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Article from Human Resources, Hong Kong, Sept 2005
Jack Welch’s latest book, “Winning”
Have your read Jack Welch’s latest book, “Winning”? If you have read his other book, “Straight from the guts”, you will probably draw the same conclusion as I – “more of the same”. Not a negative comment – don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed Welch’s first book, and I have similarly found his latest book an interesting and practical read. A leader’s journey does not have a destination, and it is good on Welch to take the effort and time to share his leadership experience with the world. Just in case you missed picking this up from the media, Welch is donating the proceeds of his book to charity.
For myself, as a business consultant, I have definitely benefited from Welch’s sharing. Like any other leadership or management books one reads, it is always a case of being discerning, absorbing and using what works for you, and discarding the rest. For me – I have found that it is more of the former than the latter when it comes to Welch. Perhaps, my thinking and leadership philosophy is more Americanized than Asian-ized. To each his own.
Using Welch’s writings, I will share with you my views on leadership, anchoring on some of the key points pertinent to my fellow HR colleagues. In the next issue, I will do the same, with the focus shifting to the CEO.
Welch says: “Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization, and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers. In fact, the best HR types are pastors and parents, in the same package.”
“Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organization…’ – this is somewhat not totally within the control of the HR leader. An article I read recently shared how the HR team with Great Eastern, a home grown, premium life insurance organization in Singapore, managed to ‘market’ themselves and their expertise into the Board room. In this case, I would like to think that it was a case of the team being proactive and demonstrating the right competencies to inspire confidence with the Board. Fortunately, the CEO and board members were enlightened enough to give them the opportunity. It can only work if it is a two-way street.
It may be more challenging if we are discussing HR’s attempt to get into the board room of multinationals (versus a local organization like Great Eastern’s example)– I believe there is a better chance if such attempts are made at the corporate headquarters level, rather than at the regional offices level. But are enough efforts being made, and has there been much success? I am not sure - a quick check with my associates in the US and Europe does not seemed too encouraging. A simple check on the corporate websites of 50 Fortune 500 companies yielded less than five which had HR represented at the Board level.
What we can have total influence over, though, is taking the initiative to close whatever gaps there are in the competencies required for us to be able to “help managers build leaders and careers.”
Spending time in one or more of the line functions e.g. marketing, sales, manufacturing etc will also add value to our strategic understanding of business and give the HR leader a better shot of being accepted as a member of the top management team, if not having a seat on the Board.
As the HR head of a property developer about a decade ago, I had taken the lead from our MIT-trained CEO to push the organization to one that is ‘marketing-oriented’. Philip Ng, CEO of Far East Organization’s (Sino Land here in Hong Kong belongs to the same owners, the Ng family) philosophy then was that each and every single member of the organization could play the role of a marketer. Because Far East is in the consumer marketing business, it makes sense for staff members to be familiar with our company’s products. Each weekend, I would board the Far East Organization bus, together with the property project team members and the CEO, to visit construction sites. From these visits, I was able to have a much better understanding of the challenges and issues facing each property project. This enabled me to better represent the company when hiring talent, as well as talking to my circle of friends and contacts about our property projects.
Here’s another avenue for HR to consider taking, and another personal experience. On hiring talent – Welch’s views are to spend adequate time having candidates talk to as many people as possible. Taking the short-cut of relying on just one or two meetings to make a hiring decision can be a very costly mistake. From his experience, he has found that the more an organization exposes its leaders to the interviewing and hiring process, the higher the likelihood that you are able to spot those who have that ‘special gift of picking up stars and phonies.”. And he found this to be so true in the case of his GE HR Head, Bill Conaty.
I cannot but agree totally with this approach. Before embarking on my coaching and consultancy journey, I spent close to two decades in HR. During this time, I must have interviewed hundreds of job candidates. At some point in my career in Hong Kong, my special skills in talent spotting were identified by my boss and I was then assigned to interview and identify and coach high potential talent with the objective of nurturing them to high visibility leadership roles. No doubt, this responsibility also catapulted me into the Management limelight!
Over the past decade or so, much has been written about how HR can and should play a more strategic role in businesses. Limited progress has been made – but I have confidence we will get there, eventually.
A couple of words about Welch’s views that leaders do not celebrate enough and that they should also be consciously aware that they are not put in a leadership role to win popularity contests, but to lead. Celebration does not always mean having to spend thousands of dollars having a grand feast and ending up with karaoke and champagne. Celebrating minor or major successes can be as simple and in-expensive as calling it a day 2 hours earlier and having an office party. Order some finger food, bring in the liquor and have a great time talking trivial stuff rather than business and work. Human beings are mostly the same, in this particular regard, We want to be told that we have done a good job and to be recognized for having done so. Lead and inspire your team to achieve great things for your organization, and do remember to pop the champagne cork once in a while – also, remember to acknowledge everyone’s efforts and not take credit for everything. For extra icing on the cake – invite family members along. What a party you can have!
Yet another way for HR to move up the strategic management ladder. Welch said: “Manage the stars, as they can become monsters if you let them, and that no single individual is bigger than the company.”
Most organizations have them – the stars that shine so brightly that they dazzle wherever they go. And we acknowledge that we do need them – because they are the ones who always come up winners. Improperly managed – some of these stars can turn out to be your worst nightmares. We have read about sports players who behave like prima donnas because of their successes. They behave as if they alone, contribute to the entire team’s success. Of course this is never the case.
As HR leaders, we can play a strategic role by consciously shadowing these stars, observing their behaviors and conduct, and coaching their managers to manage their reports appropriately. Failing to do so can result in dire consequences that could mean a loss to the team, the organization and also sadly, the derailment of these star’s bright careers. What could be a more strategic responsibility than this!
Some final comments on work and life balance. Welch’s view is that finding the ‘right’ work-and-life balance is “your problem to solve”. He went on to say that “people who publicly struggle with work life balance problems or continuously turn to the company for help get pigeon-holed as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted, or incompetent – or all of the above”.
I cannot agree more. Organizations can only do that much, they can provide the infrastructure e.g putting in place an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The rest is up to each individual to manage. There is no one universal definition of what a “good work-and-life balance” model looks like. It has to be self defined, because all of us have very different family and personal circumstances, life priorities and work demands. The CEO of a US healthcare/medical devices company whom I was having a conversation with recently concurred with this view. To him, he would never want to spend time coaching his direct reports on how to attain a work and life balance – “…it is up to each individual to manage …”, Management should not have to spend valuable time telling Joe-bloke to leave the office early to have dinner with his family! “Better off for me to spend time coaching them on how to acquire more market share”.
There was a recent article on work-and –life balance in the Asian Wall Street Journal – the focus was on China, the flavor of the century. In that article, Chinese nationals working in multi-national organizations were interviewed and most of them expressed nonchantly that they did not have any major hang-ups about spending more time in the office/at work than with the family. The article went on to rationalize that, perhaps, most Chinese grew up with a family where their parents spend much time away from the family as they have to work in remote locations e.g. farms in order to eek out a living. Hence, children are used to not having their parents around all the time. So, as life is now with working for global organizations, they do not see the same issues faced by their counterparts in other parts of the world, and really, wonder what the fuss is all about. So, if some of these folks were to read Welch’s book, they may be left wondering why there was a chapter dedicated to work-and-life balance in the first place? As strategic HR partners, we have to be alert, and to react appropriately to cultural differences and never to assume that ‘one-size-fits-all’.
Article by Paul Heng, a career management professional and managing director, NeXT Career Consulting Group.
He is also the founding president of the Asian Association of Career Management Professionals (www.aacmp.org.sg)
This article first appeared in Human Resources, Hong Kong Sept 2005
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