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Ask a business leader about their HR partners and you’ll hear, "They don’t understand us." Ask an HR leader about their business partners, and you’ll hear, "They don't listen to us."
This disconnect is not just a communication breakdown – it’s a systemic dysfunction that keeps the greatest engine of a company (its people) sputtering.
The Great Leadership Disconnect reveals that transforming HR from a perceived support act into an indispensable commercial force is the responsibility of both business and HR leaders. It diagnoses the dysfunctions that keep HR and business leadership disconnected and challenges conventional thinking with commercial, clear and grounded solutions drawn from behavioral science and real-life leadership dilemmas.
The old model of HR as a siloed support function is no longer relevant. HR can be – must be – a leadership amplifier and a business driver, focusing on commercial impact, employee value and the space where impact, performance and people meet.
Serkan Deveci is a senior leader at Google with a rare blend of leadership experience in global Sales and strategic HR. Having operated on both sides of the executive table, he offers a unique perspective on aligning talent with business outcomes. A recognized keynote speaker, his work is grounded in his PhD research.
Serkan Deveci is a senior leader at Google with two decades of global experience, leveraging a rare and solid combination of leadership roles in both global Sales and strategic HR to drive business success. His career has provided him with a unique perspective, as he hasn't just observed the disconnect between business imperatives and people leadership; he has operated with distinction on both sides of that executive table.
This dual experience (carrying a P&L and shaping commercial strategy in Sales; guiding workforce planning and defining culture as an HR leader) has given him a deep, firsthand understanding of what it truly takes to align talent with tangible business outcomes. Having led complex, large-scale businesses and substantial sales teams, he brings a commercial acumen to the world of people strategy. His global experience spans EMEA, APAC, the US, and LATAM, giving him a broad view of how these dynamics play out in different cultural and market contexts.
Serkan is a globally recognized keynote speaker, delivering engaging talks on the Future of Work, Leadership Effectiveness, Employee Engagement, and AI in HR. His academic background, including a BA in Economics from Galatasaray University, an MSc in Neuroscience and Psychology from King’s College London, and his current PhD research in Psychology at Warwick University, on leadership and its effects on organizational outcomes, provides a robust, evidence-based foundation for his work.
Serkan has successfully bridged the gap he seeks to close for others. He writes as a practitioner (of both sides — Business Leadership and HR Leadership), who has lived the challenges and developed the solutions he now offers to a new generation of leaders.
Prologue: The Leadership Disconnect
Part 1: The System
Chapter 1: The Architectural Flaw: How the System Feeds the HR-Business Disconnect:
Chapter 2: The Disconnected HR: When the Function Ignores Itself
Chapter 3: The Unopened Toolbox: When HR Solutions Miss the Business Need
Part 2: The Mindset
Chapter 4: The Commercial Disconnect: How Strategy Without Context Fails
Chapter 5: The Mic Pass: Redefining Shared Accountability
Chapter 6: The Partnership Paradox: Elevating HR From Support Act to Strategic Partner
Part 3: The Impact
Chapter 7: The Leadership Multiplier: Elevating Managers for Impact
Chapter 8: Talent Reality: Aligning Talent Decisions with Commercial Impact
Chapter 9: The Culture Equation: Architecting the System that Drives Business Impact
Epilogue