My Kind of Practice

Today is the HR Professionals day and I didn’t even know that we had a day that dedicated to HR. So let me tell you what I do on a day to day for job and career Many a time, the human resources practitioners job is thankless but my kind of practice is full of gratitude. With Healthcare HR, I support, lead and groom a community of the most inventive teams the world has witnessed so far. We recognize that they offer care for a whole person which usually means sitting with families and listening to their heart breaking stories as they monitor heartbeats, diagnose and treat. These dedicated men and women potentially impact lives in ways that make families remember them for years to come. While it is easy to get bogged down by the craziness of the Hospital HR operations, I don’t do it at the expense of truly appreciating the incredible privilege I have been given to serve. As maddening as it may be to frame human resources for healthcare as a practice that is exceptional from all others, there are many dynamics that make this valid. Don’t get me wrong, best HR practices from other industries can provide inspiration for healthcare HR leaders, especially as they look for ways to optimize value-based care. Healthcare is essentially the one service industry in which consumers don’t make normal consumption choices and when withheld or denied, could potentially result in death. That may be the largest differentiator of any and it makes my contribution to this chain so important. Arguably, the most important of the health system inputs, the performance and the benefits the system can deliver depend largely upon the knowledge, skills and motivation of those individuals responsible for delivering health services.  My every day job is managing […]

Dress Code and Success

Its 6:00AM on Monday morning, and I feel so fired up because I love Monday even though it is a big enemy to most of my peers who always seem to have glamorous filled weekends. I have learned to say goodbye to the bliss of my happy moments and to welcome new beginnings, which usually start on Monday mornings with goals for the week and plans for weekend and I am going to dress up my mood and show off the mental enthusiasm because I am bold and confident. I grew up in the hills of Kisoro-Uganda, therefore dressing up was not influential to my success as a child. So, I constantly assumed that style and dressing to impress is not for me.  Fortunately, most of my friends are so natural at fashion and I always thought that they tried too hard and that success had nothing to do with me wearing a power suit to an interview.  I vividly remember my ill-fitting black coat that I used for interviews after University and yes, I did not get any of the jobs I wanted. I was aspiring to be a manager but dressed like I had just arrived from Virunga. What is intriguing is that style is sometimes the only difference between the managers and their subordinates. They hire the masterminds to do all the donkey work and dress up for meetings to present the work , which is where the big bucks are made and its always clear to the recipient who the leaders are, from first impression. First impression by definition is instant and that means that it takes seconds for a complete stranger to formulate a positive or negative opinion of you based on your appearance alone. I am not in any way saying that wearing suits, […]

Sting of Mediocrity

Anytime you place yourself out of your comfort zone, is when you truly start to live and experience life for what it is. If you’re having thoughts about leaving your corporate job I suggest you just do it, chances are you’re probably not fully content if you’re thinking your options. Leaving a job before getting another can be such a stressful decision and finding the courage within to break through that barrier is even harder. Leaving the comfort, the opportunities, the money and the recognition is not an easy task at all but you know that you’re ready to walk when resentment becomes part of the job. Unsurprisingly, like most of us, I have always wanted to do the responsible thing, which is strength for hard times, thick skin for office politics and job security. I am in the field of Human Resources and that means that in many ways I am responsible for making everyone’s experience at the work place positive and enjoyable. Asking for who would be responsible for mine is a paradox! Nonetheless, I liked my job, my bosses, most of my co-workers and the money. I liked the challenges and liked learning. Deeper still, I believed in the vision. All this was not enough, each passing day, year after year, I continued to numb my mind and my heart with a work environment that did not fulfill me.  At this workplace bullies ruled the roost, there was evident loss of human touch, fixed minds and creeping beauracy but for my age, I had achieved so much, in so little time and I felt indebted. I was your GIRL ON TOP, I loved the hell I was in and earned every promotion. Ignorance is bliss, or so we are told which is true for my case because up […]