HR PEOPLE ARE FROM MARS, CEO'S ARE FROM VENUS! By Dr John Sullivan Have you ever noticed that VP's of HR almost never become CEO's at their own firm's? Think about it! Their failure to move up is partially caused by the dramatic differences between how HR people and CEO’s think and act?it’s almost like they are from different planets. HR professionals have been fighting for years to gain the respect of CEO's and managers. Many HR professionals have gained a degree of respect as business partners. Now, however it's time to raise the level of HR recognition even further. That means moving beyond the business partner level to become "business leaders". Competitive advantage HR In order to make that transition, it is essential that senior HR professionals begin to look at themselves as others see them. If you take a step back and look at HR as an outsider would, you will see that HR people talk, think and respond to issues differently then a CEO or CFO would. It's not difficult to see the difference. Just read HR publications and visit HR websites. Compare the topics, terminology and focus to those found in mainstream business magazines like CEO, CFO and Fortune. You will see a profound difference. CEO’s see business as a battlefield and they expect HR to provide the strategies and the talent to give the firm a distinctive competitive advantage. I call that role “competitive advantage HR? In stark contrast, HR is devoid of “warriors? CEO’s are generally people that draw their “mentality?from military, business school and competitive sports experiences. HR generally gets over 50% of its employees from the social sciences, where cooperation and helping the “less fortunate?is taught rather than competition. “Our #1 opportunity is to build a competitive advantage, not to build benefit plans for our organization?br> VP of HR Cisco I’ve met/ worked for over 100 VP’s of HR and dozens of CEO’s over the last few years and although there are clearly exceptions, I’ve found that CEO’s and HR executives are like oil and water. And I see little shrinkage in the immediate future in the chasm between CEO's and HR executives. One can argue that CEO's should become more like “us? However, it's more realistic to assume that if HR professionals are truly to become “business leaders?that they must learn to think, talk and act more like senior management, rather than vice versa. BE FOREWARNED This article is designed to make you think. It is by design critical of many in the HR profession (even though generally HR people don’t take kindly to criticism). I realize you can’t easily generalize about all HR professionals but my research and observations have shown that we are in fact different. I don’t believe it’s in our DNA but rather it’s a result of a history of promoting people with a lack of line management experience and business degrees. I've been in HR for over 30 years. I've served as a Chief Talent Officer for a Fortune 500 company, a professor in a business school and a CEO. During that time, I’ve found that when you interview or observe CEO’s you find that they are dramatically different then “we?are. They are generally aggressive types that try to make a big splash and enjoy the direct line of fire while too many HR executives are happy as staff officers. Unfortunately, if we choose to remain comfortable as part of “overhead?we may also be simultaneously degrading the importance of the “people function?to the level of purchasing, accounting and shipping. If VP’s of HR are to become future CEO's and business leaders we need to look at our perspective, our thinking and our language and then dramatically shift it so it comes more into alignment with the approach taken by senior business executives!. Continue >>