When Did We Outsource Leadership?
The first duty of any government is the protection of its citizens.
In the context of corporate life in Australia, this takes the form of a raft of legislation and regulation around the relationship between employers and employees at every level and in almost every regard. This in turn has led to the rise of the Human Resources professional as the domain expert in the application of and compliance with these regulations.
While the intent is worthy and appropriate, there have been unintended consequences. In creating an HR function, many firms have taken this to mean that the role of Leadership has been outsourced.
By Leadership I don’t mean management. Rather I mean the deep and vital imperative of any person in authority to also carry responsibility, not just for performance and results but also for genuine engagement at a human level (note: not human resources). Unions and others constantly seek to delegitimise direct interaction with employees, further separating the strata of the workforce and making managers nervous of their ground.
Leadership deals with the complexities of relationships, ethical treatment of staff, polite and professional behaviour and empathetic handling of issues of all types and the building of a true organisational culture … not simply a slogan.
Instead of dealing with difficult issues (and yes, people are complex and difficult), it has become commonplace for many ostensibly professional organisations to immediately outsource their leadership function to Human Resources. Problems that don’t involve a spreadsheet – i.e. the “soft issuesâ€, are no part of management’s remit in this world view. They are immediately consigned to the realm of the HR professional (often styled “HR business partnerâ€) to be dealt with away from the “core†function of the enterprise.
This is not in any way a comment on the competence or professional conduct of the HR fraternity. In my experience, they are generally dedicated and professional in their demeanour and conduct.
But this misses a vital point. If guiding, mentoring, developing and at times supporting and nurturing people is not core business, then that business has no moral right to operate. The inability and/or unwillingness of senior managers to engage with this most complex of areas of the commercial environment represents an abrogation of one of Leadership’s core functions.
It is a manifestation of a growing trend of management cowardice in Australian corporate culture that will be to our on-going demise if it remains unarrested.