I hate the term humanresources.

I know we've got to call it something, but while human beingsare an organization's greatest resource, the term resourcedehumanizes the living, breathing human beings who comprise thatresource.

If I had my way, HR would just be called the People Department.This is not just some lame attempt to find a politically correcteuphemism for the HR department. It's quite the opposite.

Words have power and meaning, and the word resource is ablatantly objectifying term. The term human resources and its evilcousin, human capital, reduce rather than represent the true valuepeople have in your credit union.

You manage resources and capital. You lead people.

My business is not systems or process. My business is people. Myargument is that no system or process operates effectively orefficiently without focused, engaged, healthy and relatively happypeople at the helm.

It's time to rediscover the human part of human resources.

Don't get me wrong – systems and processes are important. Youcan manage systems and processes to higher levels of efficiency andeffectiveness.

You can only manage people to some degree. Management defines abaseline of performance – leadership pushes through theenvelope.

One of the key problems with treating people as resources orcapital is the efficiency conundrum. One of the primary goals ofprocess is to identify and improve efficiencies. Engaging,developing and retaining good credit union people is not always anefficient process.

If you want to talk in terms of resources, people are your mostcomplex resource. Their thoughts, feelings, needs and desires donot fit neatly into a regular maintenance schedule. People are notinterchangeable parts – even in what might seemingly be the mostmundane roles.

If you want to manage a culture of interchangeable people, thentreating them as you would any other resource might not be aproblem. If you're looking for efficiency, however, factor in thecost of constantly training new hires and the loss of experienceand intellectual capital, which you'll endure if you treat peopleas parts.

An inherent inefficiency is that human beings,unlike other resources, have emotions. Unlike machines and ITinfrastructure, people often have personal problems and issues.

Even the best credit union people struggle with personaldevelopment challenges that affect performance includingdiscipline, focus and self-confidence. They struggle with personalissues such as addiction, health and family problems.

Fixing these problems is not like replacing parts in a worn outpiece of equipment. If a machine is broken, you just replaceit.

Fixing a good person often means investing time and energy inthe healing process. It means ignoring efficiency in the short termin order to preserve the real human value of a person's experience,domain knowledge, wisdom and leadership.

Leadership is developed through a sometimes painful andinefficient process of introducing challenges, accepting reasonablefailures, assessing those failures and integrating thatexperience.

As I said, you can easily replace a worn out machine. When youreplace a person who is struggling, you may lose a promisingleader.

I'll finish with a word to current leaders. If you want yourpeople to be engaged – engage them. This means personal humancontact with the people you serve. It means mentoring andcoaching.

It means showing people that you care. Countless studies showthat one of the most motivating factors for employees is simplyknowing that the people they work for appreciate them and careabout them.

The worst excuse I hear from leaders whenever I talk aboutpersonal involvement is that they just don't have the time. Findit.

Your most important role as a leader is to inspire the peopleyou serve and develop the talents, skills and abilities of thepeople in your care.

Process is important – you manage processes to maximizeefficiency. You lead people to expand effectiveness. If you want tomake your credit union better, make your people better. They'llmake your organization better.

Jim Bouchard is a corporate speaker with Black Belt MindsetProductions. He can be reached at 207-751-4317or [email protected].