Jad Vodopija, chief people officer at BHP, shares her key leadership lessons and speaks on X-factor skills for CHROs with Adam Bryant of The ExCo Group and World 50 Group in this “Passing the Baton” series.
Q. What are the X-factor skills that CHROs of the future will need to succeed in these roles?
A. The ability to see around corners—for the next two, five and even ten years—is certainly one. What work do you need to do now to ensure that your organization is prepared for what’s coming and has the necessary competitive advantage?
There’s a foresight and externality component to these roles now that is far more pronounced than a decade ago. And because of the unique purview we have to see across the enterprise, we can also use what we are seeing externally to help shape the long-term strategy.
Q. Can that skill be taught?
A. There are table-stakes skills and functional expertise that are required for these roles, but what I’m talking about is having the mindset of a problem-solver. You go out and seek those opportunities. You drive the organization down a certain path. Can you learn that? It’s not impossible, but it does require a level of curiosity to carry out the role through that lens. A lot of things about these roles can be taught, but it does require an innate desire to problem-solve that way.
Q. And where does that come from for you?
A. It’s nice to be needed, right? And you can be needed in two ways. One is that someone brings me something, and I fix it, and then I hand it back to them. But I’m not interested in doing just that. When I’m done and dusted with this role, what will make me proud is that I was able to help drive a real step-change in how the function serves the organization.
That’s my goal. I want to do more than just be really proficient in the skills and technical acumen that this role requires. You don’t wait to be called on. You’re in the driver’s seat. In many respects, you’re seeing things a little bit differently and maybe ahead of some of your peers.
That approach puts a heavy onus on partnership, understanding the business, and understanding what’s going on in the world around me. It requires an ability to integrate really well into the organization. You can’t just own problems by yourself. You need to be very good at working across the enterprise.
That’s not always easy but it’s where the fun exists. In order to solve whatever problem you’re facing, you need to be able to pull on all your levers. The interdependency and integration of all of those things is the most challenging but interesting part of this role.
Q. What advice would you share with someone who is about to step into their first CHRO role?
A. Be very clear about what you want to do in the role, because there are so many areas you can play in. You can become easily distracted and then not move things forward. So have that clarity about the two or three big rocks that you want to move over the next couple of years.
Also, don’t underestimate the importance of building credibility with your board. Once you have that, it gives you influence and energy and momentum that enables not just you but also the whole leadership team.
It is one of the best jobs in the world, and the reason is that it enables you to have a genuine perspective on the world around you in a really interesting way. There’s also a beautiful intimacy with a role like ours because you serve as a trusted advisor to not just your CEO but also the board and your peers.
So you do the big stuff at an enterprise level, but you’ve also got to be really good at one-to-one relationships. There is a rich complexity to this role, and you can choose to double-down on a particular area of expertise or approach it as a generalist. There’s a lot of optionality and things are very dynamic. Who wouldn’t want a job like that?
Q. Was there any surprise for you between the theory of the job and the reality of it once you started doing the work?
A. The role does come with an emotional burden. You have to make big calls, and you don’t want to get them wrong. Because the stakes are so much higher with some of your decisions, that requires a lot of emotional energy. I underestimated just how draining the role can be if you’re not thoughtful and careful about managing that.
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