“You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal thyself’…” – Luke 4:23
Nothing paints a picture like Proverbs.
Having “served” 20 years in the corporate world, 15 of those in Human Resources, I’ve seen my fair share of hypocrisy. Or is that too harsh? Isn’t it just the way of the world that we are all better at advising than we are at doing (there are a passel of cobbler’s children with an opinion on this)? At the very least, we open ourselves to the cry of “hypocrite!” when we venture into the role of giving advice.
Just ask my kids….
“Tell it to the judge, Pops.”
But now, it’s that time of year…decisions on merit ratings, compensation awards, incentive grants – all will be on the table for discussion. And in HR, we stand on the rooftops trumpeting the value of performance management and meaningful differentiation…but how do those concepts play in our own backyard?
Looking at the annual performance review process of the HR organizations in my past, If I were to grade the overall performance in making those “tough” decisions? I’d say C-minus, maybe D-plus? I’m sure many of you can point to a better experience, just as I’m sure a number of you are nodding your head in agreement – when it comes to taking our own advice, we can really suck.
So why even bring this up?
1. Your clients need to know – It’s okay to admit that yes, we have the same challenges when making those tough decisions. Humanizing HR is never a bad idea.
2. Stick to your guns – Even if we aren’t “perfect,” you can’t argue with the validity of the concept. Don’t let the disconnect in the message sway you from sharing solid advice.
3. Keep Working – We can never lose sight of improving our own practices…that allows us to keep our heads held high when advising others – In that way, we, as esteemed “Doctors,” will continue to heal ourselves.
Shoot, I thought you were going to be the new “Dr Who”. 😉 You are correct about hypocrisy in organizations. It is not confined to performance. It is actually a pretty consistent thread that ties the package together. One of my favorite examples is “empowerment”. If you take the empowerment statements outside of the organization they would be annoying at best and insulting at worst. You can’t bestow power on an individual. If you are in a position of authority you can help, you can remove barriers, you can connect people, you can assign projects but the power to achieve results lies within the
Who? 🙂 Yes, and the hypocrisy translates down to the individual…but, like being a parent, you need to realize there will be some contradictions in our words & actions – it doesn’t take away from the validity or importance of the message. Certainly hurts our credibility, but we’re human & need to move past it.