One thing I’ve learned in the years since moving from the congested suburbs of Maryland to the backwoods of Tennessee is the need for forest management. The home and land we bought came with lower property taxes provided we perform regular agricultural activities. Since I’ve never been, and never intend to be a farmer, we’ve opted for forest management. With 26 acres of trees, this proves to be a lot of work.
The key to forest management is to regularly remove either old-growth trees or smaller trees to free up soil and access to the sun for young and mid-life trees. If a forest is too crowded, the trees won’t be able to fully develop and may have shorter lifespans. Recently, I hired a guy to do some clearing and it made me think about life as an HR professional.
As an HR professional, you spend a good amount of your day getting things done. Most of it could be crisis management with the other part being returning emails and sitting in endless meetings. That leaves you little room for any professional growth activities. Just like the crowded forest, you’ll never grow, and will actually regress, if you don’t build in some time for yourself.
How do we do it?
First, remove the old growth. This is another word for DELEGATION! What are some tasks that you SHOULDN’T be doing but DO ANYWAY? Delegate them away. And, get over the excuses:
- It’s faster to do it myself
- My boss wants me to do it
- The customer wants me to do it
- It takes too long to train someone
- If they screw it up, I’ll get blamed and have to do it anyway.
Yes, these are all common excuses. I’ve made nearly all of them myself but until I finally started delegating them, my business didn’t grow. High risk yes, but high reward also!
Then, when there is some space in your day, start growing!
- Listen to podcasts (we recommend HR Oxygen!)
- Read books (check out my books HERE!)
- Take some classes (we offer HRCI and SHRM-credit Webinars!)
You’re never going to be fully successful until you grow professionally. You’ll never grow professionally if you don’t create some space. Get busy growing!