‘The Leadership Issue’

Whilst my own ambitions regards leadership might be a bit confused, most people haven’t been so bewildered regards how important leadership is in 2020. As the world has dealt with coronavirus, increased awareness, and protests against inequality, and serious disruption to professional and personal structures, not to mention growing climate issues, leadership – good leadership particularly – has come to the top of the agenda.

For HR, the follow on might be, in this year of changes, has the function’s relationship to leadership changed too? Just a decade ago, HR’s overriding involvement in top-of-hierarchy discussions might have been to do the bureaucratic bidding of leaders or to create some kind of onboarding or initial stages in leadership development. Now, at least some of the conversations I’m having seem to suggest, it is a function that has serious designs on being business leading itself. As CIPD’s CEO told HR Grapevine one year ago, before this chaos came to pass: “Of course HR can lead”.

In essence, this is what this issue of HR Grapevine magazine focuses on. From why HR was turned to during this crisis to HR functions that stepped up, not forgetting a deep dive on if it can be considered a business-leading area.

As ever, stay safe and enjoy.

Daniel Cave - Head of Content