I Didn't Mean to Write a Book!

by Stephanie Goddard
(Raleigh, NC)

As a human resources professional in a typical office setting, I find that I repeat the same conversation, with different employees, over and over again.

Whether you are in HR or some other corporate function, this is probably true for you as well. We tend to be asked for advice in the areas where we excel or have formal authority. In my case, I was asked about interpersonal issues like conflict resolution, motivation, work stress and career pathing. Over time, I found it effective, but not EFFICIENT to keep having the same conversations one-on-one. To streamline my energy (and my calendar), I decided to start sending summaries of these conversations to my internal co-workers.

Essentially, I sent out an "article" that provided an overview in very general terms about a trend I was hearing about or a problem that seemed common, and then provided my solution or advice. Over time, my "distro" became packed with almost 800 employees voluntarily receiving my twice-a-month (or so) articles.

Over a five year period, I had amassed over 85 articles on workplace communications and work stress. I decided at that point to put them all in a book and to try and get them published. I learned about proposals and agents and royalties along the way (as well as rejection), but ultimately, the book "101 Ways to Love Your Job" is published as of this writing.

But what I want to emphasize here is not my publishing success, but the fact that I didn't go into the creation of those articles with the intention of getting published, or to impress my bosses, or to even get a promotion. In fact, it wasn't even part of my job description and I had to get permission first! My point in this personal success story is to urge you to do what's right in your current circumstances, whether you get paid (or praised) or not. Do what benefits more people than just you, or just a few. Stretch to create original ways to make things better...without expectation of payment.

You may be surprised what comes of making someone else's day better.