HR Summit and Expo 2012 – Dave Ulrich on HR Professionals as Architects
During the second session of Dave Ulrich’s presentation at the HR Summit and Expo 2012 in Dubai, the focus of the discussion moved from the future of HR to the role of HR professionals in this context.
Some of the key discussion points were:
- The role of HR professionals is that of architect for three main areas: talent, leadership and culture
- Focusing too much on talent has its own risks; in only around 20 percent of the cases the leading scorer plays on the team that wins the World Cup and the Best Actress/Actor plays in the movies also receiving the Oscar for the Best Movie that year. Therefore, Dave Ulrich emphasized that there is a need for talent but there is an even higher need for teamwork and an organizational culture to support it
- The leaders in the organization need to be committed to the culture we are trying to shape
- One way to approach a culture change is by starting where your customer wants and asking questions such as “What do we want to be known for?”
- All three areas (talent, leadership and culture) need to be simultaneously pursued; trying to prioritize among them is like attempting to choose the child you love the most among your daughter and sons
- “Leaders need to transfer leadership equity to the next leaders”, which will lead to the creation of the leadership brand; having great leaders is not equivalent to having great leadership; for instance, Steve Jobs is known as a great leader but in a great leadership scenarios Apple’s stock price would most probably not have been so closely correlated to Steve Jobs’ health state and presence/absence in the company
Tags: HR professionals, HR Summit and Expo, Leadership, Performance Management Events
