Punk Rock HR

By WRKdefined Podcast NetworkBusiness Careers Management

Punk Rock HR episodes

May 07, 2018008: Career Coaching and Life Coaching with Ben Brooks
Ben Brooks was THE guy in HR. He had it all, but then he left it all to became an entrepreneur. Today Ben and Laurie talk about how coaching, whether it’s with a coach or on your own, can help you fix yourself AND your work. Not sure what life coaching is or why it matters? They’ll answer these questions and more in today’s episode.
Ben talks about this ‘arranged marriage’ to corporate America, and how it really didn’t fit with his ideas of innovation and making things better. In fact, one of his peers told him point blank: he had outgrown a 50,000-person company. Ben shares what a gift that message was.
Ben took a little time before beginning his journey into entrepreneurship, and what finally changed his mind about it was a name tag. Would he choose unemployed, entrepreneur, or employee? After a week among entrepreneurs, Ben realized he’d found his tribe.
Ben did what a lot of new entrepreneurs do: he started without a real business plan. He reveals what he learned about business plans, what his first little while was like, and when things finally took a positive turn for him. He shares his thought about generalist advisers, and what he says will surprise you: you don’t absolutely NEED to be in a niche, not in today’s world.
Ben talks about what he calls ‘democratizing coaching.’ In a nutshell, it means getting coaching to more people, when they need it, and at prices they can afford. He explains why he was driven to do this rather than set up a $500/hr coaching practice. Ben’s revelation about group coaching surprises Laurie, and it will probably surprise you, too.
One of the problems Ben ran into with Pilot, his coaching company, was that people loved it but they believed their company should pay for employment coaching. So he turned to companies, and while many of them won’t invest in it, there is a distinct group of forward-thinking leaders who have, like those at MetLife.
Do you need a business coach? Before you answer, listen to what Ben has to say about it. He likens it to marriage counseling. If you’ve ever been fired or left a job, are you able to see past your emotions and understand what really went wrong? Are you able to fix it for yourself? The answer may not be to start your OWN business, because if you aren’t able to fix yourself, entrepreneurship won’t do it for you.
According to people smarter than us, one of the biggest factors of happiness at work is self-advocacy. Ben and Laurie discuss what that means and why it seems to be more difficult for women. They also reveal what to do to be a better advocate for yourself.
Ben leaves his final message that everyone needs to hear: Take command of your career. It’s the tagline of his business, Pilot. He shares the inspiration behind it, and why it will change your life.
Want to know more about Ben? Find him here:
Pilot website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
LinkedIn
Pinterest
YouTube
The DIY HR Handbook
Wouldn't you love to get your hands on Laurie's no-holds-barred, honest DIY HR Handbook for employees and pros alike? Download it for free!
45 min
May 07, 2018 008: Career Coaching and Life Coaching with Ben Brooks
Ben Brooks was THE guy in HR. He had it all, but then he left it all to became an entrepreneur. Today Ben and Laurie talk about how coaching, whether it’s with a coach or on your own, can help you fix yourself AND your work. Not sure what life coaching is or why it matters? They’ll answer these questions and more in today’s episode.
41 min
May 04, 2018036: How I Failed to Launch a Tech Startup with Laurie Ruettimann
Have you ever effed something up so badly you’re not sure if anything will get better ever again? Laurie has. In this candid, bonus episode, she shares her biggest failure – a product called GlitchPlan that was supposed to help you do pre-mortem on a situation. What’s that? Laurie explains the concept and talks about how she’d been doing it herself for a lifetime. It was a sure thing, or so she thought.
Laurie explains what the concept of pre-mortem is and shares some very painful moments in her past where she was forced to use it to make life-changing decisions. It’s one of her core mantras: if you can see it, you can beat it.
Laurie and her partner pulled together a team of 5, all of whom were experts, but all of whom were also employed elsewhere. Except Laurie. That was the first indicator of failure. Laurie talks about what her life was like being a CEO of a company whose employees weren’t engaged. But the employees weren’t the only ones to blame. Laurie talks about how she failed them.
One of the next indicators of failure Laurie shares was that, in hindsight, if your tech team won’t even use what they’re building, there’s something wrong. Laurie was using it, though, and her pre-mortem problem lists weren’t being avoided. They were happening right before her eyes. In other words, she used her own product to watch its development fail. Oh, the irony.
Laurie ended up firing part of her team, but she wasn’t finished with GlitchPath just yet. After some reflection, she brought together another set of people – and she has great experience as a recruiter. But she said something in her job ad that had people coming out of the woodwork to gripe at her. It was just two little words and it was the best thing she did during the entire GlitchPath experience.
Version two of Laurie’s team was amazing. Except for two things. The team wouldn’t use it. Again. Laurie tells the story of development of a product no one wanted to use. The second problem? No one else wanted to use it. Laurie reveals the interesting reason why; it has to do with fear at work.
Laurie’s third goal was to integrate GlitchPath into other apps and tools on the market: Slack, Asana, Basecamp, etc. Her two lessons there were 1) most companies use weird project management, and 2) none of those tool companies would every buy her out, which she had hoped for from the beginning.
Laurie still loves the pre-mortem concept, but GlitchPath was a dead end. She brought her team together and killed it for the second, and final, time. She shares the big lessons she learned from GlitchPath, personally and professionally.
Enjoy this bonus episode? Do you want more like it? We’re thinking about putting together a community where you’ll get all normal content PLUS juicy tidbits, stories, access to Laurie, and an inside look at how she’s fixing work. Let us know! Email us at [email protected].
24 min
May 04, 2018 036: How I Failed to Launch a Tech Startup with Laurie Ruettimann
Have you ever effed something up so badly you’re not sure if anything will get better ever again? Laurie has. In this candid, bonus episode, she shares her biggest failure – a product called GlitchPlan that was supposed to help you do pre-mortem on a situation. What’s that? Laurie explains the concept and talks about how she’d been doing it herself for a lifetime. It was a sure thing, or so she thought.
22 min
April 30, 2018007: Four Theories on How to Fix Work with Laurie Ruettimann
Maybe you despise work. Maybe you’re apathetic about it. Or maybe work would be bearable if it weren’t for that one co-worker who always… You get the picture. Most people aren’t passionate about their cubicles. We’ve had some interesting guests over the past few weeks, and today, Laurie shares her takeaways from those conversations and some of her own theories on how to fix work, starting with one very important thing: to fix work, you need to fix yourself.
Stop living in your head and comparing yourself to others. You ARE going to face things like institutionalized racism, sexism, ageism and more, and that’s terrible. But you can’t let that force you into your own mental prison. If you’re going to fix yourself, you need to live in the present and live mindfully. You need to be an active participant in your own life.
Scott Stratton, the author of UnMarketing, was Laurie’s first guest, and he was fearless in burning down his corporate career. The lesson to take from him is that when your job is killing your soul, you should burn down your professional life and build it back up again. You don’t have to do it like Scott did; Laurie argues for a slow, well-planned burn.
We had another Scott next, Scott Santens. He’s known as the foremost thinker and speaker on basic income. It’s not welfare; instead, it’s a dividend. Companies hide profits overseas. They lobby the government for their own benefit, not yours. And the money they save isn’t invested in employees, not at all. Laurie explains how the basic income is needed, and why it needed now more than ever.
People need to get fairly paid for their work, and that will only happen with wage transparency, both with employees and employers. Laurie challenges you to ask YOUR potential employers a series of questions that, while they might make them uncomfortable, you need to, and have a RIGHT to know.
Jason Lauritsen was up next as a guest, and he and Laurie delved into what you can do to get clear on your goal for your work life. Sure, he hates work. But he doesn’t hate working. They talked about his evolution from cubicle to entrepreneurship and doing it the safer way. It all began with learning.
Guest #4 was Amanda Hite, another of Laurie’s friends. Amanda has had an interesting life, and at one point, she had a boss who encouraged her to stay in the closet to advance her career. Really. Now that Amanda is a successful CEO, she wants people to be their whole selves at work, and she campaigns for employees to be heard and honored, even if it makes management a little more challenging.
Tim Sackett was the next guest, and he is an expert on recruiters. Yes – the Jerry McGuire type of recruiter who fights to put the best talent in the best jobs. Except they aren’t usually like that. Some – or most – are shady paper-pushers who are only in it for the money. It doesn’t have to be that way, but since you can’t change the recruiters, you can be your OWN talent agent. Laurie explains how.
Laurie had a careers reporter from Business Insider as her most recent guest. Áine Cain is the type of woman who breaks the barriers and smashes stereotypes for the next generation of workers in offices. From #MeToo to robot workers, Áine has an exciting breadth of knowledge from her role in Business Insider. She also thinks you should smash your own pseudo-science around generational thinking. Laurie shares what you SHOULD be thinking about instead.
Are you interested in a ‘Let’s Fix Work’ community, where you can get freebies, early access to the podcast, interact with Laurie and guests? Are you interested in sponsoring the podcast? Let’s talk! Email us at [email protected].
As always, if you like the show, subscribe and leave us a review!
20 min
April 30, 2018 007: Four Theories on How to Fix Work with Laurie Ruettimann
Maybe you despise work. Maybe you’re apathetic about it. Or maybe work would be bearable if it weren’t for that one co-worker who always… You get the picture. Most people aren’t passionate about their cubicles. We’ve had some interesting guests over the past few weeks, and today, Laurie shares her takeaways from those conversations and some of her own theories on how to fix work, starting with one very important thing: to fix work, you need to fix yourself.
18 min
April 23, 2018006: #MeToo, the Gig Economy, and Robots with Áine Cain of Business Insider
Wanna know why work sucks? Ask Áine Cain
. She’s a careers and employment reporter for Business Insider, and her experience covering multiple workplaces gives her a unique insight into what makes a great – or terrible – place to work. From the #MeToo movement to the gig economy, and lotus-eaters to a robot invasion, Laurie and Áine talk about the current state of work and its future.
Are there still great places to work? Yes, but don’t be lured by ‘perks’ companies. Áine explains what they are and why they create a culture of complacency and wasting away.
According to a Gallup poll, nearly 70% of employees aren’t engaged at work, and naturally, these employees blame their managers. There’s an argument there to be made, but Áine points at two of the major themes she sees frequently, and it’s not managers.
What makes a place great to work at? Áine has a lovely acronym to explain what companies are doing right. CCE – co-workers, compensation, engagement. She explains what each of them means.
The #MeToo movement has been instrumental in raising awareness of issues at work, but you have to wonder: will awareness lead to long-lasting change? Laurie and Áine tackle that tough question with some anecdotes and insights that will change the way you think about the future of work.
Yes, men need to behave better at work. But there’s a second change that needs to take place, and that’s in the systems at work. Laurie and Áine talk about how businesses can replace their antiquated systems.
So at whose feet do we lay the burden of fixing work? Management, HR, employees? Laurie and Áine talk about where change needs to happen to make a great workplace, both the ideal and the realistic ways.
No one wants to work in the ‘bro culture.’ Áine digs into why that mentality fails and what employees really want to become more engaged and invested in their job. From generational gaps to the advent of the internet, so many different things have contributed to the current job climate.
You’ve heard the term ‘gig economy.’ But have you ever stopped to think about what it really is? Find out who is a real part of the gig economy, who it benefits, and whether or not it’s a good thing.
We promised robots. Áine says they’re taking over. We’re probably not going to tell you something you don’t know, but you definitely want to hear what Áine says about how the robot takeover will probably mirror the industrial revolution in terms of unemployment. Laurie and Áine discuss some of the ways that can be prevented.
Áine on Business Insider

Twitter

LinkedIn

We hope you enjoyed this episode! If so, please subscribe and leave a review! Let’s fix work, together.
33 min
April 23, 2018 006: #MeToo, the Gig Economy, and Robots with Áine Cain of Business Insider
Wanna know why work sucks? Ask Áine Cain. She’s a careers and employment reporter for Business Insider, and her experience covering multiple workplaces gives her a unique insight into what makes a great – or terrible – place to work. From the #MeToo movement to the gig economy, and lotus-eaters to a robot invasion, Laurie and Áine talk about the current state of work and its future.
31 min
April 16, 2018005: The Talent Fix with Tim Sackett
Most recruiters are lazy. Things are broken, great talent is slipping through companies’ fingers, and no one is doing anything about it. Is it because they don’t want to, or because they don’t know how to? Today Laurie talks to ‘America’s Best Recruiter,’ Tim Sackett. Tim answers the most common questions he gets from talent recruitment managers including how he would fix recruitment for them.
Laurie asks a very pointed question: can recruitment be fixed or does it need to be changed from the ground up? According to Tim, there’s no single answer. Maybe it’s just a tech or metrics measurement problem. Perhaps it’s the company’s brand or even their performance management.
Tim dispels some major myths about why recruitment and retention are broken and it’s NOT candidate experience. That’s a made-up concept. So is employee experience. If you disagree, you need to hear Tim’s example from the movie Jerry McGuire. Are you the kind of boss you need to be? If so, the candidate and employee experience fall into line naturally.
Do you have to be a great manager to be a great leader and vice versa? Tim’s answer to this question is very revealing, and if you don’t know the subtle difference between the two, there’s a very good chance you’ll find your talent problem there.
Some leaders/managers do all the right things when it comes to ticking off boxes. But the big thing they’re missing is compassion, empathy. Tim is quick to advise against firing them or moving them to non-management positions. His pragmatic view might surprise you.
Tim and Laurie diverge just a bit from the topic to talk about putting content out there into the world, how to do it when you don’t know how, and how to deal with the haters even if you’re from Gen X or before. This is advice you don’t want to miss because it applies to more than just putting your content online.
Tim is releasing a book, The Talent Fix. In it, he addresses the major problems he sees when he works with companies. First among those is the belief that tech is the problem, not people. He gives his advice on how to deal with that issue right off the bat. Before you even ASK him for help.
You’ve heard of the ‘days to fill’ directive for recruitment teams. Tim explains the breakdown of why that measurement fails and offers an alternative: the recruitment funnel. It works kind of like a sales funnel and at the end of it, if you have 10 candidates and you only want to interview 1 of them, you know your funnel is broken.
Tim blows the lid off the truth about recruiters. They want that big paycheck but they don’t want to recruit. Instead, they want to be recruiting administrators, and Tim explains what that means, the ‘post and pray.’ In the same vein, Tim and Laurie talk about being mediocre or being exceptional at work. Where do you fall on the scale, and where do you want to be?
Find Tim:
LinkedIn
Website
We hope you enjoyed this episode! If so, please subscribe and leave a review! Let’s fix work, together.
35 min
April 16, 2018 005: The Talent Fix with Tim Sackett
Most recruiters are lazy. Things are broken, great talent is slipping through companies’ fingers, and no one is doing anything about it. Is it because they don’t want to, or because they don’t know how to? Today Laurie talks to ‘America’s Best Recruiter,’ Tim Sackett. Tim answers the most common questions he gets from talent recruitment managers including how he would fix recruitment for them.
33 min

About Punk Rock HR

From the publisher's feed

Welcome to the Punk Rock HR Podcast, hosted by the influential and unconventional Laurie Ruettimann. This podcast breaks away from the traditional constraints of the HR world to bring you candid and compelling conversations with some of the most disruptive and innovative minds in the business. Each episode, Laurie dives deep into critical topics surrounding the real world of work, exploring the modern workplace's nuances, and challenging the status quo of HR.