Shauna Moerke is…

I’m a big believer that most orgainzational problems can be traced back to bad leadership and bad management. Sound unfair? Not at all.

You say: My employees are always late. I ask: What are you doing to either correct the behavior or move them out of the company?

You say: No one on my team is meeting their goals. I ask: Are you really sure those goals are appropriate and reasonable then?

You say: My workers are lazy, stupid, and can’t follow simple directions. I say: You’re an ass and if that is what you really think of your employees, then that’s what you are going to get.

Do you see my point? It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you make bad management and leadership decisions, hire the wrong people and then treat them poorly, or just generally push all the blame for failure onto other people, then how can you expect anything better in return? You get what you give.

I know there are employees out there who are problems and always will be. But for as much as you scream and yell about them taking responsibility for their suckiness, you need to turn that lens back on yourself as well. After all, you were the one who hired them.

Look, it’s very easy for me to sit in my little HR cave and poke managers and employees with a stick, but that’s not the point of this post. And I do actually have a point other than ranting.

My point is: Do Something. Make your presence felt. Take all that HR experience, training, and knowledge and use it exactly for how it was intended: To protect the best interests of the company and your employees.

Because if we are being honest here, HR may not make the decisions, but we sure as hell should be influencing them. If we see the problem and don’t do anything, we are condoning it. And then we are the problem too. And me, I don’t want to be the problem. Remember, I have a pointy stick and I like to use it.

But if the company views their HR as just a bunch of party planners and paper pushers, well, that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy all on it’s own…