It is 10am and you have already completed a solid three hours at the office. You know it will be a long day and you will likely only complete a third of all you need to do. The ping of emails has become your constant companion.
As you reflect upon the week ahead, the state of the economy, and that recent difficult conversation, a moment of fear, mixed with overwhelm washes over you. “How will I make all of this work?” You realize you are simply exhausted.
At that moment, you receive notice from HR regarding a Two-Day Development Event. In disbelief, you again begin talking to yourself – this time out loud,
“They must be kidding. Who can attend training at a time like this? They truly have no idea what I am up against. I will just have to get out of it.”
If the above scenario is the reality of so many senior leaders (and I propose that it is), how do you as a human resource professional convince the boss to actively engage in the development initiatives you believe are critical to her and your organization’s long term success? This is an important question, and one that perhaps Marshall McLuhan unknowingly answered in 1964 when he coined the phrase, “The medium is the message”.
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