A post on the Management Craft blog took me down the proverbial rabbit hole to a blog post by Human Resources professional, Sanjay Lakhotia called People!! I Am Loving It. In it, he chuckles about aspiring HR candidates who say they’re interested in the work because they “love people,” and challenges their motives by offering this perspective:
“Would you do the following if you really loved these people?
– Fire people to improve the profitability of the company
– Force managers to reduce the ratings of people to meet the bell curve even if they have done a good job
– Make policies to stop 2% of the population from doing wrong things inconveniencing all others
– Make life miserable for anybody who quits
– Get people to work harder even if they do not like it (without paying overtime)”
Okay, I get where he’s coming from. HR is not a bed of roses; you have to do some tough stuff. You’re often caught between your responsibility to the company and your relationship with its employees. But, first of all, every job has its rough patches and unpleasantries.
Every job.
Following the “don’t do HR if you love people” logic we could also say, for example:
Don’t be a teacher if you love people, because you (occasionally) have to
-Flunk students
-Give detentions
-Administer tests that you don’t believe in
-Deliver bad news to parents about their perfect offspring
Don’t be a doctor if you love people because you (occasionally) have to
-Stick needles in them
-Cut them open
-Prescribe drugs with nasty side-effects
-Refuse to treat people who aren’t covered by insurance
-Deliver bad news to families and loved ones
Don’t be a cop if you love people because you (occasionally) have to
-Write tickets on a quota
-Arrest and detain the innocent
-Fire your weapon
-Deal with politicians and bureaucrats who seem hell-bent on making your job impossible
-Deliver bad news to parents, families and loved ones
You get the picture. You can apply this “logic” to any job in any field.
The Extreme Leader’s opportunity, on the other hand, is to do the job because you love people. That’s what gives you the juice to fight to make the situation right for as many employees as possible by (going back to Sanjay’s HR scenario)
-Lobbying to keep those people that shouldn’t be fired
-Challenging the bell curve by showing a better way to measure and reward performance
-Ditto for the bad/ obsolete / damaging policies
-Help the people who quit by making their exit as smooth as possible, and learning what you can about their reasons for leaving
-Use your love and knowledge of people to inspire them to work harder, smarter, more creatively and with more fulfillment–and get them paid appropriately.
Maybe Sanjay isn’t looking for leaders, which is fine, I suppose.
But given the last line of his post,
“you may have to find some really good organisation, sorry I am not aware of any, where HR actually does things out of their love for people,”
maybe he should be.
What say you?
Steve, you hit the nail right on the head- the love gives you the ability to be as fair as possible, and to fight to right any wrongs on behalf of the people you serve. That’s why I enjoy being a leader, because I can make that kind of difference for people – even the ones that end up leaving. Well done!
Steve, you hit the nail right on the head- the love gives you the ability to be as fair as possible, and to fight to right any wrongs on behalf of the people you serve. That’s why I enjoy being a leader, because I can make that kind of difference for people – even the ones that end up leaving. Well done!
Absolutely. I prefer to think of people who love talent and that love will ensure that it can thrive. If you love talent, you also deal with people who waste it or don’t respect it etc….
HR is about business, the same as the other functions. It brings to the boardroom table the ability to attract, and nurture talent – not because it is the nice thing to do! – but because your role is the same as everyone else…to build a high performance culture which delivers the vision of the company.
Absolutely. I prefer to think of people who love talent and that love will ensure that it can thrive. If you love talent, you also deal with people who waste it or don’t respect it etc….
HR is about business, the same as the other functions. It brings to the boardroom table the ability to attract, and nurture talent – not because it is the nice thing to do! – but because your role is the same as everyone else…to build a high performance culture which delivers the vision of the company.
Hmmm…well Steve, this is a bit of a tough one. You know I always look through the operations lens. I am more in Anna’s camp here. You can and should have love for your employees, but sometimes that means removing someone for the better good of the whole family. You do have to have love, and passion. My one caveat here, is that often the performance problem that arises is merely a symptom of a really bad system. For instance, you can punish someone for absenteeism, but if your absenteeism rate is high, you might be better off asking why people don’t want to be there and address that. I have seen too many great recruits turn into mediocre performers after a few years and my gut tells me it was something that was done to them as opposed to something they did.
Hmmm…well Steve, this is a bit of a tough one. You know I always look through the operations lens. I am more in Anna’s camp here. You can and should have love for your employees, but sometimes that means removing someone for the better good of the whole family. You do have to have love, and passion. My one caveat here, is that often the performance problem that arises is merely a symptom of a really bad system. For instance, you can punish someone for absenteeism, but if your absenteeism rate is high, you might be better off asking why people don’t want to be there and address that. I have seen too many great recruits turn into mediocre performers after a few years and my gut tells me it was something that was done to them as opposed to something they did.
Mike, you and I are in–as we like to say–violent agreement on this. Sometimes love of the company and its goals and love of a particular person conflict, and you find yourself having to remove an individual for the greater good. I’ve never had a problem with that (there is such a thing as tough love, after all), and often times it ends up being to the benefit of that individual if he or she finds work that they’re better suited for, etc.
Mike, you and I are in–as we like to say–violent agreement on this. Sometimes love of the company and its goals and love of a particular person conflict, and you find yourself having to remove an individual for the greater good. I’ve never had a problem with that (there is such a thing as tough love, after all), and often times it ends up being to the benefit of that individual if he or she finds work that they’re better suited for, etc.