Your HR Buddy is grateful to have the amazing voices in the HR space joining us to share their insights with a new series ‘What’s next for HR in 2013‘! To kick off the 1st part of the series we have Jay Kuhns, who inspires us to make an impact by following 3 steps! Read on!
Happy New Year!
Fresh starts are so exciting. It’s as if we can reboot our lives and clean out all of the junk that gets in our way. We convince ourselves that now that a page has turned from December to January we have the power to change everything in our lives. Work will be organized, caught up, and progressive. Personal goals will be attained through a renewed sense of enthusiasm and commitment. We will find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow….
Then January 2nd arrives and we are confronted with the same challenges, barriers, and excuses that we were dealing with way back on December 31st.
So what do you do next HR?
Three Steps
I’m convinced that in order to be an effective leader, the following steps need to be built into your daily routine. No one is perfect, and rarely do we consistently stay on top of the many challenges facing us each day. However, without a core set of guidelines, we quickly fall into the abyss of excuses and failed service delivery.
Step 1
I’m not going to spend any time on this step other than to say this…get yourself organized or stop complaining. Does your desk look like someone dumped a truck load of papers on it? Why is that? Get your personal chaos together and read on.
Step 2
If you’re going to have a productive year as a true HR professional you need to become an expert in the industry you’re in. So what if you never have to deal with the supply chain (other than to hire or fire someone.)
It doesn’t matter if the monthly financials are prepared and reviewed by other members of the leadership team. Make sure you see them and ask questions if you don’t understand all of the jargon.
Who cares if Operations doesn’t invite you to their meetings. Invite yourself. Get yourself involved in what is important to them. They’ll be impressed, and you’ll understand what is really going on in your organization.
Step 3
Take risks. The world of HR has changed dramatically over the last few years. Massive government regulation, the explosion of social media, and quite candidly the long slow death of old school HR practitioners has created a unique opportunity. Are you going to take advantage of that opportunity; or, are you going to play it safe and hide behind some inane policy?
If you’re serious about making an impact this year it’s time to move from the safe lane to the risky lane. I’m not recommending you do something stupid. Quite the opposite is true. I believe you need to take bold steps that our old school colleagues would classify as risky, and make something meaningful happen for your company.
Nervous? Worried? Fired up? Good! That means you’re thinking about actually doing something that gets your blood flowing.
I think you’re going to have a very good year.
Jay Kuhns has served as the Vice President of Human Resources for All Children’s Hospital/Johns Hopkins Medicine in St. Petersburg, Floridasince 2008, and has nearly two decades of human resources experience in the healthcare industry.
Prior to joining All Children’s, Jay spent seven years with HCA in the Tampa Bay area; and before relocating to Florida he was with United Health Services for seven years in Upstate New York. Jay gets fired up about lots of things including social media, his leadership blog NoExcusesHR, doing HR differently, and watching more hockey than anyone should. Follow him on Twitter @jrkuhns or connect on Linkedin.
