The 3rd and final day of this year’s CIPD conference ended for me and my co-speaker Perry Timms, Head of Talent & OD at The Big Lottery with a hot session on Pyrotechnic Leadership!
In summary, is the leadership badge given by default to managers who want or need to be promoted or is it bestowed on an ‘awesome’ manager by the people in an organisation who are that fired up, that inspired and that prepared to follow said person that they brand them a leader?
We call that person a ‘Pyrotechnic Leader’ because they’re on fire! So what can the HR function do to help their Pyrotechnic Leaders? Well, they can start small sparks, help ignite something in their people in order to align them, engage them in the organisations journey. We call it ‘Flint Based HR’.
The third step from our perspective is to understand which people block or hinder the above because they are corporate passengers or you HR as their guardians haven’t yet found out what will ignite them and how to let loose their yet untapped potential. We call them ‘Asbestos Employees’.
There’s a train of thought that suggests asbestos is toxic. It’s certainly categorised like that in the construction industry so as an analogy should we remove it from our organisations? The answer is yes and no! If there is no untapped potential in a person and they are and are always going to be a passenger and won’t ignite then yes remove them, or better yet liberate them and set them free by helping them transition to somewhere better for them.
However if they merely need re-aligning, re-engaging, sitting in a different seat or the organisation needs to present a clearer vision and opportunity to leave a legacy that people can buy into then the answer is no. Don’t give up on them!
And so after four days away from home and three days speaking for the CIPD it’s time for me to bid you farewell. In truth I’m knackered and Mrs B wants me home so feel free to comment, tweet at #CIPD10 or email me at cris@crisbeswick.com if you want to talk further about any of the things Perry and I have floated in our VBI sessions.
I’m out, goodbye...
Cris Beswick
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