In any successful business change, HR leaders are uniquely positioned to play a leading role. Whether it’s the introduction of new senior leadership or a major digital overhaul, change requires the adaptability, and ultimately the backing, of an organization’s people to be a success. This puts HR on the frontline of the tensions that emerge: juggling employee expectations with business needs, cultivating a sense of stability to the backdrop of ambiguity, and looking for clever ways to accommodate a multitude of different – often opposing – viewpoints. They are, in this sense, the ‘polarity managers’ of the business.
Polarity management has long been a hot topic in the business world. Leaders run the risk of taking an either/or approach, prioritizing one business area in favor of another. This rigid way of thinking is when tension arises. But is it a peculiarly Western mindset? “In Western philosophy black and white represents split and contradiction, but in East Asia it’s harmony,” says Barbara Wang, Professor of Leadership and Management at Hult International Business School, specializing in cross-cultural leadership. East Asian society is underpinned by the teachings of ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, who codified the concepts of yin and yang – opposing energies interlocking in a harmonious whole. In the business world, this translates into greater ease in finding balance within competing forces and taking a long-term view.
With this in mind, should we not accept many of the perceived polarities as natural and necessary tensions in a business, and look to find solutions out of the seeming contradictions?
Here, we explore how HR leaders can manage one of the most critical balancing acts (i.e. polarities) in any business: protecting people’s well-being while maintaining their peak performance in a sustainable way. We discuss how your company values can function as a stabilizing compass to prove that caring for people’s well-being doesn’t mean compromising on performance.