As I sit in my newly renovated office and look out at the sun shine (it’s about time!), I feel happy for all that I have and for a business that I truly love.  I can truly say that I love what I am doing.  How about you?  Can you say this?  Why or why not?  What would you change to make it better?  What is holding you back?

If you find yourself sitting in a dead end job or a job that isn’t making you happy, I challenge you to look at why that is.  What is it that needs to change?  Do you need to upgrade your skill set?  Is your boss driving you crazy?  Have you told him/her about your feelings?  Is it time to move on?

Many of us get comfortable in our jobs – or let me say “uncomfortable” but we are afraid of what might be on the “other side”.  So instead of doing something about it, we sit and sit and sit.  At some point our unhappiness starts to impact our health.  I can tell you from experience – it is not worth it!

BE the change you want to be!  Life is too short to be unhappy!  Own the change you are looking for – don’t expect that it will just come to you because if it ever does, it may be too late.

Happiness is in your hands….go get it!

So often HR struggles to prove the value of the service the department provides.  I was talking with my students last night in a Recruitment and Selection course and we were talking about all of the different things that impact how we recruit and select our candidates.  In our profession it is critical to monitor things like the legislative environment, the vision, mission and values of a company, the social and economic environment as all of these items directly feed into a companies strategic objectives and organizational requirements which directly impact who and how we recruit.  When we bring in candidates that reflect these items, we are bringing in the talent that will allow our company to be successful.  A company will not be successful without the talent needed to achieve the objectives.

Successful recruitment and selection is only one piece of the list of services that HR provides and yet, very quickly we see how critical it is to company success.  As a profession, we are always looking for more ways to show our ROI to a company – the above comments -even without listing “numbers” very quickly indicates the criticalness of success and value to a company.

The next time you are gathering at the boardroom table, I challenge you to look around the room, if you don’t have an HR presence, ask yourself why?

Struggling with employees not living your company mission and vision? I challenge you to think about what it is that you are doing to set them up for success.  For example:

Do you discuss your mission and vision with your employees regularly?  Is it ingrained in the way that they conduct themselves at work everyday?  How is it?  Or, How could you alter it so it is?

When you are hiring new employees, do you hire them with your mission and vision in mind?  Do you ask questions that help you assess whether they will work along side and support your goals?

Do you include components of your mission and vision in your performance reviews, such that employees realize that they need to be contributing to these and that their performance ratings will take these contributions into consideration ?

Do you have employee goals that directly support your mission and vision?

Instead of jumping to the conclusion that your employees are not supporting your company – ensure you are by sharing and promoting what it is you want to achieve as a company and assisting them to do the same through process, performance and procedure.

Is your company or team suffering from Groupthink?  What is Groupthink and how do we avoid it?

First, what is Groupthink?  This occurs within a group of people, where there is a high desire for harmony.  The members of the group, when tasked with a decision seek to minimize conflict by suppressing viewpoints that might differ than other members of the group.  The result of this is a dysfunctional decision making evaluation, which can have quite negative consequences, or at the minimum provide a less desired outcome when implemented.

We can see why and how this situation can happen as no one really wants to seek out conflict or be the one that brings it about – OK….there are SOME people who seem to enjoy this – but on a whole, people seem to want to get along and agree.  When a group encounters Groupthink, the results can have quite an impact on a team or company.  So, how do we avoid or at least put things in place to counteract this?  Here are some strategies taken from an article I read recently: (http://www.hrmonline.ca/features/going-against-the-tide-avoiding-groupthink-120361.aspx)

1. Keep vision of the decision and situation clear. It is much easier to get sidetracked when you are unclear about what the main track is.
2. Encourage people to disagree. Most people form opinions too quickly and give them up too slowly.
3. Cultivate ‘Insultants’. Find people in your organization that you can trust to tell you what you need to hear, no matter how unpopular or unpalatable that is.
4. Make sure that your actions as a leader reflect what you want to happen in your organization. Followers reflect the behaviour of their leaders, rather than their spoken word
5. Honour your intuition. If a decision maker thinks that they is being manipulated, then that is probably the case.
6. Delegate, do not abrogate. It is important to share control and to empower your managers. However, it is important to remember who is ultimately responsible for the outcome. As is often stated in politics, trust but verify.
7. Bring in a consultant who has specialized knowledge in the area that you are deciding on. A good consultant will present perspectives which may not be apparent to your team and may well prompt those who do have doubts to voice their concern.
8. Finally, another way to identify risks in the decision is to use the Delphi Method. Within each group, feedback is taken from individual members and presented back to the group anonymously. Group members can then modify their opinions in the light of other member’sopinions. This process is repeated until no changes are made by the group. By using this anonymous feedback, feedback and individualopinions, the decision making group has the opportunity to view group thinking – seeing things holistically and from everyone’s point of view – and avoid groupthink.

If you recognize that Groupthink might be occurring in your workplace, consider looking into the above strategies.  Though it is fantastic to have a unified and cohesive team, we do want to ensure that our desire to “all just get along” doesn’t impact the quality of our decision making.

“Obstacles are the things we see when we take our eyes off our goals” Zig Ziglar

What are your goals? Have you set them for 2014? How will you achieve them? How will you know that you have been successful?
Go beyond listing goals, ensure you think about the work that needs to happen behind the goal. Think about what needs to happen for that goal to be achieved. Sometimes it helps to set up a little reward for yourself upon achievement, it give us a little extra “push” to work hard.

Follow the SMART criteria when setting your goals. Ensure each goal is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

Specific – when you read the goal you have set out – is it specific enough or is it too broad?

Measurable – How can you measure the goal? I.e. is it by a grade of 80% or higher? Is it an employee turnover rate of X etc.

Attainable – Is the goal truly attainable? You want it to be a bit of a stretch, but you don’t want something that it nearly impossible for you to achieve.

Realistic – Is the goal truly a realistic goal? Is it something that will help you? Becoming a Rocket Scientist when you are in a different profession might not be a realistic goal for you to set for yourself this year…

Timely – Set a time frame for achievement – this will help you keep on track and let you know if you have indeed achieved your goal.