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Newsletter - June 2008

OI Partners

Needed: Courage, Competence and Confidence to Take HR to the Next Level

June 12, 2008 - Joe Maressa

Tough conversations:  the life of HR professionals is full of them. By mastering them, you will enable yourself to better build HR credibility, create innovative solutions and build relationships.  As a recent study of 1,700 HR professionals by our assessment partner Management Research Group concluded (see HR Leaders at the Crossroads:  What it takes to be an HR Superstar), a key skill for the best HR leaders is to “challenge the perceptions and mandates of superiors.” This is easier said than done. We have found that there are several reasons why “taking HR to the next level” is not a top priority or focus for HR leaders. Some of these may ring true for you:

  • “I am so busy now; we can hardly keep our head above water. Meeting day to day challenges with a few projects is a major victory.”
  • “My CEO is happy with HR’s efforts. Why complicate my life?”
  • “My relationship with my CEO is not the best; it sounds too risky to have a conversation on the subject.”
  • "If I have the conversation with my CEO, I may not have the (pick one):
    1. Competency to insure what could be a ‘tough conversation’ goes well.”
    2. Time to explore and change what needs changing.”
    3. Necessary organizational support and resources.”
    4. HR staff capability to deliver needed changes.”
    5. It may lead to a series of conversations that may or not be productive.”

Whether you are ready to take HR to the next level or not, it is important to know exactly where you and your HR staff stand. Given HR has numerous ways it can help an organization, and insufficient time to deliver on all of them, it is important to know the top 2 or 3 priorities. Being busy and feeling overworked are no guarantee you are using your or your staff’s time wisely or of your future success.

A conversation with your CEO, president or other key people you support could start as follows: “I would like to explore taking HR to the next level of impact and would like to start by asking you a few specific questions:”

  1. “What are the top three ways HR has contributed to achieving our business objectives in the past year?”
  2. “What changes can HR make to be a stronger contributor immediately and in the next year?”
  3. “What things should we stop doing, start doing or do more of?”
  4. “How can I help you be a more effective leader?”
  5. “How can I help your staff be more effective?”
  6. What are the top three ways HR can help our employees make a stronger contribution?

Before you start the conversation, you need to answer the same questions to crystallize your own point of view. Consider discussing the questions with your staff also.

You may be pleasantly or unpleasantly surprised (or both) with what you learn after talking with your CEO, president or other key person. You need to then decide, based on what you hear and your relationship, whether you should stop the conversation or continue it. If you see things differently you may have to digest it all, think things through and talk to others before you continue the conversation. 

A word of caution: As we now know from both personal and organizational life, absence of conflict is not a sign of a healthy relationship or a healthy organization. Conflict often is an opportunity to have a dialogue that will lead to a better use of HR’s time and effort, innovative solutions and stronger relationships, if individuals resolve it in healthy ways. Courage is not enough to push back; one needs to be reasonably good at it and be prudent. A definition of prudent is “carefully considering consequences: using good judgment to consider likely consequences and act accordingly.”

Before you move to action, it is good to bounce the idea off others whose opinion you respect.  I recommend you use your personal developmental team or your HR network—people committed to your development and success. Role playing will build your courage and competence. Good luck; courage, competence and confidence come to those who seek it!

Joe Maressa is a managing partner with OI Partners - FS&F (Boston). He has extensive experience in business development, engineering, manufacturing support human resources, training and organizational development. He has a BS ChE and an MBA from Northeastern University, a Masters in human relations from Boston University and has studied methodologies for improving individual effectiveness and organizational performance with faculty from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. He can be reached at 978-369-8050 or jmaressa@oipartners.net.