Insight into HR and leadership trends

The assistant dean of the University of London's Birkbeck College, Andreas Liefooghe, and the head of the human resource management programme at the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Siriyupa Roongrerngsuke, point to some of the latest trends in human-resource and leadership development in Europe and Asia. The Nation's Pichaya Changsorn reports.

Unlike during previous economic recessions, companies are investing heavily in leadership development, says Birkbeck College assistant dean Andreas Liefooghe.

"I think people now very much realise that good HR systems can help their bottom lines. They have come to be aware that HR strategies can affect performance of organisations and the well-being of staff," he said.

However, rather than going to consultancy firms, many more organisations and their executives are vying for academic qualifications and executive coaching that allow them to minimise their weaknesses while maximising their strengths, said Liefooghe, who has coached some European executives.

"I think the key word is 'resilient' - how you manage to get a resilient workforce and a resilient organisation," he said.

To achieve a resilient organisation and workforce, the first trend involves an emphasis on developing leaders' capabilities to deal with pressure before it leads to stress, by which time it is often too late, Liefooghe said.

The second point is that leaders are listening much more to their followers, not just their own superiors as in a top-down hierarchy. And last, companies are increasingly demanding evidence to support their decisions to invest in programmes, and not just following fads.

"For instance, before buying [a training programme], companies will ask [the seller]: Can you show me the results in particular companies? Success is a key parameter," he said.

While many consultancy firms have reported flat revenue, universities have become a more popular source of knowledge for companies and their executives, as Birkbeck College found when it opened a leadership development programme in October.

"I think now there is much more realisation that there is no silver bullet. There is no one right answer. They are looking for something rock-solid because now they don't have much spare cash," said Liefooghe, explaining why universities are gaining popularity against consultancies in the leadership and HR development fields.

Sasin Graduate Institute's Siriyupa Roongrerngsuke said the trend was the same here in Thailand, where even when the economy was not so good the institute did not see a reduction in the number of training requests, especially in the area of leadership development.

She said the institute received more applications than it could accommodate. "Even medium-sized firms, and some IT firms run by new-generation managers, have contacted us to provide them with training."

The healthcare service industry, which never paid much attention to leadership development in the past, is now sending its senior doctors to universities, Liefooghe said.

Considering the current business circumstances and needs in Asia, Siriyupa said HR professionals in the region should go back to the basics and perform their main duties, which were to ensure availability of talent and efficient work processes for their organisations.

Therefore, HR professionals must have the ability to design organisational processes to gain efficiency, otherwise they will lose their jobs to financial, engineering, marketing and other personnel who have that capability.

"At present, half of the students enrolled in our HR programme are not HR [professionals], but engineers or financial and marketing executives. This is because the employers say these people know the business. It's easier to train them to know HR than to train HR to know about businesses. Seagate, for example, is sending its engineers" to take an HR course at Sasin.

"This is a warning [sign] for HR [professionals]. They have to expand their competencies, cut their egos and get out from their corners to team up more with their CEOs and [department] managers," Siriyupa said.

Liefooghe said that in Europe there were more men joining HR classes because the HR profession now was perceived as having a higher status than in the past, when men would mainly go for engineering and finance courses, and leave HR to females.

Nonetheless, Siriyupa was quick to add: "But most of the top HR [executives] in Thailand are still the ladies."

--LEADERSHIP QUALIFICATIONS

Liefooghe said he had no favourite chief executive officer at present because some people were good in some aspects, or some were good during some period, or at certain projects.

Taking into account the current economic situation, the Birkbeck College assistant dean said he considered "ability to tolerate frustrations" as the No 1 leadership quality.

"You can hold two different contradictory thoughts [at one] time, and finally you can make the decision," he said.

Other required leadership qualities include resilience, tenacity and patience.

"Five years ago, this would have been very different. There would have been more about taking risks, and so on," Liefooghe said.

Rather than trying to develop themselves to possess these leadership qualifications, some CEOs, nonetheless, have acknowledged their weaknesses and focused instead on building teams around them who can fill the gaps.

Liefooghe said today's leaders must be able to tolerate imperfection when there is no perfect answer. On the other hand, they should be able to make a decision without having to wait for all evidence.

Siriyupa said Thais were resilient and flexible by nature but should incorporate more business sense and become more solid in acquiring accurate data and information for conducting their business. The skills to optimise benefits among different parties are also required by Thai HR professionals, as well as ethical and moral standards, she said.

pichaya@nationgroup.com

--Leadership qualities

Ability to tolerate frustations

Resilient

Tenacity

Patient

Source: Andreas Liefooghe, assistant dean of the University of London's Birkbeck College