I’m not exactly sure if there is value in establishing resolutions each year, but I do it anyway.  I guess I am a creature of habit.

Just the other day, a long time EO List member, in fact, someone who has been a part of this for eleven years, called me to ask for my advice about whether to take a job offer.  The role focuses on an entirely different area of HR.  She was feeling a bit pigeon-holed in her current job, despite making it all the way to a Director level.  The new role would focus away from labour relations and more into benefits and disability management.

My immediate response was, “Are you crazy”?  After all, right now those with labour relations experience are highly sought after.  She then made a comment that surprised me but she was right.  She said, “I don’t think you know what it is like to be a specialist.  Your work takes you in so many directions, and you can manage so many different types of work, you don’t know what it is like when there are limits to what you are allowed to do”. 

In fairness, while I do get involved in a pretty broad spectrum of HR work, I do set limits as there are things I do not know well enough to do.  But that said, yes, I get the privilege of being involved in all kinds of work in lots of places around the world.

But, I am a creature of habit.

Most of my team and the individuals I interact with are people I’ve known for a long time.

I’ve been Managing Director at The Employers’ Choice for eight years (on January 1^st).

I’ve been teaching at Sheridan for nearly eleven years.

I’ve been plugging away at The EO List for more than eleven years.

My husband is my teenage sweetheart, and my dog is nine now (and I haven’t kicked her out). 

A few weeks ago, I was talking to one of my staff members on my cell phone (hands-free, I promise), and I stopped at Tim Horton’s to get a large steeped tea and a double chocolate donut, and she said, “do you know that you always order the same thing every time you are on the phone with me going through the drive-thru”?

I don’t think I’m staid.  Having a good foundation has allowed me to be out there and to look for opportunities to be innovative.  For those that have moved around a lot in their career, there may be a lesson here that sometimes when you stay on, you do get chances to find opportunities within.

My New Year’s resolution is to break some habits.  No, I’m not going to go and do something crazy, but I am going to work on not being so predictable.  I’m not even sure which habits I should break, except the amount of cheese I consume. 

I think I might have started this resolution earlier than the New Year as we’ve already done so much with The EO List in the past two months.  

Let’s see where this goes.