I am a proud and unabashed ABBA fan!!

Seriously.

Dont stop reading this post.

One of my favorite ABBA songs is Take a Chance on Me. It reminds me of a CEO who took a chance on me and gave me my first real shot in HR back in the late 80s. I had just left a Fortune 100 company and had little holistic HR experience because the company I was at allowed me to do very little. When I applied through a small 1 x 1 newspaper ad, I didnt know that my HR career was about to really take off.

He said he hired me because during the interview I answered questions with I dont
know !! He thought that if I was honest with him, that he could teach me what I needed to do at his company. He left me with one gem that I havent forgotten since when practicing HR. He said,

 “Steve, the only reason you’re here is my people. Nothing comes before them.”

Now, here I am some 20+ years later and still in HR!! I am thankful that this CEO took a chance on me and it made me think of HR today.

Are you taking a chance on new HR people? I just got back from a phenomenal SHRM Leadership Conference and the worn out subject of how do we reach Sr. HR people reared its ugly head yet again. As a Sr. HR person myself, I want to throw this out to others like me – why dont WE do the reaching out ??

Why arent we the ones connecting with new HR people and sharing our knowledge and experience? Why arent we taking notice of the amazing things they bring to the table and see how we can learn from them?

When did our time in the profession earn us the right to not lead the profession, but wait for the profession to cater to us?

When Buzz asked me to guest post, I was tickled because shes relatively new to HR and I’m … not so new. However, I see her work and love it along with other new voices in HR. I am constantly learning from newer HR professionals and I appreciate their energy and zeal. I also value that the newest generation to the workforce questions things. It doesnt annoy me or wish for days gone by when you were supposed to just shut up and do what youre told.

You see I dont want to be the person who reminisces about the fond days of Personnel and Industrial Relations. I want to take a chance and risk all that I know and have done to dive ahead and see what will happen next.

The CEO who took a chance on me opened a door. Who will you open a door for yourself ??

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Steve Browne, SPHR, is the Executive Director of Human Resources for LaRosas, Inc., a regional pizzeria restaurant chain in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana with 18 locations and over 1,400 team members. Steve has been an HR professional for more than 20 years in the manufacturing, consumer products, and professional services industries. He also facilitates a monthly HR Roundtable in Cincinnati and runs an Internet message board for HR pros that reaches 6,000+ people globally on a weekly basis.

Steve truly walks the talk he speaks of in this post! Just a few weeks after The Buzz launched, he reached out to me to invite me to join his message board and featured my blog as a must-read. This caused a huge increase in my readership and subscribers that I know would not have otherwise seen. He continues to encourage and look out for me. His support is invaluable!

And Steve inspires me each week with thoughtful and challenging writings on his blog, Everyday People. Connect with him and read more at www.sbrownehr.com