John Maxwell visited Egypt in April 2004. Dr. Maxwell is the former President of the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations (WFPMA), a body that represents some 60 national associations and more than 500,000 professional members worldwide; and the recipient of the ‘George Petitpas’ Memorial award for his “excellence in and on going contribution to the development of International Human Resources.”
During his visit to Egypt, Dr. Maxwell made a presentation to a group of HR professionals and consultants, including EHRMA board members, representatives of The American University in Cairo, and representatives of USAID. “Creative HR Creates Innovative Organizations” was the theme of his presentation; and he introduced it by stating the following: “Someone told me when I was a young teenager that ‘if winning is not important why keep score?’ It certainly made a point and an impact. We keep all sorts of ‘scores’ in organizations, more usually they are Financial, Operational, Customer focus, Safety and Quality. Far too frequently do we see the measurement of the Human Dimension, the leadership of our people. But this area is the only sustainable advantage we have over our competitors. They have access to the same finance, plant, equipment and markets that we have but the leadership of a qualified, motivated workforce makes us stand out from the others.
In order to practice Innovation in HR, we need to work on leadership requirements:
Transform tomorrow but meet today’s schedule
Lead to an unclear destination
Manage multiple change processes at once
Deal with disruptions
Confront the need for personal change
New skills, behaviors, attitudes and expectations
Dr. Maxwell will be re-visiting the Middle East to conduct workshops and seminars in person, such as “Compensation Management Essentials,” “Foundation in Human Resource Management,” “Global HR Certification.” EHRMA looks forward to his valuable contributions in the HR domain.
