Canadian HR Strategy

14 Executive Series Digest hrreporter.com "We believe that it's situational in style. It can come and merge in any number of situations that an organization will face and we match our style to the appropriate situation," he said. "And the goal of leader- ship and leadership attitude is both taking responsibility for outcomes and to achieve committed followership." e second belief is that great leaders demonstrate passion above all else. ere are four attributes of passionate people: they care about things that are important to them; they are action-oriented; they're willing to overcome obstacles; and they are fundamentally optimistic, said Mc- Cain. "Leadership passion is probably the most dominant personal attribute that we look for," he said. " ey care at a deeply visceral level about the things that are im- portant to them… and they care so deeply and are acting so decisively that no matter what the obstacle that comes along, they will overcome that." e third core belief is great leaders fundamentally impact other people — that's their purpose. ey have emotional intelligence, they're great communicators and they motivate the people they work with, said McCain. " ey not only have internal energy — a tremendous internal battery — but that ability to turn on that battery and ener- gize other people, and that they are both respected and show respect." And the fourth belief is leaders are driven by results. eir incisiveness, de- cisiveness and ability to execute against delivering that result are essential to lead- ership, said McCain. is collection of beliefs was used to form Maple Leaf 's six core leadership values: •Do what's right. •Deliver winning results. •Build collaborative teams. •Get things done in a fact-based, disci- plined way. •Learn and grow. •Dare to be transparent, humble and pas- sionate. " ere's a diff erence between those that have a great story and a beautiful poster on the wall and those that say, 'I don't (care) about the poster on the wall, but how does this come alive every day?'" said McCain. "We've tried to take it from a poster on the wall — that is absolutely meaningless — and take it into the daily lives of the people in our organization so they're walking the talk, living it." Maple Leaf considers the values to be behavioural norms that refl ect the com- pany's beliefs and describe how it expects leaders to behave when faced with any situation at the organization — good or bad, he said. "When sometimes you think these monumental decisions that would require extensive dialogue and extensive discus- sion, when they become rooted in the core values of the organization, as in this case they were, a decision that you think would be monumental was made in min- utes, because what was the right action to take was so evident in the organization," said McCain, in reference to the 2008 Lis- teria outbreak. roughout the crisis, Maple Leaf drew most heavily on three elements of its core beliefs and leadership values. e fi rst was accountability. "Accountability is very much built into our culture," said McCain. "Taking own- ership of something is very much part of the underlying values of this organiza- tion." e second was action-orientation — not just talking about it but acting with a high sense of urgency, he said. And the third was transparency. "We have this thing called 'Daring to be transparent' and recognizing transpar- ency comes with risk and people that are transparent take great risk, particularly in society today — but that's essential to our culture," said McCain. HR played a prominent and signifi - cant role during the crisis by executing all of the people components around it — which it did incredibly well, he said. It facilitated employee retention, supported communication with employees, man- aged staffi ng levels, ensured values were consistent with behaviour and acted as a sounding board and trusted advisor for "WE TRIED TO TAKE IT FROM A POSTER ON THE WALL — THAT IS ABSOLUTELY MEANINGLESS — AND TAKE IT INTO THE DAILY LIVES OF THE PEOPLE IN OUR ORGANIZATION SO THEY'RE WALKING THE TALK, LIVING IT." LEADERSHIP PHOTO: JP MOCZULSKI / REUTERS

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