It is all about Talent Management

A CHICKEN IS A CHICKEN,

whatever else you may choose call it!

Tasty phoenix claws! But it is still chicken feet!

The Chinese named a very tasty dish “Phoenix Claws”.  “What’s that?”, you may ask.   The Phoenix, for the information of the ignorant, is a  mythological magnificent bird of East Asia that reign over all other birds.  And that absolutely tasty  dish stewed with mushroom is definitely not the chopped off claws of a phoenix. Those are chicken feet. You can change the name of a chicken to phoenix, but it is still a chicken. Nothing more.  A chicken is a chicken, is a chicken, is a chicken.

Chicken is not a phoenix, and a phoenix is no chicken. You can easily tell one from the other.

A chicken is no phoenix!

Which was why I resisted the title of Senior Business Partner in the institute at which I am serving.  I am a consultant, because that is exactly what I am. I own NOTHING of the institute. I do not even own the pen that I use when I am there. I own no shares, which is why I am not a partner. But I am a partner in Sow and Harvest Consulting Services. In fact, I am a Senior Partner of it, because I own the majority of the shares in Sow and Harvest Consulting Services. But I am not a senior business partner in the Institute.  I am just a consultant. Period. A consultant is a consultant, is a consultant, just as a chicken is a chicken, is a chicken.

What is the issue here?

Let’s get some sanity back into HR management. It is Human Resource management, not Human Resort management. In the history of management the decade before the advent of the 21st century witnessed the introduction of big job titles, which are nothing but misnomers, of the actual jobs.  Fancy job titles started to emerge. Grand sounding majestic titles in fact! As grand as the the chicken becoming the phoenix!  Quit the HR  culture of dishing out grand titles just to pamper feelings and emotions!

Here, it is easy to point the finger at the Americans and say that they started it, forgetting that the Chinese first saw it fit to call the chicken feet a phoenix claws, or to  term snake soup as a dragon broth, long before he Americans even thought of it.   We remember with awe, the advent of the job title of “Vice President” . Wow ! How grand! Vice President of Sales! Vice President of HR!  Bu we forgot, that before the Americans came up with VP , the British came up with Director of Sales and Director of Human Resources who were not even board members! Or that the Japanese started the use of the title GM of Admininstration and HR for what was the department manager!.

The issue is this, does the issuing of a grand sounding title make any difference to what matters in the job? You can put a monkey into a suit, and call that it a GM in the hope that this monkey will not run over to the tree.

Nowadays what used to be called Shampoo girls and face cleaners in a beauty saloon are called beauty consultants before they can even uphold themselves as one. Are they consultants simply because you call them so?



The giving of the title of a "consultant" to a monkey demeans not the monkey, it demeans the person who is a consultant. When you call a clerk a consultant, and the clerk continues behaves, thinks and acts like a clerk when facing your clients, it makes your organization look stupid and of a low standard!

Changing titles without required competencies !

A prostitute is  prostitute, and thinks and acts like prostitute. We have whorehouses changing the job titles of their prostitutes to nicer sounding names like “Guest Relations Officers”, i.e. GROs. That surely did not change the nature of what they do. In fact, this misuse threw a little slime on the job of Public Relations Officers!

Now, we have all heard that these days, it is difficult to get people into jobs which do no not have a nice ring to the job titles. And this has apparently resulted in the practice of calling monkeys by nicer names, which has improved some organizations' ability to retain the monkeys. But have you noticed that you have not been retaining the real talents that resented being classified with the monkeys?

So, let’s get some sanity back into HR Management. Instead of just “flowing with the current” as  garbage and debris do, be strong and swim against the current, and do what is right. The garbage always flow with the current. The strong swim against it. Abraham Lincoln swam against the current of slavery. Mahatma Ghandi swam against the current of political and social enslavement!.

Do not demean your organization and the professional titles by handing them out to the monkeys and chickens. Call a clerk a clerk. And, until that clerk has acquired the competencies and proves his capability to perform at a higher level, do not call him by any higher title, lest you demean it.

 Call a  salesperson a sales person, not sales advisor! And he is not a "sales advisor" unless he can, and is allowed to advise an inquirer to use the product of a competitor which is more suitable for him.  Otherwise, he is still your sales person!

Are you angry?

If you truly understand what I have been writing about here, you will see crucial elements of competency management, talent management coupled with corporate image building, protection and  communications!

If you are angry, at what I have written, think again. Maybe you happen to be the monkey with blown up job title, which is why you are angry. Maybe you happen to be the one calls the chicken a phoenix.. And if despite that,  you are facing endless talent management problems as it is, this is what I have o say to you “ Padan Muka Kamu” in the Malay language. The truth often does get unpleasant, does it not?