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SHRM National - Jim Collins makes leadership sound easy

 Want to watch a good presenter?  Stop reading this and go to YouTube and search for a clip from a Jim Collins speech.  Any clip will do.  The toughest time slot for a keynote has to be the Tuesday morning keynote – it is the “hangover” morning, the day after “party night” with all of the vendor sponsored events.  No matter.

He made a concise case for the importance of talent management, and how HR is the key competency for the next 10 years.  The overall theme of his presentation was the analysis of when things go wrong.  He said “Nothing I enjoy more than the forensic analysis of train wrecks…”  He then uses the wisdom gained to contrast success and failure.

A few quotes:

“Put people first, strategy second.”

“Stop making attempts to “get to the table”.  HR is the table now.”

“Personality is not leadership.  There are some great leaders with no personality.”

“First, start with someone who is capable at their job.  Then, help them be a member of the organizational team.  Next step is to be a competent manager.  With that, they can develop effective leadership skills.  Finally, with all of that, they might become a great leader.  What is the key factor, the “X” factor for great leadership?  Humility.”

“Humility means you are aspiring to be the dumbest person in the room.”

“Don’t spend too much time being interesting.  Spend time being interested.”

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