The Other Side of Life 24/7: The Cynical Girl: Take Criticism Seriously But Not Personally

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The Cynical Girl: Take Criticism Seriously But Not Personally

Take Criticism Seriously But Not Personally

Posted: 18 Jun 2013 03:45 AM PDT

I was lucky enough to see Hillary Clinton speak on Sunday. She banned the press and didn’t take questions. No, she didn’t talk about Benghazi. She told some stories about being the Secretary of State and shared her personal insights about the job.

I am not a sycophantic Hillary fan, but I like her. One great thing she said? She has learned to take criticism seriously but not personally.

I liked that. It was a funny message for HR professionals because we offer the same advice to our clients and customers but we internalize feedback and criticism in such personal, emotional ways. I have myriad experiences where I’ve had to go back to colleagues and friends — at work, in the blogging community — and say things like, “Just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean I don’t like or respect you.”

In fact, I’ve had to say that about 50 times in the past 24 hours to students, professors and HR colleagues who thought that I was too negative and too cynical in my post to HR students.

Very simply, I don’t understand why HR isn’t wrapped up into a larger business degree. I don’t know why it’s okay to spend $48,000 to earn a degree in a field where the starting salary is $32,000. I would love for our next generation of leaders to think bigger and broader about talent, human capital and HR. And I would love for people to defend a point-of-view about Human Resources instead of whining about my blog posts.

But whatever. We had a great conference session on Saturday. I think the students left feeling inspired about a new model of Human Resources. And I’m glad Hillary Clinton said what she said about criticism. I hope everyone heard it because she is right. Don’t take it personally. Take it seriously.

When someone disagrees with you, be brave and bold. Think of the critique as an opportunity to validate your perspective. Think of it as a path towards greater truth. Take a different POV and understand that criticism is a way to “check in” with your values and my objectives.

When I am criticized, I ask: Am I right? Does the data confirm my beliefs? Is there kindness behind my truth?

Thinking about — and defending your beliefs — will beef up your critical thinking skills and inspire you to be a better person. That’s a pretty good challenge for HR students, don’t you think?

A Letter to the #shrmstudent Conference Attendees

Worker Cooperatives

Posted: 17 Jun 2013 06:45 AM PDT

I have a bunch of hippie friends who dream of a world where people participate in worker cooperatives.

From Wikipedia:

A worker cooperative is a cooperative self-managed by its workers. This control may be exercised in a number of ways. A cooperative enterprise may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which managers and administration is elected by every worker-owner, and finally it can refer to a situation in which managers are considered, and treated as, workers of the firm. In traditional forms of worker cooperative, all shares are held by the workforce with no outside or consumer owners, and each member has one voting share. In practice, control by worker-owners may be exercised through individual, collective or majority ownership by the workforce, or the retention of individual, collective or majority voting rights (exercised on a one-member one-vote basis). A worker cooperative, therefore, has the characteristic that the majority of its workforce own shares, and the majority of shares are owned by the workforce.

This is not a model that sits well with many American capitalists. Many of us value merit, independence and ownership. And many business professionals still have this Reaganistic notion that if you increase the value and profit margin within an organization, income trickles down to workers.

(We know that last part isn’t true. Wealth pools at the top.)

Not that Marxist economic theories will solve all of your problems, but worker cooperatives might catch on a little more as smaller and more disruptive technology companies start to emerge. And I think more HR professionals should stop saying that it’s “important to have a seat at the table” and “know the business” and learn more about the many divergent economic theories related to “work” such as worker democracy and labor-managed firms.

(Note: you won’t learn about this in a SHRM course.)

I always tell my friends in HR that you can only install so many ping-pong tables and hand out so many shares of worthless stock options before your employees get smart and realize that they are still the workers. Why give out crowd-sourced praise when you could give your employees a chance to create a legacy?

Real ownership, democracy and decision-making authority could change your workforce from good to great. It’s worth exploring.