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The Chief Executive Office's shoes are the biggest shoes to fit into in an organisation. Stepping into them requires preparation over the years if one has to truly justify the role being entrusted to you. While traditionally this role was seen as the preserve of Finance or Manufacturing or Marketing personnel, there is now a new contender for the corner office: the Human Resources Director.
Actually, the idea is not really so new as it appears. There have been stellar CEOs in the Indian industry - Russi Mody being a notable example - who came into the corner office after playing the Chief of Human Resources role. Why is this not common yet? While CEOs continue to mouth platitudes about people being their most precious resources, many Human Resources functionaries will confess that the challenge is quite personal.
The classic Dave Ulrich Model of HR roles presents 4 elements: HR as an Administrative Expert, as Employee Champion, as a Change Agent & as a Strategic Partner. Too often HR professionals are guilty of being restrained to the first two roles. In fact, this is a self-imposed isolation as they do not push themselves to acquiring the skills & business acumen to play the Business role. I would stress that while the tendency is to play a minor partner's role, not often do we find HR professionals dynamic enough to get into the driver's seat to shape things strategically. Instead, they remain happy to be order-takers rather than genuinely risking all with deep conviction in their positions.
Interestingly, a couple of years ago Harvard Business Review carried a feature about the research by Dave Ulrich & Korn Ferry. To highlight in brief their key finding, after examining 14 aspects of leadership amongst C-suite executives, the conclusion was that 'except for the COO (whose role and responsibilities often overlap with the CEO's), the executive whose traits were most similar to those of the CEO was the CHRO. "This finding is very counterintuitive-nobody would have predicted it," Ulrich says.'
Why then is the transition from the CHRO role to CEO still uncommon? I believe that the lack of personal drive and ambition to play the CEO role is a key factor. If one is ambitious enough, then one prepares oneself for it. As Ulrich & his collaborator noted in the above-mentioned research, 'The challenge for CHROs is to...acquire sufficient technical and financial skills, in early education and in career steps along the way, if succession to CEO is a desired outcome.'
With a greater thrust on orchestrating results from knowledge workers in today's organisation, there is an untapped opportunity waiting for CHROs to move into the corner office. The coming years should see more instance, I believe. However, the question remains: are they ambitious enough to venture forth?
To read the complete issue click here.
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