- - Introduction As corporate governance evolves from being just a statutory necessity to becoming a true driver of value creation, Human Resources (HR) has steadily found its rightful place on the agenda of corporate Boards. Today , Boards devote significant attention to HR matters not merely as compliance issues but as strategic levers that shape long-term performance and sustainability. The HR-related areas that regularly feature on the Board’s agenda include: Leadership—

Years ago, when I was at Diageo, some of us from different parts of the world were pulled into a creative setting in Chicago to deal with a problem statement. At that point in time, we found that we were losing a significant number of high-potential employees – those the company had nurtured, moved across markets, and given higher roles, etc. And yet, they were either fired or left. So the Diageo exec asked the group of us in Chicago, What do we need to do to keep people? It

Companies ostensibly trying to drive a performance culture with calibration and forced ranking systems end up with serious, negative unintended consequences. The result? Mismatched and unmet expectations, demotivated employees and a process where everyone including leaders are relieved that its done with for the year . How did we get it so wrong? Let's examine this at 3 levels : 1. Context of Calibration 2. Pay for Performance 3. Organisation Performance 1. Isn’t calibration

-- Leadership is often inferred from roles, résumés, and results. Yet its true quality becomes visible only when circumstances remove predictability. This reflection explores why mentoring matters before that moment arrives. Leadership is often described in terms of competence, capability, or experience. Yet many of us intuitively recognise that leadership is something more elusive—embedded, situational, and often invisible until it is tested. It is like culture, any number o

Rethinking How Organizations View Development -- What is the right Question? Have you ever been left wondering, “Are we asking the right question?” As an HR professional, I have often been asked by business leaders about the ROI of a training programme or any developmental input. Business leaders tend to view any expenditure on any part of the business as either a cost or an investment—so if you can't come up with an ROI, the amount quickly moves to a cost item, which is then

Developing future leaders is a priority for most organizations. In fact, almost every competency framework includes “developing subordinates,” “building successors,” or “nurturing the next generation of leaders.” Leaders at every level emphasize its importance, and companies invest significantly in leadership development efforts. These investments usually include defining leadership competency models, running assessment centers to identify high potentials, partnering with con

Do Action learning projects make a succinct difference? In many a survey of CEOs across the world by different agencies, one expectation...

Capabilities for the future Future Skills, Future-Ready, etc, are words that we hear a lot nowadays. But what does it really mean to...