The $25,000 Formula For Success in Human Resources
I came into work yesterday after taking a couple of days off. This time I decided not to work while I was off – no checking voicemails, no e-mails, no paperwork. Nope, just totally unplug.As expected, when I returned to work, I was immediately swamped with things to do. A couple of hundred e-mail messages to return. Twenty-two phone messages to return with a recording that my mailbox was now full. Interviews with job candidates. A full slate of meetings for the day. A couple of presentations to prepare for later in the week. And, to top it all off, a staff meeting with my team at 9 AM.
In other words, just a typical day in HR.
Anyway, I immediately knew that there was no way I was going to be able to get everything done. I’m sure you have many days like this as well.
When I go through situations like this I remind myself about the interesting story about the famous American financier, banker, and philanthropist J.P. Morgan. This story reportedly took place way back in the 1930’s. And it’s especially worth sharing when you find yourself swamped with work.
Here’s how it goes.
One day, a man approached JP Morgan, held up an envelope, and said, “Sir, in my hand I hold a guaranteed formula for success, which I will gladly sell to you for $25,000.” “Sir,” JP Morgan replied, “I do not know what is in the envelope. However, if you show me and I like it, I give you my word as a gentleman that I will pay you what you ask.” The man agreed to the terms and handed over the envelope. JP Morgan opened it, and extracted a single sheet of paper. He gave it one look and handed the piece of paper back to the man, then pulled out his checkbook, and paid the man the agreed-upon $25,000.
The paper read:
1. Every morning, write a list of the 6 most important things that need to be done that day.
2. Do them.
The point: In every Human Resources job, every day, your success in HR and your impact on your organization will be determined by just a few things that you accomplish — on any given day — that will propel you to success. Typically, it’s not finishing up all that paperwork on your desk, or returning all your e-mails and phone messages. Completing all these things may make you feel complete, they may not however make you successful. Instead, it’s focusing and concentrating on the 80% of your time on those few tasks that are most important, will impact your organization the most, will advance your impact the most. And devoting the remaining 20% of your time on the rest of the stuff. If you’re able to discipline yourself to do this, this is a formula for success.
So, how did I decide to spend my time on this particular day. I spent the most time doing things that contributed to my 3 biggest Human Resources priorities for the year, which are: Staffing the organization, helping to build our organization’s culture and growing my direct team. And, to be brutally honest, yes, I did spend about an hour and a half of the day returning some e-mails and phone calls — not because they needed to be done that day or the most important things to be done that day — but because I wanted to and it made me feel better. (Hey, nobody’s perfect.).
Here’s the no BS part of this. On some days, I end up trashing my carefully thought-through priorities because some unplanned for employee relations emergency will come up that will take all day….or my boss will interrup me with me with a last-minute request that she needs my help with. There’s nothing you can do about this, other than pick back up on your day’s priorities as soon as you can. That’s all part of HR life in a fast moving, type A, large organization.
However, this is a great reminder of the power of lists, and prioritizing things. I’ve found without the ability to write and prioritize the list of things I must accomplish each day and the discipline to actually do it, I would get almost nothing done.
What about you?
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