• Columnists

Barbara Mitchell, "The Essential HR Handbook"

COLUMN = HIRING + HUMAN RESOURCES

Barbara Mitchell is a human resources and organization development consultant who is an expert in the areas of recruitment and retention. She has experience in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors and has consulted to a variety of organizations around the world.

She served in senior human resources leadership positions with Marriott International and several technology firms in the Washington, DC, area before co-founding the Millennium Group International, LLC (TMG) in 1998, which she sold in 2008.

She recently served on the Society of Human Resource Management’s Special Expert Panel on Consulting and Outsourcing in recognition of her expertise and long service to the HR profession. Barbara is a graduate of North Park University, Chicago, IL, with a degree in History and Political Science and has taken graduate-level courses at UCLA. Contact Barbara by email.

ABOUT THE ESSENTIAL HR HANDBOOK

This 250-page reference guide, published in the fall of 2008 by Career Press, is a must-have for everyone who deals with employees on a daily basis, believe Mitchell and Sharon Armstrong, who wrote the book to shed light on the issues that keep managers up at night.

With this easy-to-read paperback, you’ll learn how to effectively and efficiently:
• Individually manage each employee, starting on his or her first day.
• Manage a multi-generational workforce.
• Appraise job performance.
• Coach and counsel.
• Provide equitable pay, benefits, and total-rewards strategies.
• Minimize legal risk.

WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING

“Finally, a complete, clear, and concise book that covers every essential element of that mix of art and science we call HR. It’s 100% applicable to the real-world challenges faced by today’s HR manager or business owner.” — Joe Calloway, author of Work Like You’re Showing Off.

“This should be required reading for all owners of growing businesses and new managers launching their careers. Seasoned HR professionals will also find value in this quick guide to the essentials of managing people.” — Stephen J. O’Connor, senior director of staffing, ESPN Inc.

“This book is easy to use, and full of solid advice and information from diversity to interviews to legal issues. If you are an HR professional, you should have this book at the ready every day.” — Chester Elton, co-author of The Carrot Principle.

Your own words are the bricks and mortar
of the dreams you want to realize.
 The words you choose and their use establish the life you experience.”

– Sonia Croquette

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

– William Shakespeare

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try going to sleep with a mosquito in your room.”

– A wisdomism

This is the age when magical technologies make more and more radically fun ideas plausible, even easy. You’re only limited by your creativity.”

– Martha Beck

Do you have the desire to create something new; the strength of conviction to believe your creation will be successful, and the reservoir of energy necessary to thrust it into the marketplace?”

– Steven Schussler

Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”

– E.B. White

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

You’ve got to be willing to crash and burn. If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.”

– Steve Jobs

You must learn to be still in the midst of activity 
and to be vibrantly alive in repose.”

– Indira Ghandi

Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

– John Quincy Adams

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”

– Mary Kay Ash

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens?
 A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

– Erica Jong

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”

– Buddha

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

– Robert Frost

Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leon Joseph Suenens

The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

No longer talk at all about the kind of man a good man ought to be, but be such.”

– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

You may ask me for anything you like except time.”

– Napoleon

A person who learns to juggle six balls will be more skilled than the person who never tries to juggle more than three.”

– Marilyn vos Savant

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing.”

– Maya Angelou

We never know how high we are
 till we are called to rise;
 And then, if we are true to plan,
 Our statures touch the skies.”

– Emily Dickinson

Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what nurtures creative thinking.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.”

– Charles Dickens

My task is really not to change myself but to become familiar with who I am.”

– Maureen Cook

We are perfectionists. We are hungry to work all the time. We are entertained by every aspect of business and we never want to stop working.”

– Suzy Welch

Confidence is the most important thing you can teach someone… if you can teach them confidence, you don’t have to teach them anything else.”

– Vin Diesel

Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.”

– Anthony Trollope

To find what you seek in the road of life, leave no stone unturned.”

– Edward Bulwer Lytton

If you were independently wealthy and never had to work a day in your life, would you still choose to spend your time attempting to become a successful entrepreneur?”

– Steven Schussler

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

Almost anyone can start a community, but it takes real talent and commitment to get people to show up and keep coming back.”

– Andy Sernovitz

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

Entrepreneurs are willing to roll the dice with their money or reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise.”

– Victor Kiam

The best hobbies are the ones that take us furthest from our primary occupation.”

– Dr. Evelyn Vogel, Dexter

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.”

– Francesca Reigle

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

– Audre Lorde

We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.”

– Winston Churchill

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

– Bruce Lee

I don’t do very well without fear. There needs to be a part of me saying, ‘That’s going to fail,’ so I can prove myself wrong.”

– Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe

If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.”

– Ajahn Chah

The goal of Life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.”

– Joseph Cambell

Don’t wait for someone else to lead you to your right life; that privilege—and responsibility—is yours alone.”

– Martha Beck

History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.”

– John F. Kennedy

That which grows fast withers as rapidly; that which grows slowly endures.”

– J.G. Holland, novelist

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow know what you truly want to become.”

– Steve Jobs

You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

– Winston Churchill