The SHRM10 closing general session was led by Marcus Buckingham. Buckingham is an excellent speaker; witty and wicked smart….. and not to mention easy on the eyes.
There were so many quotes and stories from his session that I really don’t know where to begin. Sometimes it’s the one liners that stick with me and kick off the thought processes. With Buckingham, I particularly liked how he would tell a story of something a leader would do and follow it with “Was it the right thing to do, well no but it was vivid.” I love that!
There have been discussions in the blogosphere about passion and whether or not we should have a passion for our work. You spend most of your time at work; you should have a passion for what you do. According to Buckingham workers in the US feel like they are playing their strengths 14% of the time. That’s sad.
While I don’t expect everyone to do what strengthens them all the time, they call it work for a reason; it should be higher than 14%. As a leader, do you know what makes your employees tick? What makes them strong and invigorated? Do you know those same answers about yourself even?
As a generalist I’ll admit that I don’t always do the things that make me invigorated. Who likes filing anyway? But I know what does invigorate me; I know what makes an hour go by in 5 minutes. And my boss lets me do those things because she knows how productive it makes me and how passionate I am about those things.
Take the time to talk to your employees, really talk to them about what they’re vivid about. Put your employees to work in the areas that make them strong, not the areas that weaken them (even if they’re good at it). Your business and your employees will be better for it.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
April – Great advice for we practitioners !! This is something that is rarely done because so many people focus on what people “aren’t doing” vs. what they can do !! Thanks for the post. This is something I will be using at work.
April,
I loved Marcus Buckingham. He made us laugh at ourselves and reflect which is key for all people to be successful in their work. I don’t think that we do enough of that with ourselves or our teams.
I’m not one who enjoys filing either but those that do it’s important to keep those HR pros close. They keep me in line and organization especially since i have a case of SOS (shiny object syndrome).
Have a safe trip home!
Jessica
@blogging4jobs