Human Resources Issues for Senior Management
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/343811
17 Behan discussed some classic board- room mistakes, as well as HR priorities such as CEO succession planning, in a panel dis- cussion with senior HR professionals — and veteran board members themselves. Creating engagement in the boardroom Before anything gets accomplished, the se- nior management team must know how to communicate effectively with the board. And most of that communication takes place during presentations, she said. One of the most common pitfalls is failing to engage with the board as an audience, ac- cording to Pierre Lavallée, senior vice-presi- dent and chief talent officer at the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board in Toronto. "Presenters who look at the screen and point to the screen (without) looking at their audience to see what is it they're inter- ested in usually flame out — because they have no idea what's going on around them," he said. "e worst mistakes, I'd say, are reading slides instead of telling a story, and just generally too much material." Also, people should avoid "wildly over- answering" questions that only require a simple response, said Lavallée. "e most important thing to keep in mind is every organization has to do what I call 'Keep it natural.' Because people can smell a situation that's unnatural," said Geoff Beattie, former CEO of the Woodbridge Company and current board member of General Electric, RBC and Maple Leaf Foods, based in Toronto. "e thing that I think really effective CEOs do is they take on the responsibil- ity of ensuring that there's engagement… We've all been in those rooms where we look around and people are on their Black- Berrys, they lack that sense of engagement. Invariably, at the end of the session, (every- one) is dissatisfied." To avoid some of these rookie mistakes, HR might consider offering training for ex- ecutives on how to work with boards — an initiative Sun Life already has in place, ac- cording to Carrie Blair, executive vice-pres- ident of human resources at Sun Life Finan- cial in Toronto. "When we have new folks, who actually are presenting for the first set of times, we actually do bring in external communica- tions consultants to really get them ground- ed in… how do you present, what's the right content, how do you make sure you're land- ing the key messages and telling the story," she said. "For some of our most seasoned execu- tives… we've actually done some real work with them around how do you answer those direct, sometimes more aggressive ques- tions you can get from a director?" CEO succession planning Effective communication with boards is important for innumerable reasons, but perhaps the most important is the board plays a key role in choosing the organiza- tion's next CEO. "So much is said about compensation but probably the board's single most impor- tant decision is who's going to be the chief executive officer," said Behan. "is is a real fruitful area for boards to "The mosT imporTanT Thing To keep in mind is every organizaTion has To do whaT i call 'keep iT naTural.' Because people can smell a siTuaTion ThaT's unnaTural."