Jennifer McClure`

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Written by Jennifer McClure

AWESOMENESS Is Not Accidental [Slideshare] #DisruptHR

Last night, I had the honor of hosting the first Disrupt HR event in Cincinnati, Ohio along with my friends Chris Ostoich and Steve Browne.

Well actually, Chris and his fantastic team at BlackbookHR did all of the hard work, and Steve and I just sort of showed up. Which was perfect.

On the agenda for the night was some good old fashioned networking, festive beverages at the historic Rhinegeist Brewery and 13 brave presenters delivering Ignite-style talks on variety of topics including human resources, talent, diversity, culture.

Chris Ostoich – Founder & CEO, BlackbookHR

Elizabeth Borton – Owner & President, Write On Target

James Biro – Plant Director, Kellogg Company

P.G. Sittenfeld – Cincinnati City Councilman

Kristie Aiuto – HR Manager, Procter & Gamble

David Le – Managing Member, The Lang Thang Group

Steve Browne – Executive Director of Human Resources, LaRosa’s Inc.

Josh Heuser – Founder, AGAR and Partner, Mainstay Rock Bar

Pat Reiber – Relationship Manager & Executive Recruiter, Centennial Inc.

John Herman – CEO, Epipheo

Craig Bryant – Founder & Product Manager, Kin

Jennifer McClure – President, Unbridled Talent LLC

Laurie Ruettimann – Writer, Speaker & Consultant, The Cynical Girl

 This was my first Ignite-style talk (5 minutes, 20 slides automatically advancing in 15 second increments) and it was a challenge!

Thankfully, I survived and it’s sufficient to say that I have used up my quota for saying the word Awesome in 2013. Which is Awesome. 🙂

Below is the deck from my talk (email subscribers click here to view).

AWESOMENESS Is Not Accidental from Jennifer McClure

Special thanks to the Disrupt HR sponsors, for without them, this event wouldn’t have been possible.

BlackbookHR

Centennial, Inc.

Paycor

Plum Street Productions

Event Enterprises

Interested in hosting a Disrupt event in your town? Let me know and I can hook you up with the right folks to get you started!

Categories: Blog, Events, Human Resources, Just For Fun
Posted on December 5, 2013

Written by Jennifer McClure

Stick A Fork In Business Buzzwords: 15 Common Phrases To Kill

The business world is ripe with raconteurs, rhetoricians and grandiloquent speakers – which is to say that many businesspeople use unwieldy elaborations of common English words and phrases in an effort to make a point – or simply out of habit without considering the meaning (or lack thereof) of a particular phrase.

Recently, in the LinkedCincinnati Group on LinkedIn, I posed the question:

“If you could kill one piece of corporate buzz-speak (like the phrase ‘move the needle’), what would you eliminate?” 

After over 100 comments in just one week, below are a few of my favorites from the discussion:

1. Think outside the box

First, can you define what the box is, so I can think outside of it? Yeah, I didn’t think so. 

2. There’s no “I” in Team

But there is an “m” and an “e”… There’s also an “I” in quit. 

3. Reach out

This sounds like it involves touching in the workplace. Your HR person will not be amused. 

4. At the end of the day

Lazy and meaningless at any time of the day. Unless, of course, it IS literally the end of the day. 

5. Let’s take that off-line

Translation: “I don’t want to address that and I hope you’ll forget to bring it up again.” 

6. We want to partner up with you

To take advantage of what a person or company has built/grown/acquired – for free. 

7. I’d like to pick your brain

See #6. 

8. Drink the kool-aid

Sounds way better than asking employees to die for you. 

9. This one’s in your wheelhouse

I don’t want to have anything to do with this project. You can have it. 

10. Take one for the Team

You’re on your own here. We’re officially throwing you under the bus.

11. Kick the can down the road

Because nothing says we’re serious business people like comparing work activities to a child’s game. 

12. Game changer

Yeah, right. Before that it was “world class” and before that it was “state of the art”. 

13. It is what it is

“I am your supreme Leader. And I don’t give a shit what you think.”   

14. Get in bed with

Just say NO to using this in regards to customers, vendors, etc. Trust me. They’re not that into you.  

15. Open the kimono

Some things are better left unseen. Keep that kimono zipped up and find another way to talk about transparency!

—–
Unbridled Talent LLC is a consulting and advisory firm providing services to clients in the areas of leadership development, executive communication skills and talent strategy. Jennifer McClure offers keynotes, workshops and training that inspire and teach business leaders to be more effective in their careers and as leaders of their organization’s most valuable resource – people. Contact us to schedule an event or to discuss our strategic consulting and advisory services.

Categories: Blog, Just For Fun
Posted on November 27, 2013

Written by Jennifer McClure

The SHRMmys – My 2010 SHRM Annual Conference Awards

The 2010 SHRM Annual Conference is officially in the bag and after making my way back across the country, I’ve taken some time to reflect on the conference, the experience and what I took away from it all. There will be more information to share in the coming days, but as someone who attends quite a few conferences, I can safely say that this was one of the best that I’ve been to!

To share some of the highlights of my experience, I thought I’d give out some Awards – all voted on and selected by a committee comprised of yours truly. So without further adieu, I present to you, the first annual (assuming I get to go back) SHRMmys!

Category: General Session/Keynote Speakers

Best Keynote Speaker – Marcus Buckingham. If you’re a fan of the strengths-based movement, have read any of Buckingham’s books or have seen or heard him speak before, Marcus didn’t share anything new. What he did do was focus his talk on the audience (HR pros) in an entertaining and engaging way. It doesn’t hurt that he’s pretty handsome, speaks with an English accent and used lots of humor. The ladies weren’t the only ones who noticed. There were quite a few Marcus #fanboys in attendance as well.

Most Surprising Speaker – Al Gore. The former “next President of the United States” skipped the Power Point for his keynote on the second day and won over the audience with a talk that was about 75% focused on challenges and issues that businesses and HR pros are facing  today. He lost a little momentum when he moved into sustainability and global warming, but that was brief and not unexpected for a guy who won a Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar for his work in that area.

Rising Star – Ray Jefferson. In his brief moment before the keynote by Steve Forbes, Mr. Jefferson was well-spoken and inspiring, speaking directly to the audience and calling for HR to make a difference by hiring our nation’s Heroes. “In this time where it’s critical to do more with less, it’s more important than ever to hire great talent.” More than a few attendees suggested that Mr. Jackson would have been a better choice for the opening session speaker.

Best Speaker at Some Other Conference – Steve Forbes. Someone forgot to tell Steve that this was the largest HR conference in the world, not a stop on his 1996 or 2000 Presidential bid tours. We definitely need to understand business/economic issues in HR, but an inspirational/actionable keynote this was not.

Category: Exposition Hall

Best Booth – Since I was a part of the #monsterlive Social Media Street Team, I’ll recuse myself here, but let’s just say the Monster booth was pretty awesome. Check out my Behind the Scenes Tour of the Monster.com SHRM10 booth before the Expo Hall opened and I’ll let you be the judge.

Most Intriguing Booth – Corporate Lactation Services, Inc. With a tag line like “Professional Excellence in Corporate Lactation”, what’s not to love about this entry? In my book, they deserve an Award just for that.

Best Swag – iPads dominated the giveaways and drawings, but branded USB’s, hand sanitizer and carryalls useful to haul tons of swag that can be repurposed as “green” grocery bags ranked high on my list.

Most Coveted Swag – The focused swag grabbers quickly headed for the headgear (Dr. Suess style hats, toboggans, crowns, etc.), Hawaiian leis and Monster Trump dolls. Where this stuff ends up is anyone’s guess, but on Sunday night, they were “must-have” items.

Lamest Swag – Nothing says “we’re in the low budget section” like having a booth full of pens, key chains and refrigerator magnets. My recommendation? Spend less money next year and buy one i__ (insert name of hot Apple product) and do a drawing for a giveaway. You get names for lead generation and up your cool factor exponentially.

Category: Event Coverage

Best Official Event Coverage – SHRM. From the official Conference Daily’s waiting outside hotel room doors in the morning to General Session opening videos (including 3 attendee’s journeys to the event, the opening session Flash Mob and Undercover Boss with SHRM CEO Lon O’Neil and Board Chair Robb Van Cleave) – everything was top-notch. SHRM also embraced social media coverage this year with the implementation of the first “official SHRM Blog Squad”, the first tweet from the SHRM CEO and SHRM10TV “On the Couch” interviews with Manager of PR & Social Media Relations Curtis Midkiff in the Social Media Lounge.

Best Video Coverage – The SmartBrief.com/Monster.com Interview series. SmartBrief Senior Editor on Workforce Mary Ellen Slayter and the MonsterThinking crew teamed up to offer a high-quality, informative and well-done video interview series with HR thought leaders, authors and bloggers like Libby Sartain, Gerry Crispin, Dave Ulrich, Nicole Williams and more. Extremely well done and a great resource archive!

Best Social Media Coverage – Monster.com went all out this year to provide coverage for SHRM10 from an attendee’s point of view through blogging, vlogging and tweeting. Ben Eubanks and I were fortunate to be a part of the #monsterlive Social Media Street team and were encouraged to tweet, blog, video and comment on the conference activities in our own voices and as practitioners to provide a sense of what it was like to be there for those unable to attend. I was super impressed with the planning and effort that went into the Street Team coverage, as well as the participation of the Monster crew – SVP of Global Communications & Social Media Janet Swaysland, VP of Client Adoption Eric Winegardner, Director of Social Media Relations Kathy O’Reilly, Social Media Relations Manager Matt Charney and Manager, Client Training Lisa Watson – and therefore can’t take them out of the running for the top prize in this category just because I was involved. Well done!

Rising Stars – Laurie Ruettimann and Jennifer McClure. (Yay!) While trolling the Expo Hall on the first night doing video interviews with attendees, Laurie and I happened upon SHRM Board Chairman Robb Van Cleave and snagged an exclusive interview with him, where we “broke news” about the next day’s General Session speaker. I’m sure he’ll never forget us and will always cherish the sombrero that Laurie gifted him with at the end. As budding serious journalists, we’re now looking for Agents to handle all of the requests for live event coverage…

Best Blog Coverage – Charlie Judy of HR Fishbowl and John Hollon of TLNT.com. A fixture in the Press Lounge with headphones and game face, Charlie was on fire covering the event with speedy and insightful commentary and observations. John Hollon brings a seasoned journalist slant to his coverage of the conference each year ripping Steve Forbes, praising Al Gore and summing up his thoughts in straightforward posts.

Most Tweets – For sheer volume, it was a close race between Jessica Miller-Merrell of Blogging4Jobs.com and myself. Hopefully, our followers and those keeping up with the #shrm10 hashtag found some value in the volumes of information and observations that we shared.

Best Twitter Coverage – Eric Winegardner and Mark Stelzner. It’s always a pleasure to follow Eric and Mark at any event that they attend. Both are able to provide useful, informative, critical and often hilarious insights in 140 characters or less. Favorite tweets include Eric’s observation following SHRM CEO Lon O’Neil’s Tweetup announcement and Mark heading off the rails during a “social media is evil” session.

Funniest Tweets – Laurie Ruettimann. Laurie’s Twitter stream is a riot most any day, but at conferences, she can be particularly fun to follow. She does a great job of sharing her cynical and educated views in few words and hilarious photos on Twitter.

Category: Social/Networking Events

Best Party – The SHRM / Monster Social Tweetup & Afterparty. This was the first year for SHRM to hold a Tweetup and they teamed with the Tweetup experts – Monster.com. From the bacon chocolate cupcakes, drinks with glowing neon ice cubes, swag bags for attendees and lively networking, this event was first class in every way. Check out photos from the evening and see for yourself.

Best Entertainment – Hall & Oates. For all of the pre-conference bashing that the Hall & Oates choice received, there were plenty of attendees who were jazzed about showing up to hear the duo sing classics such as Private Eyes, Maneater and Rich Girl. While I didn’t personally care to relive the 80’s by attending, those who did all had a great time.

So there you have it, my picks for the 2010 SHRM Annual Conference. If you’re a winner, we’re reducing our carbon footprint and going “green” this year, so consider this a virtual high five for your efforts.

Overall, it was a well-organized event in a fantastic location. I’m already looking forward to SHRM 2011 in Las Vegas!

What Awards did I miss? Award some of your own in the Comments!

Categories: Blog, Human Resources, Just For Fun
Posted on July 2, 2010

Written by Jennifer McClure

It’s April Fool’s Day… Can You Learn Anything From It?

Ah, it’s April Fool’s Day and the pranks and jokes are flying in offices all around the world and especially on the Interwebs. Hey, I’m a Fan of fun and a decent practical joke, but having a specific day unofficially sanctioned for these activities means that it’s not safe to go on the internet, step out of your house or speak to any of your friends.

Bah. Humbug.

April Fool 1

Of course I may be jaded a bit after a good (or was it bad) trick that was played on me (and quite a few others) a couple of years ago. I had just caved in and finally joined Twitter (on March 26, 2008 to be exact) after reading this post from Jim Stroud indicating there were only 85 recruiters were using it. A few days later, on April 1st, I started my day as usual and noticed a tweet from Scott Allen, mentioning a post on his Linked Intelligence blog with a big announcement from LinkedIn – that they were eliminating their free service as of May 1, 2008.

Immediately after reading the post, I spun into a tizzy. How could they do this? I’d been using the free version of LinkedIn for a couple of years and had also spent a considerable amount of time teaching and encouraging other professionals – especially job seekers – to sign up and get involved. I knew that many of these people wouldn’t be willing to pay for the service and as a result, its usefulness would soon be gone.

I sent Scott a couple of tweets asking how this could happen. No response. I searched the internet for the “official LinkedIn announcement” that was referenced in the post. Nothing. I Googled, went to LinkedIn related Forums and scoured the LinkedIn site and blog. After losing far too much time and productivity, I went back to Scott’s post (which has since been removed – bad for LinkedIn SEO I guess) to see if I could find more information there. As I scrolled down to the bottom just above the comments, in very tiny font, I saw this:

*April Fools

I was mad. And frustrated. I’d lost a lot of time and productivity (my fault – not Scott’s) by following this April Fool’s boondoggle. But after I thought about it a bit, I was thankful. It was a great wake up call to remind myself that I must be sure to never depend on any one tool or any one thing that is controlled by someone else to manage my relationships and do my job.

So thanks for the Punk Scott! I deserved it – and I even learned from it.

Now if you want to see some good April Fool’s hijinks, this one is perfect. (Link to the picture referenced is here.) Couldn’t have happened to a better target guy. 🙂

April Fool 2

Categories: Blog, Just For Fun, LinkedIn
Posted on April 1, 2010

Written by Jennifer McClure

Who Is The Best Recruiter In The World? (And Other Stuff People Ask Me)

Keyword Graph One of the fun things about having a place on the internet where I share my thoughts with the universe is periodically checking the Analytics for this blog. Being a Charts, Graphs and Data Girl, this information definitely interests me and it’s very helpful as I continue to search for my blogging “voice” by seeing what content attracts and engages readers. (And bonus points for the data being frequently amusing too!)

Here’s a sampling from a recent look at some of the data for Cincy Recruiter’s World:

  • Over 18,000 unique visitors have come to this site since it began in October 2008
  • Almost 30,000 pages have been viewed
  • Visitors reside in 121 countries (85 countries sent more than 1 visitor)

Top 6 referring sites:

  1. Smartbrief.com
  2. LinkedIn
  3. Twitter
  4. Punk Rock HR
  5. Fistful of Talent
  6. Facebook

    Most popular posts: (List posts seem to be very popular)

    1. 6 Tips for Developing Executive Presence
    2. 25 Web Resources to Help You Get Your LinkedIn Game On
    3. 10 Social Media Resources for Executive Job Search
    4. 10 People All Recruiters Should Follow on Twitter
    5. Searching for a Job? Don’t Call a Recruiter – Think Like a Recruiter
    6. What Are The Best Interview Questions to Identify Leadership Potential?

    People pondering these questions via search engines also ended up here:

    • “How long is a resamay?” Not sure about a resamay – but I’d suggest 2 pages for a Resume.
    • “How am I going to look when I’m 30?” I don’t know about you kid, but I looked fabulous. 😉
    • “What to do when a Recruiter calls?” Hmmm… I’m thinking you should answer the phone and say hello?
    • “How do you get a Recruiter to pay attention to you?” Be a legitimate match for a position we’re actively recruiting for. Oh, and be likeable. Recruiters are people too and that works with just about anyone.
    • “Who is the best Recruiter in the world?” Wow. I never cease to be amazed by the power of Google to help you find the exact answer your looking for.
    • “What are HR professionals saying to each other?” I think they’re talking about how much they like Recruiters… and how they want to learn how to effectively use Social Media in HR.
    • “Who are some famous business leaders that use charts and graphs and diagrams?” As mentioned above, I do love me some CG & D, but Texas billionaire/former Presidential candidate Ross Perot perfected the art. Note to self: Must get one of those voodoo sticks…
    • “What is a Coaching hat?” I don’t know. But I think I want one.
    • “I hate people and try to avoid interactions with them.” Dude…I don’t know if you’ll find much of what you’re looking for here in Cincy Recruiter’s World, but maybe you will on this blog.
    • “nofaultparadise” Not sure where this is, but to quote my fav Liz Lemon – “I want to go to there.”

    And finally, the gift that keeps on giving… at least 11 visitors who Googled phrases like “paddled + 3rd grade “, “paddled in high school” and the creepy “jenn + got + paddled + detention” ended up here thanks to this post. I can only hope that when they got here, they picked up a few helpful tips and strategies for recruiting, coaching, social media and talent development.

    Thanks to everyone that has participated in this journey thus far! If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll continue down the path with me and subscribe via email or RSS. I also hope you’ll add to the conversation on my posts by sharing your Comments. I really do want to hear from you!

    Unless you hate people and want to avoid interactions with them. Then you can pass…

    Categories: Blog, Blogging, Just For Fun
    Posted on July 27, 2009

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