Blog...

HR needs to take the initiative

October 5th, 2009

HR must take the initiative

Following on from my previous post, I notice that Douglas Ready warns (from research of 40 companies worldwide) that ‘a large proportion of the HR professionals said that they were worried that the progress made in leadership development and talent management … might be wiped out as a result of excessive short-term thinking and non-strategic cost cutting‘.

He too is concerned that this is evidence that many senior executives still see talent management and leadership development as activities for ‘good times only’. He also is concerned that HR is not playing the role it should – or could – to champion the business case for ongoing leadership development for the future.

HR of course is closely involved in delivering HR services to the business. And indeed, these services are always stretched at times of change and restructuring. But just as leadership generally needs to manage the short term and the long term, so too HR Directors need to step up to the mark and deliver their equally essential mission of delivering appropriate talent for the business both today and tomorrow.

Clevers and Smarts

September 28th, 2009

I’ve just been reading the article by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones on ‘How to harness the special talents of clever people’, Management Today September 2009 . They add their voices to others who warn that there are organisational challenges in these difficult times  that will be critical for success in the future, which have to be attended to.

This is the retention, management and leadership, of talent. Headcount reduction, cost cuttings, reorganisations have already led to a significant loss of organisational knowledge and wisdom. It’s evident that a critical focus of the organisation has to be survival today – but it cannot be at the cost of the leadership health of the company in the future.

It is critical that today’s leaders continue to create, protect and provide the enabling, flexible, challenging and adaptable environment that enables talent – especially ‘the Clevers’ – to flourish. Do read this article – it gives some useful guidelines on how to lead and get the best out these talented, clever people. If all you provide is a siege mentality they will respond by taking their talents elsewhere. You can’t afford to lose them. Because how will you replace them?

Hiring is down. Training and development budgets have to be justified in terms of immediate return on investment. Many graduate trainee programmes have been shelved or postponed. So protect and develop the talents and leadership you already have.

Reading this article also reminded me of the complementary and fundamental challenge that we are engaged in – actually ensuring that leaders do develop and learn. This was expounded so well in the seminal work of Chris Argyris published in the Harvard Business Review in 1991 ‘Teaching Smart People how to Learn’. While Goffee and Jones show us that organisations need to combine a demonstration of high affinity/empathy for the Clevers with clear discipline, we have to make sure that we are also providing a learning environment where talented people are encouraged to admit to uncertainty and failure and to learn to learn from it. Then we will be ready for the future upturn.

What a sorry state to be in

June 15th, 2009

In business and in politics, if there is a problem, you have to do something about it. Good leaders have either to develop Talent, or not be afraid of getting rid of poor performers and rotten wood. Unless you have Talent you can’t pursue effectively your aims and objectives or your strategic intent.

What Cameron has begun to understand, and where he has started to take action, is around some of the issues of Talent and Organisation. He has decided what needs to be done and is doing it. Brown is doing the reverse – eg he is living with incompetence. When this happens  the rot seeps into other parts of the triangle.

In terms of Organisation – how things are done – Cameron has already begun to describe that in a way that Brown hasn’t started to yet. Cameron is saying – if you want to be an MP, if you want the Whip, you have to fall into line. Brown needs to improve existing Talent, and get rid of the people who don’t measure up. Otherwise he will not be a convincing leader. You can’t do what he is doing and just sit on the fence.

Nor has Brown been good at articulating what his Purpose is anyway, what the strategic orientation of the government is, and the philosophy, the values, the ethics, the aims and so forth. It’s never been on his agenda.  His sole agenda was first to get the Role of Prime Minister (not what he was going to do when he was there). And then to make life difficult for the Opposition.

Cameron has to pay attention to Purpose also – because unless he can articulate a story that is convincing to people, however good he is at managing Talent (development or departure – shape up or ship out) or Organisation, it won’t be enough. For effective leadership you have to pay attention to all three.

Brown hasn’t understood what he has to do in order to be seen as an effective leader.  Cameron appears to have instinctively understood that certain things need to be done around the triangle, in the way that Brown hasn’t. Brown won’t recover unless he takes this responsibility seriously.  There are certain things that good leaders have to do – and Brown isn’t doing them, and is paying the price for it.

Will he have the courage – or the capacity – to do things differently?