Reflecting on CHRO SA's 2018 summits and dinners
2018 could not have been a better year for what is now a fullyfledged CHRO South Africa community.
In addition to a successful inaugural HR Indaba, where over 3,000 HR practitioners and service providers came together to network and learn from each other, top HR directors and executives enjoyed a number of exclusive events and dinners throughout the year.
A select group of HR executives from South Africa's leading corporates attended a series of dinners with sports health coach performance expert Richard Sutton, who shared his unconventional wisdom on how to get the best out of your people. Hosted at Marble Restaurant in Rosebank, the dinners saw the likes of Absa's Busi Mtsweni, Takeda's Shirley Joscelyne, and Edcon's Darryl Feldman all sitting together in an intimate setting, sharing their experiences and insights over a five-star meal.
"It's all about taking people's potential and maximising it by introducing changes in cognitive behaviour, relationships and or lifestyle," says Richard, who consults with leading companies on stress resilience, employee engagement and productivity, and has worked with top-tier athletes including five tennis players who've been ranked number one in the world, seven who have been in the top five, and several Olympic medalists from all over the world.
Richard explored the fundamentals of building resil
ience, embracing stress and making the most of your latent ability and shared stories on how he helped champions like Kevin Anderson, Martina Navratilova and Ryk Neethling cope with pressure and stress.
The author of The Stress Code: From Surviving to Thriving: A Scientific Model for Stress Resilience, explained that while chronic stress invariably has an adverse effect on one's physical and mental health, short intervals of stress can offer tremendous potential to grow, break personal barriers and excel.
"It was great to sit down with other HR leaders and hear more about what they're up to. I really value the CHRO South Africa platform and you are making a significant difference to the HR profession," says Dean Naidoo, people leader for Africa at Aurecon.
“I really value the CHRO South Africa platform and you are making a significant difference to the HR profession."
Taking time to reflect
The annual year-end summit wrapped up an eventful year for CHRO South Africa, asking HR leaders to turn their attention to themselves and reflect on their own career journey. As a collective of people who spend a lot of their time building the careers of others, attendees found this event refreshing.
The summit included a panel discussion with Fergus Marupen (group head HR at SAPPI), Cebile Xulu (HR director at Mondelez International), Ndivhu Nepfumbada (HR director: Africa at Transunion) and Lindiwe Sebesho (executive: Talent, Performance Optimisation & Remuneration at Barloworld).
“I am not one to back down from conflict but when conflict comes down to your values position, then you have a difficult choice to make as a leader.”
Together they discussed a multitude of ideas relating to how people should manage their careers, from knowing when the time was right to leave an organisation, to taking time to celebrate your achievements and not be so hard on yourself when your career is not progressing exactly the way you had imagined.
Ndivhu, for instance, never acquiesced to headhunters, explaining that she preferred to leave an organisation and pick her next challenge strictly on her own terms. It was a revelation that gave a fresh perspective to a room full of leading executives and HR directors who had been headhunted themselves and would surely be approached many times again as their careers continued.
Similarly, Lindiwe explained how meticulous she is about self-reflection, stating that she instils the principles of planning one's own future in her children.
“For me to believe in the things that I say to other people, I have to practice them myself. That's why, even at home, I have a tendency to performance manage my kids and reward them as they achieve great milestones,” she said. “My home is an organisation that has strategy and performance scorecards. My children often joke with me saying they wished they had a mother that didn't ask them every day what they achieved and they were going to do better tomorrow. But that's how I do things.”
Knowing when to say no
Other leaders spoke about how to go about evaluating potential employers. Fergus highlighted the importance of leaving an organisation if it is not the right fit, especially if one realises that there is a values clash.
Said Fergus: "I am not one to back down from conflict but when conflict comes down to your values position, then you have a difficult choice to make as a leader. It's a difficult decision because leaving an organisation means you are essentially deserting the employees. It's often not a decision that one can take lightly and that is the reason why many of us will stay in a role longer than we should, until we look ourselves in the mirror one day and say, 'Wow, what happened to me?'"
He said it was important when being interviewed for a role, to also interview the people that you are going to work with because those are the people with whom you are going to spend most of your time.
Cebile said: “I have turned very lucrative offers down because I have heard how those leaders treat their people.”
Many of the HR leaders in attendance left the summit feeling reinvigorated because balancing the demands of their high-pressure work environments with family responsibilities meant they seldom had time to sit back and just reflect.
“Those two hours that we spent just reflecting was all that I will have time for and it is all that I needed really,” said Old Mutual Human Capital Director Celiwe Ross.
Now in its third year, the CHRO South Africa community stands alone as the most engaging peer-to-peer learning platform in the local HR landscape. Each of you as members, have made it what it is and it is bound to grow into something that will undoubtedly make the impact that is now required from the ever-evolving profession.
“I have turned very lucrative offers down because I have heard how those leaders treat their people.”