“The value of our lives is not determined by what we do for ourselves. The value of our lives is determined by what we do for others.” –Simon Sinek
I’ve been a fan of Simon Sinek since before it was cool. If you aren’t familiar with his stuff, check him out and thank me later. He’s going to be at #WorkHuman this year, and although I’m not able to attend in person, I’ll live vicariously through you all that do. If it wasn’t the same week as my kids’ spring break, I would have lobbied a lot harder to get permission to attend, but packing up the family to head to Austin while Mom is geeking out in a conference all day is not what I consider “Mom of the Year” criteria, so I’ll let you all enjoy, and I’ll read all the tweets.
The thought of “Hello, I’m Here to Help” has been a frequent one lately. HR is the epitome of servant leadership. We are here to help. That is why we have our positions. We are here to help our employees, our management teams, and the company. This is what we are trained to do. We know what we’re doing, and we take a great deal of pride in being that resource.
It has come to my attention lately that while we’re here to help, how we help is not always how we may have originally offered. The theme of HR Without Ego is real. We are servant leadership, here to help. However, we don’t dictate how we help. We approach conversations and prepare for meetings with an entire scenario laid out how we plan to offer our help and support. By the end of the meeting, we have scrapped Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. We collaborated on Plan D, and while it’s not what was originally planned, we are supporting the solution. We need to focus on the end game when offering our support and not be emotionally invested in our original plan.
There are also times when our help is not accepted. Take a deep breath, accept that fact, don’t take it personally, and move on. It’s okay that our help was not accepted. We must focus our efforts where they are best utilized. There is always something to do, someone to support, and focusing on what we can’t do will only drive us crazy. Change your focus. Change your mindset. After all, we’re here to help…
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