Playing To Win

By: LeRoy Robbins, IIRC

The business landscape has been littered with economic casualties, flawed business models as well as unethical financial shenanigans and horror stories. It's understandable that many HR decision makers are in a "wait and see" mode when it comes to spending their company's money. The possibility of further terrorism at home as well as abroad also feeds the "uncertainty factor" when it comes to moving forward with the strategic initiatives critical to corporate America success. "Lots of companies have gone into hibernation, stopped maintaining key relationships," says Chris Richardson, BellSouth's Advertising and Recruitment Branding Manager. "They should be revamping and improving their recruiting processes, spending conscientiously, and certainly maintaining key recruiting relationships."

Many of us have never had to deal with a business environment quite like the one we face today. However, we cannot let these circumstances paralyze us in our strategic roles as full business partners to move ahead with courage in doing the right things for our businesses. As the "tell-it-like-it-is" psychologist, Phil McGraw states, "Life rewards action." There's a huge difference between playing to win and playing not to lose.

This sports maxim applies equally well to our corporate responsibilities. We must have the courage to act, to lead to the very best of our abilities. In the climactic scene of the movie, The American President, Michael Douglas admits to being so busy trying to keep his job that he forgot to do his job. Let none of us as key decision makers or "difference makers" get so busy trying to keep or protect our jobs that we forget to do our jobs. We must trust the very instincts and experience that have served us in better times.

We all know challenging business goals and objectives are difficult enough to achieve when the economic climate is favorable and everyone is rowing in the same direction. They're exceptionally tough to achieve when indecision and hesitancy keep us from taking the necessary actions to drive our organizations in the appropriate direction. We not only delay the benefits of completing key strategic initiatives, we facilitate a dangerous inertia within the organization and potentially, unconsciously, reward not taking action. The "wait and see" strategy, works against the Law of Inertia and stifles any positive momentum the organization has attained. Momentum to move forward then becomes even more difficult from this halted position.

More importantly, this strategy does not bode well toward achieving many crucial HR initiatives including ensuring that our organizations have the necessary and sufficient talent to actually win. And, if we play it safe and fail to deliver on our organization's business objectives again, we simply perpetuate the cycle of recent poor corporate performance that has plagued the markets and economy the past two years. We, in effect, will have facilitated the very economic climate we're seeking to overcome.

This is not to say we should strike out capriciously with no regard for the economic climate or environmental factors. Discretion is still a viable option should circumstances truly warrant. But, we must take the actions necessary to facilitate the achievement culture we profess. "We are continually striving to stay ahead of the curve and take our performance to the next level," states Jamie Many, National Recruiting Coordinator for AIG VALIC Financial Advisors. "This entails futuristic thinking and taking carefully calculated risks in order to achieve and retain a competitive advantage. We consistently strive to achieve and maintain excellence therefore it is critical that through innovative thinking and proactive behaviors we provide superior internal service, training and support for our field hiring managers. It is not only our goal to provide superior internal customer service, but also to set the standard and the pace for our industry and HR practices."

Don't misunderstand, we must always play smart and make sound, well-considered decisions. Let's not act just to act. This is not advocating carelessness or acting on a whim, just the courage to "make a difference" we once felt so deeply it hurt. But, we must consciously choose to play to win. Truth be known, this desire to make a difference has probably gotten us to the level of achievement we reside today, as key decision makers for our organization. The 'difference maker' in all of us always want to play to win. We despise the very idea of playing it safe, playing not to lose. A colleague recently reminded me of a dearly held truth -- most of us are more afraid of not living than of dying. We must, therefore, seize opportunity when it presents itself.

Mark Twain was quoted as saying that "courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear." Let us show that courage to step up to the job at hand, seize the opportunity to master our fears and lead the charge for our organizations. Some human resource professionals have complained about not being recognized as key players in their organizations. Here's our chance. Let us be the one who exhibit the willingness to wisely but assertively lead our organization through and out of this business labyrinth and difficult time in our history. We can't realistically expect to reach the brass ring with one foot firmly on ground. Take a deep breath. Make the conscious choice today to move forward with conviction, determination and confidence in our ability to find a way to actively help our organizations succeed.

Let's play to win!!!

LeRoy Robbins, CEO of IIRC, leads by communicating a clear company vision and key strategies to guide and direct the organization in the successful execution of strategic initiatives, plans and company policies. He meets with and builds consensus with IIRC’s executive team to ensure operations are being executed to meet key business objectives in accordance with the organization’s vision and approved policies; oversees and ensures the viability and soundness of IIRC’s financial structure; plans directs and delegates all investigations and negotiations pertaining to mergers, joint ventures, acquisition of businesses, or sales of major assets with approval of the Board of Directors; and most importantly, LeRoy represents IIRC with clients, shareholders, the financial community, and the public.

LeRoy has 20 years of business management experience with Jerrico, 3M, PepsiCo and Hillenbrand Industries. He has extensive general management experience in the areas of human resources, business process operations and continuous improvement. In his 15 years in human resource management, his responsibilities ranged from human resources generalist to executive management, including four years as Vice President, Human Resources with Forethought Financial Services, a subsidiary of Hillenbrand Industries.

Within Hillenbrand Industries, LeRoy has also served as Vice President, Life Operations, for Forethought; Vice President, Continuous Improvement for Hillendrand’s Funeral Services Group (including Forethought and Batesville Casket Company); and prior to joining IIRC, Vice President, Support Services. He has considerable expertise and comprehensive understanding of all Human Capital processes as well as extensive operations and continuous improvement implementation.

Prior to his professional business career, LeRoy played professional baseball with the Oakland A’s. LeRoy has a BA in History from the University of Kentucky and studied for his MBA at California Lutheran.