Pop goes HR #1
Taylor Swift speaks out on strengths-based theory
In the first of a (mercifully) occasional series, we’re looking at what popstars and their lyrics have to say about the business we call HR.
We start with everyone’s current favourite popette, Taylor Swift. Her song Shake It Off is considered by many to be the finest pop moment of 2014. As Wikipedia says, ‘The Los Angeles Times ’s critic Randall Roberts called the song “a perfect pop confection” however noting it “presents an artist gunning for sly transgression but instead landing on tone-deaf, self-absorbed teen regression, with music to match the vibe.’
Which is exactly what we were going to say.
Anyway, the song is about Taylor (or Taytay, as we fans know her) dealing with criticism. The world – or at least, a sizeable proportion of the Twittersphere – apparently has her down as an empty-headed bimbo who can’t keep a boyfriend. (Harry Styles, she’s probably talking about you.) The song is her response to all this badmouthing and a celebration of her ability to shake, shake, shake it all off.
In the chorus she suggests that she can’t change the behaviour of these trolls:
Cause the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake…
Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break.
So far, so straightforward. But look deeper and you’ll see Taytay is actually encouraging us to re-consider strengths-based theory, an ideology (of sorts) that began life as a social work practice tool. It was dragged into the business world by the unfeasibly young Marcus Buckingham and his seminal 2001 work, Now, Discover Your Strengths.
A short history lesson: pre-Buckingham, L&D was mostly about repairing people’s shortcomings. If you had an employee who was a great salesperson but a lousy administrator, L&D’s task would be to make her a better administrator.
What strengths-based thinking said was that remedying shortfalls in this way is a waste of time. People just don’t change easily enough: haters are always gonna hate, fakers are always gonna fake, and so on. You’re better off just playing to their strengths and putting lousy admin in roles where they don’t have to do any admin.
Strengths-based thinking hasn’t been leading many conversations lately, but you can still see its influence in, say, interview techniques and leadership theory. Maybe it’s just became accepted as common sense and merged into the HR landscape unremarked. These things happen.
But thanks, Taytay, for the reminder. Coming up next time: what Chesney Hawkes has to say about the relationship between individuality and self-actualisation. Perhaps.
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