Article: ‘I believe in making things happen’

Leadership

‘I believe in making things happen’

Niranjana Harikumar’s biggest priority is to work closely with high potentials and enable them to perform to their full potential.
‘I believe in making things happen’

In her own words, this is what the ‘Are You In The List’ 2015 winner has to say about herself

Niranjana Harikumar - Lead - Learning and Organizational Development, Piramal Group

A learning and development professional, I work like an entrepreneur and enjoy taking initiatives and making things happen.

I have had a rich experience across industries and geographies. I have worked on several assignments involving leadership assessments and development, competency design, organizational vision and values articulation, large scale culture change initiatives using leadership as a lever, performance management system design, and succession planning.

In my current role, I lead learning, talent identification, development and engagement at the Piramal Group, spanning businesses as diverse as Healthcare, Financial Services, Realty and Social Enterprise.

Core differentiator: Entrepreneurial acumen

My ability to act in an entrepreneurial manner while taking people along is what sets me apart. I do not always wait for direction from outside, instead I prefer creating a business case, getting buy-ins and making things happen. I also use an inclusive approach based on a high-level of emotional intelligence and organizational sensing.

Biggest talent priority: Identifying and developing HiPos

My biggest priority is to work closely with high potentials and enable them to perform to their full potential. This entails building deeper self-awareness through an understanding of signature strengths and limiting beliefs/behaviors, offering custom stretch experiences and working closely with the business to put them in roles that will help them grow and learn.

The one thing I will:

Change in HR: HR professionals consciously donning a subservient, administrative, support role

To earn respect and credibility as a function, we need to be business drivers. HR, sometimes, has the image of being process-focused to the point of being disconnected from business realities.

Retain in HR: Emotional quotient

What I would like to keep in HR is the emotional quotient with which it operates and the focus on being human and personal.

My ideas to disrupt HR: Bringing branded customer service thinking mindset into the HR

We need to use data and an intense understanding of our customers (i.e. employees) to create solutions that help them deliver their best everyday. Branded customer service thinking when translated to the employee context is a powerful tool that can make HR indispensable and valued as a function.

We need to bring in such thinking to transform the way we think and act. For instance, in my current role in the L&OD function, my focus has been to break out of traditional T&D mindsets and start thinking in terms of target audiences, employee segments, key messages, value propositions and positioning. We have started applying marketing and brand building principles to various touch-points and this has yielded rich dividends in terms of the credibility of the function. Instead of “pushing” learning, we now have an internal “pull” for learning solutions.

 Here’s the list of other winners:

JAY THAKKAR - Head - Compensation & Benefits and HR Operations, Aditya Birla Housing Finance Limited

NEHA SHARMA - Senior Employee Relations Manager, ICICI Bank

AMIT PAPNEJA - Manager-Field Readiness, Asian Paints Ltd.

AVIJIT SHASTRI - Divisional Manager - Channel HR, Commercial Vehicle TATA Motors

AANCHAL BHUGRA KOTHARI - Senior HR Business Partner, Reliance Industries Ltd.

SOUMITRA ACHARYA - Head HR Analytics, Mahindra & Mahindra

KUMAR ABHIMANYU - Participant - Career Acceleration Program, Reliance Industries Ltd

ALI IMRAN SYED -Global Learning & Organization Development Manager, Avery Dennison 

RICHA SINGH - Senior HR Officer, HPCL

VARUN TANDON - Associate Consultant, Salto Dee Fe Consulting

BHRIGU JOSHI - Head - Talent Management & Development, MakeMyTrip.com

SHAILY RAMPAL MISRA - Associate General Manager, HCL Technologies Ltd.

ABHINAV IYER - Senior Manager - Leadership & People Sciences, Wipro

BENJAMIN RAJKUMAR - Manager - Leadership Development, Titan Company Ltd 

NEHA SAXENA - Senior HR Business Partner, Adobe.

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Topics: Leadership, #AreyouintheList?, #FutureHRLeadership

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