I think that the answer to HR being better liked, is that we need to be better respected. The key to being better respected is that we have to work on developing a better more integrated character. By extension – we should focus less on talking about ourselves as professionals; stop looking for seats at tables and even less on strategic business partnering. We should work on improved character. I would like to recommend a book on precisely this point – it is one of the 3 or 4 most influencial books that I have read – certainly regarding “how to do HR” and “how to succeed in business”.
The book is integrity by Dr. Henry Cloud. The sub-title says a lot – “the courage to meet the demands of reality”, “How Six Essential Qualities Determine your Success In Business”.
Cloud defines “character” as “the ability to meet the challenges of reality”. Cloud’s “six essential qualities of character are:
- The ability to connect authentically (which leads to trust)
- The ability to be oriented toward the truth (which leads to finding and operating in reality
- The ability to work in a way that gets results and finishes well (which leads to reaching goals, profits, or the mission
- The ability to embrace, engage, and deal with the negative (which leads to ending problems, resulving them, or transforming them)
- The ability to be oriented to growth (which leads to increase)
- The ability to be transcendent (which leads to enlargement of the bigger pricture and oneself)
The namesake of the book, “integrity” is the notion rooted in the need for wholeness around these characteristics. As Cloud says, “Another way of saying this is that while you don’t need all the gifts that exist in the world, you do need all the aspects of character while you are putting your gifts to work.”
I think that the key for HR is that without a more powerful character in this or another similar model, HR looks functionary; lacks credibility with both managers and employees and loses its abiltiy to be a powerful market actor. People who are successful in markets, have to face reality. They never really indulge themselves with “but it should be this way” – it is always about what is.
Want to be that HR person who the business people like – start by having the firmest grip in the room on facing the reality of the situation; then bring your technical ability and HR instincts to bear on that reality. That’s the killer app for HR. Knowing reality – the full reality which includes the market behavior of people inside and outside the organization better than anyone else.
Want to learn how to do it. Read the book: http://www.amazon.com/Integrity-Courage-Meet-Demands-Reality/dp/0060849681/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210608715&sr=8-1
CAVEAT: Attached is a link to Henry Cloud’s web site. I don’t specifically endorse it even though I am in love with the book “integrity”. The web site is much more oriented to his general counselling business and a religous aspect to his work. Not that it’s not good; it’s just not a topic for HumanMarkets and not anything that I have explored all that deeply. http://www.cloudtownsend.com/
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
“Want to be that HR person who the business people like – start by having the firmest grip in the room on facing the reality of the situation; then bring your technical ability and HR instincts to bear on that reality. That’s the killer app for HR.”
As they say in the commercial, “Dude.”
That’s the killer statement for the killer app.
May 15th, 2008
Thanks Frank – it’s all about “keepin it real”
May 15th, 2008
Reply to “Part 3 of 3 – Professionals have character. People like that.”