by Janine Nicole Dennis | May 15, 2013 | Life
Photo Credit
After an impromtu week off due to my little one being sick and then me falling on my face, I thought it was only fitting that I return gangbuster style with a major media outlet interview.
I am honored and pleased to share my recent interview with US News Careers columnist, Miriam Salpeter called:
There are so many things I wish I had known eight years ago and even more recently three years ago when I was a jobseeker. Working an HR desk for over eight years, you become savvy to the tricks and sentiments around offer negotiations-particularly the salary portion of that.
In this interview, I am showing the “hand” of the employer in an effort to educate jobseekers on all the things we consider when making salary offers. In addition, I provide insights into ways you can detect whether or not you are receiving the benefit package of a lifetime or a dud.
I hope you enjoy it and find it helpful. It gives me great pleasure to discuss the least sexy topics in the HR spectrum of salary and benefits. Who knew salary and benefits could be so salacious?
by Janine Nicole Dennis | May 5, 2013 | Human Resources
Blogging is a full-time endeavor for me. It is time-consuming and it is something that requires energy I may or may not consistently have. I am an HR blogger juggling a full-time day job, plus a part-time consulting business, along with motherhood and marriage etc.
I am constantly asked by colleagues how I manage to find time to blog and hold down the rest of my responsibilities. The answer is when you are passionate about something you don’t think twice about doing it. I have had stories, ideas, anecdotes and best practices bottled up and fermenting in my head for years. I had very limited outlets to share all of this knowledge and so it laid dormant with no voice.
Information hoarding is a burden. Knowledge transfer helps us all.
Blogging has provided me with an opportunity to free myself of the burden of carrying around all of these thoughts about HR, the world of work and business. It gives me the chance to share my point of view and receive immediate feedback on whether my thoughts are universal truths or subjective musings of a professional.
There is a lot of noise in this space. Some of it is due to the lovely clamor of beautifully-orchestrated music being made by the best and brightest thought leaders in HR. The rest of it is due to saturation. That is saturation of purposely meaningless thoughts about HR and the world of work. All of it is disruptive for different reasons. As such, I aim to be a “signal in the noise”. At the top of the year, I wrote about“being a signal in the noise” and what that means for me. Essentially, I said that I may not be the loudest sound now, but I will be that noise that will make you stop and wonder how you missed it the first time around.
Content is king. Classics are worth the wait.
Do you remember how you used to enjoy purchasing music back in the day? I remember pre-ordering and/or waiting outside the record store for the new Destiny’s Child or Nas CD to drop. It was a feeling of great anticipation. You had no idea what you were in for, but you knew what to expect from previous albums. The album could have been garbage once you bought it, but the momentum to get you up and out to the record store and spending money was all based on previous experience. More importantly, your favorite band or singer could have been on a 2-4 year hiatus where you heard nothing but old songs from previous albums, but you waited patiently and played those old records out until something new presented itself.
I blog to deliver not just good content but the best content. Being the “signal in the noise” means that however, infrequent or irregular I blog in years to come, people will still be waiting for me to drop that next article. There is something incredibly affirming about having something so personal be so vital to someone else whether it is career advice or a resonating anecdote that hits close to home. I have had an outpouring of people from all over the world thanking me for various articles I have written. It is a feeling that is hard to explain when you receive that feedback. For me, it simply makes me happy and eager to write even more content.
Blogging is allowing me to leave a social and professional footprint that I doubt would have happened as expediently without it. I have always believed in quality over quantity, classic over trendy, best over mediocre. These are the things that push me to write until 3am in the morning as I am doing at this very moment.
Of course, you can not diminish the incredible opportunities to meet extraordinary people in your profession that have the same drive and goals to impact the world of work. I have found that in Chris Fields and many other HR professionals that I have met through blogging.
To Chris, I say remain a classic and a notch above the rest and blog on my friend. Onward and upward always! Happy 2nd Year Blog Anniversary Cost of Work!
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 29, 2013 | HR Policy
Editor’s Note: I was initially interviewed and quoted for a piece called “The HR Department of 2020: 6 Bold Predictions”. The original author at ” The New Talent Times” was kind enough to provide me with a shorter version of the original article. The link to the full article is enclosed in the author’s bio below. Enjoy!
The HR Department of 2020: 3 Bold Predictions
Some have speculated that HR is a business function without a future. They say software will replace the entire HR department.
They’re wrong.
While software is changing how HR performs, it won’t eliminate the HR department. Instead, experts predict a renaissance period–a chance for HR professionals to transform their roles. Software Advice interviewed several experts to get their take on the HR department of 2020. Here, she lays out the changes they predict, as well as how HR professionals can prepare.
Prediction 1: In-house HR will downsize and outsourcing will increase.
This prediction might seem, well, predictable. However, the reasons the experts provide for the change might surprise you.
Industry analyst Brian Sommer, the founder of TechVentive, claims HR departments will shrink due to new technologies that not only perform many data entry tasks, but also allow for increased employee participation in HR processes. As he says, “Many businesses are going to get a lot of capability done by better technology, more self-service and the employee doing a lot on their own.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Janice Presser, CEO of The Gabriel Institute, predicts that many transaction-heavy HR jobs will be outsourced entirely to HR agencies or specialists. She even goes so far as to say, “Entry-level HR jobs, as they currently exist, will all but disappear as transactional tasks are consigned to outsourced services.”
But don’t despair! The internal HR function will survive. As Chip Luman, the COO of HireVue, explains, “Given the ongoing regulatory environment, the need to pay, provide benefits, manage employee relations issues, and process information will go on.”
Prediction 2: Strategic thinking will become in-house HR’s new core competence.
The remaining in-house version of HR will be leaner. And to thrive it needs to reposition itself as a strategic partner within the business. In fact, over half the experts Software Advice consulted advised HR departments to increase their strategic value to the business–or else.
Dr. Presser says, “This includes the ability to make accurate projections based on understanding the goals of the business and using metrics that describe more than lagging indicators, such as how long it takes to fill a job or the per-employee training spend.” Importantly, this strategy role cannot be outsourced. As she says, “Strategic planning requires in-house expertise.”
Prediction 3: The pendulum will swing back to the specialist.
Janine Truitt, Chief Innovations Officer of Talent Think Innovations,LLC, sees a cyclical shift in the HR field. As she says, “Every decade or so we fluctuate back and forth from the paradigm of the independent contributor-specialist to the generalist practitioner. We were in a ‘generalist’ mode and now I think the pendulum may be swinging back toward the specialist.”
Or, as Luman puts it: “HR generalists as we know them will disappear.”
Elizabeth Brashears, the director of Human Capital Consulting at TriNet HR, agrees. She notes, “There will be more specialized roles. I believe this to be the case as the employment landscape becomes more complex.
Preparing for 2020
What can current HR professionals begin doing now to prepare for these predicted changes? The experts all endorse one tactic: keep learning. Risk-taking and networking will help, too.
“Get ahead of the curve,” advises Dr. Presser, “Realize that many of today’s ‘best practices’ evolved under very different business conditions, and may well become obsolete within this decade. Learn everything you can about your industry, your competitors, and pending legislation that affects your business operations.”
Truitt advises pursuing additional training or formal education. As she observes:
One difference that we will see clearly in the next decade is that people will not be able to merely fall into HR. Long ago, when HR was ‘personnel,’ the profession was largely made up of individuals that happened upon the profession…it seems that the future HR practitioner will likely have to be formally educated in this discipline to be gainfully employed in HR.
Finally, Luman encourages HR professionals to develop their own personal brand–to find their voice and be active. As he says, “Network inside and outside of your field. Blog, communicate, read and help others achieve success. If you are not outside of your comfort zone, you are stagnating.”
Erin Osterhaus is the Managing Editor for Software Advice’s HR blog, The New Talent Times. She focuses on the HR market, offering advice to industry professionals on the best recruiting, talent management, and leadership techniques. For the full article, click here.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 23, 2013 | Life
For those in leadership that missed the memo, performance management is a full-time job and one that requires that you take proactive steps to manage it. I absolutely abhor hearing the following discussion:
Recruiter to Hiring Manager: Jane Doe applied for your position.
Hiring Manager to Recruiter: Oh yeah, we’ll interview Jane but we wouldn’t offer her the job. She can barely do her current job let alone this one.
In this scenario, we will assume that Jane Doe is working in the department with the vacancy; has applied to it and qualifies for said position. Essentially, the hiring manager doesn’t see Jane as a fit for the position and has cited some issues with her performance.
Ignorance is bliss.
The bigger question is does Jane know that there is an issue with her performance? If not, it is unfair to not address the issues upfront. Of course, Jane will continue to pursue opportunities that suit her background. However, had she been told of her performance issues and perhaps been warned against applying for vacancies in the department- she and the department could have been spared an uncomfortable and underhanded conversation/situation.
In my opinion, it is a red-flag anytime a hiring manager seeks to hire outside of their department or organization when the knowledge, skills, and abilities are already there. Let’s face it, if the job they are posting is a direct match to the skill profile of the people already working there- the hiring manager could save time and resources and merely reassign and/or promote from within if applicable. To do otherwise screams, “I know there are performance issues with my people, but I’m too much of a coward to address them.”
Does coward seem harsh? Forgive me.
I use “coward” because this particular issue with performance management isn’t as much about not knowing how to manage people and their performance. Instead, it is more about an inability to be forthright with constructive criticism that could improve your employee’s performance or at the very least substantiate the employee’s inability to improve. Either way, it is your job as a leader to explore either scenario and take the appropriate action. Attempting to address a performance deficit or issue at a time where the employee sees the potential for a promotion or reassignment is negligent and sloppy leadership.
How would you feel if you were plugging along in your role, meeting standards every year during performance evaluation time- only to happily apply for that promotion or opportunity you have been waiting for and be shut down; because your boss never had the guts to tell you your work wasn’t meeting muster. For a lack of better words “it sucks”.
No matter what you said in new hire orientation or what your latest branding exercise purports-these types of shenanigans don’t make employees feel valued. When they don’t feel valued they check out and when they check out- they are out the door. Now this is a good thing if the employee in question was not holding up his or her end of the deal. In deal-breaker situations, long live the termination process; but in the case where someone good exits, it’s a sad day for retention and a missed opportunity.
I implore every leader to do the following three things to ensure that they don’t make these mistakes:
1) Create accountability in your performance management system by requiring your managers to have regular conversations with direct reports about their performance. Performance issues that go undetected should be traced back to the manager that failed to do their due diligence. You would be surprised how serious your managers will get about managing performance if their performance evaluation is dependent upon their success in this area.
2) The rules of effective behavioral management say that you must reinforce good behavior and punish for undesirable outcomes. In either situation, the reinforcement or punishment must be immediate, consistent, and used when reasonable. While the word “punish” is rather harsh, the point here is the same principles apply to performance management. Reinforce positive outcome consistently, immediately and take a balanced-approach (that is overdoing it doesn’t produce good outcomes). The same is important when it comes to addressing poor performance outcomes.
3) Do a quality check of your performance management policies and system annually to assess any bottlenecks or areas for improvement.
These three tips will ensure that both leaders and employees benefit from your proactive approach to managing performance. When you put talent first and use a smart approach to managing your talent you can’t go wrong.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 18, 2013 | Life
I am honored an excited to announce that I will be interviewed by Mary Wright, Esq.of HR Gazette on Friday, April 19th 2pm-3pm EST/11am-12pm PST on Google + Hangout. The topic will be women’s rights, diversity, 2013 and beyond.
What is the purpose of this hangout?
From Marissa Mayer to Sheryl Sandberg, women’s rights and concerns are under the lens again. The discussions about what we need to do to succeed have been reignited. I’m not convinced they ever went away, because I’ve had my own crosses to bear as a woman, mother, and ambitious employee etc. In chatting with Mary recently, we decided that we should have a candid discussion about women’s rights and diversity from my perspective.
I’ll be sharing my thoughts on where we are, what we can do better and my reality as a woman in business.
I hope all of my readers will tune in. I’m not discriminating; women and men are both welcomed.
For more information or to join the hangout please click here:https://plus.google.com/events/cm4fo9a6773n44evhd1i8bujqq8 m
I hope to see you there!
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 15, 2013 | Life
Welcome back to the Word on #LASHRM13! I can see that many of you got a kick out of the first day and I must tell you day two was no slouch.
But first…
A word on the power of IRL (in real life) meetings. This was my first opportunity to meet many of the people that I commiserate and chat with daily online. I can’t explain how surreal of an experience it is to go from seeing a snapshot of a human being online and to getting it “real and living color” in person. I don’t care how much you hear me talk about the power of social on this blog or elsewhere. The true power in relationships is in a handshake, a conversation, or a hug. I’m not saying stop what you’re doing in social media now and go back to B.S. (before social). I’m simply saying where possible take those relationships you are building virtually and make them a reality. It is the greatest thing ever.
Now that I got that off my chest. Let’s continue the conversation about social media. My last session on day 1 (April 8th) was from Kyle Ferachi of McGlinchey Stafford, PLLC. His session was called “Social Media and HR: Where are We Now? At the top of the session, he tells the group that “privacy settings are your friend”. I nearly shed a tear when the words rolled off his tongue. For a long time, I have wondered why all of these crazy people on social were getting caught with their pants down both literally and figuratively. I would ask myself “don’t they know about the privacy settings?” The Oohs and Ahhs in the room let me know that it isn’t much on people’s radars.
The next near-tear shedding moment was when he said the following:
Yes…yes….and yes!
It is time employers realize that social is no longer a fleeting thing. Employees are using social media and it is safe to say as Kyle mentioned in his session- that they are doing it on your time. Is it a cardinal sin that they are using it on your time? Maybe not. It is no different in some cases than taking a break to smoke or to gossip/chat with a co-worker. The key here is to be clear about boundaries, expectations, and proper usage of the tools.
To friend your employee or not to friend…that is the question
My best practice is: I am friends with my boss on LinkedIn. I will not connect with her on Facebook or otherwise. My reason is: my after five o’clock life is for me and none of her business and vice versa. The problem with all of this social oversharing and over-connecting is that there is an over-abundance of information. Things we would never have considered in a hiring decision ten years ago is now fair game. Check this nugget on considering social media behavior in a hiring decision:
Kyle’s answer to the aforementioned question was ” be cautious and use good judgment.” He could not unequivocally say “no” or “yes”. His cryptic answer should be taken at face value.
Kyle shared these nuggets and much more. It was refreshing to hear him speak as a lawyer who champions the use of social media.
In keeping with the social theme, Mary Ellen Slayter of Reputation Capital gave an interactive talk on internal communications, what is wrong with it and how to make it right.
Are you delivering a consistent, audience-specific message to your employees?
Chances are if you are blindly e-mailing newsletters and other one-size-fits-all correspondence to employees- you are missing the mark. According to Mary Ellen:
Since you should be selling them on all things having to do with your company, why not tailor your message to the various groups? Shouldn’t you also make it worth their while to read? How about giving shoutouts to your employees for a job well done on your intranet or newsletter? The overarching lesson here is: get creative, give praise, get social, and use technology to aid you in knowing what works and what doesn’t. I loved this session.
Other concurrents that rocked the day were that of my good friend Sarah Williams of Luihn Food Systems, Inc and my HR Tech Godfather, William Tincup,SPHR.
Sarah and her super sleuth session was everything you needed to make the ever-draining employee investigations exciting and fun. She uniquely tied the steps in conducting a criminal investigation as seen on t.v. to some savvy tips on how to conduct a proper and thorough investigation. There are too many nuggets to share,but my favorite term of the day was her cleverly coined “HR-anda Rights”. Like “Miranda Rights” this is where the “perp” is advised of their rights as it pertains to the investigation being conducted. It is clever and right on. I have been involved in way too many instances where no expectations were set and all parties involved were disappointed.
In case you missed it a nugget on Sarah’s #sleuth thread:
If you missed this thread, be sure to get the slides from the LASHRM 2013 Conference website. Even seasoned investigators can learn from her.
All hail WilliamTincup!
This session was purely for us HRIS or gatekeepers of HR technology. The beauty in this session was not in the slide deck, but in his openess to having a real conversation about the applicant tracking system landscape and roadblocks and hurdles us techies face. I think we all left there a lot smarter about negotiating our HR Tech contracts and dealings with vendors.
So many nuggets from this session, but here is the quote of the day regarding HR Tech:
The Bill Boorman Show
“The Cult of Work” general session was great and then confusing if you weren’t there. Bill Boorman is helping companies everyday to understand culture and move it forward. He has a lot of ideas about how culture in the workplace has reached it’s current resting place- not all I agree with.
The first concept from this session that I had to peaceably disagree with was the following: “There are no bad cultures, just bad culture fit.”
I understand his point which is- if we hire the right people for our culture it is the right fit and no one can in turn find it to be a bad culture. Certainly, it is reasonable to hire the people that speak your language, but isn’t it just as important to have those that speak a different language? Aren’t those the innovators and change influencers? Having worked in what I felt were cesspool cultures- I have to disagree with the “no bad culture” theory. I will admit that my way of thinking and working may not have been a fit and perhaps that is why it didn’t work out. Nevertheless, I still think that some cultures are about likeness and therefore diversity of thought and practice are not welcomed. If an innovator type joins a non-innovative organization it might be poor fit, but there’s no question that even a non-innovative culture could stand to learn something from that “poor fit”.
To hear & see Bill Boorman is to understand him. Here is the nugget of the day captured by Christine Assaf:
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 11, 2013 | Life
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone that was RT’ing, following and engaging with me on the #lashrm13 and #notatlashrm13 hashtags. It was a ton of fun and great to see people getting involved even though they weren’t there.
The Southern hospitality was intoxicating and immediate as this tweet went out from my good buddy & fellow social media team colleague, Christine Assaf as Sarah Williams and I arrived at the pre-conference session on Sunday.
And you have to love this tweet from Laurie Ruettimann after Sarah and I had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time at a local eatery called “Schlitz and Giggles”- no really that’s the name.
Why thank you Laurie! Far too kind. ; )
LASHRM 2013 kicked off Sunday April 7th with a pre-conference workshop byJennifer McClure on “Using Social Media in HR & Recruiting” where she generously shared tools and practices for socializing your brand and recruitment efforts. Her overarching message on branding was in the power of the employee. See a tweet from me here on what she said here:
The best-in-class brands like Sodexo, Microsoft, Marriott and many others are empowering employees to share their branding message across all social platforms and networks. It not only creates a purposeful and fun environment for the employees; it creates a grassroots movement for socializing the talent brand. In other words, it draws talent in and exposes them to the brand, culture and day-to-day long before they have decided to submit an application.
Monday. Monday.
Like “The Mamas and Papas” song “Monday, Monday” “it was indeed good to me and all I had hoped it would be.” Dwane Lay kicked off Monday morning with the opening keynote “Changing Culture: The Impossible, The Possible and Living on The Difference.” In this session, we revisited HR’s Psychology roots and left us with an understanding that culture cannot be planned. “Culture is a function of various inputs such as norms, values, technology etc. Depending on how we tweak those other inputs will depend on the eventual output of culture that manifests in our organizations.”
Dwane urged the audience to find “dissenting voices”, champion individuals and to get to know “ourselves”. Which begs the question- is HR spending so much time putting out fires, trying to be “strategic” and managing the work & people; that we have forgotten to take time to know who & what we are? Kind of resonates with my regular soapbox of having a solid value proposition both as an independent contributor as well as a collective business function. Do we take time to reflect on the how & why of what we do? If the answer to these questions is “no” we are missing the mark.
More importantly, Dwane shed light on the power of collaboration in teams. Data shows time and again that better outcomes come when there is both diversity on a team and more than two people collaborating. What are you doing to ensure that you are creating productive teams and environments? Your success in business is a function of the diligence and productivity of your teams and individual contributors. It was clear on Monday that diverse teams win over non-diverse teams every time.
All and all, Dwane took me back to research methods class in college, while providing a practical way to understand and utilize the science of culture. As I’ve stated here before, good cultures are not built upon likeness they are built upon the unique knowledge , skills, and abilities that coelsce and manifest via the collaboration of a diverse workforce.
My favorite quote from Dwane Lay on Monday that set the tone for everything I do in business and HR going forward is the following:
If you are in business or HR and you have been hoping for a better day in one or the other; it is not a strategy. Your strategy begins with data, a plan and execution. We are charged to get things done in HR not to sit around an hope. If nothing else take this nugget with you wherever you go.
From Dwane Lay breaking down the Psychology of culture to Jennifer McClure talking about the “Future of HR” to Devin Lemoine’s discussion on succession andRobin Schooling and Bill Boorman’s “HR’s Turning Point” session it is clear we are at the crossroads in HR. We have to rebrand ourselves as the human engineer and business liaison/partner. In doing this, we stop talking about being invited to the table; we “invite ourselves” as Jennifer McClure stated in her keynote. We realize that “global is the new local” as I stated at the top of the year and was emphasized by Bill Boorman. We stop being reactive and get proactive in planning not for just retirees to exit but for the day-to-day existence of the business by indulging in workforce planning as well as succession planning as Devin Lemoine, President ofSuccess Labs suggested.
All of these concepts left me with a feelings of obligation, responsibility and opportunity as I return to my HR desk to continue HR life as normal.
What will you all do to ensure that you keep HR moving on the right trajectory? More importantly, what will you all do to remain relevant in a business landscape and discipline that is rapidly changing? After you have skimmed some of the tweets from Mondays sessions, you will find that these are the two most important questions to be asking yourself as an HR practitioner right now. You must answer them and when you do you must strive to be the change in your business that solves business problems and provides a value to the customer.
Tomorrow, in part two of my post, I will share nuggets from the latter half of Monday and discuss the themes of Tuesday.
Get ready to move people and HR forward in 2013!
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 2, 2013 | Life
It has been humbling to see such an array of posts from some phenomenal women unfold and being received by women of every demographic in the celebration of my birthday. I really can’t thank my “Leading Ladies” roster enough for their contributions.
In as much as the series has been about me, it really isn’t. Sometimes we go through life and the motions never stopping to take a moment to think about the road traveled. Each of the women in this series had to take a real and in some cases a difficult look back to how they arrived where they are today. In many cases, there were several drafts, thoughts of how vulnerable they wanted to be and still great gratitude for going through the process.
I didn’t just play editor-in-chief. I took the journey with them. I laughed, I pumped my fist and some even made me cry. Not because the stories were tragic, but because collectively I saw me in each and every one of these women. Week after week, my road to thirty became clear as I read each post and realized I am not alone in my thoughts, actions and struggles. The roster was made up of different ages, races, geographies, perspective etc. Still, the message was clear and consistent- leading ladies are about more than being a celebrity or a person of importance. We make things happen, we fail, we ground ourselves in our familial values and culture, we learn, we share, we support one another and everyone else.
Have we arrived?
The answer is “yes” and “no”. The truth is while this collective roster practices what they preach many of us “in real life” do not. There are some of us who are bashing, catty, jealous, and very singular in their approach to life. I’d like to think these types are the minority, but I encounter them more often than I would like to. If nothing else, I hope that this series has inspired all that have read it to deviate from those behaviors, love themselves and champion others.
The journey is the destination.
In other news, we all have a sense that no opportunity is beyond us. We have the ability to grab what we want with fewer obstacles than previous generations. Essentially, we can have it all if we want or we can have bits and pieces. The choice remains with us. The challenges of balancing our ambitions with the reality of life still exist. However, audacity and perseverance has squelched some of those concerns as well. Perhaps, it is the case that we haven’t arrived; but I do believe we are almost there.
Many thanks to all of you that have supported the series. Whether man or woman there is something to be admired about those that are willing to share themselves for the purposes of helping others.
The “Leading Ladies” posts may be over for now, but the movement continues.
Stay Tuned!
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Mar 28, 2013 | Life
This is the ninth post in my “Leading Ladies” series and I am excited to be ending it with someone that is channelling my energy, Salima Nathoo. We are not only collaborating on Social HR Camp NYC (shameless plug: come see us on Saturday, April 20th). We are both about to unleash new concepts into the social space through new ventures. We will then find ourselves in Chicago together for SHRM National as members of the social media team in June.
I guess in short it is the year of Salima and Janine. She’s a great lady and someone whose mantras make a difference in my day often. Pay attention! Here she is…
Human Potential and Pancakes
What does the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) have to do with being a leading lady? Everything.
“International” was the first multi-syllable word I learned to spell. I used to drive past an IHOP on my way to daycare and my dad had me spell it out daily as part of his “knowledge is everywhere, no excuses” campaign. I was four at the time. My father, who was a coach and a friend, was also my very first brand strategist; teaching how my culture, history, and gender – my story – were competitive advantages. I grew up being encouraged to educate myself because it was the one thing that could not be taken away from me by a man or an ineffective leader who didn’t align with the way I chose to show up. I believed I could do or be anything I wanted to, as long as it was rooted in my identity and values, and honored service to others along the way.
“When I grow up I’m going to be the Indian Oprah. My mom said I could.”
My parents have always been my role models. They came to Canada from East Africa in the early 70’s on the last plane out of Uganda in the Idi Amin era and relinquishing their retail businesses to a socialist government in Tanzania. They were in their 20’s and supported their families, sacrificing a formal education to make ends meet. At the age of 35, my mom single-handedly ran a new business and raised a newborn + two more children under the age of 10, while nursing my dad back to health from a quadruple bypass. The woman with the stylish knee-length boots and cape atop a skyscraper, wielding a certificate in secretarial studies and saving the world…is my mom. Being born and educated in the Western world with a Master’s degree, what excuses do I have? Apparently plenty.
My honorary degree in excuses.
I’ve had many of these uninvited houseguests in my head. Some excuses were engineered in the design studio of my mind– I’m not smart enough, thin enough, good enough or I need to be more like so & so. Some have been born from real experiences of marginalization based on age, gender, color or socio-economic status. It didn’t stop me, nor did failing remarkably many times. I’ve learned to “fake it till you make it” and that being underestimated is powerful because it always keeps you one step ahead.
Do we still face barriers as women of all backgrounds and cultures? Yes. We read stories about women who had to be pregnant in secret as they pitched their tech platforms. Or about leading ladies who are acknowledged more for their appearance than their intellect or achievement. While we may still get grounded in unhelpful ways like a plane delayed from takeoff, we are certainly more grounded today in ways that allow us the freedom to live our truth as women and leaders.
It’s taken me a few decades to stop hoarding excuses. To recognize that there is no direction but upward, outward and forward and that every path to meaningful success starts with looking inward. The journey has helped me realize that now is always the right time to ‘Show Up, Be Curious and Raise the Game’ ©. Today, I’m getting ready to share this with leaders and organizations to help them elevate their human potential in the 21st century.
“I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier.” – Oprah Winfrey
Me too Oprah, me too.
Bio
Salima Nathoo is a Business Strategist & Speaker, and Partner atSocialHRCamp. She works with those companies at the front of the pack as a strategic partner to build powerful leadership ecosystems, manage change at the human level and leverage social media for HR. Her big thinking approach and expertise in learning-design and facilitation helps companies experience authentic conversations, drive innovation and increase the level of joy and fulfillment at work and at play. Salima’s mission is to ‘elevate human potential’ through Conscious Disruption © by empowering individuals and organizations to ‘Show Up, Be Curious and Raise the Game’ © .
Say hello to Salima on LinkedIn or Twitter.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Mar 27, 2013 | Life
This is the eighth post in my “Leading Ladies” series. I am extra excited for this one because it is in celebration of my 30th birthday. In fact, the entire series has been about celebrating my birthday by celebrating phenomenal women. I am a huge fan of Sarah’s Whipper Snapper HR blog. She is witty, a leader and a welcomed voice in the HR community.
How lucky am I that I get a personal happy birthday from her and some wisdom also? I hope you enjoy the post!
Beyond Traditional
Happy Birthday Janine, what a fantastic way to celebrate it! My birthday falls on International Women’s Day, so I extra love this month and topic, and couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of your series.
To me, a “leading lady” means pursuing a life that fulfills you to your own unique requirements, beyond all traditional bounds of what should fulfill your certain lot. That’s the element that makes her a leader, because she is the first to do something, perhaps not in the world but certainly in her circle. I don’t classify a leader by their presence in the top 2% of excellence, or their socioeconomic circumstances. I classify a leader as someone who sees where they are expected to go, anticipates where they actually want to be and then finds a way there. A true leading lady sees this especially in her role in society and family, and leads by living in a role that fulfils her.
I currently find myself in the young career women role, working as a HR Manager by my early twenties. It was by the least glamorous path that I got there. I was a university graduate by my 21st birthday by being boring. I didn’t take a year off school to see the world, I didn’t continue on to postgraduate study, I didn’t take a few years to get around to a serious job – I didn’t even change my major once! I should have been on the summer music festival tours, and working at a bar. Instead, I was in full-time HR work the day I graduated, and just kept on working.
I sacrificed those school day friendships. Friends were starting to do backpacking tours around Europe with each other when I was working a full time job. The tempos of our lives were off kilter, and it was a natural distancing of people.
I sacrificed the fun of being no-strings-attached youth. Instead, my resume counted and I was holding down jobs. I was working so hard every day to be taken seriously despite my youthfulness and inexperience. It can be really demoralizing to walk into an office and know that you need to prove yourself beyond just doing your job because you’re the age of your colleague’s grandchild.
However, the sacrifice paid off, because this is what it means to have a career, and therefore decent earning capacity, at a young age:
- I pay my own way;
- I fall in love with whomever I like;
- I can cut toxic people from my life; and
- I can get a good job wherever I want in the world.
But have I arrived? Well yes, I am really happy with where I am right now. And no, because if I am very honest with myself, I put all this pressure on myself to achieve early because I am so determined to have a career and a family. And I feel my chances of a fulfilling balance of both are increased if I have advanced as far up the career ladder as possible before I decide to have children. I don’t think there’s really any drastic change for women if it still requires you to be exceptional before being excused from the rule of ‘one or the other’.
My family story has shown me the unique pressure I feel my generation is under though. My Grandma had the clearest line of expectations, in that she had to quit her bank job when she married. My mother had the traditional feminist set of expectations that she fought against, as she worked hard to further her education beyond high school and to have a career after raising a family. Now though, I feel the opposite pressure of not throwing away opportunities for further education, of being the best professional I can be, of showing that females are equal in performance to men in every way. It’s like the ambition to be a stay at home mum is a quaint desire for baby-crazed brains. I feel the pressure to play like the boys, and resistant to surrendering dependence to my partner so we can have a family. For a fiercely independent spirit like mine, this is the equilibrium I will find hardest to achieve in my life. However, if I achieve it, maybe I too will have become a leading lady, and that would be incredibly cool.
Bio
My name is Sarah Miller and I’m a Gen-Y HR professional writing about being a Gen-Y in HR, in some thoughtful way on my blog Whipper Snapper HR (whippersnapperhr.blogspot.com) and with little thought on my twitter account @whippasnappahr. I just got a G+ account (gplus.to/whippersnapperhr) too – variety is the spice of life I suppose. Apart from my Social Media shenanigans, I’m a South Australian living and working in Singapore. Previous career aspirations included being a plumber, and being a ferry driver who sang to my passengers on the morning commute. Thankfully, HR seems to be working out well for me.
