There is a difference between a manager and a leader. There is a reason a manager is called a manager and a leader is called a leader. Leaders are revered by people and managers avoided. Leaders are those people who are followed by people and looked up to. They command the attention, admiration, and love of people. The managers are avoided by the employees as they bring in more work, are after the employees for discipline, engagement activities, and what not. Managers are going to turn into HR leaders of today. True. But not every manager is born to be HR leaders of tomorrow. Leaders are specifically concerned about achieving objectives of the highest order ideals such as inspiration and motivation of the employees. The positions of manager and leader are not mutually exclusive and independent of each other. Great leadership skills can’t be achieved without great management skills and vice-versa. The human resources managers which are fairly new to the system have a hard time distinguishing between emotional intelligence and sympathy. They are concentrated more on getting the work done rather than achieving development of soft skills such as coaching, engaging, and encouraging the employees to bring their best to the table. Great communication skills and people-handling abilities take managers of human development to another level. They get the employees to feel passionate about the kind of work they do and improve their productivity and retention resulting in low attrition and turnover rates for the companies they work with. When it’s difficult to relate to the employees, differences start arising, and people tend to hate the managers. A positive reinforcement works wonders and a negative one can ruin the brand awareness, placement, and consciousness. The world is a super-connected highway and if something written about one company goes viral, it damages the reputation of the complete organization. One lawsuit being filed by plaintiffs here and major sackings, reshuffling, and replacements there. It can have a devastating effect on the human resources leaders who are sacked as a strategy to overturn the damages to the company. The solution? An effective human capital management. It never goes wrong. In contrast to a front-line manager, human resources management leaders take a great time devising strategies, planning for long-term and focusing on the right talent. It’s not like leadership skills can’t be inculcated as a practice for lower-level managers. Companies must organize a summit or leadership development program for such managers with experienced leaders. The world is small and human capital management picture, big. The picture is growing bigger with a confluence of different cultures, colors, races, genders, nationalities, and ethnicities. Add to that the generational gap that appears every five years and you have a talent pool varying largely from each other. The right balance between management and leadership will create the complete difference between success and failure of human management strategies. The implementation of efficacious talent management strategy is a far cry from planning about it.
HR Leaders, not Managers drive Human Capital Management
