Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER May 1, 2017 INSIGHT 19 Leadership lessons from the headlines Many have watched with shocked curiosity as a variety of news-making events have unfolded in the United States since Don- ald Trump was inaugurated as president. So, what leadership lessons can we learn from these recent events? We have said many times the tone of a company is set from the top. Leaders determine the culture of a company, how employees are expected to behave, and how employees are expected to in- teract with clients, customers or constituents. A company's brand reputation and employer brand are all impacted by how the leader conducts himself. While many leaders of well- known companies have been making headlines lately for their negative culture-infl uencing com- ments — such as Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, and Roger Ailes, former CEO of Fox News — no one has been making a bigger im- pact than Trump. From his sexist and misogy- nist comments about women, to his racist comments and policies (whether said under the guise of national security or just to get votes), to his selection of ques- tionable advisors and Cabinet members, Trump has been set- ting a new tone for how the Unit- ed States is expected to conduct itself — 140 characters at a time. Not all leaders are great lead- ers. To be a great leader, here are some behaviours they must demonstrate: Practise humility: While self- confi dence and self-assurance are important in leaders, arrogance and conceit are not. Being hum- ble, being gracious, and giving others credit where it is due — these are hallmarks of excellent leaders. When your ego drives your behaviours and comments, and when you focus on superla- tives about how you are "the best," "the greatest" and "the most," your actions become focused on you, the leader, and not the results you want to achieve. By taking all the credit when things go well, lay- ing blame on others when things don't go well, and saying no one else can do the job better than you, you create animosity with employees and customers. Tell the truth: When leaders are honest and tell the truth, they will gain trust with employees. Facts are facts and employees will lose faith and trust in your words and actions if they see that your state- ments are not supported by reality. Employees are smart. ey know when you are pulling the wool over their eyes or when your com- ments are not based on facts. Tell the truth, even if it hurts, rather than making up stories. If you don't know the answer, say so, and then go fi nd the answer. is builds trust and demonstrates integrity. To avoid losing credibility, don't make up alternative facts, or make false assumptions or un- founded accusations — as Trump and his advisors did when it came to the number of attendees at the inauguration. Inspire employees: A leader's role is to inspire — to set a vision and to rally people behind the vi- sion. A leader needs to fi nd ways to get all employees onside to work towards the vision, and to develop inclusive ways to oper- ate so employees are inspired to pull in the same direction. Listen to the employees' concerns. Find the commonality between diff er- ent points of view. When leaders talk over you to try to prove a point, when they stop listening, when they simply want to show they are right rath- er than being open, their ability to inspire lessens. When leaders are divisive and try to pit one em- ployee or group against another, it leads to in-fi ghting, employees step on each other to move up, they leak news to the media, or they post unfl attering views of the employer on social media. e leader has divided and not rallied, and she has set a tone and culture of competition, not collaboration. Be kind: e old saying "You catch more fl ies with honey than vinegar" rings true for leadership. Showing kindness, compassion and empathy makes you a better leader. You can still be decisive and fi rm, but you don't need to be mean about it. Employees want to work with leaders who respect them, who listen to them, who care about them, who are genuinely interested in their well- being. Leaders who are mean- spirited, insensitive, belittling, demeaning or rude may get the job done, but they have not earned the trust of their staff and will not have the loyalty and genuine sup- port of those who follow them. Own up to your mistakes: When ego gets in the way of hon- esty, we have a problem. If you make a mistake, have the con- fidence to admit it, apologize, and tell people what you will do to make sure it doesn't happen again. Do this because you mean it, not because your PR fi rm says it's what you should do. If your approach is to blame others and not acknowledge the part you played, employees will lose faith. As a leader's actions set the tone from the top, employees will start to hide mistakes and blame others as well because that's the example being set by their leader. Do what you say you'll do: In all honesty, this is probably the one trait Trump does demon- strate. He is doing exactly what he said he would do. Put America fi rst. Build a wall. Ban immigrants from perceived at-risk countries. Communicate to the American people via Twitter. Unfortunately, doing what you say you'll do, with- out all the other traits described above, is ineff ective. If you don't like the culture of your company, look at how you conduct yourself. Are you demon- strating the traits that are essential for a great leader to possess? Or are you setting a tone from the top that a less desirable environ- ment is acceptable? Don't make the same mistakes these headline- makers do. Cissy Pau is the principal consultant of Clear HR Consulting, a Vancouver- based firm that offers download- able HR solutions for small business. For more information, visit www. clearhrconsulting.com. Many have watched with shocked curiosity as a variety of news-making events have unfolded in the United States since Don- ald Trump was inaugurated as president. So, what leadership lessons can we learn Cissy Pau GUest CoMMeNtarY If you don't like your company culture, look at how you conduct yourself. Raising the profi le of human resources How can we gain more credibility and respect for the HR function at our company? Question: Many of the business leaders, managers and employees in our organi- zation don't respect the HR department. ey often treat us like we're a clerical function and have little knowledge be- yond hiring, fi ring, basic personnel ad- ministration and recordkeeping. What can we do to raise the profi le of the HR department and gain more cred- ibility and respect for the HR function within the company? Answer: ere is no doubt the HR profession suffers from a poor public image these days. Many managers, executives and other business professionals cling to outdated stereotypes about the nature and purpose of the "personnel" function, and many rank-and-fi le employees and job candidates have misconceptions about the roles and responsibili- ties of HR practitioners. Many people immediately think of recruitment when they hear the term "human resources" and assume there is little more to HR than talent acquisition (not to knock recruitment, which is a challenging and respectable en- deavour in its own right). However, they don't always re- alize there is far more to the HR function than recruitment and they may be unaware of the types of programs HR practitioners are involved in and the value HR can bring to the table. Many employees take the view that HR practitioners are highly paid, privileged gatekeepers or they can't be trusted with confi - dential information and will al- ways take the employer's side. Dispelling negative stereotypes HR practitioners can help dispel the negative stereotypes about the profession through education, im- proved communications and ser- vice delivery, and marketing and public relations initiatives — both within organizations and in the broader business community and society as a whole. It is also vitally important to en- sure the HR function is truly add- ing value and contributing to the bottom line and business results, while acquiring, empowering, en- gaging, deploying and developing employees. To do this, HR departments need to ask themselves some tough questions to truly deter- mine whether or not they are add- ing suffi cient value to the organi- zation. is can be done through the development of benchmark- ing and metrics, surveys and in- ternal audits. It is also important to establish open and frank two-way com- munications with internal clients about what is and isn't working, and to get out of the offi ce and talk to people throughout the organi- zation. Find out what their issues, challenges and concerns are, and what's keeping them up at night. In the case of managers and executives, there is a good chance many of these issues are about people and relate somehow to human capital management and how the organization attracts, re- tains and manages talent. To be functioning at a truly strategic level, HR needs to be able to work with line managers and executives to develop solutions to issues relating to management of the organization's human capi- tal. At its most strategic level, HR should even have input into the organization's overall corporate strategy. Becoming more strategic But constantly prattling on about the need for HR to become "more strategic" won't necessarily help. at is because people outside the HR function likely won't care and wouldn't necessarily want HR to take a more strategic approach. is is particularly true in an organizational context such as yours. Senior business leaders in your company won't necessarily buy into the need for HR to be more strategic. Instead, they just want to have their job requisitions fi lled in a timely manner, their pa- perwork processed accurately and the training programs they want delivered to employees (and don't necessarily want to be told when training isn't the answer to perfor- mance issues). Because of that, the fi rst step in raising the profi le of the HR de- partment must be to ensure the activities that "keep the lights on" are done effi ciently and eff ectively. Without getting the basics right fi rst, there is little point in trying to become more strategic or pro- moting the skills, competencies and capabilities of the HR team within the organization. Additional suggestions Here are some additional sugges- tions for raising the profi le of HR: • Conduct lunch-and-learns about various HR topics and explain to managers and employees who does what within the HR team. • Communicate to managers and employees what the HR team is working on, and how this work impacts the bottom line. • Become a centre of expertise for leadership best practices; focus on developing managerial capa- bility within the organization. • Get involved in cross-functional project teams. • Adopt more of a coaching and consulting mindset where HR practitioners are more willing to provide recommendations, ad- vice and even pushback to line managers. • Be prepared to provide metrics and hard numbers relating to the return on investment (ROI) of HR programs; develop business cases to support the retention of specifi c HR programs in-house. • Facilitate workshops on trendy and popular business topics such as innovation, design thinking, agile development and social media in the workplace. • Implement knowledge manage- ment solutions and skills inven- tories within the HR department to track internal knowledge, skills and abilities, and show- case that information to internal clients. Brian Kreissl is the product develop- ment manager for omson Reuters Legal Canada's human resources, OH&S, payroll and records retention products and solutions. He can be reached at brian.kreissl@tr.com. Brian Kreissl ToUgHest HR QUestioN

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