how to become a “vip” at work: valuable, inspiring, and...

How to Become a “VIP” at Work: Valuable,

Inspiring, and Promotable

David Lee HumanNature@Work

1 For resources by David Lee on communication, leadership, and engagement, go to: HumanNatureAtWork.com For information on career coaching with David Lee, go to HeartatWorkAssociates.com

Being Valuable, Being Seen as Valuable

Portrait of an HR Professional with “A Seat at the Table”

Directions: This list of questions is based on an interview I did with Lisa McIlwain’s former boss, CEO Jim Donovan. As you read the questions and the commentary, ask yourself, Could the same be said about me?

1. Do you truly care? –“She is the most caring person I’ve ever worked with…caring in a broad sense…the best interests of the organization and doing her very best for helping the people within it.”

2. Do you continually work at being a true expert?—“She also is very, very smart…a very quick study with everything. You don’t have to spend much time with her to know she’s a true content expert when it comes to human resources.”

3. Do you show a genuine interest in others and how you can help them achieve their goals (which means knowing what their goals are)? –“I think she respected others…their roles…their responsibilities they had in the organization…and she worked with them to achieve their goals.”

4. Do you act in ways that foster respect?—“She gave respect and she earned respect. She’s a role model, she truly is.”

5. Do you look outside your immediate domain to the larger context?—“She was always one of the first to get involved in any project that was underway that were not directly related to HR. She had a clear understanding that HR’s responsibilities were as broad as the organizations, since everything involves people.”

6. Do you understand both the big picture and the operational realities of your employer’s business?—“She understood the business to the extent she knew what questions to ask, so she could help with the problem and the people to ask the questions of, in order to move forward towards a goal.”

Q. If you were coaching a young, up and coming HR professional, what would you say to him or her? A. “To be a successful HR person, you have to truly care about the best interests of the organization. You can’t just focus on HR policy and procedures and processes…that does not work…I’ve seen people do that and they get pigeonholed as nothing more than paper pushers.”

https://www.humannatureatwork.com/

https://www.heartatworkassociates.com/


Being Valuable, Being Seen as Valuable

Exercise: What do you see as the difference between HR professionals who are

seen as valuable, who people respect, and truly “have a seat at the table”? How

do they differ from those who aren’t seen as valuable?




“To Become More Valuable…Know Thy Customers”

“A new global survey reveals that CEOs view a recession as their biggest external concern for

2019. They cited attracting and retaining talent as their top internal concern.”

Source: The Conference Board, In 2019 CEOs are Most Concerned about Talent and a

Recession

What are the biggest concerns of YOUR leadership team?

What are you doing to help them address those concerns and what else could you do?



https://www.conference-board.org/press/pressdetail.cfm?pressid=7650

https://www.conference-board.org/press/pressdetail.cfm?pressid=7650


“To Become More Valuable…Know Thy Customers”

(Continued)

1. Do you have an in-depth understanding of the Big Picture? a. If you work in a company: how that company works, how the various

departments and operations work and affect each other, and what influences its profitability

b. If you work in a non-profit: what influences your funding and economic stability, what each department does and how that contributes to the big picture

c. What senior leadership is trying to accomplish and what their major priorities are

i. What the Vision means in practical terms ii. Current strategic Initiatives

d. What keeps senior leadership up at night i. Organizational and operational challenges

ii. Marketplace and economic challenges and uncertainties e. Marketplace dynamics and how they affect your industry and

employer (or funding and political climate dynamics if you are a non-profit)

2. Are you continually focused on how you can help senior leadership achieve the Big Picture and solve their most important problems?

3. Do you engage senior leadership in conversations about how you can best support their goals and address their problems?

4. Do you actively share your HR expertise as part of the “Here’s where we want to go” and “How will we make this initiative successful?” conversations?




“To Become More Valuable…Know Thy Customers” [continued]

5. Do you continue to research and learn more about your employer’s business, how to align HR strategy with business strategy, current theory and practice around talent acquisition, development, employee engagement, human nature, etc?

6. Do you have a clear, up-to-date understanding of the challenges and goals of supervisors and managers?

7. Do you engage them in ongoing conversations about how you can best help them play their critical role well?

8. Are you clear on root causes related to the “health” of these factors in your organization:

a. Your ability to be an Employer of Choice b. Employee retention, morale, and engagement c. Individual employee performance

9. Do you continue to research and learn about key drivers of talent

acquisition, retention, and engagement, and how to make sure the work experience your employer is delivering satisfies these?

Further Reading

How HR Can Earn the CEO's Trust – This is a must read

Questions to ask your CEO that make you look smart

Ten Reasons Everybody Hates HR – Even though the title might sound harsh, it’s an important read by one of the most followed leadership experts, Liz Ryan. I encourage you to read other articles that “bash” HR to see if you are engaging in any of the habits that prevent a “seat at the table”.



https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/1118/pages/how-hr-can-earn-the-ceos-trust.aspx

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/07/27/ten-reasons-everybody-hates-hr


Inspiring U

“Interestingly enough, there is one pivotal competency that is

most powerful in distinguishing the top 10th percentile (of profit-

generating managers) from the rest: inspiring and motivating

others to high performance.”

Source: Jack Zenger, Joe Folkman and Scott K. Edinger in How Extraordinary

Leaders Double Profits, Chief Learning Officer, July 2009.

The Energizer Effect

“A person’s position as an energizer in the network was four times greater a predictor of

performance than any other factor measured.”

“To a person, (our interviewees) indicated that energizing interactions enabled them to see new

possibilities by integrating different expertise or perspectives. Energizing interactions helped

overcome natural disconnects between people with different backgrounds and expertise by

creating the social space—the mutual respect, confidence and openness—that enabled

possibilities to emerge.”

Dr. Rob Cross, Babson College

Sources: Rob Cross, Wayne Baker and Andrew Parker, What Creates Energy in Organizations?, MIT Sloan Review, Summer 2003, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 51–56




Inspiring U

(Continued)

Energizers and De-Energizers

Directions: Identify general De-energizer and Energizer Behaviors and then think of examples of

both in the follow situations:

1. In a meeting focused on problem-solving or coming up with new ideas

2. When senior leadership announces a new initiative or major change effort

3. As a board member at an HR association meeting

4. When onboarding new employees

De-Energizer Energizers




Inspiring U

(Continued)

Notes:

“…leaders will find it hard to sustain energy and commitment within the organization

unless they systemically restore their own energy (physical, mental, emotional, and

spiritual), as well as create the conditions and serve as role models for others to do the

same.”

Barsh, J. Mogelof, J, and Caroline Walsh. How Centered Leaders Achieve Extraordinary Results,

McKinsey Quarterly, 2010

“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness

embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.”

Thich Nhat Hanh




Being Promotable

Ten Questions Employees Should Ask Their Bosses at the

Beginning of the Year

by Shari Harley, CandidCulture.com

1. What are our company’s/organization’s goals for this year?

2. What are your goals for this year?

3. How can I support and contribute to your goals?

4. What are you most concerned about?

5. What’s most important that I get done in the next 30, 60, and 90 days?

6. How will you know I’m doing a good job? What are the measures of success

for each project I’m working on?

7. What kind of information do you want to receive from me, how often, and

in what format?

8. What’s something you hope I’ll do differently from last year?

9. What do I need to know about my or our department’s performance from

last year, that I might not know?

10. What’s most important that I get done this year?




Being Promotable

(Continued)

More Questions to Ask Your Boss

1. One of the things we talked about in the How to Become a VIP at Work

seminar was to make sure we are focusing on the activities that make the

biggest contribution to your goals and your company’s or organization’s

goals. Can we set up some time to go over this? I want to make sure I’m

making the biggest contribution I can.

2. What organizational goals have the biggest impact on our work and where

we need to put our attention?

3. What is most important to you for our department/team to accomplish this

year?

4. I want to make sure I’m focusing my attention on the things that are most

important to you and your goals. My understanding is that the things I can

be doing to make the biggest contribution are state your understanding.

Am I on track or do I need to shift my priorities?

5. What’s one thing you would like to see me start doing that would make the

biggest difference in my ability to be helpful to you?

6. What’s the one thing you would like to see me STOP doing that would make

the biggest difference in my ability to be helpful to you?

7. What’s the one thing that you really like that I do, that you would like to

have me do more of?




Next Steps

1. One thing I will start doing…

2. One thing I will stop doing…

3. The first conversation I will have based on this will be…




About David Lee

David Lee, the founder of HumanNature@Work, helps employers improve employee engagement, customer service, and morale, though his work as a trainer, consultant, and coach. He also is a career coach with Heart at Work Associates where he especially loves working with people exploring a career change. He is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial

practices that optimize employee performance. David is the author of Managing Employee Stress and Safety, and Powerful Storytelling Techniques for Trainers (ATD Press, out of print), as well as over one hundred articles and book chapters on employee and organizational performance that have been published in North America, Europe, India, Australia, and China. Both the second and third editions of The Talent Management Handbook have chapters by him on onboarding, including one on the use of storytelling and onboarding. In addition to his own work with both high performance and struggling organizations, David Lee draws from a broad range of scientfic and peak performance disciplines. Much of his work involves synthesizing scientific research on human nature and then translating these principles into practical strategies for optimizing individual and organizational performance. To capture the impact understanding human nature makes, David borrows from the popular TV show The Dog Whisperer, and explains “Understanding human nature helps you become a People Whisperer, and by doing so, dramatically improves your ability to get the best results from others (and yourself).”

Recently, his work on what makes organizations resilient and employees perform at their best has focused on the central role productive relationships and productive conversations have on these outcomes, with this being the take away message:

“Every better business result you want requires having a better conversation.”

For information about David Lee’s services:

Phone: [email protected]

Email: 207-571-9898

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlee-maine/



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https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidlee-maine/

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