You'll Never See Me Dance

One of the most key traits that a leader (and more importantly, and HR goober like me) can have is the ability to be unflappable in all instances.

I developed this trait into a gift from Heaven during the Army when I had several superiors that felt it was a great leadership move to berate me in front of my subordinates. I was known as the Captain who was take a severe a$$ chewing from the Major, and just reply with "huh...roger sir". To the point where my boss would look like his brain is going to fire out both ears, I look as though I was attending a lecture on astrophysics in the front row.

Now being in the land of civilians, this "unflappable" trait has drastically retooled itself into something different. In HR, you still have to keep your professional guard up. I make it a point not to gossip, not to swear, and never to discuss politics, money, and religion. I've had a couple employees get upset in my direct (as I am the messenger), but nothing I couldn't easy shrug off.

Where I test my unflap the most is when I get to slam dunk an employee (or ex-employee) when they attempt to either go against Company policy, or even better, attempt to tell me I'm doing my job wrong.

There has been more then one instance where I've had the opportunity to absolutely embarrass someone who has told me I was wrong to the point they'd question their existence as a human, but sadly, this is where I have to take comfort in the fact that I won and let them bow out graceful.....

...then go to my office, shut the door, and yell "who's your daddy!" as I hump the air repeatedly.