HR for Y'all

HR for everyone, with a Texas drawl

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Winning

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit.  Unfortunately, so is losing.” – Vince Lombardi Leader is a title that anyone can claim. With a bit of bravado, anyone can call themselves a leader. But does that make them one? I think we can all agree that…

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2025, and Reflections on Monica’s Apartment

I have a confession to make. I am not a huge fan of the TV show Friends. I may lose readership over this confession, and given my current stats, this may mean that I will be writing for an audience of 1. Perhaps it is because I am not a fan of Friends the show, but I never paid attention to the fact that they all lived in these monstrous apartments in New York City and didn’t have jobs that…

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Ownership

Leadership. It seems everyone is a leader, probably because there isn’t a widely accepted institute that can bestow the title on you, with which there is no question.  I have met my share of medical doctors, for instance, but never had one who told me they didn’t go to medical school, but that they had read a lot of books.  “Leader” is a designation that must be earned, and this is entirely…

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Never waste a good crisis

Not too long ago, I was dealing with a problem. Not just any problem, but a major, big-mother of a problem. As I sat in my office, pulling what little hair I had left out, a very calm executive stood at my door and, knowing what I was dealing with, said “A mentor once told me ‘you should never waste a good crisis.’” It was sound advice, and given that it seems in my profession there is no…

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Let’s be reasonable

I am being harassed. Sadly, in my storied career I have heard this phrase more than once. You might have even said it to me, and if so, forgive me. Here’s the deal: people seem to think that when HR hears the word harassment or harassed, or some other variation, the next thing that comes into our brains is lawsuits, court, bankruptcy, and unemployment – not necessarily in that order. Well, for…

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It’s the “Little Things”

Tom Peters, one of my all-time heroes, wrote a book several years back called “Little Big Things.” In this book he drove home the (not so) obvious fact that the things which matter are really just a culmination of “little things.” A prime example, which I was shocked did not make his book is Buc-ee’s. If you have ever experienced Buc-ee’s, you understand. If you haven’t, you’re missing out. While…

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Efficiency through Effectiveness

As managers we want efficiency. In fact, as managers, ensuring efficiency is our job. The problem is, at pm eleast as it relates to people, efficiency has connotations of timing people performing tasks with a stopwatch and cutting bout those who cannot produce X number of widgets beenjv in an hour. When the topic of efficiency is brought up, usually with someone whose area is NOT showing to be…

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Avoid the 2-finger test

Stop me if you have ever been in this situation. You are running an efficient operation, which is to say that you aren’t overstaffed, then your staffing drops suddenly – maybe someone has left and poached two other people, or maybe you lost one person – in your department of 2. I once had an entire department leave within 24 hours (it was a department of 2, but there was literally no one left to…

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Pay to the order of morale

HR Leaders can be guilty of putting employee morale above everything else, and often it is the sword that we choose to die on. • Freedom to work whenever, wherever, and if-ever they want • Chef-prepared meals – at the employees’ homes • Free shuttle service – via helicopter… These are all perks that, while technically doable, obviously are not feasible to most, if any, organizations. But why…

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“I need a manager! I’m holding out for a manager…”

Are you a Leader or are you a Manager? Contrary to popular belief, the world needs managers. In fact, I would argue that we need them now more than ever. It seems that we have vilified managers, instead preferring the term “leader.” Comparisons are often made between manager and leader, with “leader” carrying more weight than “manager”. As though in the world of work achieving the status of a…

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Contingency Plans

Succession planning is one of those things that we like to play lip service to. Especially in HR, we talk a good game about naming successors. In reality, it is overlooked, and at great risk – not only to the staff under the manager in question, but also to any part of the organization that he or she touches. Perhaps succession planning gets a bit of a short riff since it is seen as somewhat…

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Peacetime vs. Wartime HR

Ben Horowitz, in his book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things,” draws a parallel between periods of what he calls peace – meaning times when your company is making bank, and times of war – which isn’t to say your business is writing hot checks, but at the same time, things are tighter. Specifically, he talks about the difference between Peacetime and Wartime CEOs – and what differentiates them. To…

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Level 5 of 5 - the pinnacle of HR Leadership!

In this last post in this series, we have reached the pinnacle of HR Development: The Level 5 HR Leader. If you are just now joining us, welcome, I am not sure how good you are at math My experience has been folks who have an interest in HR rank very high in intelligence, but math is not always their best subject. Even if you are remedial at the numbers game, I am guessing you have figured out…

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Level 4 HR Leaders

If you have been following this series, you can probably guess where Level 4 lands. If you have not been following along, I get it – well, actually, I don’t, but before you move on, you can catch up on the first three levels, as well as sign up for our email distro list so you can get this blog sent right to your inbox and what could be cooler than that? Think of it as a present from me every so…

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Level 3 HR

You are back! I know last week’s post was a bit of a cliffhanger, so you had to come back and see what Level 3 in HR Development looks like – I do not blame you! Or, maybe I just popped up in your LinkedIn feed after you got tired of cycling through those cat videos – I am not judging. If you do fall into category 2, I invite you to swing back over to hrforyall.com and give the previous two posts…

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Level 2 HR Development

Welcome back to our series on the 5 Levels of HR Development. If you have not already, I encourage you to go back and read last week’s blog: Level 1 HR, and while you are there, go ahead and sign up to get email notifications when I post a new article – it is far more interesting than those Old Navy ads you are getting, though maybe not quite as fashionable. If you stumbled here through one of my…

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Level 1 (of 5) HR Development

I have been thinking about professional development lately – particularly for HR Professionals. This may have to do with the fact that recently I have found myself working with some very talented and bright newly minted HR pros. By newly minted, I am referring to the fact that, before joining my team, each of these recent hires had exactly zero experience in the much-vaunted field of HR. The…

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