Book Review: Thrive! by Alan Weiss

I have made it clear in past posts that I am a big fan of Alan Weiss of the Summit Consulting Group. He is the consultant's guru, thought leader and my role model. He can be found on Twitter @BentleyGTCSpeed if you wish to follow him. He has written a superb series of books for consultants. I recommend them. Most recently however, he has written a book that has applicability to many people. I think it has particular application to those in the HR profession. Thrive! Stop wishing your life away is a guide book for success in life that will have a major impact on how well you do in your profession. This book is about achieving success through smart work and smart use of time, money and your brains. It is NOT a book about wishing for success. It is a guidebook for gaining confidence, gaining competence and gaining success. It is straight forward in its advice, and as is his approach Weiss' is direct and pointed in his comments. As an example he says "You can't live your life by daintily stepping around the eggshells of others' inadequacies."

Weiss in his writing is very quotable. Some of my favorites include:

• Wallflowers are not chosen as centerpieces.
• We are not here to stick our toes on the water. We are here to make waves. The water doesn't matter. You should.
• Speed is "not of the essence" it IS the essence.
• Life is about quid pro quo. Mastering your life entails helping others master theirs.
• We should never put ourselves in a position of sacrificing our own needs to satisfy those of another. Even in a marriage.
• We all grow by exploiting strengths not correcting weaknesses.

Chapter 9 discusses the Five Traits of The Masters of Their Own Fates. An excellent chapter. These traits include:

• Trait 1- Resiliance. This means you do not the support or input of others to sustain yourself. Ture resiliance does not require the validation of others. It is a behavior, not a competency.
• Trait 2- Eternal learning. NEVER "dumb down" your abilities, competencies or brilliance.
• Trait 3- Self-esteem. (more about this in a minute.)
• Trait 4- Perseverance. You win some, you loss some, some get rained out. But you have to "suit up" for all of them.
• Trait 5- Love. Masters of their own fates feel free to love, and do so repeatedly and continually.

His Self-Esteem builders are excellent. They are:

• Acquire and hone skills.
• Apply positive "self-talk." (My comment: this is as close as he comes to "self-help")
• Walk with the Lions. Enter tough debats, take on the "experts", question what you find to be suspicious.
• Build on Strengths. Identify your strengths and exploit them. You don't grow on improving weaknesses.
• Articulate your values. Be cognizant of what you stand for and be able to explain it to others.

Before I go on to repeat the other book I will stop here. All I can say is I got jazzed by reading this book. I took notes and I reread the notes on a fairly consistent basis. I suggest you do the same thing. You can get the book here. It will be worth you time and money.

Have a VOICE in HR and Use It: Being a Credible Activist

I had the very good fortune to spend a day, yesterday, with professor, author, consultant, and HR thought guru, Dave Ulrich. (Of course there were another 200 people there as well). He had a long "conversation" with us about the field of HR and what it takes to be an HR professional today. He talked about how HR can transform organinzations and what competencies it takes to do so. Much of this is detailed in his book HR Competencies (shown at the right). If you are serious about your career in HR and you feel you need to take it to the next step then you need to read this book and internalize what you learn.

I could write a very long post on these competencies, but I won't. But I do want to mention the NUMBER ONE competency that Ulrich et al. have determined to be most important in the 21st century. That is the competency of CREDIBLE ACTIVIST. Credible is believable, credible is knowing what you are talking about, credible is knowing about business and your business in particular. Alot of HR people consider themselves credible. The jury is still out on whether their CEOs consider them credible. (Mostly because of the business knowledge requirement.) One of the reasons the CEO does not consider HR credible is HR has NO VOICE. Many HR people "speak when spoken to" and do not offer opinions on the business. 

This is where the second word in this competency comes into play. ACTIVIST. This does not mean that you have to be a rabble-rouser (click the link for the definition). It means that you have to stand up and offer opinions and points of view. And you don't  wait to be asked. Offer your points of view BEFORE anyone asks you what you think. And have opinions and points of view on more than just HR topics. If you know your business (another competency) then you should be able to talk about operations, marketing, branding, finance, etc. Being an activist means you are not afraid to be contrarian. Your management "partners" may not listen to what you have to say, particularly at first, but you need to use your voice regardless.

Some of the people sitting at my table indicated they were afraid to do that. They were afraid to speak up, even when they knew things being done were wrong. One person said she "picked her battles carefully." Another said she did not speak up because she did not really know the business because she had NEVER spent any field time with employees. She was "too busy" doing her work. (I probably rolled my eyes big time at this.) I know many HR people are not activists because they naturally are "conflict avoiders". And speaking up can lead to a confrontation. But if you know you are right you need to have that confrontation and you don't need to, and should not, back down. I used to work for an HR manager that had so little back bone I was surprised he was able to stand up. Well I don't need to get off on that rant.

Many of the credible activists I know are also bloggers. Two of my favorite (among many) are Laurie Ruettimann of PunkRockHR and Kris Dunn of The HR Capitalist. I call Laurie a "beast sticker". She is not afraid to take a sharp stick and poke the "beast of HR". She can be profane, and I don't always agree with her, but she is fun to read because she riles people. She has been accused of not being "credible" because she does not currently hold a "real" HR position. HOGWASH, this lady knows her stuff. Kris is also a beast sticker. He is in my opinion as close to being the ultimate HR pro there is. He is what I want to be when I grow up, despite the fact that I am 20 years older than he is. In fact he beat me to this same topic. As I was driving home to Atlanta from Birmingham last night and thinking about this topic he had already beat me to the punch. You can read his very well written take on CREDIBLE ACTIVIST by clicking on his name above.

BTW, Dave Ulrich says that one of the first steps in being credible in the 21st century is certification. So think a second time about getting that PHR or SPHR.

Closing thought- Become a pro, find your voice and exercise it frequently. Learn from Laurie, Kris, and a myriad of other bloggers on what to say, how to say it, and in the words of Nike, "JUST DO IT."