by Alan Collins
Ever get to a point in your HR job where you’re just…dog tired and worn out?
Here’s what I mean…
You need a forklift to pull yourself out of bed every morning.
Your clients are bugging the living crap out of you.
That HR assignment that you went after like a killer whale…now feels like a chore.
Those tedious little admin tasks that are a part of every single HR job ever invented, are now getting on your last nerve.
You don’t want to quit, but you need to get some of your old mojo back.
What happened to the way things were when you first started out?
Well, HR jobs are just like marriages. Sometimes you’ve got to put in a little extra effort to keep that ol’ spark alive.
The same techniques that can rekindle the spark with your significant other can be used to keep the candle lit at work too.
To that end, here are six ideas to re-romance and reclaim the love for your current HR gig.
#1: Learn something new
Your brain was not meant to soak up all the knowledge it needed by age 22, and then shut down.
As soon as you quit learning and growing, you start to die. If you think about it, that’s what made HR work so much fun in the first place — that ridiculously crazy learning curve you were on. At times, you may have felt like you were drinking from a fire hydrant, but it was also a thrill.
It’s critical to your HR career (and your self-respect) that you keep learning. As soon as you start to get too comfortable, resting on what you already know, you’ll also start to get stale. And before you know it, some devious, arrogant little prick disguised as a one of your colleagues will show up and start kicking your butt intellectually and with new ideas…in meetings, with your clients and in front of your boss.
What do you do to ward this off?
Add a new skill to bag of tricks. Or get even more amazing at some of the skills you already possess. Dive into a topic that scares you, like deepening your knowledge of your company’s business. Or becoming better at developing talent. Or engaging employees. Or using social media in HR. Or exploring whatever the wild frontiers are in your HR specialty area.
You don’t have study like you’re trying to pass the SPHR certification exam. But make sure you’re being challenged in picking up this new know-how. Learning something new will give you a nice refreshing dip back in the deep end of the pool where the big fish swim.
#2: Go to a seminar
If your problem is self-doubt, imposter syndrome, or believing in your heart that you’re just not delivering enough value, get over it. And then sneak out to a two or three day seminar.
Nope, not a webinar. Physically get out of the office. Even if you’re an introvert, you’ll profit from the face-to-face, full-frontal interaction with different people.
When you get there, disconnect from your crackberry. Keep the texting and e-mails at an absolute minimum. Yeah, I know it’s tough. But just concentrate on getting energized by new people with new ideas in a new setting.
Great seminars are the fastest way I know to re-charge dead batteries. It’s also amazing to see firsthand how much you will get jazzed up by being out of the office and invigorated by new external perspectives. And that’s the kind of joyful feeling that lasts longer a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
#3: Re-Connect
Quick, name the 5 people who have influenced your HR career the most.
Today, take ONE of them to lunch.
Or call one of them and talk for an hour.
Then, make plans to re-connect with the other four in the next week.
Remember how they used to inspire you.
Let them inspire you all over again.
Re-connect with that boss that gave you your first big break in HR. You know, the one you and everyone else admired. The one who was patient and supportive as you were learning the ropes.
Re-connect with the former client that taught you ten times more about the business than you ever taught them about HR.
Re-connect with the colleague that you hit it off with on day one, who always had a great take on the world and who always made you laugh.
Re-connect with them and let the magic happen…again.
#4: Write your HR career manifesto
One of the best companies in the world at engaging employees is
Zappo’s. What makes them great is that early on Tony Hsieh, their CEO, and his team sat down and figured out what the business stood for: their core values.
They grabbed a piece of paper, put their heads together and decided who they wanted to be — and who they
didn’t want to be.
The same thing applies to your career.
Come up with 10 important core values you stand for. If they don’t make you tingle, you’re not being honest. Don’t put down boring HR buzzwords like being a “strategic business partner.” Dig deep into your soul. Find some values that put a lump in your throat.
Now, think about how you’re going to live your new statement of values this week.
What are you going to do to show your organization, your boss, your colleagues, your dog and the rest of the world that you stand for?
#5: Leverage your towering strengths
The two biggest mistakes that I see folks in HR make is:
- Wasting time trying to improve their weaknesses
- Not spending enough time building on their strengths
Years of research by Martin Seligman (
AuthenticHappiness.com), Donald Clifton (
StengthsFinder 2.0) among others, have conclusively proven that people have much more success and enjoyment at work when they’ve identified what they’re good at and then spend time doing it on the job.
Do you know what your strengths are? If not, there are lots of assessment tools that can tell you. Personally, I like
Strengths Finder 2.0. A friend of mine swears by
Myers-Briggs. You can also get at your gifts by simply asking ten people who know you well what you excel at.
However, don’t waste time sweating these options. The approach you use is less important than digging out the personal attributes that you’ve been particularly blessed with…and then deciding how you’re going to deploy at least one of them more on the job.
Perhaps you love taking things from good to great (this is the “Maximizer” strength in StrengthsFinder 2.0). If so, on the job, you’ll want to look at taking on more “improvement projects” versus just continuing to do the HR work that just maintains the status quo. Or maybe your strength is “Empathy” which means you’ll quickly get bored if you can’t occasionally spice up your work with some employee relations and coaching work.
Using your signature strengths more on the job are a blast. And, they’ll help you endure through the rough spots that are inevitable when you deal with cranky personalities all day long in HR.
And if you keep looking for fresh ways to apply your strengths to your HR work, your love of that work will rarely grow old.
#6: Get a mentor or coach
Some HR folks can be foolish and short-sighted. I’m in this group. We think we can do everything alone. We don’t hesitate to recommend mentors and coaches to our clients, but not for ourselves. We’ve become addicted to drawing our own map.
And that’s all well and good. You need to be self-reliant. But no one will accuse you of cheating if you go get some help, either.
When I first became an HR leader, I wasn’t very good. I had a lot of passion, know-how and drive, but there were definitely many days where I could have been sued for managerial malpractice. But fortunately for me, my HR team let me know it by hammering me in
my first 360 feedback session with them…to their credit.
With ego bruised, and my boss’ support, I started working with a coach. Not just a good coach, a great one. One who had been there and done that. He injected me with confidence, helped shave off my rough edges and helped me do what I knew I needed to do as a manager. He also helped me enjoy the process of leading an HR team a whole lot more.
Just like a personal trainer at the gym, a great coach won’t do the work for you. But they
can help you energize you and realize that you’re strong enough to do the work yourself.
I still have lunch with my coach a couple of times a year. Though we each have gone in different directions and haven’t formerly worked together in years, the relationship remains. And, it is one that I’ll cherish forever.
In selecting a coach, the important thing is that you find someone who clicks with you, shares your values, and has a style that will challenge and push you to do more than you can do alone.
There you go, six ways to fall back in love with HR all over again. But wait a minute…
Since I’m on a roll, here’s one more bonus tip for you.
#7: Schedule time away from your HR day job
I don’t want to leave this one out because this can be the most effective approach of all. But, the toughest to pull off.
Here’s the deal: I don’t care how much you love the HR profession. I don’t care how much energy it gives you. If it’s your calling and you want to give it all the juice and passion you have to offer,
you’ve got to step away.
When you create a career and start to live your dream, it’s easy to think you should do that 24/7, 365. But that’s a quick path to burnout. You’ll be more creative, more stimulated, and more excited about your career when you carve out time to do some of that
other stuff you love.
You don’t have to run a marathon if that isn’t your thing. But get out for a walk, jog or a bike ride every day. It improves your mental clarity, your mood, and cuts your risk of pretty much every kind of disease. You’ll be a lot more productive, too, which is a nice bonus.
But don’t stop there. Schedule some time to just play. Go to the movies. Take your camera or flip phone and take some wacky shots to laugh about and share with others. Draw, finger paint or read some comic books. Just do something you find relaxing and fun. Don’t make it too practical. If it has any redeeming social value whatsoever, it doesn’t count. Give that inner four-year-old some play time, and watch what that does for the rest of your life.
That’s it. That’s all I have. Seven things to help you reclaim your love of HR. I’m done now.
But how about you? What do you do when you need to regain your mojo? Let us know about it by commenting
HERE.
About the author: Alan Collins was Vice President – Human Resources at PepsiCo where he led HR initiatives for their Quaker Oats, Gatorade and Tropicana businesses. He is now President of Success in HR, Inc. and the author of the HR best seller,
UNWRITTEN HR RULES . His new book,
BEST KEPT HR SECRETS now available on Amazon.
