Failing or non-existent leadership presents HR with a unique opportunity to strengthen initiatives that encourage self-leadership, agility and proactivity amongst employees, writes Roger Collins
In times of change, uncertainty and crisis, the importance of and interest in leadership rise like cream to the top of a milk churn. Why is this so? Primarily because we expect our leaders to provide new directions, guidance and hope that helps us cope with the need to change and reduce the associated uncertainty. Furthermore, change, crisis and uncertainty often reveal or develop great leadership. Winston Churchill exemplifies all these truisms.
In this context, it is expedient to acknowledge that our nation, despite our current and relative prosperity, faces in the medium term major changes if we are to sustain the quality of our lives and the wellbeing of our communities. These changes have their source in the transition from an economy heavily reliant on mining and traditional manufacturing to new knowledge worker industries, advanced manufacturing, robotics and data analytics.
These developments are multiplied and largely driven by changes in global economic, political and technological conditions. The urgency, magnitude and nature of these transitions offer great opportunities for great leadership.
The role of HR leaders
So the question we need to ask is: are our political and business leaders up to these challenges? And if our leaders in any context are either ineffective or absent, what can HR leaders strengthen as substitutes for the role that is so often critical in both our organisations and our communities? The essence of leadership is about establishing direction, enlisting readiness to act and providing guidance for behaviour and contribution.
Direction can be communicated through our aspirations or vision; purpose can be expressed in our mission or objectives; and our strategy, culture and associated values provide guidance for what behaviour will deliver success. It is instructive to reflect that these terms have become much more widely developed over the past two decades – decades of unprecedented change and increasing competition. To the extent that we can clearly and consistently communicate these signals, we enable our people to internalise a guidance system that reduces the need for leaders to lead their followers.
In this context I recall how the late Charlie Bell, a most able CEO of McDonalds Australia and then global, relied on stories describing critical incidents that conveyed their values of quality, value, cleanliness and service. His people remembered the stories and so internalised the guidance. As he would say so often: “if you are ever in doubt about what to do, check our values!”
So to the extent that HR can shape careful selection, induction, training, performance feedback and rewards to embed purpose, direction and effective behaviours that encourage self-leadership, agility and proactivity, then conventional leadership becomes less critical.
There is good evidence to indicate a value add – such internal leadership enhances self-efficacy, resilience and flourishing work experiences. In turn, these outcomes are related to productivity and wellbeing that create win-win outcomes for clients, members, management and shareholders alike.
A matter of balance
Highly effective leadership at all levels can reduce our reliance on so many of our traditional HR contributions. In the heyday of Lend Lease, Stuart Hornery and John Morschel underinvested in “traditional” HR; their personal influence permeated throughout the group and was complemented with many less conventional policies and practices.
Conversely, today, too many of our institutions are characterised by weak leadership. The unmistakable opportunity for HR leaders is to bolster the substitutes for leadership – those initiatives that provide direction, hope, guidance and support for our members, many of whom are struggling with transitions, the threat of redundancy, obsolescence and change.
Perhaps too often our mentors, professors and textbooks fail to remind us about the need to manage the hand which we have been dealt, rather than wish for an easier solution. Our senior leaders can burn out, fail to adjust to changing business cycles or stay too long, and new appointments can fail to live up to expectations.
History teaches us that leaders are subject to the frailties that characterise all of humanity. Why should we expect them to be otherwise? Success in our role as HR leaders requires us to understand and deal with this reality. When leadership fails, we should not be surprised, rather be prepared to see this as an opportunity (a challenge?). The only question that now remains is: when the (challenge) opportunity arises, are you up to responding effectively and seizing this opportunity?
The importance of consistency
The messages that we send to our people that represent the essence of leadership must be internally congruent, consistent and clear. To be direct, HR has too often focused on one or two initiatives or policies at a time: “let’s fix our performance management systems or our recruitment and selection procedures”.
Effectiveness requires us to think and act systemically to develop a holistic approach that ensures internal congruence. Consistency requires an irrevocable commitment to hold in place policies that stand the test of both good and difficult economic times.
The importance of leadership and its development is a case in point. Since the GFC, it has been an indictment that so many organisations have cut their training and development budgets (but never their insurance or public liability policies) as though these activities can be turned on and off like a light switch. Such signalling is clear: this stuff is discretionary.
