The engineers who become CEO do so because they’re artists of technology. The marketers because they’re sculptors of identity. The finance guys because they’re maestros of money, conductors of cash. Recruiting and HR roles lead when they are Curators of greatness, enabling people to come together to co-create outstanding business performances.
Sure, HR is charged with finding the superstars—and in building teams where every element within an organization ideally kicks ass. But it’s how we assemble those components that makes the difference: we should strive to create organizations in harmony, where everyone is allowed to show their creativity, be themselves, feel confident and motivated. We should strive to challenge people, though in a way that enthuses, excites, and provides an intense sense of joy and purpose. We need to align the many measures of success: talent, purpose and culture to enable the kind of velocity within, that creates the big market wins externally.
What we people-people do is art. And when we assemble the right elements—each of them critically important—in the right way, we reveal new truths for ourselves, and our companies. The world’s most successful companies are reflections of our deepest insights and greatest potential. And those compositions, those experiences, are not accidental. And the performance that follows is a direct outcome of the Curator’s role.
(filmed May, 2011 at Linked In, Mountain View, CA)
