Category: Leadership Development
From HR Challenges to AI Opportunities: Karen

From HR Challenges to AI Opportunities: Karen

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How does an HR professional build a connected, inclusive, and tech-forward culture? Find out in our latest podcast episode with Karen, who considers herself an accidental tourist in HR! #HRLeadership #InclusiveWorkplace #Podcast

In this episode, Karen shares her experience crafting a culture to support high-growth companies. She discusses the importance of creating an inclusive culture and how to align the executive team and care for the HR team. We discuss how to keep culture (and humans) in focus as you implement technology for your HR practices. Karen shares that “employees want to know that tomorrow will be better than today and that they have a say in it.”

00:00 Introduction

01:55 Karen’s Story

05:45 Stories at Work

32:02 Workplace Confession

37:29 Haiku for Karen

Resources

Curious about culture and tech at work, here are some links to get started:

4 Ways AI Will Disrupt the HR Function in 2024 (shrm.org)

Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace (shrm.org)

Talent Management in the Age of AI (hbr.org)

 

Stories are what we remember and how we connect, so please share yours with me

Let’s talk about your people strategy

Tell a story!

Make a Workplace Confession

 

Haiku for Karen

Karen understands…

Connection is essential

in work and in life.

 

Host: Michelle Aronson

Editor: Bella Hutchins
HR is Artistic: Lauren Part 1

HR is Artistic: Lauren Part 1

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Have you ever had to handle a rift in your department?

In this True Stories at Work episode you get to meet Lauren, who hit “all the desks” in HR to grow her expertise… but nothing prepared her for the mistake of rehiring a former employee, creating a “scorched earth” moment and a lot of leadership growth. We also talk about boundaries, and how you we keep them with our teams and employees.

Lauren shared so many stories that I had to split her stories across 2 episodes. In this episode, you’ll learn about Lauren’s background and how her career aspirations to be creative are fulfilled by working in HR.  ”HR is artistic because you have to literally be able to handle things at the drop of a hat unique situations.”

For the Workplace Confession, you will hear a story from a former coworker, who wants to share some stories that still make him laugh and cringe from working with me. This one is from a leadership coaching conversation where he gets distracted by a squirrel… and I pulled the coaching recording to find out how that squirrel entered our coaching session.

Additional research on topics discussed in this episode:

Should You Rehire an Employee Who Left Your Company? (hbr.org)

How to Be Friends with Someone Who Works For You (hbr.org)

I need your workplace confession, so if you have every done anything wrong at work, please share your story with me by going to physicsatwork.com/podcast and leave me a voice message (anonymously and easily) from your phone or computer.

Make a Workplace Confession

Stories are what we remember and how we connect, so please share yours with me!

Let’s talk about your people strategy

Tell a story!

 
You Have to Want To Be A Good Leader: Bruce Part 2

You Have to Want To Be A Good Leader: Bruce Part 2

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Have you ever wondered what makes a manager truly memorable? In this True Stories at Work episode we pick up with Bruce where we left off, talking about the impact COVID had on the employee complaints at work. This episode discusses the shift from employees complaining about each other to employees complaining about their managers. If you are just tuning into this podcast, please listen to episode 5, where this story begins…

Remember, Bruce studied HR, only worked in HR and oversaw the Employee Relations function of HR for a 15,000+ person company. He had a ringside seat to watch the best + the worst behaviors at work, including the behavior of leaders. “I think the sad reality, I don’t think there are a lot of very good leaders. And I don’t think it’s easy to be a good leader. And you have to want to be a good leader, but so many people have gotten into management who don’t even like to manage people, but that was the only way they can move up.”

Bruce knows that being a good leader isn’t easy and offers some insight for reducing complaints about leaders, improving the leadership hiring success and ways to become a memorable leader (in a good way).

Bruce reminds us that when leadership is done well, it is truly magical and the memory of that leader can last a lifetime “Um, that was literally 20, maybe like 22 years ago, and I remember being in the larger meeting room. And, and the impact that those messages had. “

Want to be a better leader? Here are some links to get started:

Spoiler alert, at the end we have yet another incident of love gone wrong at work, and by love I mean a relationship that started out as an affair but was really sexual harassment all along. “it was his admin who turned him in, who we later found out he had been having an affair with. And, the relationship fell apart… and then all of a sudden she wanted to get revenge on this individual.”

At the end, you will get to hear a workplace confession, something that didn’t make it through the doors of HR. Another one from my life-long friend Zoe, where she pulls a Robinhood move with some shiny new office chairs.

Feedback is a gift. Episode #6, the final episode of my first season, so please take one minute to go to www.physicsatwork.com/podcast and vote for your favorite episode… The winning episode will be invited back to share more great stories!

These are the first 6 podcasts I have ever created, so please share your feedback + suggestions for future episodes.

Haiku

Great managers are

hard to find… and even more

difficult to leave.
Words Matter, How Someone Leaves Feeling Matters… So Sweat Those Details: Kelly

Words Matter, How Someone Leaves Feeling Matters… So Sweat Those Details: Kelly

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Today you get to meet Kelly, who emphasizes the importance of kindness in Human Resources and the fragility of company culture. Her stories demonstrate how Human Resources can be the crisis hotline for leaders. The first call they place when they don’t know how to handle a challenging situation. We discuss the everyday decisions that leaders make that shape culture, and how much communication (and words) matter at work. You’ll hear stories of Phantom Crappers where poop rolls down hill and into HR, a passive aggressive behavior which could be improved with better leadership.

At the end, you get to hear a workplace confession, this one offers a compelling reason not to eat the candy from your coworkers candy dish.

Curious how to increase kindness in your workplace? Here are some links to get started:

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Kindness at Work

Corporate Culture is Everyone’s Responsibility

Visit my website to:

Tell a story!

Make a Workplace Confession

Ask a question+ make a suggestion

Join the email list, follow me on social.

Listen or subscribe to the show

Join the private True Stories at Work Linked In group to connect with guests and listeners of the show

 

Haiku

Poop at work is an

Indication that you need…

Leadership training!
HR is Such a World of Psychology and Intention: Amy

HR is Such a World of Psychology and Intention: Amy

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Have you ever wondered how having bed bugs could cost you your job and what Mr. Rogers can teach you about leadership? Could you benefit from a new approach to setting clear expectations and high levels of accountability?

Tune into this episode of True Stories at Work to meet Amy, an experienced HR leader with who will answer these questions and share great (and not-so-great) leadership stories!

Visit my website to:

Tell a story!

Record your Workplace Confession…

Ask a question?

Join the True Stories at Work Linked In group to share your stories and connect with other listeners.

Haiku

Amy wants leaders

to be accountable, and

always own mistakes!