Something to ponder

We in HR often talk about leadership and even complain about peoples lack of it. However, people on a straight HR track do not often have great opportunities to develop leadership skills early in their career. I look around even in the blogosphere and many of the professionals out there have had other experiences that drive their HR expertise. Experts are not grown overnight, and just because you have taken X amount of classes on teambuilding does not mean you can actually build a team. I know the phrase "Those who cannot do, teach" but shouldn't there be SOMETHING behind what we preach and coach and mentor to our managers? Something I struggle constantly with is not IF I should cross train as an operations leader, but how much? Especially, when I feel like I am giving up educational opportunities in the HR field for operational ones. Personally, I think all HR professionals who are not chest deep in a specialty need to be able to move in and out of operations to keep their leadership competencies current. I like the generalist role for now and that means engaging, coaching, and mentoring leaders and hopefully knowing what you are talking about.