How to Stay Motivated During Your Job Search

Last week I sent out a request to readers to tell me how they were punishing themselves for being out of work. Boy, that was a mistake. My inbox was flooded with emails from people truly in pain for being jobless. They expressed their suffering in alcohol abuse, isolation, insomnia, weight gain (or loss), hopelessness thinking, neglecting the kids, you name it. I got it all. So this week I’m going to focus my message on practical steps for staying positive in terribly uncertain times.

Remember, you don’t get extra points in heaven for your misery here on earth. You also don’t look smarter for being cynical. Not to belittle your suffering here (not at all), I would like to invite you to at least contain it in a sharply defined box, and not let it slosh over into all aspects of your life. Sure, when you do that, you will have really miserable people tell you that you’re just being silly, shallow, stupid by finding reasons to be happy. Let ‘em. Whole lives have been ruined by someone casually dropping their own D-bomb (D for despair, depression) on someone they just passed judgment on and then walking away from the wreckage, not realizing what they have done. Your life is your own to lead, and you owe it to yourself to find happiness wherever you can.

Listen to your heart. If people keep hammering away at you to do the "smart" thing, and your heart is telling you different, listen to your heart. Every time I ignore my instincts, heart, desires, etc., and let myself get talked into something I really don't want to do, I regret it dearly. And quite seriously and painfully.

Treat regrets like cavities. You can't erase regrets. I've tried. You can't even forget them, really. I've tried. Woulda coulda shoulda's should be treated like cavities: Permanent holes that should be identified, cleaned out from debris and the stinking ickies, and then filled with something really strong: gratitude, faith, hope, appreciation for what we have, lessons we don't need to learn again, that kind of thing.

Have a plan of action. The above-mentioned negativos would scoff at this and say, “well, duh.” Yes indeedy, duh. But here’s where I’m going with this: When you have a plan you have something to measure your progress against. Small wins – like how many phone calls did you make today? – are far more within your control than “did you get a job offer today?” Control will keep you from sliding down the muddy embankment of overwhelm. A plan will help you keep your spirits up, and that’s what we’re talking about today.

A plan will also do something else for you: It will give you something to talk about instead of your frustration. This could be especially important when it comes to talking with your significant other. In my book, Rebound, psychologist Bill Berman talks about how the stresses that he sees in marriages, especially around the job search, come from the other spouse feeling shut out. And to be “helpful,” that person starts offering up some well-meaning ideas – which, of course, as we all know, usually makes matters worse. Having a plan of action will stave off the “just get any job, already” last-ditch suggestion.

Declare a moratorium on downward spiral thinking. About 10 years ago, I was flat broke and living on Cape Cod (if you’re going to be stranded in life, Cape Cod is a good place to do that in). This was a time in the U.S. economy where it seemed that everyone was getting rich. And I couldn’t get a phone call returned, much less a paycheck. I couldn’t even keep a part-time job in a local bookstore, of all places. I was definitely in the trenches. I must have exuded some major loser vibe. So I would wallow in the question why? Why why why why why?

One day I realized that this kind of thought habit was getting me nowhere, and probably cranking up the loser vibe to glass-breaking decibels. So I gave myself permission to stop thinking like that. For just a month.

I still worked according to plan. I just gave myself permission to not feel bad about myself and my lot in life every single second of my waking (and most of my sleeping) hours. The relief was the kind of serene, heavy blanket of quiet that can only be compared to those seconds between cramp contractions. It really does feel better when it stops.

Raise your sights, don’t lower them. We’ve talked about this in this space before. Don’t go for jobs you’re clearly overqualified for because you think they’ll be a sure bet. They won’t be. Remember: entry level does not mean easy entry. And healthy hiring managers are not going to be attracted to candidates who are so desperate that they’ll take “anything.” That’s insulting to everyone, including the hiring manager. And you’d be taking away an opportunity from the person who is the right fit for that job.

Be a cluster buster. Great networking (the kind that will get you your next job) is about meeting people in totally different clusters or groups than your current selection of social and professional circles. Use all that energy that you were using beating yourself up, and channel it in the direction of meeting people you wouldn’t have otherwise met before. Seek out one-on-one meetings with these people. I’ll be talking more about that in future columns. But you can certainly teach yourself this material in the meantime. Don’t wait for me.

Don’t depend so much on job boards. They’re good but they’re limited. And every time another half million people lose their jobs (that would be monthly these days), your competition is getting stiffer and stiffer. You’ve got to make your own way. Again, I’ll tell you more about that in future blog postings. Just know that over-reliance on online postings is playing a huge role in bringing you down.

Go out and play. As I’ve mentioned to you before, there have been tons of studies done on how people are more innovative, creative, and optimistic that day after they had a good time -- not the day after they kept their nose to the grindstone. Infusing your life with fun also helps keep up your resilience. If you have children, you also get the side benefit of knowing that you’re setting a good example to the kids that happiness does not depend on a steady paycheck.

Lay off the booze. Really. And pills too.

Coddle your noodle. I know, vitamins and healthy food are expensive. But you are placing a lot of demands on your mind right now, putting your brain through its paces. Give yourself the brain food you need to keep it running at its best. Blueberries, strawberries, walnuts, salmon, carrots, spinach…you’ve seen this list before. Augment the food with a multivitamin, E, all the B’s. We’re talking about keeping your spirits up here, and your brain needs every possible support it can get right now. Don’t be mean to it.

Likewise, watch your explanatory style. When your phone isn’t ringing, what are you telling yourself as to the reason why? When the other person on the line is sounding peevish, is it you? One of my favorite expressions these days is “don’t believe everything you think.” If you punish yourself by assuming that everything bad or disappointing that’s happening is happening because of you, somehow, knock it off.

If you have trouble getting to sleep, you might consider relaxation or self hypnosis tapes. My favorite (and I’m just saying this, I’m not making a penny off of this recommendation) is almost any “paraliminal” from Learning Strategies Corporation. (www.learningstrategies.com) There’s one on relaxation which knocks me out. But I like almost all of them, except the one on peak performance. My preference is the ones that feature just Paul Scheele’s voice alone. The ones he does in collaboration with others make me feel rattled.

(I have trouble staying asleep. So in the middle of the night I just reach for the earplugs and start one up all over again.)

In the morning, practice mind control. My waking nano-seconds are my worst time. For decades I’d wake up with a self-abusive tape already running (it’s amazing I’d even be willing to go to sleep the night before, knowing what would be in store for me upon my waking up). A few years ago, I resolved to start up my own brain engine in the morning. So the second I felt myself coming awake, I’d intentionally tell myself all the good things I could about my life, my world, my place in it, etc.

Yes, yes. I’m aware that might come off as very Stuart Smalley to some of you – especially you cynics out there. Tough. All’s I can say is that most of us would never talk to a tender young child the way we talk to ourselves. So if you are like me and somehow got the idea that despicable self-talk was the same as emotional discipline, then you need to change your tune – especially in the morning.

Finally, take your lessons, impressions and influence from positive people who are out there enjoying life and finding ways to thrive. In Rebound, I spoke with people who were laid off and then landed happily. I wanted to talk to those folks with happy endings to report. Let the news programs focus on the dread tales of over-qualified people humiliating themselves in the job search. That’s helping them sell ads; it’s not helping you keep your spirits up. I wanted to help you keep your spirits up by showing how happy landings can and do happen.

Keeping your spirits up will be your most competitive advantage when it comes to finding your next job. Hiring managers will want to work with the person they will enjoy being with 8, 9, even 10 hours a day. Not some sad sack who says, “I just want a job, any job.”

Remember the lessons of Tigger and Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. You want to be Tigger.

PS: Another GREAT way to start the morning is by watching this following visualization tool. It's by the folks who brought us The Secret. I don't know what I think about the Law of Attraction but I do know that an uplifted spirit is its own reward. So check this out. It's free, wonderful, and you can watch without having to sign up for anything: http://thesecret.tv/secret-to-you/

PPS: If you have a favorite way of keeping your spirits up, email me at martha@reboundyourcareer.com and I'll send you a free PDF of my first book, Find Your Calling, Love Your Life.

Make Up Your Mind to Change Your Life in 2009: Part 2

Much to everyone’s surprise, it gets really cold here in New Mexico in the winter – frozen-solid-birdbath-water cold. Consequently I’m never in a hurry to slipper-shuffle down the long drive to the newspaper box – not when the flannel and down on my bed are so warm. And so my first news fix happens even before my first cup of coffee. Courtesy of CNN and my remote control.

This morning there was a segment about how seasoned executives are competing with 14-year-olds for summer jobs with theme parks. One former executive/current job candidate is quoted as saying how this is her chance to do what she’s always wanted to do, which is work with animals and people. To which I thought: Yeah right.

And then I thought: Uh oh. Here comes a whole new Recession-era story line: It’s gotten so bad out there that seasoned executives are competing head to head (in a manner of speaking) with youngsters who can barely be trusted to upsell by simply saying, “You want fries with that?” And then quickly on the heels of that dread scenario will be the executive applicants’ frustrated conclusion that “I am such a loser, I can’t even compete with a pimply pre-pube.”

What recruiter in his or her right mind would even consider a seasoned, middle-career executive for a job that a teenager can – and, by the way, should – do? There’s the over-qualified issue, of course. But even more to the point, these people are totally non-applicable. If we’re going to see more of this kind of behavior, we should add a third category to the problems of being qualified. You’ve got over-qualified (which is often code for being, well, you know). You’ve got under-qualified. And you’ve got N/A qualified. That’s where these people land.

Recruiters know that as much as these people might want the gig now, if they are handed a six-figure job offer in July, they’re going to ditch their summer job in a twinkling. They also know that the supervisors are going to be barely post-pubescents themselves. And who wants that kind of power issue going on? And, perhaps most compelling of all, if you’re talking customer service, just think of all those parents taking their kids to these parks for a jolly holiday and, perhaps, an escape from their own woes. Do they really want to hand their money over to someone just like them? Do they want to be reminded on their day of escape, “Don’t judge, you could be me before too long”? I’m thinking probably not.

N/A stands for non-applicable. It also stands for non-appropriate. And it just isn’t appropriate to crawl down your career ladder just for the sake of a job – even if you need one so badly that first paycheck is all that stands between you and Snidely Whiplash. Plus it’s insulting to everyone involved: you, the hiring company, all those kids who really deserve to take their spot on the first rung of their own career ladder. Entry-level does not mean easy-entry.

Which brings me to Step Two of my conversation with certified executive and life coach, and licensed mental health counselor Meredith Kaplan. (Click here for Step One: Acknowledge Your Feelings) Merry (that's her pretty picture at the top of this blog posting) says that if you want to change your life in 2009, Know Your Core Genius is the essential second step. If it’s counting correct change, filling bags of popcorn, and filing customers onto whirl-and-hurl rides, great! Knock yourself out. But I’m thinking you’re capable of more than that. It’s largely a matter of remembering what those things are and holding on to them for dear life.

“You owe it to yourself to figure out what your core genius is,” she says. “If you do it by yourself, brainstorm the answers to such questions as:

‘Where have I had peak experiences?’
‘What have I done that no one else can do quite like I can?’
‘What is it that attracts people to me in terms of my work-related skills?’
‘What is it that attracts people to me in terms of who I am as a person?’
‘What is it that I have or can do that is unique from other people?’

“These are the traits, skills and passions that can take you further in your career,” she says.

If you come up with a big, fat, “nuthin” when you ask yourself those questions, it could be that your self-esteem has been so hammered by your rough patch that you can’t see yourself as clearly as your friends can. So, says Merry, go to your friends for the feedback you need to get that clear picture of who you really are and what you can really do.

“Seek out people who really know you, people you can really be yourself with, and ask them straightforwardly, ‘What do you think my strengths are?’” she says. Those are the things you want to expand on and use to position yourself in the career marketplace.

Keep in mind all the elements that make up your core genius and you won’t be so tempted to give into the siren song of “gimme a job, any job will do.” First of all, you won’t get it. Secondly, be glad. Just imagine how silly you would feel if you encountered on Saturday the guy who interviewed you for an executive job on Friday. Only now you’re wearing a silly hat and counting change.

(To contact Merry directly, email her at meredithkaplan@bellsouth.net)

Sorry to have been away for so long!

Hello from a snowy Santa Fe!

I'm looking out my office window and am watching a Rocky Mountain snowfall that started as a rainstorm in LA.

This is just a quick posting to explain my silence for almost six weeks! I've been writing a new book! This one is on how to manage your life, finances and career if you're thinking a layoff is in your future.

The book is called Rebound: A Proven Plan for Starting Over After Job Loss. And it will be out in February!!

Click the link on the title above and read more about it on Amazon.com

Next up: Best Resolutions for HR in 2009 -- my annual posting of how to grow your HR career in 2009! Plus more exciting news about HR Journeys! So...come back next week! And I'll have more details!

Do Your Metrics Manage Meaning?

Hello from Arizona! I’m here for two weeks, the guest of the marvelous Kathie Lingle, executive director of the Alliance for Work-Life Progress. It’s a sort of cowgirl’s holiday. While I’m thoroughly enjoying the change of scenery, I am here to work. My mission: to research a speech I’m giving to the Arizona SHRM state council's annual convention in September (you are coming, aren’t you?). My topic is one of my favorites -- Sustain Your Flame! Keep Alive the Mission and Meaning of Your HR Career. And I’m here to interview HR folks who love their work in Arizona. I hope to post their interviews and photos on a specially created website.

My plan has been to fill my days with interviews and between interviews take photos of typical Arizona scenes, like sunset vistas, dusty cowboy boots, bucking broncos and saguaro cacti. But you know what? At the risk of overstating the obvious, it’s just too darn hot to get out of the car. (At 111 degrees, it just stops being a novelty and starts getting really annoying, know what I mean?)

Okay, so this is the real reason why I’m writing today: On my cell phone’s call log this morning there are four entries of the same phone number that I tried calling just seconds apart from each other. No I’m not a stalker. This is the phone number to a way schmancy new cardiac hospital where one of my dearest friends had open-heart surgery late this past week. Why did I call this hospital four times this morning to find out how she’s doing? Well, actually, that’s exactly what I’d like to know. More specifically, what I’d like to know is why did I have to call this hospital four times?

Call #1: After dutifully pressing 3 for patient update, and then dutifully waiting for my call to be taken in the order in which it was received, I heard the receiver pick up on their end and then get hung up.

Call #2: I got through to an operator who heard that I wanted a patient update (that was Press 3 after all), transferred me with no fanfare to the cardiac unit, which rapidly launched an outgoing message saying that their office is closed for the weekend.

Call #3: See call Call #1.

Call #4: I got a different operator, explained to her that I wanted to get a patient update but when I was transferred to the cardiac unit, well, finish reading Call #2.

Operator: “Their office is closed on the weekends.” I could practically see her drowsily reaching for the transfer button so I responded quickly.

Me: “I just want to get a patient update. Isn’t this the right number for that information?”

Me in my head: “Oh, I’m sorry, am I keeping you awake?”

Operator (after hearing the patient’s name, my name, and my relationship with her): “She’s in ICU right now.”

Which is, actually, great news. That means things are going as they should be. (Whoever thought that hearing that a friend is in ICU would be good news? Well, it is.)

I thanked her for her information and she seemed oddly surprised and pleased that I would take that extra second to thank her. Which surprised but didn’t please me.

I get that working at anything based on repetition and anonymity can be a real drag. Throw in the fact that you’re timed for the average amount of time you take to push the customer along (which might account for the deliberate hang-ups), and the probability of joy in the workplace sinks even lower. And I suppose that it’s no picnic talking to callers who are on the verge of freaking out, worrying about their beloved. But I’m sure that holding in our hearts and minds the meaning behind the work we do has got to be inspiring at least a little bit.

You probably know the story of the bricklayer who knows the difference between building a wall and building a cathedral (if you don’t, Google it, it’s as common as the sand dollar story). So I won’t slow this blog down by retelling it.

But I would like to invite managers to take a fresh look at how they talk about the job expectations of their direct reports. If you’re measuring performance by accuracy, by speed, by completion of the encounter with the customer, you’re missing a huge piece of the story.

Are you also talking about the meaning behind every job that you’re in charge of? Do your people know how their job soothes the human condition? (Unless we’re talking paid assassins and drug dealers, there’s an essential human meaning behind every job – at least there can be.)

Do you even know what the meaning is behind the jobs that you’re responsible for?

This isn’t rocket science or calculus. There only three reasons why people enter into a transaction with each other:

• To relieve pain
• To restore hope
• To bring beauty into the world

In my particular case, my need to transact with the call center this morning was to relieve pain – to be reassured that my dear friend what resting comfortably right where she should be. The pain was minor, to be sure, especially when compared with the anxious needs of other people calling that number this morning. I can only imagine what it must have been like to call inquiring about a loved one who had suffered a coronary, for instance, and have to call back three more times just to get basic information. That would be enough to turn me into Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment.

But these people treated my call as though I was asking for data about my Social Security account on a Sunday morning.

Every job has its tedium, to be sure. But it’s never tedious for the customer – no matter whether we’re talking ICU status of a dear friend or calling our credit card company about frequent flier miles. There’s meaning in every transaction that we do.

If you have a cadre of sleepy looking customer service folks, it’s time to revisit with them the meaning behind the work they do. The ones who wake up and take personal responsibility for their customers are the ones you want to hang on to.

The ones who don’t? Well. Maybe it’s naptime.

How to Land the Leadership Job of Your Dreams

With the jobs picture swinging away from your favor, we know that there are more qualified and talented people competing for fewer jobs. So once you and your fellow candidates are matched for skills and number of years of experience, you have to find other ways to set yourself apart and shine brighter than your competition. You can compete by being the cheapest to hire – but that would be a bummer. (And who wants to work for a cheapskate company anyway?)

Here’s a better way to stand out and get paid what you deserve: Show your interviewer that you have the heart and smarts to hire, inspire, lead and keep great people.

Regardless of what the economy is doing, first-rate companies haven’t forgotten that creating and sustaining an engaged workforce continues to be the secret to their competitive edge. And they want managers who will help them make that happen.

Engagement continues to be where it’s at: Top-drawer employees throughout the ranks are expensive to hire. And they’re expensive to lose, and even more expensive to replace. Passionate people volunteer their discretionary efforts and genius above and beyond the call of duty. They say good things about their company and the company’s products. They recommend their company as a great place to work. And they’re more likely to stick around, even if someone else offers them brand, spanking new jobs at better pay.

Who makes these golden employees feel all these warm and fuzzy feelings? Why, their bosses do, of course. And that would mean you.

So, while all those other candidates are yammering on and on and on (and, by the way, on) about their technical skills and years of experience, set yourself apart by talking a little bit about your journey to becoming an amazing manager.

Here are some of the questions you should be prepared to answer:

* What would you say are the characteristics of leader who keeps his/her team motivated and focused on the goal?
* As a manager, what do you consider to be your primary responsibility?
* Tell me about a time when you led your team through an extraordinary project or accomplishment.
* If you’ve been a manager before, talk about a time when you saved an otherwise great employee who was in danger of losing his/her job?
* What characteristics do you look for when interviewing people for jobs?
* What do you do when you see a high-potential employee’s performance begin to fail?
* What are your opinions about annual performance reviews?
* Let’s say you have to implement a major change inside your department. What steps would you take to get your team to help you make that change?
* Tell me about a time when you learned something about yourself when dealing with a challenging employee situation.
* Who was your most influential boss so far and what did you learn from that person?
* How did you grow as a result of your last job?

As a seasoned manager, or someone who is ready for that next step, you should be ready to have answers to these questions. Even if you haven’t been a manager yet, you should be thinking about these things now.

Here’s another tip: Don’t wait to be asked those questions…it could be that your interviewer may not be savvy enough to ask. But, if you volunteer a few well-thought out comments that demonstrate that you’re a sensitive, thoughtful, wise people leader – one who is also humble enough to know you have lots to learn from your own direct reports – you will send the hiring company the signal that there’s just something about you that they must have on their team.

A special note from Martha: If you’re a manager, your company is counting on you to be an engaging leader. But what exactly does that mean? And how do you do engagement? Just because you’re brilliant at your technical skills, that doesn’t mean that you’re a natural at people skills. New managers need a book that can help them figure it out in simple, straightforward ideas.

That’s why I wrote The Truth About Getting the Best From People. It’s a book made up of 49 short, simple truths designed to help new managers understand how their beliefs and behaviors directly impact their employees’ passion factor on the job.

Click on the title and check it out! I hope you’ll enjoy it!

Self-Esteem is the Secret to HR Success (yeah, that's simplistic, just bear with me)

After more than 20 years of searching, I’ve finally found the secret to success in this calling called HR. And I found it reading the Sunday New York Times this morning. Well, actually I found it in the Sunday Styles section. Well okay, if you must know, I found it in this morning’s Vows feature.

Yes, that is my secret Sunday ritual. Instead of going straight to the A section, book review, week in review, the infuriating editorials that tell me the world and the economy are going to hell and it’s just a matter of which will get there first, I go straight to the Vows feature. Men smugly call it the “women’s sports page.” And Charlotte in Sex and the City cherished it as the ultimate goal of all her aspirations realized. But to me, that one deep story nested among the other blurbs of pairings is the treat feature of the week in that I get to read about the happiness of two accomplished people who have only added to their joy in the world. Sure, I’m interested in how they met. But I’m also fascinated by what life paths they’re following on their own. Go ahead, laugh. We all do what we can to keep the inspiration meter fed!

Anyway the last line in today’s feature blew my day apart (I had all sorts of To Dos – including cracking the A section – but here I am writing a blog instead).

It’s a quote from the phenomenally accomplished bride, Eve Thompson, who after serving in Jordan as the interim director of a UN leadership institute, has been leading a public-private partnership in Kinshasa to improve mining practices. (See what I mean about the accomplishment thing?) This is what she says about the transformative power of looking at herself in the eyes of her beloved, “When you feel wonderful about yourself, you can do things.”

I get it…it’s not exactly Schopenhauer. But sometimes the right thing is said (or read) at the right time and it hits you between the eyes. And so this got me to thinking: How many HR professionals truly feel wonderful about themselves? Not many, I would suppose. I mean, how many professions have been featured on the cover of a major national magazine as the target of derision…and actually agreed with the magazine’s sentiment? I’ve been annoyed about that for over two solid years.

It’s time that HR built its collective self-esteem by pursuing those things that make people leaders feel wonderful about themselves. How can you feel wonderful about yourself in HR? Allow me to count the ways:

• You work for a company or company that holds great meaning for you personally.
• You work for a boss you respect and who, by the way, respects you.
• You are able to stay true to your values and morals.
• You work for a CEO who totally gets the promise and power of HR.
• You’re growing personally, professionally, financially.
• You see evidence that your efforts are making the world a better place.
• When you look in the eyes of your beloveds – I mean coworkers – you like what you see there. You see appreciation, respect, trust, honor.

Have those things in place, and you’ll feel wonderful about yourself. And then the power and success of HR is unlimited. There’s no telling what you’ll be able to do as a result.

Something out of whack? Fix it! Pronto! When you don’t have those things in place, your sense of self shrinks, and so does your confidence in your ability to make the world a better place.

Making the world a better place is implied in all our job descriptions. It’s the gig we signed up to when we drew our first wailing breath on this planet. Like Eve Thompson, we are all citizens of the world. As Dr. Seuss said in my favorite book, “Oh! The places you will go!”

And oh! The things you’ll do when you feel wonderful about yourself!

Best Resolutions for a Great HR Career in 2008!

The year 2008 carries with it that old Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum of crisis and opportunity. We’re seeing layoffs, economic shifts of weight around the world, new demands and roles rise to the surface with new challenges, while old ones drift and sink away. So this seems like a pretty good time for resolutions. Resolutions for cultivating and sustaining a relevance – an essentialness, for that matter – that will see you through 2008 and beyond.

To prepare this article, I sought out successful HR leaders inside global companies and consultancies for their advice. Here are just a few their suggestions for the Best Resolutions of 2008:

I will keep it short and I will keep it focused. Less is actually more (with the possible exception of this blog entry, which is reeeeeaaallly long; you might want to print it out). In HR’s drive and pressure to consistently position itself as a relevant essential, HR leaders actually risk making a mistake at the other extreme: Embracing so many initiatives and projects that they lose their focus. MacGregor Burns, Chief Learning Officer of Citigroup, says, “Start with the issues that are keeping you up at night and what you would like to see differently a year from now.”

And when you talk about your efforts for each quarter, keep it relevant and quantifiable. Says Burns, “The most important box is around organizational initiatives. What did you do to change your business and help it achieve its goals? Keep your report limited to one page.”

I will remember that work is personal. With the increasing emphasis on metrics, balanced scorecards, return on investment, talent management, etc., it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that each job represents someone’s dream for security, for bills that get paid, for children who get educated, for potential that gets fulfilled. Yes, we could be talking about everyone in your company, but we’re also talking about you.

Says Eva Sage-Gavin, executive vice president of Human Resources and Communications, Gap Inc.: “The employee value proposition is really an individual value proposition. This is critical to understand. Especially when you have a cross-generational workforce. You must sustain a level of fluency about how passionate your people are about their own jobs. And keeping this in mind will make your own job in HR so much more fulfilling.”

I will continuously take my boss and partners by surprise. If you operate strictly from an HR frame of reference, the people you work with already know what you’re going to say before you open your mouth. If that’s the case, they probably only half-listen to you; which reduces your effectiveness significantly. Surprise them. Look at your job through the lens of a general manager of a company division and approach everything you do, every suggestion you make, every decision you must come to from a general business perspective. That will make your partners pay attention!

“HR people are either pigeon-holed into stereotypical roles, or they’re not,” says Jim Wiggett, director of The Jackson Hole Group, and formerly Executive Vice President of Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) Retail Group. “You’re not pigeon-holed when you’re perceived as a business person; when you understand the metrics of the business; when you’re looking at your business on a daily basis, and when the CEO sees you as one of the people who are helping him or her run the business.

But “if what you’re doing is running back to turnover numbers, or cost-per-hire, or training dollars, if that’s your frame of reference on the business, you’re in trouble,” he says. “HR professionals successfully reposition themselves and multiply their impact on the company when they’re suddenly seen as a business person who just happens to be in HR.”

That’s where the surprise element kicks in.

I will know my industry inside and out. While you’re studying up on the business model of your company and the essential variables that drive the unique decisions within your own walls, also commit 2008 to gaining a fluency about the industry you’re in.

Says Peg Wynn, former senior vice president of Adobe: “The more engaged you are in your company’s business, the more engaged your company’s leaders will be in your business. Subscribe to the trade magazines of your business. Track how the competition is doing. Attend as many industry conferences and meetings as you can – at least as many industry meetings as HR meetings in 2008. Volunteer to staff your company’s trade show booth.

“Once you help the people in your company see that your interest in the industry itself puts you on common ground with them, you can work together to move the world. And that’s what you want to have happen.”

I will use my imagination. HR is universally criticized for being mired in the tactical aspects of the people side of business. How ho-hum can you get? Says Kathie Lingle, director of the Alliance for Work Life Progress, “Focus more on the future, which actually is here right now. Pay much more attention to where you’re going than to where you’ve been. None of those things that have worked for us in the past will be worth a hill of beans before too long. So that past is going to be less and less useful.

“Business strategy these days has to have agility, responsiveness, speed, and the ability to attract and retain the absolute best talent. For that you have to have someone who is tasked with the job of looking forward, not gazing in the rearview mirror. So I would argue for the assignment of a Chief Engagement Officer in most companies.”

I will spend 80% of my time looking around the corner into the future. Dan Walker, former Chief Talent Officer of Apple, Inc., and founder of Walker Talent Group and New Venture Studios, is famous for his passion around urging HR leaders to consider themselves leaders of the company’s human capital supply chain operation. And that, he says, means you must be constantly looking into the future needs of the company, certainly with far more intensity than considering what you already have.

“The human capital supply chain involves everything having to do with HR: Acquisition, development, deployment, training, all those things,” he says, “And part of running an efficient supply chain is that you have to have the right product, the right parts, at the right place at the right time.”

And that means you have to be a prognosticator.

“HR people have to be the smartest strategists and long-term predictors of what the company will be and what it will need. To get that track laid the right way, they have to have a sense of the future. They also have to build maximum flexibility into the supply chain because if the company doesn’t make the shift it’s anticipating, or if anything happens that it didn’t plan for, it has to be able to adjust on the fly.

“I look at the efficiency of a lot of the companies in the United States and Europe. And so much of the failure and struggle they experience comes from the fact that they just didn’t put the rigor and science into the human side of their business as they did the other parts of their operation. When that happens, [this lack of forethought] bends around like a snake and bites them.”

Walker didn’t specify where, exactly.

I will keep my operation lean and efficient. Says Manny Sousa, Senior Vice President and Chief People Office of T-Mobile, “There is a linkage between the talent you bring into the business and the success of the business. The first thing you need to be attractive as a company is business success, typically as measured by metrics, good solid margins, high level of efficiency, a track record of achieving your objectives. HR needs to be really good at keeping a business as lean as possible and focused on keeping the business efficient in order to thrive during the bad times as well as the good.

“We’re entering into a world of highly competitive markets in every single industry. You must focus on leveraging your human resources for maximized productivity, at the same time keeping the place human, caring about people and their lives.”

I will dance with the one who brought me. With all the emphasis on being an HR business strategist, it’s easy to forget or devalue the emotional attractions of the profession – especially for those who originally felt compelled to HR as a calling. And that worries Sid Ferrales, Senior Vice President, HR, of RealNetworks. “I’m a big advocate of the position of acting like business people,” he says, but in the effort to establish credibility, he says, “we shy away from the emotional intelligence (EQ) aspect of our work. A lot of us entered the profession because of this strength around being able to communicate with people, being able to understand where people are coming from and our abilities to serve as coach and counselor to the management. They value that from us. Somewhere along the line, we made a shift toward learning the language of business and away from the emotional side of our work. We over-corrected.”

Ferrales says that the emotional strength the HR brings to business should continue to be valued as an essential competency of the entire organization. And HR is just the place to shepherd the emotional well-being of the company.

“Don’t be too quick to undervalue the EQ piece,” he says. “Many of the CEOs I’ve worked for value the EQ piece of what we bring to the table. Certainly they want you to contribute at the business level and understand the nature of business. But my boss often talks about EQ being very important in terms of how business gets done.”

I will strengthen my organization with flexibility. “I don’t think there’s a widget in the world that can’t be duplicated by another organization,” says Sharon Klun, director of Work-Life Initiatives for Accenture, which was named as one of Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies in 2007 for the fifth year in a row. “But it’s the people who are critical because of the intellectual capital that they bring with them. All those elements that enable them to be successful in their work lives are essential to their personal lives as well.”

Klun says that organizations that embrace the flexibility necessary to allow employees lead balanced and successful personal lives will see measurable outcomes in their ability to gain a competitive advantage with healthy and fulfilled people. “Flexibility has the most ability to change and serve the outcome of the organization at an incredibly good price. It’s the cheapest thing to do for the highest ROI that you’ll ever have at your fingertips.”

I will stay positive and strong so I’ll continue to keep up with business as it unfolds around me. Says Tom Mathews, Senior Vice President for Corporate HR for Time Warner Cable, “As I look to 08, there are going to be no fewer challenges than we’ve seen so far. We’re going to continue to see the escalation of costs. And competition is going to get more global and more challenging. It’s important to look beyond such countries as China and India toward places like Panama, Philippines, Costa Rica. Wherever there is a market that will offer the same services more cheaply, there is going to be competition for our businesses. So we have to stay with what’s going on in the world, above and beyond HR.

“I like to sign my emails with, ‘Onward!’ While it’s important to understand what has happened in the past, it’s essential to keep looking forward.”

I will remember the passion that brought me to HR in the first place. The true gift of HR is its ability to inspire people to believe in themselves; to passionately seek the gold in every single person; and help each person find, develop and celebrate that gold, says Mike D’Ambrose, senior vice president, Human Resources, for Archer Daniels Midland.

“Every single person has something unique and wonderful to contribute,” he says. “It’s my job to ask our people, ‘What are the things that you do great? How do we help you become this wonderful, unique contributor – not only to the company but also to yourself?’”

As companies increasingly focus on employee engagement in 2008, it’s essential that you remember that engagement must begin with you in HR. That is the gold of your profession. And that is the gift you bring to all the people you work with every day.

Happy New Year! And have a fantastic HR career in 2008!

Why I Love HR

HR puts feet to dreams. When leaders and entrepreneurs lie awake at night and spin grand castles in the air, pretty soon they have to start asking themselves where they are going to get the talent to build those castles for real. When ordinary folks dream at night about building exciting careers – or simply paying the mortgage and feeding their family – eventually they have to start asking themselves what companies are most likely to help them make their dreams come true. Two sets of dreamers at opposite ends of the employment equation. But they need each other. Where do they find common ground? HR, of course.

HR puts the world to work. Consider the billions and billions of people who go to jobs every day around the planet. Steady paychecks. Safe working conditions. Reasonable management policies and leadership behaviors. Fair prospects for advancement. In many countries, unprecedented surges in standards of living. Who’s behind that? HR.

HR works better than the United Nations. Not only does HR put the world to work, HR puts the world to work together. In most major cities around the globe – certainly in the greater Boston area – companies large and small are filled with representatives of many nations – many of them would be in armed conflict with each other on their native soil. But unified by the common mission of their companies’ profitability and competitiveness, these employees work shoulder to shoulder toward their shared goal of a better future for themselves, their families, even each other.

HR is never satisfied with itself. HR professionals know that there is always room for improvement. There is no profession so dynamic and ever-changing as a people profession – especially one that must marry the intricacies of people and business strategy. And the mere fact that HR never forgets that things could be done better is one of the reasons why I love HR.

HR takes care of its own. I don’t think there is a better, more developed, more welcoming, more elaborate network of colleagues in any other profession. Throughout the world professional HR groups and SHRM chapters and classes and seminars and workshops and monthly “hole-in-the-wall gangs” convene, complain, kvetch, kvel, and share all the insights, news, and creative solutions they can. Even competitors generously share their best practices with each other. To borrow a line from a song from West Side Story, “When you’re in HR, you’re in HR all the way.” In HR you belong. You’re embraced. You grow. You give back. You’re welcome.

HR builds communities. Communities are filled with employees, former employees and future employees. Through HR, companies partner with community leadership to foster stability, hope, growth and development for all their citizens and constituents. When there are jobs people stay. When people stay there is a tight fabric of relationships, memories, dreams and willingness to invest and sacrifice for an even better future.

HR is a stupidity buffer. HR is often the only thing that stands between terrible ideas from company leadership and its people (and its customers, and its shareholder interests). With its legal, fiduciary, strategic and human understanding of the people impact of any kind of leadership initiative, HR has the best vantage point of all the functions in a company, and has the perspective necessary to put the brakes on “stupid leadership tricks.”

HR saves lives. HR is on the front lines of all the personal battles faced by modern humanity. Depression. Addiction. Domestic violence. Illiteracy. Street crime. Divorce. Despair. Thanks to the many initiatives and support systems that HR has assumed over the last 20 years, employees have a chance to prevail over their personal nightmares and sources of shame and stress.

HR makes greatness happen. No matter what we do for a living, we all share a single calling, which is to use our talents to make the world a better, more hopeful place. But none of us can fully manifest our potential all by ourselves. Even the most talented and singular visionaries need the support of organizations to bring their genius to the marketplace. We need each other. We come to our chosen organizations with our various gifts and talents and skills. And we look to HR to sort it all out for us, plug us into the places where we can do our best work and together – as a team – we lean into the wheel and build a future for ourselves, our families, our communities, our world that matches our best dreams and values.

HR matters. And that’s why I love HR.