Planning ahead is essential to success. As radio icon and comedian Eddie Cantor astutely observed, “It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.” Of course, making future plans in a modern work environment that is continually in flux can be tricky. But the good news is you already have a strategic advantage. As an HR leader, you have a deeper understanding of people, how they work, and the impact they can have on your company. After all, it’s your job. And while people do evolve (despite occasional acts of Neanderthal behavior), there are some things about them that never change. In fact, as I will demonstrate later, there are some things about people that you and your company can bank on, quite literally.
One of the most predictable aspects of people in the workplace is that they have needs that are directly related to the goals they want to achieve. As an HR professional, you need to attract, hire, develop, and deploy the best people you can find to ensure you meet the goal of helping your company continue on an upward trajectory. However, you report to an executive leadership team, and their needs, at first, seem quite different from yours. C-level executives need to improve company performance, foster innovation, and increase profitability. Shareholder happiness and their jobs depend on it. So what do their needs and goals have to do with yours? Everything.
I believe the companies that have the most promising future and the best chance of outperforming their competitors are those in which HR and CEO goals have come together. Recently, the Korn Ferry Institute released a report that looks at the leadership traits of top executives, and the important relationship between CEOs and CHROs. The report “CEOs and CHROs: Crucial Allies and Potential Successors,” confirms that for C-suite roles, the executives in the top 10 percent of pay for their function tend to have leadership styles that motivate employees, develop future leaders, and create appropriate cultures. The workplace is beginning to evaluate leaders on how they treat people, foster the right work environment, and encourage future leaders—and these are all areas where HR can become a CEO’s greatest ally. As Korn Ferry’s report asserts, “Well-managed talent, leadership, and culture are what enable sustainable customer, operational, and financial results.”
CULTURE AS A CATALYST
When HR and leadership are united through a common goal, great things happen, as the Korn Ferry report and other research has proved, time and again. The best part is that the solution is simple, so simple in fact that it boils down to just one word: culture. Culture is the catalyst that connects executive leadership goals to HR goals and creates a perpetual winning environment. In short, creating a culture of success is the primary path you need to pursue in order to meet the needs of both executive leadership and HR.
Regardless of your size, industry, current environment, or any other variable that may attempt to present itself as an obstacle, you can set the course for your company to develop a great culture. Yes, it will require hard work, patience, and diligence—but the future results are worth it. It is important to note that your culture will not look and feel exactly like another’s. However, just as every person has needs, studies have shown that all great cultures have three things in common. Namely, they are cultures in which employees:
In other words, great cultures are not formed by a checklist of programs and benefits. They are created through the everyday relationships that employees have with leaders, with their work, and with one another.
The most critical variable is trust. Building trust and fostering pride and happiness in the workplace are not impossible goals, and yet they elude most companies. While most HR professionals are acutely aware of the positive impact culture has on their ability to attract and retain the best people, a disconnect often happens at the executive level. Many C-level leaders have failed to see culture as a strategic part of making their company a contender in the marketplace. It’s simply not a priority for them because they are focused on their immediate needs—performance, innovation, and profitability. They are big-picture thinkers, but so are you, and your vision as an HR leader can help them understand how making culture a priority will yield big returns in their areas of need.
One of the easiest ways to get leadership to partner with you to create a great workplace culture is to speak their language—numbers. A simple Google search of workplace culture and business success will yield countless studies that have all discovered the same thing: There is a direct correlation between a great workplace culture and strong financial performance.
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