We met over coffee when I was in Portland to give a speech. My impression of her was that of a very bright, even brilliant woman who was a bit too big for the role she was playing. Not much later, a reorganization would change Trina’s role from one of development to remedial work, or we can call it, employee relations.

I knew that role quite well. For years, I worked with labor law firms and human resource groups in taking on high-risk employee relations challenges and spinning the circumstances into gold. That meant getting to the truth, resolving the problem and avoiding litigation. For quite some time, I enjoyed these challenges. It was a bit like becoming the Ray Donovan of human capital. But, the dynamics of working with enthused high potentials or participants filled with positive outlooks were far more nourishing for my soul.

For me, it took years to stop. On the other hand, Trina knew this wasn’t her within a much shorter time.

She flew down to Los Angeles and participated in a program that was filled with remarkable participants. Everyone in that room launched businesses for the first time or committed to new careers. Each person was gifted, motivated, and kind. When we were done, Trina asked me to help her with career marketing to find a better job. During the weekend, I had witnessed a leaning towards becoming a business owner. When I reminded her she responded, “No, I want to have one more big job before I do that.”

Now, I’m going to let everyone in on a secret. When someone realizes what they most want to do with their lives, if they put that off, the universe tends to send louder and louder messages. Fairly quickly, we found what looked on paper as a much better job, which Trina secured. But, I asked her, “Just one thing. Does the CEO lead the company culture? If not, keep your bags packed.” All too often, human resources or capital becomes the scapegoat for CEOs who don’t want to be bothered with culture and people.

Within a few short weeks after starting her new position, Trina called me and said, “I am ready to start the business.”

The next few months turned into an unfolding that moved both of us again and again. Trina had spent most of her early years at Intel, where human capital development was just as important as marketing and finances. She began her career in a technical role only to find that her success was based on her innate way of developing others. When Trina moved into organization development, she blossomed. There was one common thread with her success. She is extraordinarily gifted at taking technical professionals and turning them into leaders.

As we began the branding process, her comfort with technical leaders infused every conversation. There is usually a moment with incubating a new business owner where they have to choose to be a general brand or to define their unique purpose. There is a fear that if they get too defined, they will lose business. But, when we become crystal clear in our purpose, the people we want to become clients find us.

One day, I called her in the middle of the night and yelled, “How about Development 4 Nerds?” She started laughing and I added, “Let’s just use it as a working title.”

The initial resistance came up. She said, “Nerds feels a bit negative.”

“It was when you were a teenager. It came up in your branding process. But today, nerds own the world.”

All of a sudden, she interrupted me with, “I love it. I am a nerd and I love working with them.” That moment of becoming unique became a turning point because it also indicated deep self-acceptance.

I brought up that it is unusual to find executive coaches with a technical background. I asked, “How many executive development projects didn’t work out because the coach tried to remake the nerd personality?” It happens all the time.

Trina has become a walking and talking example of someone who learns how to honor every aspect of their career DNA. She has blossomed as a business owner. She enthusiastically engaged in consultative sales and social networking skill development. She learned how to write killer proposals and close deals. We helped her develop an amazing digital platform. As she developed these skills I’ve watched someone who used to be afraid of doing anything like this to a woman filled with confidence, joy, and pride in what she offers to the world.

People like Trina go through life with a commitment to innocence. These are the individuals who walk into a room to meet a new client without bias and a truly clean slate. That mindset requires courage.

In the 80s and early 90s, I was deeply involved in civil rights for the LGBTQ community. I worked with an organization that helped thousands of gays and lesbians come out of the closet as an act of love for the people around them. Someone would later ask me, “How did that experience impact your work today?”

I said that “Virtually everyone who comes to the Inspired Work Program is in the closet about something. As they define what they most want to do with their lives, as they learn how to succeed with that role, it is the same as coming out. The doubtful questions become part of the journey, “Will I be accepted? Will I survive? What will people think?”

And, after they get through that, what happens?

Freedom.

See for yourself. Take a look at Trina D’Amico’s site and you will find the new business owner that walks into her client’s offices with a beaming smile, who shows people how to lead and remain fully themselves.

How does she do it?

She is extremely well-educated and skilled. Perhaps the most important gift to her clients is that she is an extremely effective role model. To say she has become herself would be an understatement. To be well paid for that is the target of finding what she most wanted to do and bolstering the journey with an ever-growing willingness to change.

More about Trina at www.development4nerds.com

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post How One Woman Became a Unique Brand appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Caitlin Flanagan – The Problem with HR – The Atlantic – July 2019

In the early 90s, the graduates of our programs quickly became our greatest business development team. In just a few months after our launch, we were introduced to a human resource group at one of the largest companies in Los Angeles.

They were going through difficult times. A faulty business plan had badly damaged the organization. They were laying-off people by the thousands. We had the privilege of taking them through our program. Many of these employees made dramatic life changes and the high volume gave us a big opportunity to learn and improve the program.

An HR executive from the troubled company became our internal partner. Before sending employees, she asked to experience the program herself. Even though this example was published before, we are making slight changes to avoid identifying the organization.

At one point, she told us of her professional experiences from the past 2 years. There had been an industrial accident at their headquarters. She was put in charge of dealing with injured workers and moving about 3,000 people to another location. The experience was deeply stressful for her. But, just as that situation was resolved, she received an order to lay off about 800 workers. This was quickly followed by a much bigger layoff. At the company holiday party, everyone was asked to bring a gift. They were all given lottery numbers. Her gift turned out to be a cheese wheel and a hatchet.

Someone at the table said, “Isn’t that appropriate.”

I asked her, “Did anyone once ask how you were doing?”

She responded, “No. Most people felt I should be happy to have a job.” Throughout that first day, she kept coming back to all that she was asked to deliver without meaningful support.

76% of our country’s human resources managers are women. They step into roles that have been characterized as “below the line.” They are an expense. There is a tremendous difference in organizational behavior towards employees who generate revenue and those who don’t.

A human resources professional’s primary responsibility is to solve problems. As they become more skilled the quantity and quality of the problems grow. It is rare for the organization to grow the support team accordingly. Eventually, many are losing their life to competency.

This is because they are treated as an expense.

Based on the numbers, 3 out of 4 human resource executives are women who have had to protect the company from women who have been victimized by sexual predators. While more and more cases are resulting in the exit of a predator, it isn’t because human resource executives wield more power, it is an outcome from the revolution in transparency. The explosive sexual harassment claims of the past few years have been an outcome of social media-fueled by millions of electronic journalists. Many of the brightest and best women that I know are chief human resource officers and labor attorneys who have had to sit through hours of disturbing narratives, sitting in hotel rooms reviewing porn sites, and gathering all the information they can to protect the company rather than the victim.

This is because HR continues to be an expense. The pervasive internal fear of losing one’s job has insulted the values of quite a few people that I know and care about.

Time and time again, organizations looked at short-term profits and systematically worked to smother the problem rather than pull it into the light. In hindsight, how willing would NBC be today in having a do-over on the Matt Lauer case? But, human resources has not been given the power to make that decision. In a profit-centric world, they ought to have the power to analyze how much damage keeping him for one more day could represent in stock value, the ability to attract premium talent, and the loss goodwill with their viewers. Instead, they were directed to make one payout after another.

I have a fairly large cadre of clients, chief human resource officers who came to one of our programs and decided to make big changes.

I often tell them, “If the CEO asks you to take charge of employee engagement, keep your bags packed.”

Why?

The only sustainably great cultures are ones that are led by the CEO. If you are not given the power to tell the CEO that, you could become collateral damage. Unfortunately, too many CEOs don’t want to be bothered by people. They are busy satisfying shareholders and revenue generation. Many of these not so enlightened executives walk into human resources with the message, “Fix the employee engagement problem.” By the time the CEOs have hit the door, they are disengaged from the engagement program!

Next, the human resource executive announces a new engagement initiative. The employees look past her shoulder to the CEO. They see business as usual and they shrug.

An employee engagement survey is sent out. The results only make management feel more inadequate. They are sent through a leadership program. They return enthused to their teams who respond, “So what.” The human resource executive is shown the door for not fixing the problem.

Human resource professionals, like virtually every profession in the world, are undergoing the biggest restructuring of work since the printing revolution. HR began as police and paperwork units centered on keeping workstations filled and liability at a minimum. Over the years, the profession has become far more sophisticated. But, at its core, by treating human resources as overhead, we are not giving the function the freedom to reach its highest good.

The human capital profession bears equal responsibility in reinventing its professional mindset. I cannot count the number of people who tell me they want to become strategic leaders who addictively describe their value in terms of activity rather than results. I cannot count the number of human resource professionals who refuse to develop presentation and consultative sales skills, or routinely build solid professional support systems to fuel their career aspirations. Accelerating change is turning these vital skills into the real change skills of the modern workplace. We call them courage skills. As activity is taken over by cheap outsourcing and technology, the need for a transformed mindset becomes more urgent every day.

I believe one of the shortest paths to the reinvention of human resources into strategic human capital leadership is to change the model to one based on profits.

I believe the shortest path towards a change in mindset can happen when someone comes to a program such as ours where each participant experiences the beliefs and behaviors that no longer work. Then, they redesign their professional life around what they truly want. Sure, some will pack their bags and leave. But, it is far better to have someone recognize what they want to do with their lives rather than hanging out because they are afraid to take action. In truth, technology is offering all of us freedom.

Freedom requires that all of us raise the standards of how we work. For example, loving our work seems to be the most reliable fuel to change ourselves and develop the courage to grow.

For example,

• How much does an 8 or 36% improvement in employee engagement contribute to the bottom line?

• If highly motivated talent joins the organization because its green initiative or philanthropic involvement is real, what is that worth?

• How much is it worth to fly half-way around the world and bring back a scientist who will bring in 1.5 billion dollars in investment capital?

We work with several high-flying organizations that raise money to cure disease or bring innovation into the world that changes the way we live, communicate and view our lives. Their biggest challenge isn’t raising money. It is finding game-changing talent. It is no longer enough to throw cash and prizes towards the recruits. If they have the talent, they want a breathtakingly good employer culture, they want more than a boss, they want mentors. These organizations need the kind of human capital leaders with the power and mindset to convince the leaders to become Engagement CEOs. We need the kind of human capital power to walk into a room and tell the venture capitalists if they don’t manage human capital during a merger, they will not meet the targets in their new business plan.

Until we shift the vision from keeping human resources cheap to making more money, I don’t believe much will change at all.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Why is It Time to Turn Human Resources Into Profit Centers? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

However, once we define what we want to accomplish, our success is purely based on the quality of the people we get to help us.

People from all walks of life come through our programs because a Socratic (question-driven) curriculum that produces life-changing and unique outcomes for everyone.

I cannot count the number of entrepreneurs that have come through our programs who have reached a point in their success only to hit a wall that requires they surrender the behavior and outlook that got them to that point-in-time. The turning point usually requires bringing in new support systems and finding talent that will elevate the business as well as their lives. This is one of the most frightening moments within early entrepreneurial success because it means surrendering the behavior that worked really well…to a point.

Elon Musk is possibly in the biggest crisis of his life. Tesla has revolutionized the world. His vision has moved his company to a certain level of success. His hard work has created advances in electrical infrastructure and battery technology that has set the stage for a quantum leap with electric-based transportation. However, manufacturing challenges in quality control, speed, efficiency and production costs have turned into a nightmare for the founder. By extension, Tesla is facing its biggest crisis even without its production challenges. Because, Volkswagen Group, BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, GM, and Jaguar are all releasing entire lines of electrically propelled transportation. Most of them have superb commitments to quality with the resources to deliver it.

Before continuing with Elon, an anecdote from our own graduate base can crystallize the challenge. Everyone signs confidentiality agreements in our programs and when we share an anecdote, it is with their permission. This one included the caveat that we would not share her name.

We were leading a large Inspired Work Program at LAX. Our meeting room looked out on planes taking off and landing. Regardless of the number of people, they tend to go inward quickly and they craft their own ideal vision, mission, and purpose. The curriculum gently leads them into recognizing the life skills they need to become successful with that vision. Let’s be candid, there is almost always a certain degree of discomfort about looking at obstacles.

We had a well-known entrepreneur in the room. She was a spectacular leader in her industry. At the first break, she navigated her way over to me and said, “This has been wonderful. You have exceeded all of my expectations and I’m going to go home now.” I’ve found that the more uncomfortable someone becomes, the bigger the breakthrough. I managed to get her to stay. By the second day, some of us were envisioning her taking a chair, breaking a window, dropping a rope down the side of the building and making a run for it. Then, it happened. She became distraught and started a disclosure. Her father was the single most influential role model in her life. He taught her that if you want to get something done right, do it yourself. This outlook had worked at first, but now her success had become a trap. She was working late into the night, hadn’t taken a vacation in years and was constantly exhausted.

Sound familiar?

After this insight, she cleaned up and customized her entire support system. I ran into her a few years later and asked how she was doing. She smiled and said, “Surrendered.” Not long afterward, the business was sold for a bloody fortune.

Elon Musk is, by all accounts, encountering an emergency riddled with the theme of someone who is, in the end, fully human. Trapped in the all too common notion that only he can solve the problem is potentially killing him as well as the extraordinary innovation he has introduced to the world.

In strikingly rapid progression, Elon interviewed with the New York Times and told the world he is in the most difficult and painful year of his life. He revealed he sleeps at the company and is taking large doses of Ambien in an attempt to control his sleep. Not long after that interview, he typed out a shocking Tweet, “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”

A few days later, he appeared on a podcast with one of my favorite comics, Joe Rogan. I love Joe and have seen him live many, many times. But, Elon Musk, CEO of a public company and Joe? They smoke dope together on a podcast.

In less than one month after it all began, the SEC is ready to file charges against him for securities fraud.

If I was his advisor, here is what I would do:

• Have the Board and the Chief People Officer create a task force that manages Mr. Musk for the time being. Pull him out of the public eye and help him sort through this rather dreadful pothole. He is one of the world’s great innovators and yet he is human and has a very human crisis.
• Hire one of the best reputation management firms to take charge of his messaging.
• Get Elon off of all forms of sleep medication. Do I know of what I speak? In my internist’s office, there is a file. On the cover, in large block felt-tipped letters are the words, “If David Harder asks for sleep medication, shoot him.” Unfortunately, the body quickly habituates to sleep medication requiring larger doses just to sleep for short periods of time. When it reaches this state, we have no way of knowing if he even remembers sending that crazy Tweet.
• Take contrary action to his statement that he is, “Trying to recruit Sheryl Sandberg” to fix his production challenges. That one statement revealed the weakness of his talent plan. Offer a “too big to resist” bounty to recruit a production chief from a leading German or Japanese auto manufacturer.
• Call a Board Meeting to perform the intervention. I’m serious. With personality types such as his, the ones with the delusion they can fix everything, can and will bring down the company.

I am a big, big fan of Elon Musk. But I am painfully familiar with the signs of a meltdown that can kill off a company or an individual. The guy deserves every chance in the book. But, right now, he needs a new support system customized to help him with his health, to objectively solve Tesla’s production challenges, and help him learn that the right people will help him, if he asks or if he allows it.

The question is just how will his ego make room for that?

The answer will be more critical than anyone can imagine.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post How Can Elon Musk Be Saved? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

The business of retailing, like all categories, is facing wildly convulsive change. Quite a bit of ink has been spilled on the specter of Amazon taking over the world. And, while the press spends time looking at the dark ramifications of the company’s growth, little is said of why this is actually happening. When it comes to buying value, the only distinction in why people would go into a store rather than spending a few minutes on the computer is in the customer experience. And yet, the very organizations that are in the greatest deal of trouble are the ones that are so focused on short-term shareholder value, they cut expenses on the quality of their talent as well as the customer experience. The leaders of these organizations are bean-counting their businesses out of existence. In the end, the only way retailers will compete with Amazon is by providing a customer experience so faultless that people are willing to go across town to buy what they want.

Yesterday, after many years of loyalty, I ended my relationship with Walgreens. My customer experience deteriorated over time. I got used to long lines of people and staff members continually stressed out. I considered moving my business to the local CVS, but the disengagement of their workers is so bad that cashiers point to the self-service checkout kiosks instead of smiling, looking me in the eye, and demonstrating an interest in their job. So, I’m moving my business to a small pharmacy in the neighborhood and will pay the higher prices. Here’s why: In trying to deal with Walgreens over the course of one week, I lost four hours of my time. After making the decision to leave, I sent a note to Walgreens corporate. I only send notes in the spirit that a big store in our neighborhood influences the quality of our community. The store manager called. There was panic in her voice. She talked about how the most recent manager quit, they are short staffed in the pharmacy, she was offered the interim management position and would I be willing to come back? She offered a $20 gift card. I responded that when I added up lost time, my economic loss was several thousand dollars. I also pointed out that she wasn’t responsible, Their CEO Stefano Pessina is responsible for creating a culture where the customer and the employees take a back seat to short-term shareholder value.

Dan Banes is the CEO of Trader Joe’s where the average tenure of cashiers is eighteen years. At Trader Joe’s “team” isn’t an aimless marketing phrase. Their culture is so democratic that if a manager is the first person to walk a store, he or she scrubs the bathroom and the toilets. Dan shows up to the stores, just like his predecessor, and meets with the employees. He asks what they need and he listens. The company delivers value with a smile. Recently, I lost a pair of sunglasses at Trader Joe’s and they called by the time I got home. In thanking them, the assistant manager said it was his pleasure to do anything to make my day a little better and he thanked me for our loyalty.

The advancement of technology is leading us to a common-sense outcome. If our retailers are producing customer care workers who don’t look us in the eye, are waiting for the moment to leave, who feel they are not valued, leaders are perpetuating the day where customers will only interact with machines. Let us be clear. The tragedy isn’t Amazon, it is the failure in leadership of organizations who cynically believe that customers will tolerate abuse in order to get a deal. But, that thinking is dreadfully impacting large categories of workers that need an intervention, that could be awakened. Instead, these CEOs perpetuate a trance. As for the shareholders, the premium customers of these organizations left a long time ago.

Perhaps it is time for the shareholders of United Airlines, Walgreens, CVS, Spectrum, and Wells Fargo to recognize that customer experience will always trump cutting expenses. Their awakening could be the realization that loving the customer requires loving their employees. The empty complaints about Amazon always miss the fact that the nation’s biggest retailer now employs over 542,000 people.

Here are the words directly from their career website:

“Leaders start with the customer and They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers. Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say ‘that’s not my job.'”

Even some of the most hallowed names in retailing ought to be learning from the leaders of these growing enterprises. For example, the Nordstrom family recently sold its stock in their namesake. While this was happening, I went to a local Nordstrom’s to buy a suit. It had to be wonderful. I found an item that I loved. They only had one size. But, they offered to bring the said item from another store in order to buy the suit at full price. We spent two hours getting to the store, parking, searching and attempting to make a purchase. This “just in time” inventory outlook upended another once sacred relationship. When we got home, I went online to my beloved Gilt.com, originators of the online flash sale for luxury items. There, I got the same suit at half-price in my size and it was delivered to my door in four days.

Gilt’s CEO is a gentleman named Kevin Ryan. In reviewing his leadership of Gilt, I realized he meets the very definition of “What is An Engagement CEO” from my book, The Workplace Engagement Solution. In a recent interview, Mr. Ryan stated that “the CEO’s most important job is managing talent.”

Perhaps rather than hurling contempt and cynicism towards the CEOs of these new category leaders, we ought to be studying them, appreciating them and learning how to bring obsolete thinking into the new millennium.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

The post Demonize Amazon? Nope! Study Them. appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

For example, let’s use employee engagement as an example of the breakdown.

The CEO walks into the human resources office and tells the human resource executive to “fix the employee engagement problem.” By the time the CEO has hit the door, he or she is disengaged. The chief human resources officer launches an engagement program. The employees look past her or his shoulder to the CEO and witness “business as usual.” The organization conducts an employee survey. The results make the managers feel even more inadequate in producing engagement. A consulting organization suggests it is their fault. Leadership is sent to another development retreat. They come back enthused and the employees respond, “so what.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

If only 13% of the world’s workers are engaged we can presume that many CEOs are also disengaged. CEOs have a wide variety of responsibilities on their plates. For many, it has been all too easy to completely turn issues of culture to the human resources group. As a result, the employees don’t change. Successful engagement requires a fully democratic approach to the problem. Full engagement requires an awakening and growth almost always includes discomfort. We find that disengaged people must learn how to change in order to engage. Many of our workers are so out-of-sync with change, they are simply going through the motions.

When a CEO turns culture and engagement leadership to human resources, progress is more difficult than pushing an egg up a hill with one’s chin. In this scenario, when the culture change fails, who gets thrown under the bus?

Much of our consulting industry does little to change this pattern. For years, talent development has been reserved for the high potentials. America’s employers spend a fortune on leadership but little on transforming everyone else’s behavior. As a result, employee engagement becomes a chronic illness.

Organizations that make it to Fortune’s “100 Best Places to Work” issues make culture number one. And, we find CEOs that embrace the reality that category leadership requires a fully awake and enthused population. They recognize that employer brand has become more important than consumer brand. They often have the reality and humility to be coached by the chief human resource officer on messaging, responsibilities, and engagement accountability.

Here are a few suggestions for human resources executive who are seeking a new opportunity.

• Ask the CEO about his or her philosophy of human capital.
• What role do they play in culture definition and leadership?
• How receptive is the CEO to your coaching?
• How does the CEO envision your partnership?

The answers will probably tell you exactly what to expect.

Happy holidays.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

To discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes, Here.

The post When Do Human Capital Executives Take a Fall for the CEO? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

We can gauge the “attitude toward gratitude” by watching and listening. Gratitude is often displaced by consumerism. For example, the great actress Elizabeth Taylor was once asked to describe her spiritual philosophy. She laughed and responded, “More.” Taylor wrestled with demons throughout her life. But, she overcame them by practicing gratitude. In the last 30 years of her life, she was a great force of good in our town and throughout the world. But, the point of her remark holds up the reality that when we always want more, we fixate our way out of the present. We are not enough. The people around us are not enough.

The grateful tend to be generous in praising others and generous when someone praises them. In our programs, we often discuss how gratitude and praise are skills that help us build and sustain effective support systems.

This dynamic is vital in building and sustaining effective support systems. We didn’t need a lot of support in the old industrial revolution workplace – clocking-in and clocking-out seemed to be sufficient. But in today’s rapidly changing workplace, we need the right help all of the time. The praise-filled workplace is a helpful and engaged place to work. Let us be clear, I’m not suggesting hiring soft people or individuals who cast aside strong critical thinking. Years ago, there was a career development book on the market entitled, Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow. I never bought the premise. Andy Warhol’s outlook was far more realistic when he said, “Do what you love, you can always sell it.” Gratitude is one of the single most common characteristics of our greatest salespeople. Many described Warhol as one of the most grateful people they ever met.

Gratitude can have a great impact on a brand. A few years ago, we were delivering engagement programs to one of our largest clients. They went through a significant reorganization, the first in many years. Senior management came to me and asked Inspired Work to handle the outplacement. We turned them down on the spot. In large organizations, word-of-mouth is the single most effective way to grow our work. We had built enormous goodwill at the organization, which would have been irreparably damaged if we took the project.

With our individual clients, we find that getting someone onto the right path, finding the work they were born to do, and solving a seemingly unsolvable problem with their work produces gratitude and a turning point. On the other hand, when someone comes from, “It’s just a job” everyone around them suffers.

Earlier this year, I went through an extremely difficult period. We lost my brother-in-law. He was 54 when the police found him slumped over the wheel of his car – gone in an instant. The evening after his memorial service, my partner and I went to the Diana Krall concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was one of those sublime concerts that transported most everyone. As we walked down the hill, I stepped on a grease spot, flew, sprained my ankle and tore a six-inch hole in my favorite slacks. The following morning, I woke up in physical and emotional pain. There is a spiritual support group near our home at the beach. I hobbled to my seat. But, as I sat there watching the waves roll in and the speaker gave a moving gratitude-filled message, I realized that all the challenges in my life are high-quality problems. It is a high-quality problem to fall after a Diana Krall concert. It is a high-quality problem to wrestle with all the love in my life. It is a high-quality problem to have fatigue because I’m running a business and doing a media tour. It is a high-quality problem to grieve the loss of a great human being. Gratitude has saved and improved my life many times over.

This is the nature of gratitude. Instead of dealing with survival, we get to work on becoming better human beings. The challenge is no longer how to get through the day, it is how to be kinder and more loving by the end of the day. The focus isn’t just making more money and power. It is about how many lives we can touch, how much we can improve the world, and how we can help others be their very best.

When we praise someone who is grateful, they do not respond with, “Oh, it was nothing.” When someone does that, she or he is telling us, “Don’t notice me.”

Years ago, we moved our business and my home into a spectacular location in the city. We invited our clients and friends to a big housewarming party. One of my clients couldn’t be there. That afternoon, a sizeable crate was delivered to the front door. Her name was on the return address. When we opened it, there was a collective gasp. It was a gorgeous work-of-art. I knew the artists and realized how much time and money went into finding the perfect gift. I got her on the phone with very specific praise. “It is clear to me that you put so much thought and love into this beautiful gift.” As I continued, she got choked up. I reacted, “Why are you crying. I’m the one that ought to be crying.” She simply said, “You so get it. Thank you.”

Candidly, this highly successful CEO treats her employees, suppliers, vendors, delivery people, and customers with the kind of gratitude that has led to one of the finest workplaces I know. Her genuine gratitude makes most everyone around her bend over backward to do their best and be their best.

Raise the standard of hiring to requires this one trait. Years ago, I was redesigning my career around the standard of happiness. I wrote down one statement that changed my entire life:

“I will only work with brilliant and loving people.”

There are many organizations that have big doses of the cynical, the self-serving, the angry, the bitter, and the disengaged. Hire the people who not only have the skills that you need. Hire the one who says things like,

“I can’t believe I get paid to do this.”

“I get to work with the best people in the world.”

“This is the best job I’ve ever had.”

Otherwise, keep looking!

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

To discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes, Here.

The post The Single Most Important Trait in New Hires Might Surprise You appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

The problem of disengagement is so vast that it is far more than a vexing business problem, it is a tragedy that inhabits our homes, schools, roads, families, and daily routines. Disengagement doesn’t imply slow. We see disengagement in the frenzied pace of modern life, people filling their moments with stuff, tasks, devices, texts, and e-mails. In Los Angeles, we dodge disengagement in traffic every day. We find the trance in the aimlessness of lives without personalized vision, mission, and purpose. We experience the symptoms in the ugly outbursts from social media because picking on others is far more comforting than encountering emptiness, a lack of meaning, and of purpose. Anger seems easier.

I am at war with disengagement.

The workplace is a good place to launch the attack because work, from a time perspective, represents our biggest relationship. Time and time again, I find that if we settle for a mediocre relationship with our work, that experience carries over into every other aspect of our lives. The trance becomes our silent companion. The trance impacts everyone around us.

Why?

Disengagement is going through the motions without thinking of motion’s consequences.

In 1990, we opened the doors to a program that has changed thousands of lives. The work has given me the opportunity to observe many, many people successfully break away from stagnant and unfulfilling work and progress to a personalized and practical ideal – alive, meaningful, and buoyant. As a result, I know that people can change – dramatically. And, they can change in very short periods of time. In our world the breakthroughs begin through skilled self-inquiry. Why? Because everything that we need in order to be fulfilled is already inside of us.

Most people living in the world of disengagement don’t believe they can change. We are now living in the prophecies of the late Alvin Toffler, our greatest futurist. He told us that after the turn of the century, the rate of change would accelerate with such growing force that most people would settle into a state of “future shock.” He characterized this state as “trying to absorb too much change in too short a period of time.” The security and predictability established by industrial age jobs conditioned to associate change with pain. Consequently, the very skills that help us change are often rejected. In 2017, some of us have not only learned how to change, we have realized that skilled change allows us to experience more as humans than we ever could have conceived. The vastly different payoff from living the modern life is growth. For those of us coming from a world of sameness, is that a booby prize? Not at all. Today, we derive our security from growth. Today, we can grow so quickly we can fluidly move into entirely new categories of work. What was meaningful to us just a few years ago is now replaced by incredible new learning opportunities. This is the life for those of us who develop creativity and adapatibility in our lives.

The rest are hanging on for dear life. They stand like deer in the glow of their smartphones. Clocking in and clocking out. Many “flying below the radar” and angry the career they chose is giving lower and lower returns. In some cases, the trance is so deep some tell their kids to go get “a real job” just like the ones they hated. Their deeply misinformed fear of change shields them from opportunities via cynicism and sometimes even contempt. As change marches on more quickly each day, many settle for underemployment.

This is why I am at war with disengagement.

If you are in an organization having difficulty with disengagement, don’t issue yet another employee survey. Learn how to change. Teach others how to do it.

Because anyone who takes the initiative to learn how to change can also learn how to engage.

Until we teach everyone how to change, how will they possibly engage?

Disengagement, as it stands, is killing what is possible for our economy, our culture, and our future.

Once again, disengagement is more than a business problem.

For those of us who’ve developed any sort of mastery around change, it is time to consider how you can help others. Many of our sisters and brothers are impacted and in many cases swept away by change. They need our help. Mentor and support others to become engaged with their work, their lives, and with you.

Engage with yourself. Engage with the world. Engage with others. This is the act of war.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work Services, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes Here.

The post Why We Declared War on Disengagement appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Most employee engagement initiatives fail over this typical pattern: The CEO walks into human resources and ask the director to “fix the engagement problem.” By the time he or she hits the door, they are already disengaged. The human resource executive starts promoting engagement but employees look over that individual’s shoulder to the CEO for cues. They see “business as usual.” The company takes an employee survey, which only makes managers feel more inadequate. They are sent to a retreat center returning enthused. The employees respond, “so what?”

In a world of accelerating change, employer brands have become just as important as the consumer message. Organizations that attract the best talent are also attracting the premium consumer. So, the employer brand literally defines what any organization is going to become. For years, personnel was a silo that dealt with day-to-day problems which morphed into human resources, an implication that people were actually a resource and now we are stepping into talent. In the world of talent, we have a recognition that it is our people that bring in innovation, problem solving, creativity, resourcefulness and in the best of cases, a common mission. The big shakedown of change is impacting the human resource profession. Task oriented work is quickly being turned over to technology and outsourcing. In the aftermath, we find a group of talent professionals with a sophisticated understanding in how to link mission to talent, who understand how to connect shareholder value to the value of people. These are good strategists who make good business decisions. In the best of cases, they have well-developed business intelligence connected to well-developed hearts.

Why not consider them for the post of CEO?

What is their barrier of entry? One of the biggest challenges is the fact that many talent professionals are still oriented to measuring their value by activity rather than results. They bury themselves in things to do rather than confronting some of the more frightening aspects of leadership like taking a stand around policy, speaking up to other C-level executives and developing a strong support system both within the organization as well as the outside world. Often, building sales and presentation skills help. Finding mentors that have successfully made that transition can provide game-changing insights. Breaking some of the perceptions of human resources being soft, for the people, granular, and lacking courage are also necessary.

Once a chief human resource officer masters these critical business skills it really doesn’t hurt to start seeing the world through the eyes of everyone sitting at the table, especially the CEO. It doesn’t hurt to find other CEOs for mentorship, especially ones that have achieved category leadership. Finding, securing and developing world-class teams is one of the sure-fire ways to become a category leader. Understanding and motivating the human side of the business eludes so many organizations. So why not consider talent executives who’ve earned the role? If there is a world war for talent, why not routinely look at the Chief Human Resource Officer to win the game?

Here are a few suggestions for human resource executives who want to develop their potential:

• Reach beyond other human resource professionals for mentorship. Pursue mentors that demonstrate strong across-the-board leadership skills.
• Develop a strong understanding of technical, marketing and financial skill sets.
• If you are in an especially large company, apply for rotating leadership roles to strengthen your skills and the way you are perceived.
• Develop and practice a personal brand that builds the perception, “I can lead this organization.”

If you are a board member and you buy this message, you know what to do.

If you are a CEO and are developing a succession strategy, there isn’t a better time to evaluate your bias and move forward on this topic.

If you are a talent executive, buy the message, and want this outcome, feel free to reach out to me. I’m happy to make a few introductions.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work Services, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes Here.

The post Why Chief Human Resource Officers Can Become CEOs appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Last year, organizations spent millions on employee engagement initiatives with surveys, management training, executive coaching, dining rooms, gyms, retreats, and beach parties. But, only a small percentage of these organizations have succeeded. In those winning environments, everyone is engaged. It is quite that simple and yet unusual. We can also project, quite simply, that if everyone is to be engaged, then everyone gets the same kind of developmental support in building an engaged culture. This approach runs counter to an entire consulting industry where high potentials are only too happy to sign off on development dollars that support them but leave out everyone else. This is one of the reasons that the consulting industry treats disengagement as a chronic disease. We treat bits and pieces of disengagement, forever. Business leaders are told, “You have to become a better business leader. We will train you, make you more competitive, and help you become stronger.” Sounds good, but the mid-managers and the frontline workers get left behind. They are the people that touch the nation’s customers. But, we leave them out of it. The high potentials get sent to retreat centers, they come back excited and everyone else responds, “So what.”

Engagement only works as a democratic commitment, policy, and practice. In a democracy, everyone is responsible for the results. In a democracy, we don’t treat elite members of the population and leave everyone else with the same old outlook. In a democracy, we don’t have CEOs turning the culture and employee engagement over to other people. In a democracy, the CEO is just as responsible for personal engagement as the new college grad who just hired got hired in the marketing department.

It is futile to expect an awakening when we use the old hierarchical model of pushing leaders to become skilled at drawing engagement out of talent. Impolitely, let’s call that manipulation. Most workers need and crave personal involvement and individual transformation. But, in a caste system, the belief is bolstered that executives are more engaged than the rest of us. I have met line workers who are more engaged than some of the leaders in charge of engagement programs. When we allow entire categories of workers to disengage while admonishing the rest to “wake-up,” nothing will change. Because, becoming fully engaged can be a personally challenging and frightening process. Getting people to care more about their work requires shifting them out of a trance and into the light. One of the most important reasons we have so much disengagement is because workers are being asked to change and they don’t know how or don’t believe they can or are hostile to the entire idea. This is because personal change requires honesty, transparency, and self-inquiry. Plus, sustained engagement requires the skills of connection, which, for many, requires a bit of courage to develop.

Organizations have typically failed in defining what it is that we need to do in order to thrive within the rapid, disruptive and transformative change we find ourselves in. By extension, much of today’s talent has obsolete work skills and few new life skills. They become overwhelmed in simply trying to keep up with incremental change. We need to help them close these gaps. The CEO can no longer expect positive change by ordering up engagement and than routinely doing the same old thing. Employees can smell it. The trance, the going through the motions of work, is contagious.

It is time to dismantle the elitist approach, the machine we have built, in leadership development. Pouring funds into senior executives helps them grow but it will not produce engagement. Ordering people to wake-up has proven fruitless. People are moved when they see everyone walking the same walk. Trader Joe’s is famous for its deeply engaged culture. The first person to arrive at a store is typically the one who cleans the bathroom. Many employees see their general manager scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets. Everyone pitches in. Yep, cleaning toilets together is an example of democracy. More pointedly, the manager doesn’t sit in an office waiting for someone to do the work.

I am suggesting a change of heart. Years ago, The University of Southern California called us in for a meeting. They had heard about our leadership development programs. But, the first words out of their mouths were, “We don’t want another leadership program where we send the executives to a program and leave everyone else behind.” I laughed and responded, “Well, you are talking about employee engagement. Let’s give everyone the same process. Let’s treat everyone as equals.” Up until that point, most organizations were afraid to give everyone our processes where people define their truth, their relationship towards work, and how they are going to get the lives they want to lead. But, the numbers and results speak for themselves. Immediate breakthroughs in engagement were not only produced because of a sound curriculum, the team members did it together.

Somehow, when we treat everyone the same way, when we expect engagement from every single person and when we create a fully level playing field, the whole game changes.

No one is left out. Everyone gets the tools to engage. Everyone learns the skills of self-change. Everyone shows up together. Everyone is responsible.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work Services, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes Here.

The post Why Employee Engagement Must Have a Democratic Solution appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

– Jean Baudrillard

I had a friend many years ago who had an ongoing problem with men. Once over dinner, she took responsibility for the problem as she said, “I can walk into a church with 99 men sitting at the foot of the cross and my eyes will gravitate to that one man that just got out on parole and I’ll say, ‘Ooo, he’s exciting.'” While I loved her dearly, I did not go to this friend for romantic advice. Instead, I developed a strong and rock solid romantic life by seeking the advice from people in long and healthy marriages. Around these friends, it became clear that finding some with a good heart was critical in developing a rewarding love life. The quality of our love life certainly plays a big role in our happiness. But, the possibility exists that the quality of our relationship towards work plays an even bigger role. Because that relationship also influences the quality of every other relationship in our lives.

There is nothing wrong about having excitement in our work. But, I have found that pursuing meaning and purpose is far more important than being excited all of the time. And yet, continuous boredom is a symptom of a far greater problem.

Boredom, monotony, sameness, repetitiveness are all descriptors of task-oriented routines, the very type of work being replaced by software, technology, and efficient outsourcing. Task-oriented work tends to lull workers into a trance. This is why long-term boredom kills careers and happiness.

The most dangerous boredom of all is coupled with a distinct lack of curiosity. This keeps people out of the discomfort of growth. That comfort is often protected with a type of cynicism and resignation the characterizes work as, “just a job.”

What is the best antidote to boredom?

Learning.

Learning about the world around us removes any delusions of whether our inert work situation is going to change. When we learn, we change. It is always better for us to change before change is imposed on us. The change in front of us is coming directly from the growth of accessibility to information. This watershed phenomenon is leading to a culture where active learners literally own the future.

For one of the first times in American history, we are questioning what is becoming “normal” to us. The old industrial revolution based model of work was founded on boredom, repetition, and sameness. That became normal for 300 years. Most of us didn’t select work that we loved, we found work that offered security and predictability. Now, our security is derived from how much we grow? From the lens of the past, this doesn’t look like good news. But, for those of us who jump in, transformation turns out to be quite exciting and, get this, rapid personal growth turns out to be the one safe place to develop professional security.

Consequently, tomorrow’s employers will not be judged on how long they employed someone but how much that person grew while they were there. That is new terrain after an old work world where we went to school, got a degree, and stepped into that secure job. Now, even the purpose of higher education is radically changing. I believe its greatest value is in learning how to learn. Think of this. How many of us went to school and absorbed information that is obsolete today? In the current landscape, information can be obsolete by the time class is over.

So what is the good news? Treat education not as another task but as the opposite of boredom. When we become curious and open and skilled at learning we grow into new people. According to studies out of Stanford’s Behavioral Science unit, the average human doubles the quantity of information every three years. What happens when we commit to feeding ourselves higher quality information? Even as Kim Kardashian selfies her rear-end we can learn valuable lessons about modern marketing. But what becomes of us when we study the groundbreaking work in virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence, healthcare, transportation, manufacturing, culture, art, and education? In fact, if we throw ourselves into the information mosh pit we will discover options that we never believed were available to us.

So if you are bored go learn something new. Find out what is really happening in your profession. Explore topics that interest you. Find out where the world is headed. Question everything that you believe, everything you have been taught and explore all that is new and emerging and vital and exciting.

You will grow into someone new.

Brought to you by David Harder – Founder & President, Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, David Harder – (All Rights Reserved)

Buy your copy of The Workplace Engagement Solution here.

The post The #1 Solution with Being Bored at Work appeared first on Inspired Work Services.