During my networking at the NAWBO business fair I met Dr. Sharon Kerrick, Dean of the Business School at Bellarmine University.  She invited me to their free seminars for students and business owners.  I must say it is nice to attend a lecture and take notes and not be worried about a test.  (Been there, done that.)  It allows for great networking and learning what is new in the business world.

Susan Cameron – First Female CEO of Reynold Cooperation:  Advice to women in business

I attended one of these sessions when they introduced Susan Cameron the first Female CEO of Reynolds Cooperation. She provided an interesting history of how she moved up the ladder in a man’s world by starting in consumer marketing.  She then proceeded to illustrate her thoughts on Secrets to Success.  I have summarized them below:

• Jump on a new opportunity – take a chance you can always go home
• Love what you do and find the right cultural fit for you
• You need to find mentors so you can learn from others – you can also learn what not to do from your tormentors or bad managers
• It is all about your team – you can’t do it yourself – build a team to complement your strengths (know your strengths and weakness -Mend the Gap) – learn how to delegate
• The team needs to be full inclusion of diversity
• Must have the ability to prioritize and focus on the top 4 things
• Have to operate in the Grey – not all black and white
• Need to have the experience and calculate the risk and learn from your team then make the decision
• Follow the Golden Rule
• Business can’t stand still – change is hard but make it transparent to all

She also provided a perspective on Women Leaders and Men Leaders.  She felt Women are more culturally aware and value the employee relationships while men are better at conflict and getting the job done and moving on. Woman feel they have to be 150% ready to accept the promotion and while Men are comfortable accepting if they’re 70% ready. Woman have to learn let go and just go for it.  Great advice.

Dealing with Mental Illness in the Workplace

I have joined the Louisville Chapter of SHRM – Society of Human Resource Managers. I attended one of their monthly meetings recently with the Topic of Dealing with Mental Illness and the ADA-Americans with Disabilities Act.

I have had a lot of training on making accommodations for those with disabilities but not when it comes to Mental Illness. The speaker, Kelley Gannon, COO of Centerstone Kentucky, indicated we really needed to understand mental illness before we can think about making accommodations.

Everyone has mental health and bad mental health days but Mental Illness is a Chronic disease, meaning it is ongoing.  Some examples include hallucinations, delusion, extreme sadness, ongoing anxiety, Bipolar disease, etc.

HR professionals are not required to diagnose employees but to be aware of the symptoms (different appearance, mood, etc.) and reach out to those who can help such as your counselors from EAP-Employee Assistance Programs.

Ms. Gannon suggested some of the following steps to address employees with mental illness:

• Soft and slow voice – calm voice ( I can’t listen when you yell)
• Make eye contact
• Simple and short questions
• Keep them focused on the issue
• Be Transparent
• Reflect by saying it seems like, so you think, sounds like, etc

Non- Helpful responses are:

• “I know how you feel”
• Don’t intrude into their personal space – in fact double the space
• Don’t give flippant responses like “don’t worry”
• Don’t disrespect them – give them respect
• Don’t tell them their issue is not valid

She also indicated these employees can be needy and may want to talk to you often so you might need to set limits. For example, tell them “I only have 5 minutes to give you today” and ask them to address these three questions

1. What is the purpose of your call – how can I help?
2. What is the most important thing you need me to know right now?
3. How can I help with that most important thing /concern right now?

Of course, every case of mental illness is different and each case may need different accommodations. So, seek expert advice on mental illness, employment attorney’s related to ADA regulations and places like Job Accommodation Network-JAN or Center of Accessible Living

I attended the KY Chapter of IPMA-HR (International Public Management Association for HR) Fall Development and Training Conference at Claudia Sanders Dinner House (Wife of Colonel Sanders from KFC).  In addition to awards programs, and state updates we had a number of speakers.

One session was called What Flavor of Ice Cream are You?  This was personality test which placed people as either Chocolate-Traditional, or Vanilla – Participative, or Strawberry – Individualist.  Most people were a combination which the speaker called Neapolitan World which is good since we need all kinds to get the work done.  See below for the strengths of each flavor

The Second major speaker was Karim Ellis of Empowered Education.  His speech was called Game time – How to create Massive Success before you Roll the Dice!  He used board games from our childhood to demonstrate his points, it was very entertaining since members of the audience had opportunities to play the games as part of the illustrations.  He then summarized his thought into the following guidelines:

• Know your gifts/talents – put the right plan in to place for those talents and plant that seed
• What is the right environment for your gifts
• Strategically Connect to People – 50% is what you know and 50% is who you know
• Don’t wait get started now- Don’t let time run out- Take Action
• Law of Attraction – think it – vision it – strategically focus on the vision – Check Mate

Learning about KY Employee handbooks, drones, opioid crisis while renewing acquaintances.

In addition to the opening speakers at the KLC-Kentucky League of Cities Conference, I attended a number of breakout sessions. The first one was on how to develop an employee handbook for municipalities/Cities (all municipalities in KY are call cities no matter what size).

Most of the rules were the same except for the open carry laws in KY that allow employees to bring weapons to work or leave them in their personal car except on school property.

They did emphasise that during orientation, new employees should be trained about the employee handbooks which covers many of the City Policies.  For more information on onboarding and orientation see my blog at https://randifrank.com/category/hr-tips-techniques/tips-on-orientation-onboarding/ .

At the conference, I also learned about ordinances dealing with drones and new programs to address the opioid crisis. The City of Jefferesontown has a great process called Angel Program that allows people to come to the police for help and not be arrested if they follow certain rules.  This is based on a program started in Gloucester, MA.

At the end of the evening the KCCMA (KY City Manager Association) members met for dinner and drinks at a local Brewery to mingle.  I was able to meet up with a colleague David Johnson, the new City Manager of Covington, KY. David and I met when he was a candidate for one of the Town Manager searches I did in the past.

He was so complimentary about my services and abilities when he was talking to the other KY City Managers.  It was unsolicited praise but very appreciated. He did not get the position I was working on at the time but he talked about how I kept him informed about all the processes of the search and shared so much about the positives and negatives of the position to make sure it was a good fit.