Category Archives: Being Authentic

Trying to be hip and lying to get a job is never a good idea! (Video)

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old hipsterWhile watching TV this past week I saw a perfect example of a Gen X’er trying to get a job that they were not qualified to do from the show Suburgatory. This dude was trying to be a hipster (which he wasn’t) and shows how dumb it makes you look when you aren’t being true to yourself.

Although the video is so far out there and funny as heck – it’s never a good idea to pretend you have the skills for the job you are applying for. Take a look >

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Click the link to watch video:

Take Away’s:

  • Never apply to a job where you don’t hold the skills, qualifications and experience – it will come back to bite you.
  • Be yourself – or you’ll come off looking like a douche-bag.
  • There are no social media gurus and if you really don’t do social – don’t act or talk like you do.
  • Act your age – they’re going to know you’re old when they see you. Playing hip only gets you so far.
  • It’s never good to lie to get a job or anything else, for that matter

Can you add any more? I’m sure there are plenty.

If your Company sucks offline – your employees will talk about it Online!

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YourCompanysucks_landingpage_03Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit in on several fantastic Google+ Hangouts over in My Community Manager group on Google. One of the sessions was with Yammer and we all (through the hangout and Twitter Chat) discussed issues related to social media at work and incorporating internal collaboration tools.

Here is the actual recording of the hangout in case you’d like to get the exact scoop. I think you’ll find it very engaging and answer a few of your questions on how folks went through the process of adopting social and internal collaboration tools into the workplace – slowly, easily and steadily.

If you still have a problem with unleashing your employees on social you may want to read this new post from the NY Times in regard to trying to regulate social media at work. The title could have been better but it’s a pretty informative post.

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I am all for incorporating social media and technology into our workplaces, that we stop trying to see how we can block it and instead try to make it work toward our advantage – for the greater good of our organizations.

The thing is, if you’re worried that your employees are going to tell everyone about their crappy workplace, that you are making them work 12 hours a day without a break, that you fired someone just last week because they told you they were expecting a baby – you need to really rethink a few things.

If your company sucks offline, folks are going to talk about it online. If your management style sounds a little like Nazi Germany, your people are going to realize you are the worst manager while they are discussing this with other folks – online or off.

The thing to do if you’re lying awake at night worried about blocking Facebook at work because you’re afraid of what your employees will say about you – is to start making better choices. Stop being an ass. Abide by rules (especially the NLRB) and start working on internal (that means inside you) changes.

Bottom line, most folks are worried about what their employees will say online out of fear of being exposed. Those organizations and managers who are doing it up right – aren’t usually worried and actually encourage their folks to share with others how great they are.

Employees are using their phones to get on Facebook and Youtube at work even if you don’t allow them to get online through their office devices. And if you don’t – they’re prepared with excuses in case they get caught READ HERE!

So the next time you or your Executive Management Team sit around the proverbial table – you may want to discuss how to create a better culture. One that will promote trust, team-building, and authenticity and how you can create a better working environment all around.

Photo Credit: MSCO

Kudos to Michael VanDervort for the heads up on the Times article. Love my community!

Too big for your britches to say “Thank You?”

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I’ve been mulling over something that has been bothering me at times and then at other times, I get it. People are busy, too many irons in the fire – add social technology to the mix and all that it entails and we just don’t have enough time to tell our community a big ole “THANKS.” Or do we?

Technology has afforded us all to be able to check our Twitters while we’re sitting in the dentist chair having a root canal but yet we can’t click “respond” with a “thank you so much for sharing my shit” because we simply have too much going on? Really?

I am connected with folks who may or may not have a large online community of followers and I am often blown away by two things:

  • Those who have a large following  that always send a kind “Thank you, Susan, for sharing my post”
  • ………………………(nothing but the sound of crickets, in response to sharing)

Now, it’s pretty much a given that those with a smaller following (not always the case) are going to send you a thank you. But the big guys, you know who I’m talking about, who would be spending countless hours a day responding to thousands of followers, just don’t have the time to do so. And when they do, it’s just a nice gesture.

This really bothered me in the beginning stages of developing my online community. And then I chillaxed, to some degree. And the more I built my following and the more they started sharing my content, I understood the time that it takes to respond to every.single.one. But yet, I still try to do that.

Now, obviously, I don’t have millions of followers. But I still have a loyal group of “sharers” that get the word out. These are my friends. Why wouldn’t I take the time in between my day while grabbing a coffee, to say “thanks for all you do.”

Do we have to say thanks to those with whom we are connected that share our content? No. And sometimes I often want to tell my close friends, “It’s really not necessary that you thank  me every time.” And I mean that. But it is nice to acknowledge folks once in a while.

I don’t think your ever too big to do that.

Okay, bring on your comments. I’m waiting and bracing myself.

Photo Credit: dorry’s

Just because Lance Armstrong quit, doesn’t mean you have to!

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Today we awake to the news that “Lance Armstrong finally quits.” He’s been battling allegations of misuse of drugs for performance for a while and one reporter even states, “In the end Armstrong quits, and by quitting, he admits his guilt.”

Whether that’s true or not, I’m sure we’ll never know – we can only speculate. Perhaps he was just.plain.tired. of fighting this losing battle.

Lance was one of those who went through major stuff and his message was basically. “Don’t let anything get in your way. You can make it through anything, if you persevere and have determination.” Another writer states this about him:

Lance beat everything that came his way. He didn’t relent. If there was a fight to still fight, he would have fought it. Now we’re burned by another fraud masquerading as a hero.

In a matter of months we have learned that college football’s winningest coach enabled a pedophile, the MVP of baseball’s All-Star Game used testosterone and cycling’s biggest star chose to no longer hold back the mountain of doping allegations against him. It’s a sad few weeks when Joe Paterno’s statue goes into storage and Melky Cabrera disappears from the pennant race and Lance Armstrong says “no mas.” Suddenly, nothing seems sacred anymore.

Each brought hope and joy to a lot of people’s worlds. Paterno inspired generations of football players to be better men. Cabrera gave San Francisco four wonderful months of baseball, and Armstrong made millions believe they could do anything.

Seriously? Nothing is sacred anymore because our heroes fall? What a crock!

Listen, all are created equal when it comes to temptation. We are all tempted in one aspect or another – throughout our lifetime. And no one is immune. Perhaps we place these folks on too high a pedestal – and then when they screw up we’re like, “See there! I knew it.”

Don’t be one of those waiting for others to fail just to prove your theory.

The thing is, whether someone walks a chalk line, doesn’t give into the temptation buzzing around them, or whether they take the bait and fall flat on their face – THE MESSAGE IS STILL THE SAME. The message of hope, of perseverance, of fighting till the finish, of beating cancer till the death, – doesn’t change. It doesn’t change just because someone failed.

It’s just like religion.

Just because you have extremists, and all kinds of people who are cray-cray, it doesn’t change the message. It may affect the organization or the team, but it doesn’t change the message. I cannot stress that enough.

Put your trust in people and there’s a chance they may fail. We take that risk when we put our trust out there. But we don’t pack our bags and say, “I’m never watching sports again because someone’s going to ruin it for me. They’re going to screw up.”

No! We keep on keepin’ on and we hope that someone will have the balls to walk the talk.

There’s still hope that you or your loved one will fight cancer and win. My dad did. There’s still truth that you can fulfill life-long dreams. We see this everyday, in everyday people around us.

We don’t quit, just because someone else did.

Photo Credit: theamazing39stonecyclist

What’s good about Community?

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Whether online or off, whether we think we do or not, we are all creatures that need community.

Let’s look at Wikipedia’s definition – “A group of interacting people, living in a space (be it online) that share common interests, values and social cohesion; A group that shares their environment that help one another.”

I know some of you think you don’t need this, but let’s think of it differently – Perhaps, we need you!

This is one reason why I love social media and the way it allows for online community building.

Over the past couple of years, since diving into the whole “social media thingy,” I’ve met tremendous folk whom I never would have met IRL nor would have I remained engaged with on almost a daily basis.

If you are still wondering “What Can Social Media Do For Me?” I challenge you to look at the awesome power it has to produce some fantastic networking and relationships. And perhaps, you have this amazing gift or personality that WE are missing out on, for fear of getting out there.

Community is about sharing and caring. It’s interacting and engaging. And though it crosses boundaries of our professional and personal lives – that’s one of the reasons it creates such close connections.

Back in January, I went through a very difficult time in my personal life. I made one post on Facebook (that made others quiver) that mentioned what I had just experienced. My online community stepped up to the plate.  (Read more here)

Through one of the most difficult of times, I was bombarded with overwhelming comments, emails, messages, and texts from my community. They began to show their support for me, offering their condolences, sharing their personal phone numbers and email address, encouraging words and reaching out to me in a most amazing way.

Community shows that you are in fact, human. And with that come the good, the bad and the ugly. But if you’ve created a community of trust, those things are simply accepted.

Photo Credit: SocialMediaToday

Note:

This post was created for my dear friend Steve Browne, who is hosting Carnival of HR over at his blog Everyday People. Be sure and check out the other HR Blogs on that list. They are from some truly, creative and engaging folk. Thanks Steve, for including me.

#Follow Friday – Chris Fields and “The Resume Crusade”

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It’s Friday once again. So happy to have my guest today Chris Fields who is not only one of my HR cohorts but he’s also one of my dear friends.

I apologize in advance for the sound on this video – it was beyond our control. I’ll try to have the kinks worked out next week on our SPOTLIGHT #FF blog.

Connect with Chris:

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Cost of Work Blog.

Photo Credit: Rsvpster

7 reasons why I wanna be Laurie Ruettimann

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Okay, I haven’t actually met Laurie but have connected with her on a few social venues, read her blogs, sat in on her webinars, and seen a few videos. No, I’m not stalking her – I just like her style.

Here are a few reasons I wanna be Laurie Ruettimann:

  1. She’s adorable, right? – Who doesn’t wanna look like that?
  2. She’s edgy – She’s always saying what we wish we could say OUT LOUD
  3. She funny and makes us laugh – but proves her point
  4. She’s articulate and sassy
  5. She has a writing style that’s “all her own”
  6. She often drops the “F-BOMB” and gets away with it
  7. She’s smart, classy and sophisticated (or that’s what I perceive)

Ever since I started writing my blogs and getting my work out there I have said to myself, “I wish I could be like them” or “I wish I could write like that.” I wish I could drop the famous F-Bomb and make it come across as genuine. Always comparing myself to someone else and thinking “I wish I could be like her.” The great thing about Laurie (or so I hear from others that have met her in person) is that she is exactly in person as she is online – genuine! That’s the point!

In reality, we all are different in our own way. We all have different experiences, different perspectives, writing styles and really just need to be ourselves. For my industry and my personality doing these things that make others who they are would only be setting myself up as a copy-cat and being very disingenuous (a hypocrite) because that’s not who I am.

When it’s all said and done it’s about being authentic!

I respect all you folks out there who take the time to write a blog (especially on a DAILY basis) because I know personally the labor of love involved, the hours invested, the opportunity to share your thoughts and opinions in such a beautiful manner.

Communication is a skill that is honed and I know that in time I too, shall “Inherit the earth” as Laurie has done :)

UPDATE: I have since met Laurie in person and she is more awesome than I had imagined. She’s a smooth alligator. (Or was that suppose to be operator?)

NOTE:

For those of you who just fell off the turnip truck and don’t know who Laurie is you can find her here:

http://laurieruettimann.com/

Embrace your weirdness

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Yesterday several of us in the HR / Recruiting space (How’d I get here? That’s for another time) attended Craig Fisher’s TNL in Aurora, IL where we discussed all kinds of issues from Jason Seiden’s profersional to a panel about influence, today’s candidates and how to stand out in the current job market. That last one reminded me of Joe Gerstandt’s “Fly your freak flag.” Embrace diversity!

As Jason and Craig were discussing “Pimping your LinkedIn Profile” I was thinking of my own profiles throughout the myriad of platforms and taking mental notes on how I could do a little improvement in that area. I’m all about being different, standing out, freak flag flying – if you will. Just ask those who attended the conference what I wore.

How boring would it be if we were all the same? (Okay, maybe if we were all like Jason or Joe that might be cool).

I’ve always been one to stand out among the crowd, not because I’m so gorgeous but because I like wearing vintage (hats, coats, and clothing). I haven’t adhered to those fabulous standards of mine the past couple of years for trying to “fit in.” In fact, this past summer in Vegas as SHRM I felt like I was wearing someone else’s skin. I took suits and frumpy outfits so I wouldn’t stand out. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I suppose in all my madness of trying to conform and act like “HR” in my plan of attack I blended in quite nicely. But I felt uncomfortable and ready to shed my skin (so to speak). Looking back, I would do things differently – as far as being true to me in my weirdness and said “F, you – if you don’t like it.” Because, that’s always been my motto!

This is something we don’t think about when writing our online profiles, especially on Linked In. I’m guilty as charged. It’s almost as if we are back in high school – trying to fit in.  The point the fellas were trying to get across in their session was to stand out. Not only incorporating keywords that would increase your page rank but in mixing a little “something-something” about you personally and your style to get you noticed by the right people (your target client / audience). The ones that you are trying to reach, and as Jason said “who is going to write the check” not your peers.

Here’s a recap of the session over at HR Fishbowl.

What’s making you stand out in the crowd? Are you being true to yourself? Are you reaching your target audience? Who are you influencing online and offline?

Some great questions to ask yourself, indeed.

Photo Credit: Brooke Moss

The nerds around us

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Stop trying to be something that you aren’t. Just be yourself.

Photo Credit: Pictureswithfunnycaptions.com