So, why do I have such a fascination with Hillary? Well, I really didn’t know until I read Sally Hogshead’s book, Fascinate.

In her book, Ms. Hogshead discusses seven universal triggers. These seven triggers are: lust, mystique, alarm, prestige, power, vice and trust. When it comes to making any decision in our lives, each of these seven triggers plays a role. Thus, if we want people to buy our company’s products, buy into our message, or hire us, we must learn how to effectively use these seven triggers.

Nothing is, by itself, fascinating. In order for something to be fascinating, it must activate one of the triggers. It’s the context and meaning given to the product or person that makes it fascinating.

Hogshead uses an excellent example to illustrate how triggers work.

If you are familiar with the Chanel logo, you will know that it is comprised of two interlocking Cs. However, if you were to present these interlocking Cs to someone not familiar with the brand, they would be meaningless. For those familiar with the logo, the interlocking Cs trigger prestige. As a result, most people familiar with this brand are willing to pay almost 50% more for a Chanel brand than a brand of equal quality. In other words, they are paying for the feeling evoked by the trigger—prestige.

How does the HR Practitioner make their message more fascinating?

The first step is to evaluate how the world (our employees, peers, and bosses) communicates about us.

Here are the “golden hallmarks” of a fascinating message:

1. Do we provoke strong and immediate emotional reactions?
2. Do we create advocates?
3. Do we embody specific core values?
4. Do we incite conversation?
5. Do we force our competitors to follow our lead?
6. Do we trigger trends?

I believe, that as an HR Practitioner, we really want everyone to like us. Yet, Hogshead says that this type of approach will not fascinate anyone. In fact, if we are not generating some type of negative reactions, we probably aren’t fascinating anyone. Thus, contrary to what most of us have come to believe, being liked by everyone is not a necessary criteria for being a successful HR Practitioner.

Next, we must develop our message.

This begins with determining your “fascination badges.” Fascination badges are symbols of what you represent. These badges help employees, and fans, identify themselves with you, and through you.

There are seven types of badges. They are:

1. Purpose
2. Core Beliefs
3. Heritage
4. Products
5. Benefits
6. Actions
7. Culture

When I set about identifying my fascination badge, I found that the easiest way to do this was to ask some of my peers. They said that I am always happy and everyone trusts me. Thus, being a happy person equates to an “actions” badge and trust a “heritage’ badge. If you are having trouble determining your badges, I suggest asking your peers as well.

Once you have determined your “fascination badges,” it’s important that you build support for these badges. Fascination isn’t measured in what we say, but rather, what others say about us.

How Do We Measure Our Fascination Level?

Measuring our fascination level can be a bit tricky. Fascination is intangible and subjective. Common measurement forms won’t be effective. The only way to effectively track our fascination level is by determining how many people listen to and talk about our message to other people and then take action related to our message.

I recently had the opportunity to measure my fascination level. It started with a job being posted for an Area HR Manager.

Since I am currently a Human Resources Manager, becoming an Area HR Manager would be significant promotion. Within hours of this position being posted, by boss, and several of peers, immediately called me and suggested that I post for this position.

The fact that these individuals called and suggested that I post for this position, suggests that I have succeeded in crafting a fascinating message, because they took action and called me.

In summary, as HR Practitioners, we can best use the information presented in Fascinate to help us craft a message about us that provokes two or more of the seven triggers in our employees, peers, and bosses.

About the Author

Sally Hogshead is a speaker and author who has been featured in The New York Times, NBC, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC. In 2006, she spent the year touring the country as a motivational speaker for CareerBuilder.com. She began her career in advertising and had won more awards in her first two years than any other copywriter in the U.S. You can learn more about Ms. Hogshead by visiting her website: www.sallyhogshead.com

Since there is no way for me to cover all 21 chapters of Tracy’s book, I am going to focusing on the ones I feel are the most beneficial to HR Practitioner.

I believe that if you are taking the time to read my blog, you are interested in being a successful HR Practitioner. Thus, I will begin by discussing the author’s first chapter—success.

Tracy learned early on that the key to success is by doing what other successful people do. Contrary to what most of us think, successful people, for the most part, didn’t just land there by happenstance. They watched the key behaviors of these successful people and began doing them over and over until they became a habit in their own lives.  Thus, if we really want to be successful, we must model the behaviors of those we feel are successful.

For me, one of the most successful HR Practitioners is Alan Collins. He is the former Vice President of Human Resources at Pepsi and is now the CEO of SuccessInHR.com. He is successful to me, because he has achieved those things I aspire to achieve in my own HR career—VP of Human Resources and the CEO of my own company. As a result, I have read every book written by Alan, and I am a dedicated follower of his blog. In other words, I am doing just as Brian Tracy suggests—doing what other successful people do.

Another thing I really like about Tracy’s book, is that each chapter ends with some action exercises to help us focus on the information presented in the chapter.

Here are some of the action exercises from the Success chapter:

1. What one skill could you develop that would help you to realize more of your goals?
2. Why aren’t you already as successful as you would like to be, and what one discipline would help you the most to achieve all your goals?

I think you will agree, that in thinking about these questions carefully, and our answers to them, we can gain some important insight into the behaviors we need to achieve our perception of success.

In summary, as HR Practitioners, we are often so involved in the success of others, we sometimes forgot that we also need to focus on our own success. Yet, if we fail to do this, we may become dissatisfied with our positions and fail to continue to improve our knowledge, skills, and abilities. The result can not only lead to career stagnation, but it often may result in our termination. If you don’t want this to happen to you, I suggest that you pick up a copy of Brian Tracy’s book—No Excuses. There really are no excuses for every HR Practitioner to be successful.

About the Author

Brian Tracy is the CEO of Brian Tracy International. In addition, he has written over 45 top selling books. Moreover, he has written and produced more that 300 audio and video learning programs. Lastly, he is a sought-after speaker and addresses more than 250,000 people annually.

Crush It!  is one of the best books I have ever read on how to harness the power of the internet to build a successful business. Its author, Gary Vaynerchuk, illustrates the tried and tested tricks he used to build a  $60-million business empire.   

The book is divided into 13 chapters. Each chapter contains an element that has helped Gary create his empire. For example, in the first chapter,

“Passion is Everything,” Gary tells us his secret to success. His secret–he lives by three rules: 1) love your family, 2) work superhard, and 3) live your passion.  Although this seems like a very basic formula, practicing it can be very difficult. 

Also, in Chapter 1, Gary tells us that he will explain a step-by-step process on how to use the social networking tools on the Internet to take whatever your passion is and build it into a business and a powerful brand. 

First, we must begin with building our personal brand. Building our personal brand requires that we know what we are talking about. In addition, the public wants us to tell them the truth. If you go to Gary’s website:http://www.winelibrarytv.com/, you will find that his delivery style, when discussing wine, is very unconventional. In fact, some people may think he is too over the top. Yet, the fact is, Gary tells it like it is, and if a wine isn’t good to him, he lets his audience know it. Thus, when you start building your personal brand, always remember to remain authentic. 

Okay, now that we know we have to know what were talking about in order to have a begin building our personal brand, what do we do next? We use the social media tools on the Internet and start building our brand.

Some of these tools you may already be familiar with. There’s Facebook, WordPress, Tumblr, Twitter,  YouTube, and LinkedIn just to name a few. Choose as many of these tools as you can to get your message out and show the world your passion. If you don’t know how to use them, there is a myriad of books out there that will make it easy for you to learn how to use these tools. Of course, the best thing about all of these tools is the fact that they are free. 

Once you become comfortable with these different tools, you will want to go to re-read Chapter 10, where Gary will take you through a step-by-step process for building an Internet business. Although he makes it look easy, don’t forget Gary’s second rule: work superhard. 

In summary, I truly think that Gary’s book is a necessary read for anyone, because it illustrates that there is a way for us to live our dreams and follow our passions, and at the same time make money. 

About the Author

Gary Vaynerchuk is the owner and founder of Wine Library TV. In addition, he is the Director of Operations at Wine Library in Springfield, NJ. Gary’s unconventional methods of discussing the quality, taste, and smell of wines throughout the world have often attracted more than 80,000 viewers a day to his video webcasts. Gary also convinced Conan O’Brien to lick salted rocks and shared samples of dirt and grass with Ellen Degeneres. Lastly, he has written articles for The New York Times, USA Today, CNN.com and many others. 

Therefore, when a couple of projects were laid on my desk by some of my team members, I quickly reminded them that I was really on vacation, and would look at the them when I returned on Monday. 

Although I was a little upset with not being able to visit my nephew, I never let it come across that I was to the members of my team. After all, I chose to come in, and they really had nothing to do with this decision. Moreover, there’s a possibility that if I would have displayed my frustration with having to come in on a vacation day in dealing with my peers, this could have affected the relationships I had with them and made it seem as having a “negative attitude.” 

According to an article published by Texas Business Today, Summer 2009, showing a “negative attitude” is just one of the things we want to avoid displaying at work as more and more companies are laying people off. 

Here is the complete list of the15 things we should do to help us keep our jobs: 

1. Be on time, whether it is with showing up for work, returning from breaks, going to meetings, or turning in assignments.
2. Call in if you know you will be tardy or absent. Most companies treat absences or tardiness without prior notice much more seriously.
3. Try your best; always finish an assignment, no matter how much you would rather be doing something else.
4. Anticipate problems and needs of management.
5. Show a positive attitude—no one wants to be around someone who is a “downer.”
6. Avoid backstapping, office gossip, and spreading rumors.
7. Follow the rules. The rules are there to give the greatest number of people the best chance of working together well and getting the job done.
8. Look for opportunities to serve customers and help co-workers. Those who would be leaders must learn how to serve.
9. Avoid the impulse to criticize your boss or the company.
10. Volunteer for training and new assignments.
11. Avoid the temptation to criticize your company, co-workers, or customers on the Internet.
12. Be a good team member. Constantly focusing on what makes you different from others, instead of how you fit into the company team, makes you look like someone who puts themselves first, instead of the customer, the team, or the company.
13. Try to avoid saying “that’s not my job.”
14. Show pride in yourself. Never let yourself be heard uttering minority-related slurs or other derogatory terms in reference to yourself or to others.
15. Distinguish yourself. Pick out one or more things in your job you do better than anyone else. Become know as the “go-to-person” for such things. 

I hope you found this list as helpful as I did. I think all of us are a bit nervous about our jobs given the current state of the economy. Yet, I believe that if you follow this 15 tips, you be one of the last to go.  

Here are the four parts: 

1. Get a thank-you note and matching envelope.
2. Start your cover letter like this, “Thank you for reading this letter.” Then proceed with your killer cover letter.
3. Fold your resume and cover letter to fit them inside the thank-you note and then insert it into the envelope. (This is the Trojan part, because the contents are completely unexpected. Get it?)
4. Mail to the hiring manager, whom you’ll address by name. Hand-write the address on the envelope, neatly! 

Why does this work? Only two things come in small, square envelopes: thank-you notes and party invitations. Both are good and an HR Manager would have a hard time just throwing it in the trash as junk mail. 

Go ahead and try it out. Let me know if it works.

Since I am very interested in helping people get jobs, I was immediately drawn into the interview when Ms. Chatman remarked, “The more ingratiating behavior the candidate exhibited the more likely it was that he/she would receive a job offer.” In other words, qualifications and skills were not as important to the interviewer as sucking up. 

In researching this study a little further, I found an example of one of the phrases used to suckup to the interviewer. Here is the example: “Your company has a reputation for being team-oriented, and that is something I truly valve.” 

Ms. Chatman went on to say that when it comes to brownnosing, the sky is the limit. In other words, the more you do it, the greater your chances are of getting hired. Thus, if you think your are above this type of behavior, or you’re afraid the interviewer may see right through it, you’re wrong. So, here is my first piece of advice as a career coach:

LEARN HOW TO SUCK UP!

Here is the link to the BBC broadcast:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004gzfw

Most of us are familiar with the emotional intelligence concept—it has been around since the early 80’s. If you are not, it is the ability one has to empathize with others, understand their feelings and their way of thinking, and to control their own feelings. It’s the person everyone usually likes to be around and trusts. 

It’s imperative that we, as HR Professionals, understand emotional intelligence and continually strive to improve it. It is vital to our companies’ and our career success. 

Studies have shown that employees with a high degree of emotional intelligence are more likely to deliver superior results on the job than their peers. Thus, not only is having a high degree of emotional intelligence beneficial to our own careers, it is also helpful in our pursuit of productive and engaged employees. 

The good news is that unlike our intelligence quotient, our emotional quotient can be changed. 

In his book, The Other Kind of Smart: Simple Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence for Greater Personal Effectiveness and Success, Harvey Deutschendorf presents us with simple, and easy techniques for improving our emotional intelligence. These techniques include real-life anecdotes that illustrate how others have changed their EQ and improved their personal and professional success. Moreover, Mr. Deutschendorf ends every chapter with short techniques to help improve our stress tolerance, elevate our emotional self-awareness, cultivate our empathy, enhance our adaptability, augment our assertiveness, resolve our problems easier, and how to be happier. 

Here are some of the techniques found at the end of the “Self-Regard” chapter:

• Run–don’t walk—away from people who put you down or diminish you in any way. Focus on spending time with people you know will be supportive. Do not delude yourself into thinking that you can bring negative people up. It won’t happen; they will drag you down.
• Keep a book of accomplishments. Every week, pick one night and before you go to bed write down in that book everything you have accomplished that week. Don’t forget personal things like: bringing a smile to someone’s face or making someone laugh. Think of things that made you feel good. If you have difficulty remembering an entire week, make a short list each night.
• Ask people you trust and respect, and who know you well, to tell you what they see as your strengths. Sometimes others are able to see attributes we have that we are not able to recognize. 

Since reading The Other Kind of Smart: Simple Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence for Greater Personal Effectiveness and Success. I have been keeping a book of accomplishments. I have found it to be extremely helpful and has made me focus on the things I do well. In addition, it has helped me to reflect on the things I did during the week and consider other actions I could have taken in various situations. It’s very similar to a process recommended by Rhonda Byrne in the book, The Secret. 

Emotional intelligence isn’t some fading fade or only for the social and psychological experts. It is a proven component found in almost everyone deemed successful. As stewards of the “people department” I believe that it is even more important that we, as HR Professionals, have a superior level of emotional intelligence. Again, emotional intelligence is not just about being popular, it’s about knowing ourselves and others. If you feel that you may want to increase your emotional intelligence, then I suggest you pick up a copy of The Other Kind of Smart: Simple Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence for Greater Personal Effectiveness and Success. 

About the Author 

Harvey Deutschendorf is an emotional intelligence coach and has worked in the EI field for over ten years. In addition, he is a Certified Administrator of the BarOn EQi. BarOn EQI, is the first scientifically valid test for emotional intelligence approved by the American Psychological Association. 

The Pursuit of Something Better is no exception. It is a book that provides us, the HR Practitioner, with another roadmap on how to deliver profitable results through an organization’s people. The authors, Dave Esler and Myra Kruger, illustrate the transformational-journey of U.S. Cellular, from a wireless communications company dwarfed by AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, to one of the country’s lowest customer churn rates.

The transformational journey of U.S. Cellular into a “Dynamic Organization” was based on its CEO, Jack Rooney’s, vision of an organizational culture based on values and behaviors that would build employee satisfaction and an unrivalled customer loyalty.

Rooney’s formula for building a Dynamic Organization consisted of three main parts: 1) focusing on the customer, 2) leadership development and accountability and 3) doing the right thing. 

(For the sake of space, I will only be reviewing the Customer Service component) 

Customer Service 

We all know that it is very difficult for employees to be convinced to put aside their own self-interests for the greater good of the team. A team focused on helping others—the customer. 

Rooney knew that focusing on providing outstanding customer service would be the easiest starting point for shifting U.S. Cellular’s current culture. In other words, the customer would act as a “Trojan Horse” to undermine the resistance to the paradigm shift. Moreover, the customers were more apt to capture the hearts of U.S. Cellular’s employees and engage them quicker in the cultural changes that would follow than any abstract concept.  

This strategy did the trick. It wasn’t long before employees began to see how their actions affected the customer’s perception of the company and their overall experience. Moreover, the employees began to act differently when engaging with a customer. They seemed to be more diligent in their pursuit to provide the customer with an “ideal customer experience.” The customers reacted favorably and this provided the associates with instant feedback, which made them continue their quest to provide the “ideal customer experience.” 

Now that the employees had begun to accept this new cultural value of creating the “ideal customer experience,” it would open the door for the other components of the Dynamic Organization to be introduced.  

The Authors 

Myra Kruger founded Esler Kruger Associates in 1986 after a successful career in marketing and communications with the 3M Company. In addition, she worked as a consultant to Jack Rooney in building U.S. Cellular’s Dyanmic Organization. 

Dave Esler joined Myra in 1987. Before joining Myra, he worked in communications and human resources for companies like Metropolitan Life and Nortel Networks. In addition, he has authored numerous articles on a variety of business topics. 

The are based in Highland Park, IL and can be reached at www.eslerkruger.com. 

If you are familiar with LinkedIn, there is a section for you to summarize your career successes and experiences—“a bragologue.” This section would have been difficult for me. However, I had just finished reading Peggy Klaus’ book, Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It.” 

From this book, the HR Practitioner will learn the fine art of bragging. Yes, it is an art. We have all encountered people who lack this skill and come across as self-centered, braggadocio, or conceited. As Ms. Klaus explains, “At its core, bragging is a very individual form of self-expression and communication.” 

In most organizations, the HR department is not usually viewed as a revenue-generating department. Therefore, the HR Practitioner has to constantly find unique and convincing ways to show that we do add value and revenue to the bottom line. 

Yet, this can be a bit of a challenge for us. In most cases, the majority of our accomplishments cannot always be attached to a dollar figure. For this reason, it is imperative that we lean how to effectively use “bragbites” to showcase our achievements and the resulting profits.  

When we are unable to brag effectively, it often results in our budgets being cut, our teams being cut, and possibly our own jobs being cut. Thus, learning to brag is essential not only to our departments, but to our own career success. If we fail to let those responsible for promotions and raises know of our accomplishments, someone else will get promoted or get a raise. 

In her book, Ms. Klaus invites the HR Practitioner to begin the process of creating a bragologue (a three-minute monologue of information about one’s self that is conveyed in a conversational, story-like fashion that’s memorable and elicits interest, excitement, and/or admiration). The “Take 12” questionnaire, a self-evaluation tool geared towards aiding the HR Practitioner in discovering his/her personal and professional history, strengths, accomplishments, and personality traits, and to zero in on the things that make you, you. 

Here is an example of a very effective ‘bragologue” composed by Andy, a young associate in private banking. Andy is up for a promotion and a bonus. However, during the first meeting with his supervisor, he is told that it was a tough year and the bonuses will be down 40%. After talking with Peggy Klaus, Andy made another appointment to meet with his supervisor to discuss his bonus. However, this time he came prepared with the following “bragologue:” 

“I know the firm is suffering, and everyone is going to take a hit, but I feel really good about my business and how my hard work over the last three years is finally paying off. This year, I was able to bring in my two largest clients after a year and a half of nurturing the deals.  My revenues are up twenty percent, which is great at any time, and even more so now that most bankers’ are down thirty percent. Also, I really took your advice at my last performance review to heart and have become more active in the firm. I have organized monthly breakfasts for our business referrals so that they can learn about our new products, which has been very well received. Deborah, the division head, just sent me an email thanking me for my efforts. For all these reasons, I think I am ready for the vice president title and would like to see a bonus that reflects my accomplishments, despite the dismal state of affairs.” 

Do you think it worked? Well, Andy’s bonus was only reduced by 10% while his colleagues had their bonuses reduced by 40%. 

Given the current state of the economy, every HR Practitioner must be ready to prove their worth to their organization’s leadership. It’s a battle that will take a well-plan strategy in order to survive. With the help of Peggy Klaus’ book, Brag! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It, we’ll not only survive, but we will probably be the ones getting the promotions and the raises. Furthermore, it will make it easier to for us to write LinkedIn summaries and discuss our achievements during job interviews. Given all this, it would only make sense that you purchase the book. 

About the Author

Peggy Klaus is the president and founder of Klaus and Associates—a communication and leadership coaching services provider. Over the years, Peggy has worked with some of America’s top Fortune 500 executives. She leads BRAG workshops around the country for organizations and companies. In addition, she has been featured and interviewed by ABC 20/20, NBC Today, Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune, and O Magazine. 

Peggy has also authored The Hard Truth About Soft Skills—Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Sooner. 

Lastly, Peggy has advance degrees in Drama, Speech, and Theatre fro the London-based Royal Academy of Music and the Drama Studio. She has lectured at Harvard; the University of California, Berkeley; and Wharton. 

If you would like to obtain more information related to Peggy and the services offered by her company. Please visit her at: www.peggyklaus.com

        Well, there are ways to reward employees without breaking the bank or the budget.

 In his book, 1001 Ways To Reward Employees, author Bob Nelson provides the HR professional with a myriad of low-cost incentives to reward and recognize employees for a job well done. If I were to list all these incentives in this post, it would end up being a very-long post. Thus, I’m going to discuss the one I liked the most.

Bravo Cards 

     Janis Allen, a performance management consultant, tells the story of a group of officers she was training in the Department of the Army. One person in particular, a colonel, showed great resistance to the use of any reinforcers. A week or so after the seminar, the colonel’s manager—a general–wanted to praise him for his handling of an important presentation. The general found a piece of yellow construction paper, folded it in half and wrote “Bravo” on the front. Then he wrote his reinforcing remarks inside.

     The colonel was called in, praised and handed the card. “He took it and read it.” Allen says. “He didn’t even look up when he finished. He just stood up abruptly without even making eye contact, turned and walked out of the office.” The general thought,  “Wow, I’ve done something wrong now.” He thought maybe he had offended the colonel.

     When the general went to check on the colonel, he found that he had stopped at every office on the way out and was showing off the “Bravo” card. He was smiling and everybody was congratulating him.

      The colonel subsequently printed his own recognition cards with “Wonderful” on the front. They became his signature reinforcers.

      I like the “Bravo” idea, because it only requires a sheet of paper—a very inexpensive way to recognize an employee. 

Pie-A-Manager 

      Here’s an idea from my own playbook. It’s called: Pie-A-Manager. This is how it works:

      Tickets are sold to the employees for the opportunity to throw a pie at their favorite manager. Once the employee purchases a ticket, they write their names on the back and placed it in a jar. The tickets are sold for an entire month. At the end of the month, several tickets are drawn and those employees who purchased the selected tickets are given the opportunity to throw a pie at the manager of their choice.

       It’s a lot of fun for the employees and provides an inexpensive fund for employee cookouts and other employee recognition programs. Of course, it doesn’t cost the company a dime and that’s what makes it such a great way for rewarding employees.  

Recognition Saves Organizations Money 

      During her 2008 SHRM conference session, Mindy Chapman, the president of Chicago–based Mindy Chapman & Associates cited a study in the Harvard Business Review. The study found that  “presenteeism” or just showing up at work and doing the minimum, “is responsible for $150 billion in direct and indirect cost to American businesses [annually}.” 

      We, as HR professionals, have to continually prove that we do add value and save the company money. Implementing a few of Bob’s low-cost recognition programs can help us prove our worth. A $150 billion is a lot of money.  Thus, I invite all of you to purchase 1001 Way to Reward Employees and show your organization that HR is more than the people department. It also generates revenue and saves the company money. 

About the Author 

      Bob Nelson is the founder of Nelson Motivation, Inc., and a vice president of Blanchard Training and Development, Inc. He has authored several books on management and best business practices.

In addition, he writes a monthly column, Rewarding Employees. He can be contacted through his website: www.nelson-motivation .com