CEDR CEO Paul Edwards Explains “What the Hell Just Happened?!” in HR
From our team at CEDR, we wanted you all to know that we are so looking forward to meeting many of you and participating in this year’s annual AADOM meeting.
Getting to connect names to faces and make new connections is, I think, one of the best parts of AADOM’s annual event.
As an organization, we’ve been attending AADOM conferences for almost a decade now. And, as we prepare to see you all again soon, I am reminded that everyone is spending so much time trying to improve and learn new things that we as leaders often forget that we need to take care of ourselves, too.
To that end, I think the fellowship we’ve seen and experienced at past events goes a long way toward recharging our internal personal batteries, giving us the energy to persevere and be there for our teams and the businesses we manage.
Taking a break and coming together with like-minded people in such a positive atmosphere is self-care. And what a great habit.
Self-Care and Passion Projects
As a leader and manager, one of the principles I was introduced to early on is that you need to always find ways to celebrate your wins and make room for passion projects. This was described to me as an important part of self-care.
The problem for most managers is that we often put self-care on the back burner. There is always so much to do that the idea of being creative or setting aside time for a passion project can seem almost impossible.
I have a couple of passion projects, and because one is work-related…Click to learn more in a new window…, I am excited to introduce my new HR podcast to AADOM members. More on that in a second.
If I can share anything I’ve experienced that might help, it is to remind you that, amid the chaos that comes with being a manager of a successful practice, the best way to get yourself to focus on self-care or a passion project is to develop the things you do for self-care as habits.
You know this, but good and bad habits are born from the same place in our brains. Once a good habit is formed, it can be just as hard to stop as a bad one!
So that is the tiny jewel: Start developing your habit and do the best you can.
Keep it simple. Maybe it’s one workout a week instead of three. Perhaps it’s an extra half-hour of focused time with your family over the weekend. Maybe it’s binge-watching Stranger Things. Or maybe it’s setting an appointment with an online therapist once a week and never missing it.
Whatever it looks like, make it a habit.
This year, one of my passion projects happens to be work-related. It’s an HR-focused podcast called What the Hell Just Happened?!…Click to learn more in a new window… that I have been threatening to do for years!
At first, it felt like too much – more like work and less like passion. In fact, the first two episodes sucked so bad that you are never going to hear them!
But, after recording 16 episodes over eight straight weeks, creating them is now a habit. And I’ve become so passionate about this project that it’s starting to give me joy and recharge my desire to help people make better workplaces.
Expert Insights That Actually Help Managers Manage
What the Hell Just Happened?!…Click to learn more in a new window… is the distillation of all sorts of HR and managerial experiences and knowledge gathered over the years into bite-sized, easily digestible shows designed to help business owners and managers like you become better leaders and expand your soft and hard HR skills. Most episodes are less than twenty minutes long.
It covers emerging topics in HR, outlines management principles you can implement for your practice today, and breaks down how to identify and avoid common – and often costly – mistakes in an (I hope) entertaining way.
In weekly conversations between myself, the HR and compliance experts on my Solution Center team…Click to learn more in a new window…, and some unexpected and amazing guests, we get to the heart of what makes great teams great and take care to point out the not-so-obvious ways you can be a better manager and leader.
The first ten episodes are currently live…Click to learn more in a new window… and run the gamut from discussing how throwing an ill-advised birthday party…Click to learn more in a new window… led to a $450k loss in court for one business, to how artificial intelligence can actually create or reinforce biases…Click to learn more in a new window… in the hiring process, to how a major publication landed in hot water for posting a sarcastic tweet that the National Labor Relations Board did not think was funny…Click to learn more in a new window….
If you want an easy way to supplement the other things you’re already doing to further your HR education and leadership skills, I would be very grateful if you gave it a listen…Click to learn more in a new window….
And, if you like what you hear, please subscribe and share it with anyone you think might benefit. I only hope you have as much fun listening to it as I do recording it.
Click here to visit the WTHJH Podcast page…Click to learn more in a new window….
