Talent Management - September 2008 - (Page 4)

[from the editor] by Mike Prokopeak T can’t, teach.” Those Who Can, Go Into HR room full of skeptical 17-year-olds. Imagine having a rebellious teenage child who directly and indirectly questions everything you do at all times, then multiply that by 30. Sure, the competencies required for teachers are in part knowledgebased, but good teachers are far more than content-area experts. They’re master planners capable of constructing and carrying out the most complicated and detailed plans, and continually adjusting on the ﬂy. They’re coaches, mentors and expert communicators. They’re motivators and passionate leaders, capable of management strategy at Lehman Brothers, explain why they — two bright young business leaders with a wide range of career choices before them — chose to pursue human capital management. They respond to their former classmates’ incredulousness by saying that being in HR puts them at the center of one of the most critical issues in business: workforce talent. Stereotypes remain about HR practitioners throughout the business world. They’re often seen as gloriﬁed administrators, compliance police and the go-to people only when there’s a party that needs planning. But workforce talent continues to rise to the top of the corporate agenda, and talent management increasingly is seen as critical to organizational growth. And guess who sits right at the intersection between the business of the future and the talent required to make it a reality? Much like teachers, the new HR practitioners are not limited by traditional conceptions of their role. They’re long-term visionaries working with executives to create a plan for the future, and practical solutionoriented decision makers charged with making that vision a reality. While this idea of the new HR — the strategic talent management role — isn’t new, it’s taking on increased priority at leading organizations such as MasterCard and Lehman Brothers that are positioning themselves at the cutting edge of the most critical issue facing business today. In the new business environment, those who can, go into HR. “Those who can, do. Those who Nobel prize-winning Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw ﬁrst coined that phrase in his play “Man and Superman.” It was included in a section of the play called “Maxims for Revolutionists,” a collection of writings penned by the main character, who fancies himself a man of “advanced ideas.” It’s a deft bit of characterization meant to illustrate the essential conﬂict between the intellectual and the practical. But taken out of its context in Shaw’s play, the oft-re- Much like teachers, the new HR practitioners are not limited by traditional conceptions of their role. peated phrase has come to represent a broader view that teachers are out of touch with the real world. Essentially, the question is: If teachers know so much about a subject, why aren’t they out in the world doing something with that knowledge? The implication is that teachers are failures who lack the practicality and strength of purpose required for “real” work. They’re no more than gloriﬁed baby sitters for hormonal teenagers, counting down the days until another work-free summer. The critics miss the point by assuming teaching is simply about passing along knowledge and neglecting the critical role teachers play in guiding students, supporting their development and creating opportunities for growth. And anyone who questions the practicality and strength of purpose required of teachers hasn’t had to test their resolve against a classSeptember 2008 inspiring even the most reluctant. Teachers also are relentless tinkerers and disciplined efﬁciency experts, always looking for better, more effective ways to do their jobs. If I sound biased, I am. I come from a family of teachers and spent six years teaching high school English myself. But I’m also biased toward HR, and there’s an interesting parallel here. Quite often, HR practitioners are viewed as the teachers of the business world. General managers, accountants and engineers often look at their HR colleagues and wonder, why aren’t they doing a real job? Two recent Harvard MBA grads tackled this lingering HR perception head-on in a recent issue of Harvard Business Review. In “Why Did We Ever Go Into HR?,” Matthew Breitfelder, vice president for management and leadership development at MasterCard Worldwide, and Daisy Wademan Dowling, vice president of human capital Mike Prokopeak Editorial Director mikep@talentmgt.com 4 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - September 2008

Talent Management - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance: Stop Wasting Money on Training Leading Edge: No Whining, No Excuses Learning Connections: Do You Get It? The Untapped Resource Reinventing HR Doing Compensation Right: The Winning Spread Managing Performance in the Knowledge and Innovation Worker Age Stop-The-Clock Time Management Preparing for the Future in the Public Sector SAS: Connecting People, Process and Products Talent Transformation at Textron The Price of Finding the Right Gen Y Candidate Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential: Do What You Love, Love What You Do

Talent Management - September 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.