I’m often asked how I became successful in HR.
I’ve never viewed myself as such – I know some great people who I consider in a different league to me – but in the spirit of the type of list you’ll find in Inc or on LinkedIn I thought I’d give you my key lessons…
These are all things that are hallmarks of my career. I assume they are the secret to my unfathomable success
- Sometimes just forget to have lunch and then announce to colleagues at about 4pm that you can’t believe the canteen is shut
- Go through periods of insisting to your team that discipline is key and then blatantly ignore some rules due to expediency. Try to explain why it’s different for you
- Have a beard. I’m not being sexist, I’m just observing that I’m more experienced than ever and currently have a beard. It seems likely it’s causal
- Be of combined Welsh and Indian extraction. Or as close to that as you can get. If that seems tricky for you to achieve then adopt more of a ‘growth’ mindset
- Accept every mistake you make is a learning opportunity. Every mistake someone else makes is proof that some people never learn
- Hire people smarter than you whenever you can. Then tell them about how the last people you had working for you were even smarter to keep them in their place
- Talk about big data when you know it’s not and robots when you know people mean AI just because explaining the difference has got a bit tiresome now
- Meet lots of people for coffee
- Recognise that success is a complex amalgam of opportunity, luck, readiness, work, aptitude, environment and timing and the recipe to it can rarely be replicated and is unlikely to be found in a list
- Be able to poke fun at yourself
Best of luck
That last one’s a bit cheeky in the context of the cartoon that follows it. That’s just someone else poking fun at you.
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I’m posting it… I’m happy to endorse fun at my expense. Occasionally…
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That Simon Heath guy seems to have it in for you
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We were friends, but then had a massive falling out and now he spends all his time lampooning me
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Next thing you know he’ll be posting irritating comments on your blog under a pseudonym
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He’s not that comfortable with tech. I’ll be fine.
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😉
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Damn. I typed in the alt-code for the winking emoji and thought the text would appear. Foiled again.
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This post and this thread are the best thing on the internet today.
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Happy.
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What ?
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