by Triangle Performance Staff | May 22, 2007 | Kevin Berchelmann, Organizational Effectiveness
I currently coach a couple of Human Resources professionals, both at the Director-level. Interestingly, they both asked me, in a span of two weeks and independent of each other, how to really grow and succeed in HR; how to become a real “player” in the business, to command respect, and to develop the credibility necessary to make real-life strategic contributions.
Of course, I had comments — I never promise that what works for me will work for you; only that these DID work for someone… me.
1. Read voraciously. Understand the concepts and philosophy along with the application. Management and leadership theory are necessary foundations — not so you can spout them and sound all mensa-like, but so you can use credible theory when developing your own method of application.
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by Triangle Performance Staff | May 20, 2007 | Kevin Berchelmann, Organizational Effectiveness
Many people — mostly consultants, I know — make incentive-based compensation planning complex and overly difficult to create, implement, and manage. It simply does not need to be that way…
Understanding incentive compensation is simple, and is largely human nature. Just realize the following:
1. That which is rewarded is repeated,
2. You don’t get what you want, hope for, manage to, or request — you get what you pay for (as a tenet of compensation, not necessarily a life philosophy), and
3. Simplicity wins. (more…)
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | May 17, 2007 | Executive Improvement, Kevin Berchelmann
I frequently am asked about an employee’s refusal to sign some document: a written warning, a performance review, a job description, etc.
What to do? What do you do when the employee looks you squarely in the eye and says “no,” when asked/directed to sign?
Many will advise to simply have another manager ‘witness’ the event or document, and sign as a witness. Others will say that signing is just not that big of a deal in the first place.
Well, it is and it isn’t.
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by Triangle Performance Staff | Apr 29, 2007 | Kevin Berchelmann, Organizational Effectiveness
So, last night, I took my wife and daughter to Gratzi’s italian restaurant in Spring, Texas.
Now, some of you may know… I decided late last year to finally get my physical fitness under control. What that means to me (30lbs. since November 15, thanks), is just be realistic. I exercise, reduce my portion size, don’t do anything colossally stupid, and I never withhold something I really crave.
Well, this night, I wasn’t particularly ‘craving’ anything, and didn’t want to do anything ‘colossally stupid,’ but I just couldn’t find a good way to do that. I mentioned that to our server, who promptly brought out the chef to discuss.
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by Triangle Performance Staff | Apr 10, 2007 | Kevin Berchelmann, Organizational Effectiveness
Someone asked me recently if (a) the ethics in human resources are becoming suspect, and (b) if ethics can really be taught to anyone.
My first reaction, of course, was to nearly scoff at the “ethics” question, thinking that frequently, our profession may even OVER-think the ethics component in an otherwise common-sense situation.
Then, I gave it some more thought… (more…)
by D. Kevin Berchelmann | Mar 9, 2007 | Executive Improvement, Kevin Berchelmann
There clearly are several significant workplace trends looming in front of us that we would do well to recognize. I’ve mentioned many of them here in this blog.
Additionally, other authors, consultants, and practitioners have also done a good job of trying to predict the future.
As with all pseudo-science, however, some of it is pure bunk. For instance:
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