5 Things I Learned During My SHRM Presidency

I’ve gained incredible leadership skills during my time as Colorado State University’s Society for Human Resource Management Chapter President. Our organization was incredibly small and uninvolved when I ran for president. After I was elected, I spent the whole summer leading up to the school year preparing to take charge of the society and put it on a focused and energetic path. I’ve learned so much leading this organization the past 8 months; gone from 5 uninvolved members (yes, I was one of them) to 35 innovative and passionate members who have built a strong and welcoming community. I’d love to share my knowledge with folks who may be jumping into a leadership position within their organization.

1.      It’s going to take time.

I’m not sure about you, but when I became president I envisioned right from the start a huge team working together; everyone contributing ideas, excited for what was to come. That wasn’t the case. In any group situation you have to work a lot harder than you expect to get officers depending on you and agreeing with what you have to say. SHRM didn't gain a huge support group overnight and several of the officers didn’t start out excited. It took our organization about 4 months and several one on one meetings with each officer for the team collaterally to expand in their roles and take ownership of their responsibilities. I feel like when we are really excited for things to happen we expect our members to start off as excited as we are and we become frustrated when the team isn’t performing the way we want them to. It takes time, dedication, energy, and the willingness to become someone your team can DEPEND on.

2. If you don’t have a vision and specific goals for your position and the group, you won’t go anywhere.

I don’t like absolutes, but it’s so true. Before I met with my officer team for our first SHRM meeting, I came up with two visions that I shared with the group. I wanted to positively impact and engage with every member who came into SHRM, and I wanted to lead the charge in creating a society that helps young professionals get ahead in their professional careers through resources and networking opportunities. I shared my vision with the team when we met, but I made the mistake of not asking them to share theirs as well. Make a point as the leader of your organization to ask everyone AT THE START what they vision and where they want to go within the organization. When you do that, your team will start to come together and people will connect. I blame myself for SHRM taking 4 months to come together and work towards incredible results. Had I asked that at the beginning, we may have collaborated more cohesively a little sooner in our time together.

3.      There IS such thing as too much.

Something I struggled with at the beginning of my presidency was getting SO excited that without realizing, I would shut other members down. I didn’t mean to turn ideas into “my idea or the highway”, but there were numerous occasions when I had to realize that as the leader, it was better for the group if I let them come to their own way of doing things even if it meant I had to stay quiet. When I stopped presenting the group with ideas and processes and started asking them for THEIR ideas, the group became less restrictive in sharing their thoughts and started working together to plan things. It can be a challenge for the enthusiastic and extroverted leaders to stay quiet, but when we don’t, we risk shutting out the internal processors in the group. We lose so many ideas.

4.      Respond to Feedback in a GOOD way.

You’re not doing things right if you’re not getting feedback and you’re not going ANYWHERE if you don’t ask for it. You’ll never win if you take feedback personally and use it as a wall to block out the people who work up the nerve to be candid with you. When you receive feedback from people that you want to take personally, step back and think about it from a logical perspective. Some questions I asked myself when I received feedback from members or outside professionals:

• Could this contribute towards improving the vision of SHRM?
• Is this something that could help me grow and positively impact my future?

If the feedback doesn’t push the team towards the vision of the group or help you personally, throw it into a little “don’t take it personally” bucket and stop putting energy into it.

People like to watch how leaders react to feedback because it shows a lot about them. You have an incredible chance to show how great of a leader you are when you are given feedback and your team is able to see you in a vulnerable position. Don’t do something that could cause your team to be afraid of you (did you blow up at the person giving the feedback or brush aside things that could have an awesome impact on the organization just because it bruises your pride? You won’t be seen as a strong and dependable person). Take that feedback and use your leadership strength to show it who is BOSS! You’ll only get stronger and your team will gain even more respect for you.

5.      If you’re doing things right, people are going to step up and might start to take over things you’ve been doing. 

Just a few weeks ago SHRM really picked up. When we came together for our second semester officer meeting; an incredible thing happened. After all the hours meeting with each officer, weekly coffee meetings with mentors and advisors, reading up on leadership, being open to feedback, trying to create an environment I knew someone like me would be attracted to (PHEW), my team executed an INCREDIBLY successful meeting. Each officer was giving ideas, feedback, viewpoints, LAUGHING, sharing inside jokes, coming together with innovative decisions. I remember feeling a little uncomfortable with the feeling knowing that they were starting to steer the group in a new direction; but the feeling faded away when I REALIZED that the reason they were stepping up and taking over was because they finally embraced each other and believed in our vision. They were comfortable taking the lead on projects and making them their own because I was sprinkling that onto them from the start! I was trying to plant seed and without realizing, the seeds had grown into trees wiser than me!

 It was tough at first to let go of my baby organization and let it steer in a direction determined by all the officers and not just myself, but the feeling changed when I realized it was time for me to pass on all the good feelings that came from growth and accomplishment onto my members for them to carry the same feelings on for years to come.

If you work the 5 ideas from above into your organizations like how I’ve aligned them into mine, you’ll see incredible things slowly (but surely!) spread through your group.

I’d love to hear your leadership story below!

I dedicate this article to all the strong leaders I’ve crossed paths with, the bright personalities who've helped me push through the tired days, the welcoming ears who have listened to me, and the friends who have given me life changing feedback.