Almost all successful CEOs of the past and current corporate organizations, have valued human resource as greatest contributor for success. Yesteryear leaders of PSUs like Dr. V Krishnamurthy who took BHEL to new heights, established Maruti and turned round SAIL, R K Talwar who lead SBI, or some recent example of Narayna Murthy, Deepak Parekh, Kumar Manglam Birla, Ratan Tata have displayed a heavy inclination towards human resource and people skills.
I would like to mention a very recent example where a HR Manager of a MNC, after sizeable experience was elevated to be Director HR and subsequently included in Board of Directors of the MNCs.
The main reason why most people in HR don’t make to the TOP is because they have not groomed themselves to becoming HR driven business Managers. Most HR Managers fail to grow beyond their mundane administrative roles and perform tasks which are easily outsourceable. Thus the potential CEO in you, remain suppressed and your psyche doesn’t allow you to look towards this important aspect. So how do you go about this aspect. There are enormous methods, however few of following points may help.
• While doing your primary tasks, keep updating yourself with functioning of profit generating departments/sources Interact with these persons informally and understand the ground realities and challenges. . Study the Company Newsletters and other related materials.
• Understand and analyse the various strategies of the organization and formulate your view plans and correlate this with the type and quality of people force that is available and the changes you envisage for further improvement.
• At the right time during some formal discussions you may bring up these points including your analysis and suggestions. On the first look they may say mind your business/work, however you may be seen as a person who thinks in the interest of Organisation and you have sown the seed which the key persons will value.
All CEOs are required to be good HR people and past leaders have demonstrated this. It is high time HR recognizes the potential they are sitting on and change their outlook.
