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Archive for category TO: G/A Leaders

How to Meet People at Professional Conferences

Aug 13

Posted by Frannyo in TO: Applicants, TO: G/A Leaders, To: HR, TO: Line Managers, TO: Owner or CEO, To: Staff | 15 Comments

If you ever go to a professional conference, here’s what you see: 90% of the people attending have their phone at their ear or their fingertips, avoiding eye contact at all costs. It’s weak, y’all.

I’ve written about this before, but, as the fall conference season heats up, I gotta try again. The true gold of a conference is the opportunity to create or widen a professional network. These are folks you can learn from, bounce ideas off of, meet for an occasional happy hour, and maybe even work with one day. Making connections is critical to your career, your well being, and your learning. Period. Make it happen.

So, how do you do it? First, get over yourself. Not to be mean, but honestly, nobody cares, so if someone doesn’t respond to your chit chat, it doesn’t matter. This isn’t reality TV, no one is watching. Just go talk to someone else. Second, recognize that mostly people really do want to connect, find a commonality, have a laugh. Reaching out is a little gift that you’re giving their day.

Here are some harmless ways to start a conversation:

 

  • If Wile-e can pull these off, you can, too.

Compliment something, if you mean it. People often work to look their best at conferences, so if you truly like someone’s bag or shoes or dress, tell them! It’s a good way to get a conversation started. It doesn’t cost anything to be nice. *Note – this can be a little awkward. Once, an acquaintance came up to me at a national HR conference and, I guess, finding nothing else nice to say, exclaimed, “You got waxed! Your eyebrows look great.” Not a lot of opportunity for follow up there…

Go with the context. What seminar are they thinking of attending next? Did they go to the conference bookstore and have a look around? What did they think of the keynote?

Find commonalities. She likes jewelry made from bottle caps, you MAKE jewelry from can tabs. See, you have lots of things to talk about already!

Go meta, if you must – “I know I’d like to meet some people here, but it feels awkward to meet strangers. How have you typically networked at things like this?”

Basically, just relax. Relax, make eye contact, and listen. Look for an opening, something that makes the other person’s eyes light up a little, and ask more about that.

BFFs now? Great! Before you end the conversation, let them know you’d like to get in touch again, and give them your card or tell them where they can find you online. If they don’t give you one back, it’s fine, they may not have any. Make a note of their name in case they get in contact. If you get a card or contact info, follow up two weeks to a month later with a brief note about something relevant to your conversation, and see where things go from there. Keep it light.

If you’re getting a lot of people looking around for an escape when you introduce yourself,  you might be falling into one of the insecurity traps associated with meeting strangers. Here are a few traps to watch out for.

I wish I had these cards.

Don’t brag. (“I’m the youngest VP of the largest company in Florida. Here’s my Precious my business card.”)
Don’t humble-brag. (“You have two kids? And no help? I don’t know how I could raise my three without my nannies.”)
Don’t name drop. (“Oh really? You just started as an HR Clerk at Walmart? Then you must know Prithi W? She’s the VP of Supply Chain for Walmart Corporate, I think she reports directly to Bill Simon, Walmart’s CEO? We’re GREAT friends.”)
Don’t complain. (“Yeah, these conferences are okay, but the food is terrible. I wish we could get better sandwiches, after all, we’ll never eat again and we couldn’t possibly bring our own or go off campus. Let’s whine about the chips together.”)

You look insecure and weak when you show that you feel you MUST establish dominance through status, who you know, or criticizing something you didn’t create. You may think you’re playing it off, but you’re not. Nobody is impressed, and you just made them either judge themselves for not being such a rock star, or judge you for showing your insecure side. You want both parties to walk away from the conversation feeling good!  The best conversationalists are secure enough to make the conversation mostly about the other person, and are gracious and supportive.

If you’re headed to HRFlorida or the National Nonprofit HR Conference, I’ll see you there. And say hello! Just don’t ask me about my facial hair.

 

 

Local and Humble

Aug 2

Posted by Frannyo in TO: G/A Leaders, To: HR | No Comments

My wife and I like good food. A lot more than we should, really. We spend a disproportionate bit of our budget on fancy food served in tasteful restaurants. We live in Houston, one of the top restaurant cities in the world, and we work our way down a long list of great places pretty methodically.

We’ve found that the finest ingredients, cooked and served in the most amazing atmosphere, is nothing compared to decent, local, food, cooked at home by kind people who care about you.  The same can be said for your HR functions.

You see these shrimp? (Sorry, crappy iPhone pic) Those giant blue shrimp were sold to me in the small town where I work sometimes, an hour from the Gulf Coast. Two guys drove up in a truck and parked at the closed up corner gas station. They come on Thursdays, and hang around for a while drinking beer out of cans covered with paper bags, shooting the shit until their six pack or their coolers of shrimp and fish run out or their customers stop coming around.

The smaller pink shrimp are from Key West. They cost $3.00 a pound more and came from a very fancy grocery store here in Houston. They were purchased the same day. The taste test – well, too bad you can’t taste a blog post, you’d know the difference right away.

The guys only sell shrimp in 7 pound bags, so I took some around to our friends. Our friends gave us a glass of iced tea, a good visit, a sack of strawberry plants and a jar of home-pickled eggplant. The visit wasn’t very efficient, but the strawberry plants were a nice surprise and the eggplant tasted great with dinner.

Nobody’s going to get rich shrimping, and selling their catch out of the back of a truck. It’s not scalable, as they say. But  that’s what works for those guys. They’re not looking to supply restaurants in Houston: it’s too far and they’d have to work too hard. And though pickled eggplant wasn’t on my list of Things That Sound GREAT for Dinner, we really enjoyed it.

Be careful, when developing your HR function, not to suck all the life out of your company, all the opportunities for a little conversation, a talkative coworker who offers you something you’ve never tried but really works well. Chances are good that your homegrown system, built with a deep appreciation for your company’s particular circumstances and culture, will work much better than some off-the-shelf fancy system, if you’re not planning to become a Fortune 500 giant. Efficiency can be highly overrated when building a company, and a life, worth savoring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brunch Treats

Jul 31

Posted by Frannyo in TO: Applicants, TO: G/A Leaders, To: HR, TO: Line Managers, TO: Owner or CEO, To: Staff, Uncategorized | No Comments

A couple of little treats for you this fine, hot, Sunday morning.

First, let me introduce you to my favorite drink this summer, the Bloody Micky. A country club cousin of the Michelada,  It’s perfect for a long brunch, particularly a long brunch that ends in a swim or a nap. Or maybe, if you have the right pool float, both.

You”ll need:

  • Your favorite wheat beer. I’m fond of St. Arnold’s but you can use whatever you like.
  • ZingZang Bloody Mary Mix. I’m less mellow about what kind of mix you use. ZingZang is THE BEST.
  • Vodka. I like Tito’s. Also pretty firm on this part.
  • Limes
  • Ice.
  • Olives, celery, a little paper umbrella, and friends to brunch with
Fill a tall glass with ice. Pour half a glass of ZingZang, then add the beer and the vodka to your own preferred degree of sobriety. Careful now, you most likely have errands to run and work to do after your nap. Add the juice of a lime and olives or celery, mix well, and clink the glass with your friends. Enjoy!
Second – someone reminded me that I had written an okay presentation on Social Media for Reluctant HR Pros. I delivered it at the HRHouston Gulf Coast Symposium, threw it up on slideshare, and forgot all about it. But since only three people came to the presentation, (talk about relunctant!) someone else might get some use out of it. Feel free to download and use for your own purposes.
So, if your Sunday was all about making a last minute presentation for HR Pros who are scared of social media, and what you REALLY wanted to do was have a nice savory mixed drink, you’re all set. Enjoy!

Wanna be Relevant? Listen First.

Jun 17

Posted by Frannyo in TO: Applicants, TO: G/A Leaders, To: HR, TO: Line Managers, To: Staff | 3 Comments

The most kid-friendly picture of Katy Perry I could find. Kei$ha? Forget it.

My daughter Maggie is four. She’s an only child, but like her mama, very extroverted. She’s always trying to please, which is great for her moms but can backfire a bit with new friends. For instance, her seven-year-old cousin, who most likely listens to Katy Perry and Kei$ha, was in the car with us recently and Maggie piped up eagerly, “I really like the Muppet Movie! Let’s listen to some of the music right now!” Her cousin rolled her eyes. On Sunday a boy a year older came over to play. Maggie lead with this exciting news, “I  have thirteen dolls, you can pick the one you’ll play with!” He mumbled something about wanting to go outside. Or home.

Love the enthusiasm. But I need to better help her learn to listen first, to really have fun with friends. Figure out what’s important to THEM, not what’s important to her. Her friends will have a better time, and she will learn something new.

I recently started a new job. As always, I’m the only HR pro, and the first they’ve had in a long time. I see SO many opportunities for improvement around things *I* care about and am good at. For instance, I can easily build them a much cleaner, much more professional new hire process, and stick that feather in my cap. But you know what? They don’t care about that, at least not right now. And they care as much about my HR and SHRM network activities as my niece cares about Kermit the Frog. They only care that I really learn the business, that I contribute on the teams that really need some direct help, and that I not go bury my nose in some employee handbook. After all, they’ve gone this long without me, there’s no rush to change everything that they’ve cobbled together in HR land.

It looks like Maggie isn’t the only person around here who needs to practice listening and trying new things. As long as it’s not Kei$ha, I’m excited to learn.

 

 

Tire Tales

Apr 11

Posted by Frannyo in TO: G/A Leaders, To: HR, Uncategorized | No Comments

I developed a flat tire last week, wood screw in the tread.  I got it fixed for twenty bucks by a highly reputable tire dealer.

I’ll never go in there again.

Did they have good customer service? Sure. The lady kept calling me “M’am,” and “Miss Franny,” and asked if I wanted some water.  Did they have decent amenities? Yes, the bathroom was clean, the TV blared the most popular daytime soap for that time slot, and they had both Vogue and People magazines for customer perusal.  Did they fix my tire well and for a good price? Yep.

But here’s why I’m turned off. For whatever reason, this store appears to value data even more than customers. When I arrived, the rep completed no less than four separate screens of data just to input the request. Type, year, serial # of vehicle, license plate number, insurance card, my own home address and phone number, even my email address. It felt like I was trying to buy a last-minute ticket to Tel Aviv with cash.  Even more strange? We went through a similar rigamarole when I paid my little twenty bucks to leave. I had to sign two separate full-page receipts.

This is a company that, apparently, lets their IT department and their lawyers run their hundreds of tire shops. Marketing and common sense have left the building.

Check it out, HR.  Do you do the same? We recently implemented Taleo as our ATS and onboarding system.  We’re happy because we did have a full-time employee who JUST entered new hire data into ten different systems, taking about six hours per new hire. We were able to free up a lot of time and ensure that the info was entered correctly, by having the applicant do a lot of it themselves when they apply.

Right now, about half of our new hires come from internal referral, and half come from online sources. Internal referrals typically get excited about our company because of it’s “no dumb rules” work culture and the opportunity to build their own career ladders. We had to really think about how to handle their new hire process, since they don’t come in through Taleo.  Do we force them to go through the same process, so we can get them into our ATS?

We finally decided that, though it would be more convenient for us, we didn’t want to be like that tire store. We’ll give them the option to opt in to Taleo onboarding, or we’ll enter the info on our own. We didn’t want someone’s first interaction with my company to bring bureaucracy, internal controls, and dumb rules to mind.

When in doubt, remember who your customers are. It’s almost never IT, HR, or your legal department.

 

 

On Being a Fan

Nov 4

Posted by Frannyo in TO: Applicants, TO: G/A Leaders, To: HR, TO: Line Managers, TO: Owner or CEO, To: Staff, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I’m reading Keith Richard’s autobiography right now. I wouldn’t have expected the hard-partying lead guitarist for the Rolling Stones to be able to put a short story together, let alone 563 pages of detailed rememberances, but he (and most likely an exceptionally patient ghost-writer) sure did. And it costs $30 bucks at the airport book store.

Even though I’m not big on the Rolling Stones, this book is riveting. Keith Richards comes across as an amazed, affectionate, somewhat baffled witness to the birth of something Really Big – this giant mega phenomena of a band he found himself in.  Richards almost never talks about himself. Instead, he spends entire chapters talking about his awe of American blues musicians, John Lennon, and Gram Parsons, pages discussing who taught him open tuning and how it changed the way the Stones sound forever, and paragraph upon paragraph explaining the history of a particular riff, the references to particular old blues or gospel songs and the like. This guy flat loves guitars and the rich history of all the other people who have also played them.

Yes, sometimes he can come off as a bit pedantic, Granpa Keef schooling the young-uns , but mostly his gratitude, sincere awe for those who played the guitar before and with him, and honest humbleness about his own skills really shine through. Keith Richards is unbelievably lucky to still be a fan, a true enthusiast. Given everything he’s seen and done, it’s amazing he hasn’t become a know-it-all and cynic, but at least in this book, not a bit of that comes through.

I think the people who are most successful in business and in life never lose their enthusiasm, that spark of innocent longing and awe. I myself am a huge fan of way too many HR thinkers, leaders, writers, and bloggers. I get a little nervous around them, I talk too much or not enough, I am too aware of my respect for their accomplishments and may make them a little uncomfortable with my fawning.  But I’m cool with that little flaw, because hey! at least I’m feeling something. And introducing myself.

Keith Richards was said to have passed out (soberish) when he met Bo Diddley*.  At least I’m not fainting at anyone’s feet.  And by paying attention to what they’re doing, and trying to learn from them, I’m pushing myself to get better and better at my job. I’m not sure that this will lead to long afternoons smoking hash in Marakesh with Anita Pallenberg, but that’s probably all for the best.

*(or somebody like that, I’m too lazy to go get the book and look it up. But really, you should read it if you’re at all into the Stones. or the 60′s. or women. he talks a LOT about women, too, he’s a huge fan of them. I’ll send you my copy if you like, I’m pretty sure Keith Richards doesn’t need any more royalties.)

G/A Leaders: Find The Sweet Spot

Aug 11

Posted by Frannyo in TO: G/A Leaders | 1 Comment

Entrepreneurs have such an ambivalent relationship with structure. Every one I’ve met is truly distrustful of systems, processes, and clarified roles, worried that they’ll lose their ability to move nimbly and organically because they’ll have to complete a form in triplicate, or that their employees will lose that start-up hunger and become too complacent, too far away from the profits to see how their job impacts company health.

On the other hand, no structure means the entrepreneur has to rely on individual decision makers who may or may not see things the way he or she does, or, god forbid, they just make all the decisions themselves. Growth is stymied due to simple bandwidth issues at the top, and decision paralysis below.

Finding the sweet spot depends on several factors:

a) market

b) growth type and pattern

c) strengths and acknowledged weaknesses of both the entrepreneur and his or her trusted advisors

d) the entrepeneur’s “babies” – those areas that he or she just will never give up because it’s such a passion.

In the next few memos I’ll discuss each set of circumstances and how to help find that structure  sweet spot that allows entrepeneur input but doesn’t require their feedback at every turn.

(July 2010. Wow. I sure didn’t follow up on this promise. But I will. Someday.)