Sleep on Disruption

Michelle Todzy is the VP of HR for Trudell Trailors where she basically does it all – from managing payroll to doing merger integration work. I like HR pros who are willing to get their hands dirty. Michelle has dirt permanently under her fingernails and I, therefore, like Michelle.  I love her message today: sleep on it. Check it and then check Michelle (@MichelleTodzy).

A few weeks ago after a long, relaxing holiday weekend extended by a vacation day to send my two lovely children off to their first day of school, I was greeted not only by an inbox full of emails but also the unexpected (although not surprising) resignation of my one and only direct report.  While my brain was thinking “Oh crap, not heading into Open Enrollment!” the rest of me managed to smile, congratulate her on her new role and let her know I’d follow up with a transition plan after talking with a few others on the leadership team.

I instantly (and somewhat frantically) set about trying to figure out how I was going to replace her. Simple, right? Find someone like her and move on. But then I followed some advice I dispense to hiring managers all the time – I took 24 hours to think about and sleep on my plan for moving forward. I let it marinate for a while. And then I met with my boss. We laid it all out, took a step back, opened our eyes, and realized we had a real opportunity to take this open position in a new direction. It actually made sense. And now I’m really excited about the future of HR in my Company.

The recruiting process went quickly and within three weeks of receiving my Coordinator’s notice we had an accepted offer from someone thrilled to be joining our team.  It was the right candidate, but more importantly it was the right role. And all because we refused to let disruption disrupt.