OPINION
COMMON
MISCONCEPTIONS
BY LEADERS IN A WORKFORCE
The impact of effective management on
employees is significant. Lucy Adams, CEO
of Disruptive HR and former HRD at the BBC,
discusses common manager errors and the
importance of putting humans at the heart of HR.
A
s an employer you’ve surely questioned whether
the processes your team have created are delivering
results. Appraisal schemes, talent management
processes, succession plans – so much work, and so
little impact! Yet, when working long hours and dealing with
another operational crisis, it’s hard to take a step back and
question the traditional HR wisdom.
Today, so much research shows how people learn, stay
motivated, feel valued and so on. Many progressive companies
are already planting humans at the core, instead of focusing on
creating HR processes valued for being scalable, monitorable
and cost-effective.
processes. However, if you’ve hired a poor leader or manager,
no process will ever make them better. While our desire
to compensate stems from a positive intent, the impact is
corrosive and damaging.
It’s not always the big and sophisticated stuff that matters,
but the small things. Saying thank you. Being visible when
times are tough. Remembering people have lives outside of
work. These are the things that really matter to people and
increase happiness.
I led BBC People during a period of enormous change and
challenging times working with some fantastic leaders, others
less fantastic. Both at the BBC and in my work since, I learned
three key things. We tend to think that happiness is a constant state that we
can achieve and measure. However, for sustained growth and
performance, you need people who enjoy what they do, get
satisfaction from a job well done are recognised and rewarded
for their achievements, and are treated as individuals. We’ve
developed a model called EACH (Employees as Adults,
Consumers and Humans).
Treat people like grown ups and you’ll find they’re capable
of using their judgement when coping with difficult changes.
Conversely, treating people like children will stifle their ability
to grow and adapt. If we look at employees in this way, we will quickly see that
the processes and procedures we’ve put in place will not
give us the results we want, nor will they cause happiness
in people.
People follow human beings more than processes. In HR,
we often compensate for poor managers by implementing It’s time to disrupt our thinking and do something different.
That’s what’s important to a business.
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