HR Star: Lisa Rosendahl

The last person to be featured in this series (but certainly not least) is Lisa Rosendahl. I’ve gotten to know her over the past couple of years and it continues to be a testament to the real power of social media: connecting people who wouldn’t have connected otherwise. Now I can imagine that I would have chance encounters with a lot of people who I consider friends in the industry without social media but how would I have connected with an HR director working for the VA in St. Cloud, Minnesota?

Like most of the people I’ve met in the Midwest, Rosendahl has always been kind, willing to help out and when necessary, give honest feedback about projects or hot topics in the industry. Her thoughtfulness online is reflected in her real life personality as well (and that, as weird as it sounds, is refreshing).

Army Officer to HR Pro

After a biology degree and a ten year stint in the US Army where she served as an officer for a decade, Rosendahl was looking at getting a job in what she had trained in: supply logistics. She was interviewing for a logistics position at a paper company when they asked her if she would be interested in an HR position instead. “I said no, the idea of sitting in a room processing pay changes wasn’t all that exciting to me,” said Rosendahl. The paper company wouldn’t take no for an answer and gave her a shot at the HR position anyway. “After spending a week with a real life HR/OD department at one of their paper mills, I was hooked,” she said. “I took the job and never looked back.”

After HR roles at several organizations, she settled into an HR Director role with the VA Medical Center in St. Cloud for the last seven years. It seems appropriate to me that she has returned to serve the country in a slightly different capacity. Her passionate take on leadership and finding ways to make things work within the framework of the federal government is nothing to cough at either. Her ability to advise leadership is helped by her strength of technical knowledge. “I have my junior lawyer card right here somewhere,” she says half jokingly. “But to be able to advise leadership or brainstorm about courses of action and to know what the heck I am talking about. It’s my credibility at stake.”

Women of HR, MN SHRM and Thought Leadership

One of the interesting things I’ve had the opportunity to see Rosendahl’s work is with the Women of HR blog. Through my small involvement with the site, I’ve seen the type of effort she puts into her role as Editor-in-chief. “Women of HR is the labor of love at the moment,” she said. “We have the beginnings of something powerful here and we are only just touching on the value of the site.” What’s been amazing to me has been the amount of new voices they’ve pulled out of the shadows. The founders of the site have built a powerful community but the content mix along with the editing of blogging newbies has to be incredibly important to the growth of the site.

She is also involved in the planning committee for MN SHRM 2011. Like many state conference organizers I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to, Rosendahl says that they are grappling with how to present social media use to the diverse group of HR pros there. She says they are working on a track that will devote significant time to the topic.

And speaking of social media use, Rosendahl is a great example of a person who has harnessed this powerful medium. The writing on her blog Simply Lisa is what initially attracted me to get to know her better. And when she doesn’t have time to blog, you can find her dispensing little nuggets of wisdom on Twitter. If you get the opportunity to talk to her, ask her how her nine year old is negotiating a trip to Paris. I’m hoping to use the same tactic to negotiate a trip to Hawaii late next year.

The HR Stars Series is sponsored by Rypple, social software that makes feedback easy and fun. Our software is built around people, not process, which means teams actually get things done. Managers don’t waste time. People get the useful feedback that they want. Teams stay on track, learn and adapt faster, and get recognized for great work. Learn more at http://rypple.com.