It is month two of my article round-up, covering articles I’ve enjoyed from the past month or two. This month is focused on executive feedback, managing talent, and knowing when to fire your CHRO. I’ve summarised the articles for all the other busy HR professionals out there. This month’s articles are:
- Harvard Business Review (blog) – Ten Clues It’s Time to Replace Your Head of HR
- Bain & Co – Solving the talent problem: A decision approach
- McKinsey Quarterly – Top executives need feedback—here’s how they can get it
Harvard Business Review (blog) – Ten Clues It’s Time to Replace Your Head of HR
Intro: If you’re a CEO, can the wrong head of HR cause you to lose your job? Absolutely. Ask the ex-CEO of Pfizer or the ex-CEO of Schwab, who both were fired by their boards in part for poor judgment regarding the head of HR.
Summary: A set of rules outlining when it may be time to replace your CHRO. Some of the keys of a good CHRO are:
- Constantly taking the pulse of your workforce, so face time with employees is essential.
- Needs specific knowledge of your business: Main competitors, top customers, how you create value. All in addition to regular knowledge of finances (CapEx vs. OpEx etc.), marketing/branding, and more.
- A clear HR strategy (aligned with business) and strong metrics to be accountable to.
- Full Article: Ten Clues It’s Time to Replace Your Head of HR
Bain & Co – Solving the talent problem: A decision approach
Intro: Finding and keeping the right people—winning the “war for talent”—is a perennial challenge for every organization. Applying a decision lens can help. Once you identify your company’s critical decisions, you can focus on ensuring that top performers own those decisions.
Summary: Research shows that decision effectiveness
correlates tightly with financial result Consistently and high
performers consistently make good decisions and execute them.
However conventional
tools for recruitment and retention efforts often do no more than keep a
company in the game. So how do you improve your talent?
- Step 1: Identify the positions with the biggest impact on decisions. For example a head of IT will be more important in a company that relies on IT as a competitive advantage than a company thta doesn’t.
- Step 2: Assess your talent, specifically focusing on ability to make and execute decisions effectively. (Note: You better make sure you have a good performance management system for this).
- Step 3: Make sure your top performers are in the critical poitions. One company found only 30% of their critical roles had “high performers” in them.
- Full Article: Solving the talent problem: A decision approach
McKinsey Quarterly – Top executives need feedback—here’s how they can get it
Intro: Many executives find that as they become more senior, they receive less coaching and become more confused about their performance and developmental needs. They can get it by calling on their junior colleagues.
Summary: Too frequently, executives ultimately do receive feedback in their year-end reviews (often as part of a 360-degree-feedback program), they are surprised to be confronted with specific criticisms of their leadership style, communication approach, and interpersonal skills.
- Executives should cultivate a network of junior coaches. Don’t just rely on an outside network of mentors or the board of directors.
- Push feedback further down (and no sacred cows): Facing challenges, a CEO decided to take an unorthodox step. He created a task force of six senior and midlevel high potentials and had them to look at the business with a clean sheet of paper, asking: “If you had to start this enterprise from scratch today, are these the markets we would serve? Are these the products we would offer? Are these the people we would hire? Is this the way we would organize, pay, and promote our people? What changes do we need to make, given our distinctive competencies and strategic aspirations?”
- Full article: Top executives need feedback—here’s how they can get it
Anyway, hope these summaries help, and as always feel free to contact me on LinkedIN if there is anything you want to share (or want posted),
“The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent PwC’s positions, strategies or opinions.”