Article: ‘I focus on individual’s attitude than their knowledge’

Leadership

‘I focus on individual’s attitude than their knowledge’

Neha Sharma believes that knowledge can be imparted but attitude and value systems are inherent
‘I focus on individual’s attitude than their knowledge’

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

Neha Sharma - Senior Manager, Employee Relations, ICICI Bank

After graduating as an MBA-HR from Delhi School of Economics, I joined ICICI Bank, Pune in 2010. Five years later, I am the Head - Employee Relations (Rest of Maharashtra, Goa and MP) with the responsibility of end to end HR delivery  and lead a team of five HR Managers.

I always strive to enhance my skills, and in my pursuit of doing so, I have been constantly taking newer and tougher assignments in my current job. 

Core differentiator: Passion, sincerity and persistence

My journey at ICICI Bank  has been that of passion and persistence as I started as a fresher in the organization and have received three promotions in five years with the company.

Biggest talent priority: Cultural fitment

I focus on gauging an individual's attitude than focusing on the knowledge they possess. Knowledge can be imparted but attitude and value systems are inherent. As a leader, I would rather have raw talent with the right attitude than someone who is a subject matter expert but doesn’t have the attitude. 

The one thing I will:

Change in HR: The habit of saying “Yes”

HR needs to learn to say “No”.  HR, being a service-oriented function, tends to go out of the way to solve business managers’ problems with their peers and direct reportees, and indulge in conflict resolution too much. Sometimes, saying “yes” to unnecessary business wants takes away our critical bandwidth that we should be using for adding value to the business and the organization overall. 

Continue in HR: The Kaizen approach 

The HR function should continue its endeavor of self-improvement. We must continue to strive to understand and anticipate the changing dynamics of the workforce  at all times. We must anticipate what the future holds so as to continuously be able to upgrade the organization. For instance, the recent upgrade in the performance management approach is welcoming.

My ideas to disrupt HR: Leveraging HR Technology

Technology’s application in HR will be the biggest disruptor in my view. I plan to go the SMAC way to disrupt HR, that is, by equipping myself with tools like social and referral recruiting, mobile application based HR systems, talent Analytics and learning technology.

Here’s the list of other winners:

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

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

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

NIRANJANA HARIKUMAR - Lead- Learning and Organizational Development, Piramal Group

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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