Sometimes it's easier to coordinate a huge meeting at work with people from near and far than to coordinate a lunch meeting with a close friend.
Recently, I was chatting with a friend who I see briefly at least once a week, but who I never seem to be able to get together with for lunch. She and I discussed that we "really should do lunch" and then decided we would make it happen. She gave me her open days for the next month - this was just last Friday. When I was in the office on Monday morning, I checked my calendar, found an open lunchtime that matched with one of the clear days on her calendar, booked the lunch meeting time - and gave her a call to confirm. Oops - she was not actually free that day.
Coordination mix-up? or does she just not want to meet me for lunch? Luckily my calendar was still open and on the spot we rescheduled for another day. Let's hope this one works out.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Online Social Networks and Recruiting
Recently I prepared a presentation for a career fair to provide tips for job seekers and employers on using social networks, such as facebook, myspace, twitter, and linkedin for recruitment. I discovered that while just a few years ago only about 10% of employers were heavily using web-based recruiting methods, as of 2007 over 75% of companies were recruiting online. Based on the trends, that number has only increased in the last two years. Especially with companies being very financially cautious these days, online recruiting costs are much lower than many other methods.
So, to get to the tips for job seekers and employers. My advice to employers is to have a great web presence that positions your company brand in such a way as to attract the top talent you need. This may mean that instead of expecting job seekers to use only your corporate website and the major online job boards in their job search, you may need to establish a company presence on the social networks where your future employees meet. If your potential employees are from specific professions or trades, look for blogs, bulletin boards and networking sites that cater to these professions or are sponsored by the trade associations. If your potential employees congregate on facebook and myspace, your company needs to set up a group or a company page on those social networking site. Once their, you may want to post photos or a video clip that will catch the attention of even passive job seekers and will drive them to your corporate website for more information or to submit and application.
My advice to job seekers - network both in person and online. Let everyone know you are looking for a job and what type of job you'd like. You never know where you might get a great lead on a perfect position. And, since most employers are online, set a good first impression by cleaning up your image on facebook, myspace, or where ever you have personal web pages. Employers may be checking out your online profile and you want to show that you are a responsible person with a great network of friends, family and colleagues. What you don't want to show that prospective employer is the photos from that drunken binge or the latest stories about your legal entanglements. So, take a look at your web pages and just delete any of those old photos or stories that might not leave the best first impression of you.
Above all, the world is changing rapidly based on expanding technology and both employers and job seekers can and should use all tools possible to find a great fit with a fulfilling work relationship. Happy Job Hunting!
So, to get to the tips for job seekers and employers. My advice to employers is to have a great web presence that positions your company brand in such a way as to attract the top talent you need. This may mean that instead of expecting job seekers to use only your corporate website and the major online job boards in their job search, you may need to establish a company presence on the social networks where your future employees meet. If your potential employees are from specific professions or trades, look for blogs, bulletin boards and networking sites that cater to these professions or are sponsored by the trade associations. If your potential employees congregate on facebook and myspace, your company needs to set up a group or a company page on those social networking site. Once their, you may want to post photos or a video clip that will catch the attention of even passive job seekers and will drive them to your corporate website for more information or to submit and application.
My advice to job seekers - network both in person and online. Let everyone know you are looking for a job and what type of job you'd like. You never know where you might get a great lead on a perfect position. And, since most employers are online, set a good first impression by cleaning up your image on facebook, myspace, or where ever you have personal web pages. Employers may be checking out your online profile and you want to show that you are a responsible person with a great network of friends, family and colleagues. What you don't want to show that prospective employer is the photos from that drunken binge or the latest stories about your legal entanglements. So, take a look at your web pages and just delete any of those old photos or stories that might not leave the best first impression of you.
Above all, the world is changing rapidly based on expanding technology and both employers and job seekers can and should use all tools possible to find a great fit with a fulfilling work relationship. Happy Job Hunting!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Using Christmas versus Holidays in greetings
Of course during this time of year the issue of whether to use a generic greeting: happy holidays, versus a specific greeting: merry Christmas, always seems to come up. This is what I've been hearing and doing lately.
Last Monday evening I taught a class at the University of Phoenix on Compensation, Benefits and Incentive plans. This is part of a five week human resources management course for bachelor's degree students. Because this was the last class prior to a two-week holiday break, I surprized the class with a pop quiz. The quiz was a Christmas trivia quiz - all about lyrics to Christmas songs and characters in Christmas movies.
The students tell me they all enjoyed the game-like quiz and they appreciated the 20 minute break from more technical and mundane studies. However, I have to admit that when planning the quiz I had second thoughts. Would any of the students be offended that the holiday providing the theme was a religious holiday - even if none of the quiz items was overtly religious? Would the University object to bringing this up in class? Should I ask the students if any of them wanted to be excused for the 20 minutes of the quiz? In the end I didn't ask - I just acted - and the students all seemed to have a lot of fun and so did I.
It makes me wonder if in the quest to respect diversity in everyone, I have become too worried about celebrating the commonalities that most of us (in my community at least) share.
My advice to others struggling with this would be to respect each individual, yet also get to know group, organizational, company, or community dynamics and celebrate the things shared by the group. That's what I plan to do when wishing people happy holidays and merry Christmases. My view is that the holiday season has enough room for all the holidays falling between Thanksgiving and the New Year - and each individual holiday has plenty of room to be celebrated individually by those who hold each day in a special place in their hearts.
Last Monday evening I taught a class at the University of Phoenix on Compensation, Benefits and Incentive plans. This is part of a five week human resources management course for bachelor's degree students. Because this was the last class prior to a two-week holiday break, I surprized the class with a pop quiz. The quiz was a Christmas trivia quiz - all about lyrics to Christmas songs and characters in Christmas movies.
The students tell me they all enjoyed the game-like quiz and they appreciated the 20 minute break from more technical and mundane studies. However, I have to admit that when planning the quiz I had second thoughts. Would any of the students be offended that the holiday providing the theme was a religious holiday - even if none of the quiz items was overtly religious? Would the University object to bringing this up in class? Should I ask the students if any of them wanted to be excused for the 20 minutes of the quiz? In the end I didn't ask - I just acted - and the students all seemed to have a lot of fun and so did I.
It makes me wonder if in the quest to respect diversity in everyone, I have become too worried about celebrating the commonalities that most of us (in my community at least) share.
My advice to others struggling with this would be to respect each individual, yet also get to know group, organizational, company, or community dynamics and celebrate the things shared by the group. That's what I plan to do when wishing people happy holidays and merry Christmases. My view is that the holiday season has enough room for all the holidays falling between Thanksgiving and the New Year - and each individual holiday has plenty of room to be celebrated individually by those who hold each day in a special place in their hearts.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Stop Listening for Understanding
I have the problem that whenever I listen to someone I listen with a purpose in mind. I listen in order to understand what is the issue, problem or concern I need to solve or fix.
My second problem is that I actually understand people fairly well and catch on to what is the issue problem or concern very quickly. Then, I put on my problem solving hat and jump right to coming up with a solution.
This is a problem because, as a colleague of mine, Chris, recently pointed out to me - most people do not want me to fix their problems. Most people want to resolve their own problems. What they are looking for from me is to be heard and understood.
Chris suggested (hmmmm was he trying to fix my problem?) that I should stop listening for understanding. Instead I should listen until the person talking feels understood.
How could I possibly know what they feel? Chris pointed out that when a person feels they have been understood, they become more relaxed in appearance and tone of voice. They may sigh or show in their body position or face that they have finished talking. They may pause. At that point the person feels understood.
When someone feels understood they are ready to either solve their own problem, or if they truly do want help to solve the problem, they will ask for it: "So, what do you think I should do?" they may say.
For the last month I have been trying to catch myself listening for understanding and instead replace that behavior with listening until the person feels understood. I can't say I've been completely successful in shedding my old habits yet, however, I'm making progress and I think the people who I'm listening to are beginning to notice!
My second problem is that I actually understand people fairly well and catch on to what is the issue problem or concern very quickly. Then, I put on my problem solving hat and jump right to coming up with a solution.
This is a problem because, as a colleague of mine, Chris, recently pointed out to me - most people do not want me to fix their problems. Most people want to resolve their own problems. What they are looking for from me is to be heard and understood.
Chris suggested (hmmmm was he trying to fix my problem?) that I should stop listening for understanding. Instead I should listen until the person talking feels understood.
How could I possibly know what they feel? Chris pointed out that when a person feels they have been understood, they become more relaxed in appearance and tone of voice. They may sigh or show in their body position or face that they have finished talking. They may pause. At that point the person feels understood.
When someone feels understood they are ready to either solve their own problem, or if they truly do want help to solve the problem, they will ask for it: "So, what do you think I should do?" they may say.
For the last month I have been trying to catch myself listening for understanding and instead replace that behavior with listening until the person feels understood. I can't say I've been completely successful in shedding my old habits yet, however, I'm making progress and I think the people who I'm listening to are beginning to notice!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Coaching Conversations
I just got off the phone with a colleague I've known for several years, although we've never met in person and this colleague lives most of the way across the country from me. We spoke of the downturn in the economy, changes in our workload, aggravations of management that sometimes can be ambiguous and send mixed messages, and my colleague's eventual goal to reinvent himself after retirement.
When the phone conversation began, my colleague, whom I'll call Tom, sounded a bit tired and edgy. He'd had a stressful couple of weeks - mostly due to that oft-time aggravating situation of having ambiguous messages from company leadership or lack of clear support from the upper level management team. I've often seen professionals and mid-level managers who truly want to work hard and become fully engaged in their organization's success; however, there is an apparent lack of a clear and consistent vision or support from the leadership team. It's difficult to jump on board the organizational train if leadership either continuously changes direction, or management alternately hitches and unhitches cars from the train showing support at times and lack of support otherwise.
As my conversation with Tom wandered a little and he mentioned a potential new direction or link between his current work and something he'd like to be doing in the future, we discussed the link between employee discipline, employee relations, and labor relations - including the differences and similarities of these human resources focus areas. The more we talked the more that future possibilities seemed to have a positive potential. Tom's voice started to sound much more relaxed and comfortable. He was beginning to see that things would not always be the way they were looking today - and that his attitude would make all the difference between a positive or negative future outcome.
The call ended on a good note - with both of us feeling better and more energized than we would have felt without working through the conversation. I was reminded of why I enjoy sometimes taking a coaching role with family, friends, co-workers, employees, and colleagues half way across the country. Conversation can be a great mood enhancer and problem solving tool. Just as a computer and the internet are the technology of written communication - conversation is the technology of coaching.
When the phone conversation began, my colleague, whom I'll call Tom, sounded a bit tired and edgy. He'd had a stressful couple of weeks - mostly due to that oft-time aggravating situation of having ambiguous messages from company leadership or lack of clear support from the upper level management team. I've often seen professionals and mid-level managers who truly want to work hard and become fully engaged in their organization's success; however, there is an apparent lack of a clear and consistent vision or support from the leadership team. It's difficult to jump on board the organizational train if leadership either continuously changes direction, or management alternately hitches and unhitches cars from the train showing support at times and lack of support otherwise.
As my conversation with Tom wandered a little and he mentioned a potential new direction or link between his current work and something he'd like to be doing in the future, we discussed the link between employee discipline, employee relations, and labor relations - including the differences and similarities of these human resources focus areas. The more we talked the more that future possibilities seemed to have a positive potential. Tom's voice started to sound much more relaxed and comfortable. He was beginning to see that things would not always be the way they were looking today - and that his attitude would make all the difference between a positive or negative future outcome.
The call ended on a good note - with both of us feeling better and more energized than we would have felt without working through the conversation. I was reminded of why I enjoy sometimes taking a coaching role with family, friends, co-workers, employees, and colleagues half way across the country. Conversation can be a great mood enhancer and problem solving tool. Just as a computer and the internet are the technology of written communication - conversation is the technology of coaching.
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