Top Story by Human Resource Executive® Magazine

Human resource coaches review the profession they serve - offering pros, cons and future forecasts.

Corporate coach Richard Hagberg describes a recent situation involving a software company's human resource executive he's coached for several months. The executive needs to be seen as someone with a strategic vision for helping stem the tide of turnover and as a player at the table of the chief executive officer. The CEO tells Hagberg he doubts his hire is up to the challenge, and his experience with HR executives in the past leads him to believe they all lack strategy and vision, preferring the path of bland accommodation rather than bold creativity.

Will the HR executive take charge, impress his boss and improve retention? "I'm not optimistic," says Hagberg, who operates Hagberg Consulting Group in Foster City, Calif., and has done 360-degree assessment profiles of 378 HR executives over the past five years. The situation of his client is hardly rare in the HR world, where despite the position's elevation to the executive table, the practitioners do not always receive the kind of respect and attention they deserve, he says. As he sees it, the wounds of disrespect are as much self-inflicted and reflective of HR executives in general as they are foisted upon them by an army of bottom-line-driven CEOs.

Hagberg's gotten to know a lot of HR executives over his 21-year career as one of a growing army of businesspeople who have jumped into the corporate coaching arena. Just as sports teams and stars all have coaches helping them train and work through their weaknesses, so do thousands of executives now have someone they can call to describe their challenges and hear some advice and solace in return.

Who better, then, to talk to about the current state of HR? Coaches know their players, no doubt, and corporate coaches know well the strengths and weaknesses of their corporate execs. With this in mind, <i>Human Resource Executive</i> decided to contact a handful of coaches across the country to draw up a psychological profile of the average HR professional to find out what makes you tick and to reveal what common challenges you'll be facing in the new millennium.

Consider this a mirror held up to those in HR. It's a pretty good picture, overall, although one with plenty of room for improvement. Here's what the coaches had to say.

<b>The Strengths</b>
HR folks make good dinner companions, no doubt. Hagberg finds them good listeners, sensitive to others, excellent at conflict resolution, accommodating to a fault and full of the sort of personal integrity not found in all executives. They embark on strategies for personal growth and encourage that in other employees, he says, two traits showing their capacity to change and improve their performance and that of others.

John Fennig, managing partner of DRI Consulting and feedbackshop.com Inc. in St. Paul, says HR folks "are very facilitative, gentle souls, highly empathetic, very tolerant of the full range of people and capable of dealing with their differences. They're accommodating in situations of conflicts ... and committed to the welfare of individuals in their workplace." HR offers senior managers who may not always have a light touch with employees a "barometer for morale" and an observer of how policies get received by underlings, he says. 

The position itself stands in a sometimes awkward spot in the middle of the corporation, with demands coming from executives and employees, says Dottie Perlman, owner of the coaching firm Insight Associates in Potomac, Maryland. "HR really gets a broad perspective of the organization because it really understands where the employees are coming from and where the organization is coming from," she says. "People within an organization often go to HR for answers to all kinds of issues."

The HR commander has to have a greater ethical compass than other executives, a notable trait in a litigious society, adds Fennig. HR executives are the first to help other managers handle employees with sub-par performances and to assist with those who must be terminated. They keep the organization on track legally when sensitive issues like performance and termination arise by working with employees who have been let go and by keeping the company out of court, he says.
At their best, HR executives can serve as translators of corporate policy and problem-solving techniques by offering solutions in languages technical and marketing managers can understand, says Jane Creswell, vice president of Organizational Development at Home Director Inc., a Morrisville, North Carolina-based spin-off company of IBM that provides a line of home networking and automation products. The ability to study interpersonal problems in a technical department and describe solutions to a manager in his own lingo by way of analogies is an important skill good HR people possess, she says.

<b>The Weaknesses</b>
One of the most significant issues in the human resource community today is how HR is perceived at any given company. The proverbial question is whether senior management sees human resources as peers and strategic partners. Some coaches say the more forward-thinking HR executives have created reputations for themselves as able business partners, but others have retreated from the challenge because they've been disregarded too often or because they haven't been as aggressive as they could have been in pushing their agendas and working closely with other managers.

"They're not vocal advocates of their strategic positions and, when they do push, they tend to accommodate," says Hagberg. "They're cooperators. They want to help others and therefore don't advocate their cases very well. They're frequently unwilling to take the risks and the unpopular stands to drive initiatives forward."

Creswell says the character of Catbert, the venal HR director in the cartoon "Dilbert," rings true to employees and other senior managers. As a rule, HR managers have shown great concern for the legal ramifications of every one of the programs they've offered instead of customizing them for employees while avoiding the one-size-fits-all mentality. Fennig calls these practitioners the "HR police" who are "over-sensitized to what is politically correct and frequently don't serve the needs of the employees they are supposed to be serving." 

The commitment of HR executives to the minutiae of policies and procedures can cloud their judgment and ability to become effective coaches and mentors to colleagues and staff, says Raoul Buron, group director for feedback and coaching at the Greensboro, N.C.-based Center for Creative Leadership and the instructor of its HR-focused "Coach The Coach" program. "They are much more skilled in the technical part of the discipline, ranging from writing job descriptions to succession planning, than in working with people as a coach," he says. Attempting to work with people one-on-one as a coach "is more than some (HR managers) bargained for or anticipated; it's taken a lot of training to turn them into internal consultants," adds Buron.

Taken as a whole, coaches see HR practitioners breaking down into two groups - the traditional role of gatekeepers and the new breed of business partners. The gatekeeper role still seems more common, says Creswell, who sees those executives as the ones who instruct employees and executives in the appropriate processes for various HR functions such as hiring, firing, benefits packages, stock options, training programs and so forth.

The procedural focus and the nurturing nature of HR professionals can lead them to suffer a lack of credibility among their peers, say coaches. "The facilitative and accommodating style doesn't lend itself to being more assertive, forceful and direct," says Fennig. "The challenge they have is to deal with issues straight up and head on and to view themselves as an equal at the executive table."
Part of the lack of HR credibility derives, at least in Creswell's experience, from a lack of line management experience. A former software engineer who gravitated toward HR after discovering programming did not fit her outgoing personality, Creswell finds her past experience exceptionally helpful in dealing with technology-inclined colleagues who have had a hard time respecting other HR people. 

"There's a mind-set from the technology side which believes HR doesn't understand anything about computers, and if they want a problem solved, the word is, 'Don't go to HR,' " she says. "They're not respected for technical or business expertise, but rather seen as people who just roll out programs, as 'issue generators.' "

So, as it stands, nice guys finish last and HR appears full of these folks. Abused, unloved, made fun of, possessing no seat at the head table. Weren't the coaches just talking about what decent people you all are?

To offer some hope and perhaps more constructive help, coaches did point out the problems they see in the profession and some ways their own clients have conquered them.

<b>Challenges and Solutions</b>
One tender area for HR executives is the fine line they walk between serving management and serving employees. Fennig says one executive warns against "going native" and losing perspective by favoring employees over management. In the end, HR represents management, not labor, and to forget that basic reality will lead to failure. In an intriguing example of a power struggle, Fennig recalls one HR client who wanted a desk in the middle of a new office rather than the executive suites next to the CEO. She argued being in the middle helped her capture the morale of employees while the CEO preferred his staff close for easy access.

Was that going native? Fennig says it's a close call, but it showed the executive had the wherewithal to stand firm on the issue, a difficulty faced constantly by the professional in general. She has not caved in yet to the demands of the CEO, and he may begin to see the reasoning for her stance - and appreciate it.

Karen Lawson, owner of Lawson Consulting Group in Lansdale, Pennsylvania., sees HR's challenge as dealing with the needs of employees in order to reduce turnover. On Wall Street, HR managers have introduced stress reduction and convinced management to create on-site gyms where employees can blow off steam. Career coaching and training, awards for recruiting friends and family and work/life balance priorities are and will remain huge issues for future HR executives, she says. Their functions will run the gamut from dealing with the demands of working mothers and fathers to making sure employees see a career ladder with their current employer so they don't jump ship to get a better job.

Coaches see HR moving toward full partnership with other executives. They consider a close relationship with the CEO to be a major imperative. They all say they have had clients who have cemented this relationship already and simply use their CEO as a sounding board and fellow strategist. For many HR executives, a seat at the table isn't a big deal because they've always had one. "I'm working with three or four dynamos who are aggressive, proactive, have good people skills, take the lead, work with senior leaders and are highly involved in management," says Bob Turknett, president of the Turknett Leadership Group in Atlanta. "I didn't see that kind of HR executive in the 1980s and '90s, but I see that now."

But what if you're not in that select group? How do you go about getting "just a little respect" from management, to borrow a phrase from Aretha Franklin?

Start with research, says Nancy Yahanda, a well-known Boston coach and owner of the Yahanda Group. When she began coaching HR executives, she found them remarkably well-versed in their own area of expertise - in some ways, more so than other executives - but weak in knowledge of their company's products and history. She suggests reading trade journals covering their industry and drilling down into their employer's data and research to achieve a greater understanding "of what drives performance and how they can influence that," she says.

Yahanda believes, like Creswell, that HR practitioners have to gain knowledge of their firm by hands-on work in another division through a request for reassignment. One financial services client of Yahanda's requested an 18-month reassignment to head strategic planning and was granted the wish. The head of strategic planning, meanwhile, took over the helm of the HR division. Once at loggerheads, the two vice presidents made amends after discovering the challenges involved in operating their respective divisions. The HR executive, in particular, found the experience increased his credibility in the organization.

Another HR executive at a professional services firm who had strengths in creating strong relationships with staff and other executives but lacked leadership experience won an appointment to serve as chair of the company's merger and acquisitions task force. The position is forcing her to absorb a great amount of information about a variety of topics from internal and external sources, as well as manage a committee composed of representatives of different departments. 

"She's not used to leading, she's used to advising others, especially in terms of attracting and retaining their top talent," says Yahanda. "Many HR executives are more comfortable as advisors to the business than as key leaders. ... This will test her ability in leading a team and in being the authority on this project."

Despite the belief that HR pros can be coached, Yahanda sees few senior HR executives seeking this service. She often sees members of their staffs and the other executives they work with, but she rarely sees them as clients. Whatever the reason, she suggests coaching could work to help senior execs navigate the challenges of the profession, from absorbing new employees brought in as a result of mergers to creating strategic visions for the future.

Finding a seat at the table, Fennig adds, should not be all that difficult since the nuts and bolts of HR can be outsourced or largely computerized. Employees can choose benefits packages from an intranet, after all, and scanners, data tools and outside contractors make HR operate smoothly enough to allow executives to concentrate on becoming strategic partners. They can use technology and outsourcing to get out from under the shadow of policy, says Perlman, and use the time to showcase their own return-on-investment to illustrate to the company their value and offer new strategies to meet employees' needs and attract talent.

The coaches, all of whom work with CEOs, added one additional observation. According to them, CEOs who question the abilities of their senior HR executives to provide strategic visions have open minds. They want HR to step up to the proverbial plate and hit a home run, or at least try. They want a vision of creating a workforce for the future, and they want HR to provide it.

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