The DL on TA.

Being a leader is tough. Really tough. And it's easy to think you're doing it right, but even easier to screw it up and not know until it's too late - or even worse, convince yourself if an employee doesn't work out that it was just a bad hire. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, mostly because I'm leading a small multi-disciplined team and want to make sure they feel supported. I've become more in-tune with the way my actions can either enable or prohibit my team from really achieving their career goals. I'll admit, I'm really hard on myself and do a lot of reflecting at the end of each day, but still second guess myself and wonder if I need to be more self aware. In many ways this has helped me become more aware of my mistakes and pushes me to solicit feedback from my team more often. It's not uncommon for me to reflect and ask about a particular comment I made, or ask how I can improve next time, and apologize if I think something I ...

Human Resources more often than not has reflected an ideology that employees are liabilities instead of assets. From the way the subject is typically taught, implemented, and understood, HR is handled with the assumption that employees' intentions are bad rather than good. It may sound trivial, but this one shift in perception can have a huge impact on a company's culture all the way through its bottomline. Guidelines vs Policies Most HR policies are done reactively, either due to something that happened at the company directly or as an attempt to learn from other companies' mistakes. Regardless, these policies are in place to protect the company and not its employees. EEOC regulations and employment laws are there to protect employees, but by the time those come into play, it's usually too late for the company to fix the problem without penalty. The conundrum ends up cycling with the company trying to cover its tracks and employees filing claims after leaving in...