HR Leadership Abilities

I consult with a broad range of HR Professionals. Often, I work with them to deliver leadership training programs. Here are some leadership qualities, in no particular order, I wish I saw more of amongst HR Leaders:

• Emotional intelligence
• Strategic thinking ability
• Creativity
• Ability to manage ambiguity
• Cross-cultural communications skills
• Global Mindset
• Change management
• Coaching ability
• Negotiation skills
• Courage
• Interpersonal skills: Diplomacy
• Mature judgement & decision making
• Integrity
• Humility

A Global Mindset needs "Global" words

My title may be a little misleading - but not by much. In order to convey our ideas in the global workplace, we need to be able to communicate in more than one language. Have you noticed the Google translation buttons to the right of the column on this blog, with my posts (just below my goofy photograph? If you cut and paste a few sentences from a post, the electronic translator will - most times - deliver an instantaneous and fairly acceptable translation! Of course you can use these translators to read and to publish your comments on foreign language web-sites and blogs.

If you are at all like me, you will often run in to technical business words that you may find difficult to translate to other languages because they are often not found in commercial dictionaries. The Human Resources profession uses many such technical terms. I've just discovered a pretty neat web site, the "first European Human Resources lexicon". It is hosted by ADP a leading provider of Human Resources outsourcing in Europe. I think you will find it very useful when you manage terms like "return on investment", "human resources policy" or "relocation allowance" . If you check my web-site on services and keynote presentations related to human capital, you'll see that I write in English and Spanish on topics related to cross-cultural training, multicultural teams and emotional intelligence. The human resources lexicon provided by ADP should make my task easier and hopefully do a better job of translating technical terms on the Spanish language version of our site.

Specific challenges for international HR

Global organizations are focused on human capital issues. There seems to be an almost global consensus that people issues are vital to company success. As the "war for talent" intensifies, the acceptance of the importance of human capital will continue to grow. Among the people challenges, there is a broad consensus, across international regions, on what the important challenges are. They include:

• The development of "global" leaders
• The creation of a high-performance global corporate culture & high-performing teams
• Managing talent (recruitment, retention, training, compensation & incentives)

If HR professionals are to be seen to play a crucial role in strategy and operational results they need to pick up the gauntlet on these people issues and act as "functional leaders". This means more time spent focusing on the business drivers and less on HR "programs and services". Adopting the role of global, functional leadership is the great opportunity for HR professionals. They need to be perceived as being totally committed to improving the business - which they must understand as well as any other leader - by their expertise in "people issues". For many years now, I have believed that the globalization of business presents an incredible opportunity to the HR profession. To succeed they absolutely need a "global mindset". See "Strategic Opportunity for HR Professionals"

Strategic opportunity for HR professionals

It is almost impossible for employees to cultivate a global mindset - or for the organization’s leaders to acquire global skills - unless the culture of the organization itself is imbued with global effectiveness thinking, skills and behaviors.

At a time when business process outsourcing should be liberating us to focus on strategic rather than tactical issues, it is good to remind ourselves that developing organizational global effectiveness may be one of the most important contributions that HR professionals can make, if we are to have, or retain, a “seat at the table” in shaping corporate strategy.

Organizations devoid of a global way of thinking will not fare well in the international arena. Because human capital is the defining competitive differentiator of most organizations, HR's commitment to the task of attracting, retaining and managing the best talent available is its major strategic challenge. Read more...