So you are Mr. or Ms. Big Shot. Okay, more than likely you are Mr. or Ms. Thinks They Are A Big Shot. Maybe you have a book or a TV show or a podcast or a popular blog or a big company or a big position or a fancy car. Maybe you are known. Maybe you are actually a big deal.

Get over yourself.

You know who was the worst about this for a while? Me.

Ridiculous, right?

It wasn’t even over anything big. My blog was gaining popularity and I started to receive many comments and e-mails a day. So what did I do? Acted like a diva about it of course. I started setting arbitrary rules as to what sort of e-mails I would respond to. I reduced my Google reader down to about ten sources. I started reading what some other nice people thought about me and actually believed it. I truly believed I was brilliant and knew more than everybody (at least in this crazy, niche’d up world).

Of course, the pressure of this new life was killer. I complained to someone about this new life circumstance and they kindly but firmly said:

Get over yourself.

When I sat down and embraced this philosophy, it was actually very freeing. I was free to not act like an insufferable prick to every wayward PR person who happened to track down my phone number. I was free to respond to e-mails in less than a month’s time (I am still terrible at e-mail for non-big shot reasons). I was free to write some of my best writing to date because I didn’t have to worry about whether this big shot would keep his rep. I was free to make connections with non-big shots who actually turned out to be better than me in almost every way.

I know a lot of real life big shots who got this lesson early on. You are never too big to act like a human being to people that like you and have allowed you to influence their lives.

Get over yourself.

Why did I think about this today? Someone e-mailed me asking for assistance about starting a blog. The e-mail assumed I was super busy and probably not interested but it was worth a shot since they’ve been reading my blog for 18 months. Wait, they read me for 18 months and thought I may not be interested in helping them out?

They were probably just being polite about taking up time but let me say this once and for all: I am busy but I am always happy to help if I am able. And if I am not able, I am happy to help guide you in the right direction.

Me? A big shot who is too busy to help out someone who has read this blog for 18 months? I got over myself a long time ago. Let’s help each other become less dumb together.

Editors note: Today’s post is coming of you courtesy of Chris Farmer of The Corporate Coach Group in the UK. Take it away Chris!

Change is the only universal constant. You can be on one of two positions in respect to change:

• You can drive change.
• Or be driven BY change.

Those who are the victims of change find that changes are usually for the worse.

Those who drive change, find that the changes are usually to their advantage

• Do not be passive in the face of change.
• Be active in the face of change.

In order for you to effectively manage a changing environment, you need to first:

Take the initiative: Be the instigator of change.

In order to take the initiative and become the driver of circumstances, follow this five step process.

The process can be reduced to six words

1. Purpose
2. Plan
3. Action
4. Feedback
5. Adapt
6. Repeat

Let us analyse the meaning of these six words:

Step One: Purpose

Your purpose is your aim, or ultimate goal. Develop a clear set of progressive goals for the next three, six or twelve months. Set your mind onto the achievement of specific goals, in order to inform your decisions on a day to day basis.

• Goals allow you to develop a psychology that is “goal focused”

“Goal- focused individuals” perform better than those who are not goal focused. Non-goal focused individuals can be described as drifters. Drifting in a stormy sea is a dangerous activity. Sit down tonight and work out a series of progressive goals.

Step Two: Plan

Then, write detailed “Plans-of-action” relating to the achievement of the goals that you wrote out in step one. A goal without a detailed set of written instructions (plans) is no more than a fantasy. A goal together with a detailed set of written instructions is the beginning of creative and adaptive change. When you have finished setting your goals (what it is that you want), then gather the team together and build the very best, intelligently written plans that you are capable of. Spend all day on it if you have to. Failure to write a detailed plan proves that you are not serious enough. You do not merit a top prize.

Step Three: Action

Then, take action on the plan. Take immediate, persistent, dedicated and consistent action on the plan. This is where many fail. How many people do you know who:

• Have exercise plans they do not follow
• Diet plans they don’t keep to
• Business Plans that they never actually start.
• Big promises backed up with NO action

Failure to take action on a plan is the most common fault. This fault is due to:

• Fear of failure
• The natural inertia of the human spirit that causes people to “put things off till tomorrow”.

Overcome this error. Once you have your written plan, use your personal initiative to drive yourself into ACTION. – Even in the face of difficulties. Failure to act will make your plans meaningless. Without the ability to make yourself work, you risk  becoming a victim of change.

Step Four: Feedback

Then, gather the feedback. When you act on your plan you will find two things will happen:

• Some parts of your plan work well.
• Some parts of your plan do NOT work well.

This is because your original plan was not perfect, because YOU are not perfect. Do not worry. This is normal for all human beings. Instead of worrying, take the elements of the plan that are not working well, and analyse them. Bring the team back together and apply your creative intelligence to this question:

How can we correct the errors that must have been present in our original plan?

Derive your best answer to the above question. Apply all your powers of logic and creativity. When you have your answer, take step five

Step Five: Adapt

Adapt your plan using the information and ideas that you gained in step four. Sit down and write “PLAN NUMBER TWO”.

1. Failure to analyse your mistakes will cause you to fail.
2. Failure to re write your plans will cause you to fail.
3. Repeating what did not work last time will cause you to fail.

Instead, reverse these trends:

1. Analyse your mistakes and correct them.
2. Re- write your plans and improve them.
3. Come back stronger with a better plan.

Then go to step six.

Step Six: Repeat

When you have your new plan, repeat the process. Go back with your improved plan to step three. Take immediate, persistent, dedicated and consistent action on the second third, fourth plan.

Repeat, repeat, repeat – until final victory is yours!

Summary

Change is the only universal constant.

• Do not be passive in the face of change.
• Be active in the face of change.

In order for you to effectively manage a changing business environment, you need to first

• Take the initiative:

In order to take the initiative, follow this six step process.

1. Purpose – Develop a clear set of progressive goals for the next three, six, or twelve month.

2. Plan – Write detailed plans of action relating to the achievement of the goals stated in step one.

3. Actions – Take immediate, persistent, dedicated and consistent action on the plan.

4. Feedback – Gather the feedback.

5. Adapt – Adapt your plan using the information and ideas that you gained in step four.

6. Repeat – Repeat, repeat, repeat – And final victory will be yours!

Chris Farmer is the leader of The Corporate Coach Group, who provide UK management training courses, and a published author in Business Coaching.

I was looking at a post by Paul Hebert’s i2i about service anniversary awards and it got me thinking about the inherent ridiculousness of the whole concept. Why are we giving awards for people sticking it out? “Oh hey Jimmy, you made it through another year. Here’s your bronze pin. After that, you can get your silver, gold and then platinum pins.” Don’t get too excited Jimmy. Those pins, watches, and plaques all meant something at some point.

Getting an anniversary pin or plaque feels like getting the perfect attendance award back in school. It’s an accomplishment, yes, but it is an odd one. One where you don’t know what is exactly wrong with the perfect attendance kid. Why did they feel the need to stick it out every mind numbing day of class? Did they really never get sick?

Who would have guessed it would be rainy for a November wedding in Portland?

In my cynicism, I forgot something. Anniversaries can be good! I was letting some of that negativity in there.

Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated four years of marriage bliss. As every married person will tell you, everything has always gone perfect, there’s never been any problems and we have never ever fought about anything.

I kid. It hasn’t always been perfect but our anniversary always gives me an opportunity to appreciate both how far we’ve come and how far we can continue to go. It is the instant romance maker. Even if I procrastinated with planning this year, we had a great time because I was focused on reflection and our future together.

In what is probably obvious to others, if you have a good relationship with your career and your career partner (i.e. your workplace), anniversaries can be a wonderful time to celebrate another year of engaged employment. Is it directly aligned with a business result? No, but who cares. If you are managing your workforce well, being employed for another year is a great indirect business success and one that is worthy of your celebration.

If you are in a crappy relationship with an employer (or your spouse), an anniversary can be as empty of a gesture that can be made. And I imagine many of my Gen Y compatriots haven’t had the best jobs in the world yet so it is easy to become very cynical about anniversaries and the recognition awarded to them.

Let’s not recognize survivors, let’s recognize thrivers. And let’s be sure that the number of people with empty anniversaries is minimized while maximizing the ones we can celebrate another year of success with. Because that anniversary is a beautiful thing if done right.

Quick post today. Just two things I wanted to mention:

Veterans day is today and if you are like me, you kept typing Veteran’s instead of Veterans. My abuse of the language never ends. In any case, I wanted to send a special shout out to MeritBuilder and their site that seeks to recognize veterans. Second year running and still a great thing. If you get the chance, go by and check it out. Read some of the stories and personal gratitude or leave your own if you feel compelled.

If you are looking at donating to charities that help veterans and their families, I would encourage you to check out the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund or the Fisher House Foundation. I really do admire the work both do in the space.

The HR Carnival is also going on over at Ben Eubanks’ UpstartHR. My favorite pieces from the bunch include a post about working for Diddy, a red purse, and the failures of SHRM. I encourage you to check out all of the posts for some great reading.

I just got home from HRevolution and I am beat. I’ve been wrapping my head around some of the things we talked about, how it intersected with Talent Camp and some of my own personal revelations. There’s good news and bad news but first I wanted to touch on the unconference itself.

HRevolution Was A Resounding Success

You can correct me if I am wrong but I don’t believe Trish McFarlane, Ben Eubanks, Crystal Peterson or Steve Boese had any experience running an event like this before. Honestly, you couldn’t tell because everything ran incredibly smooth and surprisingly close to time. This is amazing simply because I know that this group of people can be some of the worst traditional conference attendees. Maybe that’s why the format worked but let’s hand it to these four who put in a ton of effort to pull this off.

Everyone has different goals coming into an event like this so you can take this as just one person’s opinion. I hope that future events like this will be more about equipping progressive people in the talent industry with the knowledge, tools and passion necessary to push our industry forward. We can talk about the future of HR, strategic vs. tactical HR, and those huge topics all day. There is a fear in my mind that we get caught up in circular arguments, questions about terminology or nitpicking advancements and failures on the part of the traditional talent models.

Let me back up here.

What Is Revolution?

July 4th, 1776 is a fairly significant date in US history. It is the day that our Declaration of Independence was signed and the birth of our nation. The document itself isn’t the reason that the day is significant though. After all, the document itself is a Dear John letter saying goodbye to British colonial rule with some fairly outdated language conventions. Without the context of everything else, the document is imperfect and written by one of the least diverse groups in history.

What did these guys know about starting a revolution?

What makes the day and the document so significant is that it spurred us into heavy action. Those resulting actions, followed by many, many more, gave us what we have today in the US.

What would have happened if they just kept talking about the document instead of acting on it? What would have happened if they got together in 1779 and talked about how there are some imperfections or how some had some significant issues with the document itself? What would have happened if the Declaration were still on the table getting discussed in 1789? 1799?

We might have missed an opportunity to do anything. Rebellion could have been easily squashed, new power structures could have been installed and people could have lost the will to continue discussion with no inaction. The founders knew that the window of opportunity was swiftly closing and that 100% agreement was less important than capturing an inspiring statement and using it to thrust a cobbled collection of colonies into war.

Revolution Is Action

I may be burned out a bit from all of the future talk but at the end of HRevolution, I felt like there wasn’t a call to take real action that will push us forward.

I know. It is all so uncertain. We don’t have a crystal ball. That’s why there is hesitation to lead.

We can continue to wait for the right time, the right answer, the right set of circumstances and the right people. We can revise the mission statement a thousand times. Until we execute, until we move forward personally, and until we accept the fact that we will never have all of the answers about tomorrow today and that it might result in failure (spectacularly hopefully), things will simply change without our input.

The odds are always against purpose driven, proactive change. Simply reacting to a set of circumstances is too easy, too in line with human nature to impact those odds that much. That’s why I am not interested in convincing others (at least with words) to get on board with the future of business and people. It is actually more effective (counter intuitively at times I might add) to simply do something amazing without thinking a ton about it. The rules are written as we act.

I’d love to have a forum where we can talk about tactical ideas that align with this new paradigm and how we can implement them both within ourselves and our organizations. Then we could talk how those ideas actually worked and what we could change about them. Then we would change and implement again. Repeat forever. Sound easy?

It Won’t Be Easy

It seems like a simple thing but it isn’t. It is easier to talk about big ideas and never bring them back to action. It is also easier to think the former argument is more important than the latter because that feels more strategic and inspiring. To me though, the most strategic and inspiring stories come from people who have succeeded through imperfect action. A couple of takeaways that I have been using to ignite action in my life:

1. Constantly question with the purpose of acting – I mentioned this on HR Happy Hour but I will do it again: I ask questions to help me take my next step forward. Just because I ask if HR is dying doesn’t mean I believe it is or whatever else was being implied. It means there is critical examination taking place so that I can continue to evolve and push for change.
2. Constantly act, especially when you feel uncertain – I am in a place in my career where I don’t know what I am doing all of the time (some would say all of the time). Being paralyzed because of that would be easy but acting has helped define much of the constantly evolving strategy of our business. I would never know what actually is going to work without doing it.
3. Constantly give, especially when you won’t get anything in return – I am prone to think about actions in the context of this “What’s in it for me?” mentality. When I drop this mentality and just do it for the sake of helping other people, I have found that this prompts me to act more than I normally would. And acting more means learning more means defining the best path forward.

How do we push for revolution? We find every opportunity to act. Are you ready?

I know this is a crazy post.

I know my blog has certainly helped me rise up. Other’s blogs have helped them rise up. I am going to an unconference that is going to focus on HR people who are interested in blogging. Someone may ask me if they should start a blog.

In the past, my answer was an unhesitant yes. Of course you should. Why shouldn’t you? The real question is how do we get you going and exposed as quickly as possible.

Now? My answer depends on a number of factors. In some cases though, my answer is going to be no.

What gives?

I haven’t soured on blogging nor do I believe the space is crowded. On the  contrary, I still think there is a lot of space out there for people to talk about business and talent. We’ve barely scratched the surface of possibilities. But I think there are also a lot of dead blogs out there and that sucks. It means someone put in a bunch of effort, got frustrated and left it behind.

That could have been prevented because while I don’t believe there is one way to blog, there are many ways to fail at blogging:

1. You aren’t passionate about the subject – You want to use your new blog as a tool to rise up but you aren’t passionate about the subject. Reverse course matey! Go back and find your passion and then blog about that.
2. You aren’t interested in improving your writing – Blogging has helped me improve my written communication skills immensely. Rarely do people come into blogging with that background. Are you willing to craft and recraft messages until you get used to it?
3. You can’t write on a consistent schedule – This is a big one. I say writing once a week is the necessity. That’s 52 posts a year. I’ve averaged two posts a week for over three years.  It honestly isn’t tough but if your schedule is rough and tumble, you’ll lose interest if you don’t post for a month.
4. You can’t do the other things that make your blog great – Keeping up on what other people are doing in the context of what you write is as important as what you write. Making comments, networking with fellow bloggers, and pushing stuff out to your network? That’s part of successful blogging.

So If You Don’t Do Blogging…

You can rise up in different ways. People have this tendency to assume that the path they take is the best path for everyone but that simply isn’t the case. Even with blogging. Now I believe that if you have those four traits, anyone can learn how to blog and do it very well. Seriously. Anyone.

There are other ways to rise up though:

• Through your company
• Speaking and volunteering through local associations
• Doing interesting things and getting press coverage
• Doing guest blog posts
• Using other social media tools effectively
• Start consulting and advising (even pro bono)

I am just scratching the surface here. My biggest point: don’t let anyone tell you that you have to blog. Should you have a findable, online profile? Absolutely. You can build that through any number of resources though that doesn’t involve a blog.

Almost a year ago, I reviewed what I considered to be the most entertaining career book on the market: How To Self-Destruct. I don’t know if anything will beat it in that department. Not only is it entertaining but it is also useful. Jason is also releasing a new book this month as well.

Jason is a generous but busy person and I know this first hand. So when I saw that he is giving away How To Self-Destruct, I knew I wanted to spread the word about it. Here’s the message from Jason:

General managers, HR VPs, training directors, event planners, team leaders, association coordinators, ambitious team members, and social chairpersons: I will send you a box of 38 real-life, hold-’em-in-your-hands copies of How to Self-Destruct—rounded corners, illustrations, red text, and all—at no charge. Give copies to your team members and watch them laugh their way to fearlessness, better decisions, and more collaboration. All of which means more dollars to the bottom line.

In other words: ZERO RISK, big potential upside.

Getting the books is super easy. You have 3 options:

Option #1: Find me at the Fail Spectacularly! party in Chicago on 11/4.

Option #2: Fill out this handy little form.

Option #3: Email me: jason@seidenleadership.com. (Include your phone number!)

Check out the post for more details but this is a pretty sweet deal. Get your hands on this book for free while it last (this Friday is the cutoff).

If you are in the Midwest, consider yourself lucky: I may be coming to a city near you! There will be content next week per normal but I will be driving a small rental car all over the Midwest while it automatically posts.

Here’s the agenda:

What am I thinking?

• I fly into Indianapolis Tuesday afternoon. I am planning on hitting some dinner with my buddy who lives there but I do have some flexibility.
• I drive up to Chicago Wednesday morning to go to Fail Spectacularly (yes, you can still RSVP and it is absolutely free). If you are in Chicago and you don’t have other plans, you should come and meet up. Seriously. I should have some time before hand too. (MeritBuilder is a sponsor of Fail Spectacularly)
• Thursday morning, I am driving over to Cincinnati (actually outside of Cincinnati) to go visit some family so I have some flexibility if you want to meet up. Those who can offer coffee will be given priority.
• Friday afternoon through late Saturday, I’ll be in Louisville for HRevolution. There are still tickets available. If you are close by, you should come. Especially if you are interested in the social media and future of HR parts of HR. Dustin, one of my cohorts at MeritBuilder, will be coming as well. Should be a blast!
• Sometime Saturday night, I will drive back up to Indy to grab a couple of winks and grab my early flight back home Sunday morning.
• How early? I get into Portland at 10:30am. I’ll probably be collapsing as soon as I get home.

It should be a blast. If you want to meet up, give me a shout out and we’ll try to work something out!

Editor’s Note – Today’s post is brought to you courtesy of Dustin Henderson, co-founder of MeritBuilder. Dustin went to HR Southwest conference last week to cover the show for us. You can follow him on Twitter. Thanks!

HR Southwest (the 2nd biggest HR show in the US) is over. I thought I would take a few moments and summarize my thoughts on the show. Luckily I tweeted most of the stuff that was on my mind because to be honest my memory is beginning to fail me. For the full twitter experience search twitter for #HRSW.

In hopes of making his recap a little more interesting I thought I would expand on some of my tweets. Unfortunately I could not fit it on to one post so you guys are stuck with a two-parter (see part one here).

79% of employees leave b/c poor trust and appreciation

Alice of GoToAlice.com quickly filled in for a canceled speaker. I almost turned and walked back out of the session – but she was at the door waving passers by into the room. I figured, if she was going to put that much effort into it, I should at least stay and listen to her. I am glad I did.

She was OUTSTANDING! Thanks Alice!

Until her session I was beginning to wonder if MeritBuilder would ever have an audience in HR but she affirmed what we at MB have been saying for a while. Relationships matter. Getting to know your staff matters. Trust matters. Appreciation matters.

Average employee talks to manager 2-5 times a day / m-gen text 80-200 times a day – who has more influence

This is one of those “m-gen” stats but it is an important one. I talked to several HR recruiters telling me about “helicopter parents.” Those parents who involve themselves in their 20-something child’s employment decisions. In some cases recruiters answered angry calls from parents wanting to know why their child had not gotten the job.

Bad ECONOMY or NOT, this generation is coming (BIG TIME). Are you ready? I think not, but don’t feel bad – no one is

Are lawyers what is wrong with what HR should really be trying to do? maximize the “human” resource

I attended a number of presentations by lawyers and I was once told, “If you want to go into business, DON’T ASK A LAWYER his opinion.” The primary role of a lawyer is to minimize your exposure to risk. Yet many believe their advice constitute how you should manage people. Please note – Law is the minimal not the optimal.

Understand the risks, accept them and then live your life. It is good to know that if you recognize an employee for a job well done then it might be hard to fire them later. That doesn’t mean you should not recognize employees, it just means recognize things that matter and document the crap out of it before you fire someone.

Change: most of what you fear never happens – it is made up to justify internal feelings about change – name the fear

There is a simple method for dispelling fear in life and organizations. Just name it! For example, when I started MeritBuilder there was the possibility that we would fail. That meant I would have to find a new job. If I could not find a new job, it would impact the family in a very negative way. Therefore I should stay where I am, right?

Wrong because if I was going to name the fear of failing with MeritBuilder, then I needed to name the fear of failing with my current employer. In my case, the impact of failure for my job or my new company was the same, but the new company had far greater upside.

Once you name the fear and weigh it against the alternatives, the fear tends to subside. Name your fear and push through the change.

Yesterday afternoon, I got on the phone with Dustin and we were talking about a partnership call we had coming up. The conversation transitioned into what tremendous untapped potential the HR and talent functions in organizations have and how exciting it is to just meet with people who understand that. How getting people together and pushing great HR ideas across industries is a powerful force.

In the past, I used to frequently have these conversations and then go back to regressive HR systems that took all the will in the world to just fight through on a daily basis. I imagine many of the readers that still possess that optimism are in the same boat too. Maybe they have them in places other than online (at meetings, in conversations during or after work). At the end of the day though, it becomes a stream of conversation or a pipe dream instead of reality.

I have the power to act now. I have an extremely supportive company that wants me to push the envelope when it comes to uncomfortable conversations about the future of HR and the future of the employee. It means I get to not only talk about great ideas but I get to help implement them in the real world. That’s so exciting to me.

Here’s what I realized though: I had the power to act all along. The problem was that those conversations were uncomfortable and sometimes seemingly impossible to fight. They were mine to fight though. Nobody else was going to do it for me. Only after failing spectacularly on several occasions did I finally realize that.

Now I realize this is my fight and that I have the power to act no matter the circumstances. I am happy to have a career opportunity that makes it easier but I know that won’t always be the case.

Are you ready to use your power? Do you know the name of your cause?