyone watched intently as Olmos described “race” throughout history. “There is only ONE race – the human race.” He also referenced his lively presentation at the United Nations on the same subject.
As this was the last day of the conference, it was the shortest with sessions ending at noon. While attendees were checking out of the hotel and traveling back to their homes across the state our conference team was debriefing and beginning plans for the 2010 conference. In a year that has been so troublesome for so many we did not know what to expect when it came to meeting our goals as an organization. Countless organizations across the country have had to cancel their conferences due to projected poor attendance and financial difficulties. With this in mind the council made an effort to be optimistic – and I am sure glad we did. As one person put it, “We are in spitting distance of reaching our goal!” Not only did our team sell out the expo hall, we also secured sponsors who went above and beyond to make this event such a success. On top of that our attendees were amazing. I had multiple conversations with exhibitors and sponsors who echoed the same sentiment – the attendees this year were the best they have ever seen. Engaged and invested, not here just for the swag.
2009 HR Florida Conference Team
What began as distant goal last year ended today with one of the best conferences the HR Florida State Council has ever put on. From a behind the scenes perspective this has been one of the largest and most demanding events that I have ever been a part of. So much goes on that the average attendee is unaware of. I have to give kudos to an amazing conference team led by an incredible leader. Without them we may have faced similar hardships as many other organizations. We stepped up to the plate and hit a home run! It has been an honor to work with each and every one of them. Until next time…
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.
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!
Opinions and content shared on this blog are specific to the individual and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Big Bend SHRM, our sponsors or the employers of our contributors.
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