The people business is everyone's business

The people business was everyone’s business this year! And it is not over. The pandemic with flavors of an endemic places the people dimension in business in the front for the years to come. This makes it a great time to be in HR! With the responsibility to live up to this opportunity. Find some lines of thought on what it takes to be in a people’s function with some end-of-year reflections which were recently captured in the ZigZag’s HR Trend Report and in a podcast on leadership earlier this year.

Employee experience = Customer experience

It's a great time to be in HR, because...the era of one-size-fits-all is over. As HR professionals, we are increasingly confronted with changed expectations of both current and future employees, with their individual careers at the center. They don't want streamlined processes where everything is the same for everyone, they want to be recognized in their individual needs as individual co-workers. Those needs may (must?) be translated into a tailor-made solution. HR professionals who strive for uniformity in solutions out of (misplaced) fear of opening the door to chaos and rebellion by allowing exceptions, will come back from a dead end. The current need for an individualized approach requires an open attitude where it is much more convenient to work from shared principles than to lay everything down in a detailed policy. It makes no sense for HR to hide behind a policy. You have to have the courage to approach your customer in a well-founded manner and to anticipate the customer's needs well and in good time.

Silence is no longer an option for HR

HR can better stop...to limit its role to the walls of its own company. We live in a time of ongoing change - from climate to how, what, when and with whom work gets its place, increasing attention to issues such as health, diversity and other societal changes. People are looking with more urgent and compelling eyes at what companies and their leaders are doing and not doing. And that also applies to HR. Too often I see HR professionals limiting themselves to a role within the walls of their own company and sometimes even to their own field. And there's no sign of activism. There's more of a trend towards colorless modesty and a desire for absolute neutrality. Focusing on the core tasks as an HR professional, such as attracting, developing, rewarding and retaining employees, is understandable in itself. But HR must show the necessary courageous activism and can no longer play it safe and invoke its neutrality. Silence is no longer an option or HR will end up as a whisperer of other roles inside and outside its organisation. And that would be a shame. A missed opportunity because a prompter doesn't stand on the stage!

Unboss, curious and inspired

Companies can only grow if...they adopt a culture of curiosity and servant leadership. The societal challenges in which companies operate today are not insignificant. Certainties are giving way to a higher frequency of changes inside and outside companies. Changes become less controllable because they are more likely to become disruptions. The COVID crisis teaches us that fundamental assumptions about work, leisure, health, and careers are being challenged. When predictability disappears, companies (and employees) must encourage a culture of learning, growth, and development. A culture that starts with self-reflection and understands that learning is the engine of innovation and continued employability.

Leadership is a gift...and starts with giving back autonomy to where it belongs as each of us is at their most creative and productive best when one is given the freedom and responsibility to shape your work environment and pursue your own ideas. It is not the leader who takes it all. It is not the leader who knows it all. Being a leader today requires an attitude of challenge your own assumptions and beliefs and have the courage to listen, to learn and ultimately grow and adapt to an ever-changing context. Leadership therefore requires that continuous journey of self-awareness; recognizing and building on your strengths as well as diving into yourself as leader to uncover and challenge your blind spots to be in a constant state of growth and development, not just as leaders but as humans. We never do that in isolation. We learn from others. Working with others who are willing to own their actions, take smart risks and personal accountability for their work and choices. It is now that we need self-aware, inclusive leaders who put their teams’ success above their own, set clear goals, remove obstacles, empower and trust their people. ?And this is the core of what we call unbossing @Novartis, inviting every single team member to take more control over their careers, drive their personal development and use their autonomy to innovate and become leaders at every level.

(For the Dutch readers – feel free to listen in to my Feb #ZigZagHR? podcast on Leadership as a gift! Connected with? Lesley Arens?on why leadership is not a given, but a humble journey of be(coming) unbossed, inspired and curious at?Novartis.)

#novartis?#leadership??#inspired?#curious?#unbossed?#ZigZagHR