{HR} Leadership Is Not For The Weak

Essential competencies for high performing HR professionals include being a cultural steward, talent manager, operational executor . . . and having a thick skin.

Listen, let me just save you some time and <wasted> energy. If you are not pleased with a decision I've made or frustrated because I don't see things your way and get the urge to call me names, you'll have to do better than "obtuse and obstructionist."

Really, professionals should be able to communicate without name calling but in those cases where that doesn't happen, you have got to know . . . "sticks and stones may break my bones but names can never harm me." They used to, like when I was 4 and the big girls came up to me and taunted, "Mona Lisa, are you going to cry? Are you going to cry?" Yup, I cried, but no more.

Big girls, big words, artistic taunts and ridiculous slams aside, there is something that does catch my attention: questions about my motives, my intentions or my credibility. 

Credibility. It's the thing that keeps me up at night, has me second guessing my actions and replying my conversations. And at times, it is the thing I insert into situations where it has no place being.

What else do I know about credibility?

Well, a lot actually and I am going to be talking credibility and leadership today at the 22nd Annual ALAMN Educational Conference and Exposition Leadership Boot Camp. All very fitting not can talk about leadership and credibility all day but I've stepped foot in a boot camp or two back in the day.

ALAMN members and guests, welcome to the blog and I look forward to speaking with and learning from you today.

Public Speaking Freaks Me Out

Public speaking freaks me out. 

It's not the thought of speaking publicly that freaks me out or even that actual speaking itself. I have been offering myself up for speaking opportunities more often lately. But lo and behold, someone takes me up on the offer and then, well, the freak out begins. It goes something like this:

Someone asks if I'd be interested in speaking. Even though it seems as though every fiber in my body tells me to run, I don't.  I say yes. I get the gig. 

I freak out.

What was I thinking. I can't do this. I don't know anything. I'll run out of things to say. I'll disappoint xxx. Everything, and I mean everything, rides on this one presentation. (A little drama, right?)

Need. Data. Now. I scour the internet for expert sources. I frantically try to build data depository so I can know absolutely everything. I pace. I scrible. I outline. I revise.

Then I stop.

I pull out Organization and Presentation Tips by Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen. I touch the pages and begin to settle down. I move through the tips one by one, jot ideas down one by one . . . and then "it" appears.

"It" is a perspective, a quote, or an idea that resonates with me. "It" is a story only I can tell. "It" allows me to focus and let the fun begin.

I am calm.

And I'll be that way until the night before the presentation. Yes, even though I said that actual speaking doesn't freak me out - it does. It's a mind game I play with myself. It doesn't work.

So, how do you control - or silence - your public speaking freak out?

Photo credit iStockPhoto

The Anti-Speaking Demon

A few weeks ago I took on the anti-writing demon and by no means do I have this one under control but I have been making progress. My red Moleskine journal is with me where ever I go so I can jot down and idea when it comes to me. Now, if I would write so I could read it, that would be progress!

I am not thinking about writing today, I am thinking about speaking. A friend sent me a call for presentations and if you are like me (head buried in the organizational sand) you may not know what this is. Well, this is the way the speakers at conferences end up in the brochure and in front of the audience. Calls go out, calls are answered and speakers are selected, unless of course you are established and they call you, but either way . . . process demystified.

So, I am looking at this call for presentations and the topics. There are at least two that I could talk about and with a little of coaching, could make it fun and engaging too. Interested? Check. Topic experience? Check. Proof of performance? Big fat uncheck. No proof of performance means an incomplete application. I don't have any proof of performance because, well, I haven't spoken. Yes, there's a demon involved and she's a tough one!

Not having any proof of performance yet is not the end of the world but it definitely is a swift kick in the shins. Moving forward I will silence the demon, develop my speaking skills and find opportunities to use them. 

If you've taken the leap to speak, what suggestions do you have for me and others? 

What's kicked you in the shins lately and what are you doing about it? 

Let me know by posting a comment or using the feedback widget in the sidebar.

Photo Credit iStockphoto