4 Ways to Be Successful in HR

I spend a lot of time talking about what makes HR professionals fail, but I have strong opinions on the key attributes that make human resources leaders successful. Here are four. Great HR leaders are dependable and reliable. Everybody wants innovative and disruptive until you actually give them innovative and disruptive. Then they want steady…

How is Glassdoor a Thing?

There aren’t a ton of fun things about working in human resources. We do things that need to be done. It’s not super sexy or totally fulfilling, but it’s important. You know what’s fun? The other stuff that sits outside of HR. Social media. Employment branding. Data. Thinking about HR as a B2C function instead of a…

HR Cat Lady

Everybody jokes about the HR lady cat stereotype because, if I’m being honest, I made it okay to joke about that stereotype when I first started blogging about HR. It’s like Coach purses. I have a bunch — including an awesome, vintage Stewardess bag — but I saw myself mixed in with a group of frumpy…

Lessons on Turning 40

About eight weeks ago, we celebrated my “early 40th birthday” in Australia. I drank cocktails and jetted around the Great Barrier Reef. I was able to snorkel with tropical fish, swim with sea turtles, and then head down to Sydney for more sightseeing and tourist fun. Thank god I had that wonderful experience. When my…

The Woman Who Doesn’t Help Other Women

We all know women who don’t help other women. I use some of these women as examples during coaching sessions. With great specificity, I talk about dysfunctional professional behaviors and wrecked work-relationships. I try to debunk gender stereotypes while simultaneously acknowledging that the woman-who-doesn’t-help-other-women imbues some of those stereotypes. This woman is complicated. She is privately and pervasively negative.…

Conference: Best Practices in 2015 #GlobalBPC

Next week, I’ll be attending a conference called Global Best Practices 2015. I sit on the board of TD2nK, which will bring together the brightest executives in the restaurant and hospitality industries to discuss labor trends, economic policy, and issues around engagement and retention. It’s a great event for HR leaders who work in the…

Unique Public Speaking Tips

Frozen. #40 #birthday #thebean #chicago A photo posted by LFR (@lruettimann) on Jan 8, 2015 at 8:10pm PST As part of my consultancy, I talk to a lot of high-performing sales professionals. (I always look at the crowd and wonder, “Why aren’t there more ugly people in this room? Why aren’t any of you fat? How…