WHO ARE YOU

A large multinational was having a change in guard of their Chief Human Resource Officer.

The CHRO is a strategic partner capable of driving business growth, executive development and organizational changes.

A lady in her late fifties competed to take the position wanting to play her last work innings in this large corporate institution.

To maintain the core culture of the company, manage and conduct work force across geographies, talent acquisition, leadership development, employee well-being, and compliance capabilities, the new CHRO had to learn every employee’s adaptability, learning agility and overall engagement level.

The ability to evolve alongside change is often more valuable than existing knowledge. Her past experience taught her there is a difference between knowing about a person and truly knowing the person.   

The admin at a click of a button released an SMS broadcast to over 2000 employees, introducing the new CHRO and informed them to get on line at a specific time.  Each was to receive a mail and was asked to click, read, respond.     

The mail stated: “WHO ARE YOU”. Write to respond within 20 minutes before the page expires. Do not mention your: qualification, designation, country, years of service, age, where you stay, marital status, social status, family back ground, income, caste, creed, political affiliation.

It was hard for many to write, as what they normally express was banned from mentioning. Some tried to impress, some tried to escape the question, and only a few answered honestly.

All heads of HR were briefed and trained to interpret the blank and written data received.

Specific actionable training insights were initiated by HR alongside with L&D Learning & Development team to better employees understanding of self-awareness, finding deeper meaning in their task, fostering resilience, compassion and a stronger sense of community.   

What would you have said to define yourself in above situation?

A few responses the HR picked for case studies with those who sent a blank page.

“I am not who you think I am; I am not what I think I am; I am who I think, you think I am”.

“I don’t know who I am right now. But I know who I am not and I like that”.

“One’s identity is tied to whatever you give your heart to. I have to know my divine or else what I am to be, I am not becoming”.

“I am what I own- my possessions my social standing and my opinion. You’d be wise not to under estimate me”.

“I am who I choose to become. I cannot do everything but I can do something not letting what I cannot do interfere with what I can do”.

“I am not my body or my mind. I am the awareness observing this experience”.

“I am a person of action. Immovable in my determination, confident in my abilities, unshakable in my convictions, insensitive to the negative opinion of everyone, who does not have interest in my goals”.

“I am the creation of the divine. Much of me is influenced by His way of living”.

“I know that I am intelligent because I know that I know nothing”.

A junior HR braved to question CHRO Who Are You, her reply “I found my identity in knowing the Divine, seeing Him within myself and within others- caring and sharing for the wellbeing of all”.

Before defining yourself to the world, know who you are without the world.