Thankful November 23, 2011

I am thankful for San Diego SHRM; its talented and successful members; the passionate SD SHRM Board of Directors; and the tremendous community of HR professionals that I have the privilege of belonging to as well as learning from and alongside of.  To think that I am surrounded by over 1,000 professionals who are doing great things, each and every day.  As I love to learn, it is even better that I get to learn from, and with, them.  This is the incredible value of San Diego SHRM.  And, when you consider that we are San Diego’s only SHRM affiliated chapter, one of over 500 such chapters throughout the U.S., I get even more excited about the possibilities for learning and growth that exist for us throughout our professional careers.  As human resource professionals, we get to collaborate together so that we can bring excellence to our workplaces each and every day; leveraging the knowledge, skills, and experience of over 250,000 such professionals around the globe.

The Thanksgiving holiday is one that I most look forward to.  In today’s hustle and bustle world, this one holiday reminds me to reflect and give thanks for all that I am blessed to have in life.  Even when I was unemployed, I had my health and the potential of a bright future once I found finished the hardes work of all:  finding the “goldilocks” job.  You know the one that is “just right” for me.  And, with persistence and a whole lotta support, I found it.  Thanks, in large part, to the community of HR professionals who took the time to help me learn, grow, and bring forward my own personal brilliance.  In 2012, the San Diego SHRM Board and I look forward to providing every member with an opportunity to be engaged within this community of professionals, their individual and collective great work, and the impact they are having on their organizations and around the world.

For now, sit back, relax, and reflect on all that you have to be thankful for in life.  And, as you do, know that San Diego SHRM is thankful to be a part of your community.

Reflections. . . November 21, 2011

 

While in the DC area for the SHRM Leadership conference, I had the opportunity to slip away for about 90 minutes to visit the Newseum, relocated to Pennsylvania Avenue after I moved to San Diego.  This was my first visit and I left impressed and committed to returning when I can spend more time and enjoy the rich content of the museum.  One of the items on exhibit is a picture of President Barack Obama, staring at himself in the mirror in the U.S. Capitol moments before he stepped outside to, in front of millions around the world, take the oath of office as President of the United States.

 While my 2012 role as President of San Diego SHRM is not nearly as significant as that of the elected leader of the free world, I can’t help but reflect upon this incredible honor I have been given by SD SHRM members to be your chapter President in 2012.  I am typing this as I am en route home to San Diego and I am reflecting on this significant opportunity you are giving me to contribute to your professional growth and development.  I have spent the past four days learning about leadership from amazing and inspirational people such as Barbara Glanz, a co-author of books with Ken Blanchard (one of my leadership idols); Ryan Estis, an inspirational 21st century thought leader who is rocking the world of work; and Scott Mulligan from the Disney Institute who gave all of us reason to look beyond today’s challenges and to learn from the lessons of wise leaders who have gone before us…  Life wasn’t always easy for Walt Disney but he never gave up!

 Through this conference, SHRM has given chapter leaders from throughout the U.S.the opportunity to share ideas, collaborate, and exchange best practices.  The learning also included content from SHRM’s perspective.  They have shared their priorities for 2012, which are complementary to those that your 2012 Board are already focusing on.  In addition, SHRM shared with us their financial performance, which while revenues were not meeting expectations (like many organizations in today’s economy), the organization is controlling expenses in such a way as to make SHRM an ongoing viable concern.  The HRCI update was inspiring as certification, and recertification are ways that individuals can demonstrate to employees, and prospective employers, our individual commitment to learning, growth, and development.  And, the SHRM Foundation continues to provide scholarships and to fund research that benefits everyone in, and associated with, the field of human resources.

 As I think about what is to come for SD SHRM, I realize there is much work to be done. And, none of it is going to be easy.  Your 2012 Board and I are preparing to deliver excellence in programming and experiences to you, our members.  We will do so with consistent, engaging, relevant, and valuable content.  For now, know that we will be spending the next few weeks getting ready to kick off 2012 with a flourish.  Our Law Day programming will be like nothing we have ever done before, and yet it promises to offer the same, or even greater, value to participants.  After that, on February 29th, we will be sharing the excellent workplace HR practices from our 10 Workplace Excellence award winners with attendees at a dinner that will include keynote speaker Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus, Southwest Airlines.  You should know that she has said that she wants to have a dialog with us and doesn’t want to speak to us in a talking head format…  So, be sure to start preparing your questions about what it is like to found and lead an organization that has significantly outperformed it’s industry, and even market-wide, performance.

 These are just a few of the things we have planned for you, our members.  If you have been taking a break from our programming recently, skipping over our ads like you skip over television commercials while watching the DVRed versions of your favorite TV programs, be forewarned….if you don’t pay careful attention, you might just miss something great in store just for you!  I hope to see you at one of our programs real soon.  And, be sure to say “hi”!

 

Rock Stars – changing the world of work. . . November 19, 2011

The SHRM Leadership Conference was in full swing yesterday.  Sessions were offered to update us on SHRM’s strategies for 2012 (San Diego SHRM is very well aligned with SHRM’s strategies).  Both Pam Green and Mike Aiken got us off to a great start.  Pam even gave a shout out from the stage to San Diego SHRM based on some of the innovation that we are doing (you’ll be experiencing it in all its Technicolor glory throughout 2012) in the area of strategy.  Then, we went to break out sessions based on chapter size.  SD SHRM qualifies for Super Mega status (the largest) which are chapters with membership over 1000 members.  As an organization that is older than SHRM (in my personal life, I never admit older – just better), it is terrific that we are able to maintain our membership at over 1000 members.  This is a testament to the quality of the membership and your commitment to learning, growth, and staying connected.

Yesterday’s signature event is a tie, from my perspective, between the keynoter Ryan Estis and the 2011 SHRM Pinnacle Awards.  The awards recognize Chapters and State Councils that exhibit superior merit.  We won the Pinnacle Award several years ago for the creation and execution of our Workplace Excellence Awards program which just celebrated its 12^th year.  Awards were given for helping the homeless find work; assisting at-risk youth in acquiring the skills necessary to succeed in today’s workplace; assisting our veterans transitioning into the civilian workforce and for developing and offering an HR for Non-HR Managers of small businesses.  As you can tell, SHRM is adapting to the times and delivering value not only to our members, but to our communities throughout the U.S.  It makes me proud to be a SHRM member and inspired the San Diego SHRM team to think “bigger” in terms of what we can offer you as well as what we can ask you to help us with contributing to our community.

Finally, Ryan Estis’ session was really a Rock Concert.  I kept thinking to myself, as he moved about the stage with such presence, of that Maroon 5 song “moves like Jagger.”  If you haven’t heard of him, Ryan is a Rock Star of today’s economy and he is encouraging us, the human resources professionals, to become the Rock Stars of our workplaces.  He believes, and I concur, that we can change the world; or at a minimum, we can change the world of work.  I can’t wait to introduce him to San Diego; Nina Woodard (President Elect 2012) and I are already conspiring to discover the best way to showcase his passion as well as his unique skills that are so relevant to the 21st century environment.  I won’t spoil it by telling you much more, as you can check out his website (www.ryanestis.com) for details and I would not do him justice.  However, let me share with you some of the statistics that make our work so much more critical as our economic future unfolds.  Seventy percent of employees are currently under engaged in the workplace and only twenty percent of employees are well suited for their roles.  Eighty four percent of employees plan to find a new job and ninety percent of CEOs intend on making significant changes to HR practices in the next year.  

I have had the privilege of learning directly from legendary leadership stars such as Ken Blanchard and Marshall Goldsmith.  San Diego SHRM, let me tell you that I was super-impressed by Ryan.   His ability to engage and inspire an audience of human resource professionals in the midst of all of the workplace issues that we face today was breathtaking.  And, thanks to Ryan’s work, I know that the San Diego SHRM Board needs to bring the same energy to you.  As I shared with your Board members at our changeover meeting, I feel incredibly privileged.  As a San Diego SHRM Board member, I get to:  do really interesting work; work with, and learn from, extraordinary people; and I am allowed to make a difference.  I am passionate about what I get to do and, in 2012 and beyond, I look forward to passionately pursuing the delivery of programs and experiences that enables you to bring excellence to your workplaces.

Day 2 of SHRM Leadership Conference November 18, 2011

Last night, SHRM hosted an “open house” at their global headquarters in Alexandria for the over 800 attendees of SHRM’s Leadership Conference. The impression I left with is:  “wow, SHRM means business”. It was a very professional facility and operation.  The SHRM staffers, who work so hard on our behalf were gracious and hospitable.  And, it was inspiring to realize that San Diego SHRM is part of a growing global concern.  SHRM may know next, but from the looks of things, they also know now!

Nina Woodard, Gail Dill and I were able to chat and hang out for a bit with Hank Jackson, President & CEO of SHRM and Jose Berrios, SHRM Board Chair.  We extended a warm invitation to Hank to come and speak to our Chapter.  Based on the chilly temperatures that we were experiencing, I think we had him interested when we said we are from San Diego.  Stay tuned for more information on when we will be hosting Hank in sunny and warm San Diego.

Earlier in the day, over 400 SHRM members went to Capitol Hill to educate members of Congress on pending legislation that could affect the workplace.  As the experts in human resources, we are uniquely qualified to be educating our legislators and SHRM is just the group to coordinate these efforts.  This morning, Mike Aiken, SHRM’s VP of Government Relations spoke about the importance of educating lawmakers and described the Advocacy Team rollout to educate state and local legislators in addition to the federal legislators.  In California, the state council of SHRM and San Diego SHRM will be doing more on this front and if you are interested in this important work, be sure to let Jenna Leyton (our 2012 VP, Legislation) or Michael Kalt (2012 CA Legislative Affairs Director for CA SHRM) know.  And, Pam Green, SHRM’s VP, U.S. Membership educated us on SHRM’s strategic priorities for 2012.  She also announced that the following keynote speakers are confirmed for the 2012 Annual Conference in Atlanta:  Condolezza Rice and Tom Brokaw.  The Tuesday night entertainment was also confirmed….  Are you ready for this? Wait for it……none other than the one and only ……  Jerry Seinfeld.

The great news for San Diego SHRM is that the strategy developed by SHRM is complementary to the strategic direction we are pursuing.  As Trisha wraps up her role as our fearless leader, and I transition from understudy to leader, you will hear more about our strategy and the work that San Diego SHRM is doing for you, our members.

Stay tuned.  More to come…

2011 SHRM Leadership Conference November 17, 2011

Hello San Diego SHRM!  Today, I am in Arlington, Virginia (across the river from Washington, DC) at the 2011 SHRM Leadership Conference for affiliated chapter leaders.  Sadly, I am in a room with no view so I have to run outside and crane my neck to see some of our Capitol city’s finest sites.  This is an exciting time for San Diego SHRM as we are about to launch a year of excellence in programming featuring the skills and capabilities necessary for each of you, our members, to bring excellence to your workplace each and every day.  And, so it is truly an honor for me to be here, on your behalf, to learn and be able to bring back skills and capabilities that will enable me to best serve you in 2012.

I am getting ready to attend this afternoon’s opening event which will be followed by a tour of the SHRM global headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.  First, though, I wanted to take a few moments to share with you about the incredible organization that you are a part of.  San Diego SHRM is an affiliate of SHRM global.  We have over 1000 members in SD SHRM and are the largest human resource professional association in San Diego.  And, as an affiliate of SHRM, we are part of the largest human resource professional association in the world (didn’t we just hit 7 billion people on Earth?).  SHRM has over 250,000 members around the world with over 20,000 members in California alone.  San Diego SHRM only has about 500 SHRM global members – and in 2012, your Board of Directors and I plan on sharing more with our members about the important work that SHRM global is doing on behalf of the profession.  In fact, today several contingents of chapter leaders headed off to Capitol Hill to educate members of congress on the importance of pending legislation. 

As this leadership conference unfolds, I will try to share more information with you about the important work being done on behalf of you, the human resource professional.  As a HR professional myself, I am honored to be able to serve the profession and you, our San Diego SHRM members.  I love what I do and am excited to be able to share this passion that we all share.  I look forward to seeing, and learning alongside of, you at a future San Diego SHRM event.  And, stay tuned here for new updates. . .