What I Talked About at The Drive Thru

Yesterday saw my first appearance on Bryan Wempen’s Drive Thru HR blog talk radio show. It was a wide ranging conversation covering everything from the Olympics to what topics am I so over.

If you’ve got some time then you can listen to the 30 minute show through this link. If you’re a bit time deficient then here’s what I was saying in a nutshell…

Get inspired, get determined, get good

Needless to say we started with chat about the Olympics. Luckily TeamGB had bagged a couple of gold medals earlier in the afternoon so I didn’t feel pressure under the weight of US gold medals. I talked about GBs first medal winner, Lizzie Armitstead, who won a silver cycling medal aged 23. What was so special about this? Well, she didn’t learn to ride a bicycle until she was 16. Her school got a visit from British Cycling’s Talent Team and it inspired her to take it up. Novice to silver Olympian in 7 years – shows what can happen when inspiration meets determination.

Before you go looking for new platforms get as good as you can be at the one’s you’re already using

Jay Kuhns posed a question on twitter in relation to my role as a social media manager – what did I see as the next platform after the ‘holy trinity’ (Bryan’s words) of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. I talked a bit about Google+ and how useful it was. I managed a shameless plug for this blog on Jobsite Insider in which my colleague Gary Elliott talks about the value of Google+. But then I did add that there was little point in looking for a new plaything if you haven’t mastered the ones you’ve already got. Too many businesses try to jump on new bandwagons before they’ve properly navigated the one they’re already riding. Get as good as you can be at the ‘Holy Trinity’.

Make it simple for people to get involved

I talked about an initiative that I was rolling out at work to encourage colleagues who are interested in finding out more about social media networks, how they can use them and how they can get started. I’ll write more about it in a future blog but suffice to say that my belief is you need to get your people comfortable about using it for themselves before you can ask them to use it for you. If you over encourage people to use the platforms before they are comfortable then they’ll use them badly. Continue reading “What I Talked About at The Drive Thru” →

What Keeps You Up at Night?

This Wednesday I’m making my debut on the excellent Drive Thru HR, a 30 minute daily blog talk radio show hosted by Bryan Wempen and William Tincup. They talk about Human Resources with a mix of professionals, practitioners, vendors and ‘thought leaders who support HR’ – an all-encompassing mix that ensures the conversation is lively, insightful and covers a wide ground.

The topic is always ‘about HR and whatever keeps you up at night’ – a question that helps ensure each discussion is personal and subjects don’t become repetitive. I’ve been thinking over what I want to talk about and I hope that I can contribute to a chat that keeps all Bryan and William’s listeners tuned in!

If you want to tune in and hear our discussion then click on this link at 6pm UK time, 12.00 CST US time

If you want to follow on twitter then the hashtag is #dthr

Whilst thinking over what I was going to talk about it did strike me that I do lie awake thinking about stuff quite a bit. I’ve always been a fairly light sleeper, but even allowing for that I do seem to lose anything up to an hour’s sleep some nights thinking about things, some arising from that day or evening. And I notice many people in my twitter timeline also talking about having had a restless night’s sleep.

Without touching on what I’ll talk about on Drive Thru HR there seem to be three main themes that fill my head at about 4am:

My son (hardly surprising…currently university applications, career choice and A-Levels – am I giving the right support, guidance and insight)
Elderly relatives (mainly my mum plus partner’s father who is in a care home but may be coming out soon – am I doing enough to help them)
Things I haven’t done (a regular theme! Can be work related, bills not paid, Oyster card not re-charged or other random stuff – yes, I am disorganised!)

I remember that my dad was always a worrier and often would be awake half the night…can’t think it’s hereditary though.

Anyone else care to share? Are you awake at night thinking about things – if so what? You never know…there may be a load of us awake thinking about the same stuff.

Please tune in on Wednesday at 6pm UK time to hear me chew the fat with Bryan and William – and also tune back in next Monday (6th August) when it’s the turn of my friend Doug Shaw to guest on the show and keep the flag flying for TeamGB!