#HR #RRHH Making love and making personal #branding #leadership

We all want to learn and grow. Improving our skills and being exposed to new ideas not only makes us better at our jobs but makes us happier and more engaged at work. But with a full-time job, it can be tough to find the time and resources to dedicate to personal development. Some people, like me, are lucky to work for companies that encourage and even fund classes, sabbaticals, or fellowships. But if you work for a company that doesn’t have an official policy, how can you make the case to your manager (and the necessary higher ups) to support you?'

Identify how you want to learn and grow. If you don’t yet have a clear picture of what you want to develop, spend time honing in on exactly what you need. Do you want to build your emotional intelligence skills to be a more attuned business leader? Are you interested in going on a yoga or meditation retreat? Set aside a specific period of time, such as one evening or even a week, to explore ideas and research what appeals to you. Write down what you want to learn and how you would grow from the experience you’ve identified. Research shows that the physical act of writing has a neurological effect on the brain which tells the cerebral cortex to “wake up and pay attention.” Writing stimulates a bunch of cells in the brain called the Reticular Activating System that plays a key role in being more conscious and alert. The more you can write down, the more aware and real your ideas become. 

So there’s one management trend that everyone seems to be jumping on board with. In fact, studies have shown that 92% of companies with more than 200 employees offer an employee wellness program. This isn’t just to say they’re helping their employees. (That’s just one positive effect.) They’re using these programs strategically for talent management.

As of yet, there’s not a concrete definition of a wellness program. It can be what the company makes of it. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), though, has broken out their statistics into different styles of employee wellness. What SHRM found suggests that a vast majority of management teams are adopting wellness as a business strategy.

If there's one thing all management experience has taught me, it's that feedback is one of the most important parts of the relationship between an employer and employee. It is also one of the most complicated--especially when it comes to critical feedback.

But constructive criticism is very much a necessary part of work life, so it needs to be handled well and in real-time.

Kim Scott's Radical Candor is a great way to think about delivering feedback that might not always be easy to hear, but is important nonetheless. Kim, a former Google and Apple executive, often points to an experience during her early days at Google when her then-boss Sheryl Sandberg told her she said "um" too often during an otherwise slam-dunk presentation. Sheryl was clear in her criticism and suggested Kim get a speech coach (at Google's expense) to address the issue. Here is a further explanation of why this works:

Not so long ago, the idea that an employee could connect anytime, anywhere, was seen as a revolution in work–life balance. You could get home in time for dinner or go on vacation even when a project was at a critical point. Your smartphone could turn wherever you were into your mobile office.

But now many believe this unlimited connectivity has gone too far. Studies have concluded that late-night smartphone use has an adverse effect on employee productivity and engagement. A growing number of companies, such as Volkswagen and Atos, have enacted email policies intended to mandate unplugging. An agreement in April 2014 between French employers and unions created an “obligation to disconnect” for contract workers to ensure that they don’t burn out, and Germany is currently considering legislation that would ban communication from employers to their workers after hours.