Too often, says Conaty, HR executives make the mistake of focusing on the priorities and needs of the CEO. That diminishes the powerful role of being an employee advocate. "If you just get closer to the CEO, you're dead," says Conaty. "The HR leader locks in with the CEO, and the rest of the organization thinks the HR leader isn't trustworthy and can't be a confidant."
Conaty tries to counteract that risk by distancing himself from Immelt in public settings. While few people spend more time with Immelt than Conaty, he deliberately socializes with other colleagues at functions. Moreover, Conaty says he is the one to "purposely throw the daggers at Jeff that the other guys don't dare do. He knows what I'm doing. I need to be independent. I need to be credible." He also makes a point of being candid with leaders in private. As Immelt recently remarked: "I call Bill the 'first friend'...the guy that could walk in my office and kick my butt when it needed to be."
That's a perspective I am sure a lot of HR heads have lost :-)
Different Roles have different Ends, like different Strokes for different Folks.
ReplyDeleteSure! this could be a perpective for HR being a Business Partner!
Roma Ahuja
roma@resources-india.com
I think that you are definitely on to something. From what I've seen, there does seem to be a trend as of lately where HR is moving back towards being more of a business partner and less of a business insider.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to watch this over the next year to see whether the trend continues.