Leading People: An Explanation
January 4th, 2011Author: Chris Dennis
Explaining how human resources see individuals.
We are at a perfect time to redefine the words we use as we work with clients. To help our organizational leaders understand how important words are as we use them to define work and the employees/people who do the work that contributes to an organization’s success.
I am a former personnel/human resources person so how we treat people within organizations is near and dear to my heart – hence my passion for being appreciative at all levels of an organization.
One term that has become popular in organizations is to refer to employees as human capital(personnel, human resources, talent, human capital).
Human capital can mean that the organization values people as much as they do their buildings, equipment etc and that excited me at first. But, as with leverage and assets we know how capital is used.
I am fearful that the term capital lends itself so that organizations may view employees/people as objects rather than the valued resources as you mention.
The difficulty that we have is to use words that corporate leaders understand and value and I know I struggle with this. Perhaps we can use leverage AI so when we demonstrate that the principles and actions are an asset? Organizational leaders are looking at the bottom line – what we do does not produce income (sales) or necessarily immediate results but contributes to their ability to do so. Anyone have suggestions for words that we can use with clients that speaks to them but speaks to us in terms of valuing people?
Clearly a person who is trying and struggling to translate valuing people for their skills, humanity and competencies into the vocabulary of the Executive Suite.
Would you translate or would you agitate for change in executive viewpoint and consequently behaviour?
How would you feel if you were describes as ‘human capital’ – appreciated as a human being or coldly viewed as a commodity?