HR is the last thing you want to do: Why some are invited into the Boardroom

In Part 1, I wrote about the various “colorful” HR leaders in the industry. Why some HR Leaders “get away with things”. Why some business leaders are not even oblivious to the games most HR leaders played. When you asked eight different business leaders, how they define a good HR Leader, it is equivalent to “eight blind men touching different parts of an elephant”. Each will have their own way of measuring and yet, all of them are right and at the same time, all of them are also wrong.

The HR profession has undergone a lot of transformation over the past two decades. It used to be one of the coziest job to do but increasingly it is becoming one of the most demanding and stressful profession to be in. Today, you can even earn professional degrees and you can proudly print them next to your name on a business card.

This article is not about the amount of academic qualification (which are equally important) but more fundamentally, how do you know that the person that you have hired to put in charge of your most important resource is truly part of your business?

One of my most favorite Netflix drama series that I am currently watching is “Designated Survivor”.  There was a moment in the movie that Kiefer Sutherland who played the President had assigned one of his aides to be the “designated survivor”, meaning that in the event that he is incapacitated, this lady was going to be his successor. For those of you who are interested, it is on Episode 16, Season 2. His aide told him that she wasn’t ready to be President nor was she wasn’t looking forward to it. 

The President told her the following comments, “A lack of preparation for the President role is not a disqualifier. Becoming the President of the United States makes you the most powerful person in the world. If you are over ambitious, it will go to your head and compromise you. If you are sitting in the oval office out of a sense of obligation to the people, no one can question your priorities“. 

It is a very profound statement on how many leaders of the world today is in office because of a genuine passion to help their country, and not purely for the narcissistic need of having a great title, pay package and power. 

1.   In the Business

Your HR leader must be excited and genuinely interested not just being a partner but part of the business. That being the case, a HR Leader must be deeply entrenched into the operations of the business. This means the need for the HR leader to move out of their HR “comfort zone” and be involved in the heart of operations. 

The ability to know the “pulse” of the business, and to design interventions at least two to three steps in order ensure that the organization continues in the right trajectory. To be a key strategic team member of the business, it is not enough just to have deep mastery in HR. They need to go horizontally to understand the full gamut of the business is equally critical.

There is also a danger in going too deep into HR as you may lose sight of the forest. A HR leader is not just purely a caregiver but the ability to understand the business and the ability to work with the rest of the leadership team in ensuring that you have the right team at all levels. When you have found the right team, then the caregiver kicks in, and not before. 

2.   Systems Management

Great HR leaders who are a level above the rest of the pack has the ability to look at things from an ecosystem. They are able to connect all these “dots” on their roadmap. The events might seem unrelated for most people, but great HR leaders are able to see how each distinct event is linked to the next and how it contributes to the overall system.

They are the ones who will step in to introduce interventions where they see a gap between one event to the next. They are driven by systems and not by who they received their next instructions. They are not in the boardroom as minute taker and/or “make up the numbers” but is very much wired into the business.

The ability to apply systems management requires the acquisition of other skills besides just pure HR knowledge. Management science knowledge such as organizational learning (e.g. Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline), LEAN knowledge, agile management principles, etc provides the much needed competency of a HR Leader’s ability to design the appropriate intervention that are not just preventive but predictive measures.

3.   Financial Management

HR Leader must also have the financial acumen to balance between people and the costs implications. When to do insourcing and outsourcing. When do you really “earn your keep” or conveniently use external consultants for all organizational interventions. I have seen a number of HR leaders who are just paralyzed to their seat, and all they do is conveniently bring in external consultants into the organization, oblivious to how much costs they have added.

Most HR Leaders are competent in headcount management but the rare ones are able to understand at each critical phase of the organizational life cycle, the manning requirements way before a request is made for them to either reduce, increase or freeze. They see it coming way before the rest of the organization. This is because they are very much wired into the business.

4.   Courage

The ingredients that make a great compared to an average HR Leader is “courage”. I have seen far too many HR leaders who will blindly support the rest of the leadership team because of fearing to be in the “black book”. The notion of just blindly supporting and wanting to protect the “partnership” at all costs. Unfortunately, there are times when this was done at the expense of doing what is right for the organization.

A few years ago, someone gave me the definition of “courage” that is required by any HR professional. It is the ability to stand on the organization’s principles, values and knowing the “right thing” to do in the face of losing one’s job.

The courage to speak up and the risk of being in the room where no one dares to take a differing perspective. Courage must be balanced with the evidence that you have done a very thorough research. Courage without doing your own due diligence is a “recipe for disaster”.

As much as HR is often the gatekeeper of HR policies and procedures, we must also rise up to be the gatekeeper of surfacing the obvious in a room where no one dares to speak the truth. 

Final Note

My friend shared with me that the day that you have overcome your job security sentiment is the day you are ready to be a Leader. That is the day where you have no fear in speaking the truth, and you know you are being authentic!

Another shared with me that if you are intelligent, can you actually “fake” it and make it to the very top of HR? Of course, you can be a faker for the rest of your professional life. What then happens, that is so sad indeed. 

I am sure there are more requirements and would love those who have read this article to share more.

Raymund Chua is the Managing Director for Heraeus Materials Singapore Pte Ltd, GM of Heraeus Photovoltaic Singapore, Head of Regional Center for Heraeus Asia Pacific Holding as well as Head of HR, Asia Pacific for Heraeus Asia Pacific Holding.  His experiences spans across multiple disciplines: business strategy, culture, leadership, organizational design, human resource, and HR. Ray is an advocate of “communities of practices”. Ray is also the inventor of the HRGame as well as a coach. Ray can be contacted via Linkedin or raymundchua@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: This is a personal linkedin blog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.