The Blog: Graham White

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About Graham White

Experienced Director of HR having held executive Director posts in a number of Public and Private organisations and now semi-retired enjoying some interesting and challenging interim roles.

THE QUIETER THE BETTER

As increasingly so called “great leaders” fall on their swords, and as we see another generation of so called “most influential’s” having to hang their head in shame as their actions don’t match their proclaimed values, I am reminded in my quiet retirement of the greatest leader I have ever had.

Article by 20 September 2022

My Five Predictions for Work in 2021

No one will be surprised to hear me say with confidence that 2020 will be the year that most organisations will happily put behind them. It would have taken a brave person to predict in early January 2020 how April 2020 would turn out. However, not everyone will feel 2020 was a complete failure. Some businesses have boomed, large food stores, on-line retailers, cloud services, communications and Digital providers have all outperformed their own business targets.

Article by 20 January 2021

Great Leaders Are Always Great Communicators

As social media and politics comes of age together in this exciting period of political affairs, the fastidiousness of communication is more important than ever, in our era of hair trigger commentators where a false or misunderstood word can create as much disaster as a hurricane we are all fixated on watching live and from every angle the actions, words and mannerisms of all those seeking to convince us they are best placed to lead us. With a camera or recording device in every pocket the inevitable gaffs are captured, reported and replayed over and over again. What I find most alarming in these situations is the suggestion that certain individuals seeking to hold the position of leadership are claiming that their communication skills may be there “allowable weakness” whilst retaining many other alternative attributes of leadership.

Article by 26 September 2019

The Greatest Question Ever Asked?

Quite a few years ago I was interviewed for an HRD role in a very large multi-facetted organisation. The interview had all the potential to be uneventful. I could have written the script myself, very traditional organisation that saw little value in HR and yet felt obliged to fulfil its moral obligations and have a post holder sitting in the HR ivory tower. From the very outset the questions were not designed to ensure the panellists were properly informed of the capability of each applicant, nor was it designed to ensure they probed the alleged talent that sat before them. The questions were designed to let me and the rest of the applicant pool know how little the panel respected HR and to send a very strong message that the successful candidate need not think they were going to change anything around here unless this cadre of quasi inquisitionists allow it. The organisation might be required to have a senior HR presence and the role might come with the title director but any direction would require this group’s approval.

Article by 5 December 2017

HR – Different but not indifferent

It's almost 30 years to the day that I took my first steps into the challenging career of Human Resources. Of course it has changed its name a few times and suffered its fair share of esoteric guru's but generally the direction of travel and key purpose has remained unchanged.

Article by 16 January 2017