Leaders get the HR Teams they deserve!
CEO’s face it! Your HR team is just a reflection of your leadership style. If your HR team isn’t performing well, take a look at your own strengths and weaknesses and how they drive the way that your HR Team works. You have the power to change and improve both.
The relationship between the HRD and the CEO is a crucial one when driving business growth, as so many of you are right now. In addition, if your growth plan requires extra talent then HR becomes a strategic heavyweight in attracting and retaining the best people. Is it time to look at some home truths?
Brave HR?
It’s a rule of thumb, but my experience is that Brave HR Leaders tend to align themselves to CEOs who want growth, are prepared to make tough decisions, transform the business, drive efficiency, quality and productivity through their people.
On the other hand, I’ve met Leaders who are just keeping the business ticking over, so that’s the way their HR Team behaves. You see, Brave HR don’t normally choose to work in a “Tick Over” company. It would be uncomfortable, unchallenging………boring! Are you attracting the right type of HR professional to your business?
Communicative HR?
The very best CEOs and Leaders recognise that their HR Team know just how to engage the hearts and minds of their people. One fabulous Leader that I know was quick to help me draw up a communication plan when he first took on the role. As part of this, he attended every staff forum with me for the 2 years he was in his role (before being promoted yet again). The forum was a fundamental channel of communication for the business turnaround we were running. He was committed to ensuring that his people got the right message about the reasons for the change. It worked, and the business went back into profit. Despite a complex change programme, in the annual staff survey, employees rated the HR service to the business as good.
His successor was most put out at the thought of attending the forum and he turned up at only one during his time in office. He simply did not see it as his duty to display support for what HR were trying to achieve, so HR continued to run the forum without the CEO. The communication plan that was once owned by the top Leadership Team became the sole responsibility of HR. Attrition soared under his leadership, good people left to go to competitors, discontent ruled but guess what? HR got the blame for not being communicative.
Emotionally Intelligent HR?
The best Leaders I have worked with are “emotionally intelligent” and although they are just as focused on the numbers as their less people-orientated peers, they are also quick to consider how their actions will land with the workforce. When making decisions, they recognise that everyone in the business is wired differently, that they come from differing backgrounds, cultures and experiences and that some like change and some get really frightened by the thought of it.
The best Leaders adapt their thinking to take account of these differences and are not surprised when I say I want to find out and document the learning style of each and every member of the workforce so that we know how the majority of our people like to receive information. Indeed, the best Leaders actively demand that information as standard – they insist on an “emotionally intelligent” HR Team.
If you are going into change or growth then you will require an HR team who can support your strategic plans and, equally, your HR Team needs your engagement and backing too.
Antonio Gramasci pointed out, “The collective workforce of an enterprise is also a “machine” which cannot, without considerable loss, be taken to pieces too often and renewed with single new parts.”
Do yourself a favour; get some Brave and Savvy HR on your leadership team who will help you navigate the complexities of your workforce
If you want to build a Brave HR team, speak to Ruth. She is the owner of The Change Directors and helps businesses to grow through their people. She has built many brave HR teams who have helped to transform firms or drive growth.
