Receiving feedback is hard. Don't try to convince yourself that receiving feedback is "not personal" or "just business." I’ve been in HR a lot longer than I’ve been a wife or mom. I'm not going to lie: I organize my family a bit like a business! All three kids have color-coded google calendars so everyone can see events, deadlines, and priorities. We have junior-sized standard operating procedures (SOPs) for getting ready in the morning. Our four-year-old is always proud to s

When I was an HR Manager for a Fortune 100 spirits company, we had about 40 employees in our plant. For each employee, I kept a “journey map” which outlined their current role, their desired role, and their individual performance ratings. For each key role in the organization, we had a pre-determined successor, which meant that there was a backup should anything go wrong with current management. Knowing that there was a backup on-hand served three important purposes: it inspi

(Image: Chris Montgomery // Unsplash) OMG, I loooove that scarf! Hey, did you hear? The Bengals got a new coach! Ugh, the Brent Spence Bridge was such a mess today... Let’s face it: small talk can be cringe-worthy. I mean, if you think about it, people often spend 50 hours a week together and rarely scratch below the surface! Some people might thrive on office chit-chat to get through a busy day, but others (like most introverts) hate small talk! But what if everyone — introv