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Taking A New Job? How To Qualify The CEO

I serve quite a few chief human resource officers. When we are in a career-marketing search, I tend to get a little strident about in how important it is to qualify the boss – usually the CEO.

Here are a few central questions:

Has the CEO taken charge of the culture or is that being turned over to someone else?

Like you?

If your are a CHRO and the CEO isn’t leading your culture, keep your bags packed! You will be evaluated and judged in areas that are as difficult as pushing an egg up a hill with your nose.  Some CEOs, not wanting to be bothered with culture actually throw human resource executives onto the pyre for failing with an initiative that only they can lead.

The very word “engagement” implies connectedness and transparency. Most engagement programs are already failing when the CEO walks into human resources and says, “Fix the problem.” Make no mistake about it engagement is an emotional state and many CEOs are uncomfortable with the feelings generated by the human side of business. Others are so frenzied in dealing with the market and shareholder expectations they believe they can’t add culture to their crowded plates.

Regardless of the reason, the results will be the same:

No matter how the initiative is messaged, pack behavior dictates that everyone looks past the shoulder of that individual to the head of the tribe. Usually, they witness a CEO who demonstrates “business as usual.” In following the queues of the CEO it is only natural for them to think, “Why bother?”

This example becomes even more plausible when we equate engagement with change. The journey from disengagement to engagement requires deep personal change. Invariably, a successful outcome requires that we learn new life skills. Fear and discomfort will always be part of the learning process.

Therefore, it is wise for the CEO or business owner to become the first to put his or her feet to the fire and embrace all of the characteristics of engagement.

We consistently find CEOs of category leaders live and breathe this commitment.

But if the CEO isn’t prepared to go here, perhaps it would be wise to save your money as well as your face. And, if you are looking for a new place to call home, keep looking!

David Harder
David Harderhttp://www.inspiredworkservices.com
DAVID founded Inspired Work in 1990, which has helped over 42,000 professionals transform their relationship towards work. Individuals from all walks of life attend Inspired Work’s public programs to launch new careers, new business or to become more successful in their existing role. He views work as a profound opportunity to become more fulfilled, contributive and effective. Mr. Harder’s leadership, employee engagement, executive development and social networking programs are used in a wide variety of organizations including The Walt Disney Company, HBO, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Loyola Marymount University, University of Southern California, The United Church of Religious Science, Morgan Stanley, and many others. Inspired Work’s leadership programs, career development and team building programs produce some of the worlds most outstanding satisfaction numbers in any business: 92.6% out of a hundred. David has appeared on many business and human-interest programs including CNN, KTLA News, KFWB News and Business News Network. David’s book, new book, The Workplace Engagement Solution (Career Press) offers an entire “crack-the-code” approach to engagement.

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CONVERSATIONS

  1. The world is changing, we are all changing, and our culture is changing. Even the HR has to change and not just to accompany, but to be in the front row to lead the transformation. From my point of view, the HR is the entity enabler of change, his work in total synergy with the figure of the CEO, it is critical to make evolve the company culture to a more liquid organizational, flatter, less hierarchical, where information running smoothly. To do this, in my opinion, it is not enough to be a good specialist, a key ingredient is a knowledge of the business. The HR managers must develop an attitude that allows them to work more effectively with the CEO and the heads of other functions in establishing a point of view of all relevant personnel issues for the company. This means that those responsible for human resources must have the specialist skills that affect them, but also first-rate knowledge of the company’s strategic goals. And the next corollary is that, to do this, the HR director has to approach the CEO and be placed in a top position that allows him to play this increasingly important role. The suggestion is actually to create a G3, or a committee of the summit that unites CEOs with CFO and CHRO in an efficient body of the organization run.

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