As the industry aims towards diversity at the top level, fi nding an individual leadership style doesn’t have to mean forgetting who you are
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The room erupts – an applause that may never cease – and you realise your breath is caught. You’re in awe of the poise and confidence of the HR director who has managed to capture the attention of an entire room, and at the same time you’re grappling with the question: what type of HR leader will you become?
A few things immediately come to mind, but they’re just a list of lived-in habits and natural responses, which you wonder whether you will need to completely shed on the job in order to ‘become’.
There’s a sense of loss intertwined with such a rehashing: the idea that past shortcomings and any beliefs, which might not fi t into the ‘strength’ or ‘power’ mould, must be tightly locked away. Will you then be able to stand as the lighthouse for others in the storm, at your fullest potential, when the time comes for it?
But that’s far from the reality of becoming a turned-to leader of today. Finding your unique leadership style as an HR director is more about comfortably embodying who you are, putting your best skills forward, and leveraging the experiences of the past in order to understand and meet the needs of differing audiences.
“Certainly, feeling the gravel on your face instils empathy, and can teach you a lot very quickly,” says Karlie Cremin, director of Dynamic Leadership Programs Australia (DLPA).
“However, if you speak from a wound, or live in fear, you aren’t likely to lead people to a good place. I think people also don’t trust leaders who appear to have never experienced hardship. People want to follow someone who lives in the real world and understands them.”
Out of DLPA’s industry-acclaimed bespoke leadership programs has emerged The Feminine Leader – a program geared towards making it OK to be feminine in a male-dominated environment. Women are empowered to create and market their own leadership brand.
“The program is really about being comfortable being yourself and finding the value of bringing your uniqueness to work,” Cremin says.
Having developed the program from “things she wished to have known from the start”, Cremin is admirably candid about her own process of “trial and error”.
“I became a manager very young, and without a great deal of support finding a style per se. I learned what worked mostly by seeing the effect of what didn’t. Eventually I did work with someone who was very supportive in more actively shaping my leadership style,” she says.
In discussing ‘style’, Cremin says she really means the ‘default position’ one is naturally inclined to return to in times of stress – her own default being “command and control”.
“That said, it is only a preference,” she says, explaining that her style comes from her individual work history and the types of environments she has been exposed to throughout the span of her career.
But Cremin also allows her style to fluidly shift and adapt so she can achieve the best possible results – and the style she chooses is determined by who is receiving her focus and guidance at any given time.
A voice for many
For Cremin, understanding your audience is critical to an HR leader’s success.
“Effective leadership has to be about who you are leading and what you are trying to achieve. It’s never about the leader,” she says.
Over the years, Cremin has been influenced by a handful of HR directors and their charisma – one of whom left a lasting impression on her.
“I knew one female HRD who just had a way of engaging people,” she says. “Honestly, she could talk to people about anything, and she was so positive it was hard not to be positive too, even if you wanted to be resistant.”
The success of that leader, she believes, was likely born out of her ability to make people feel “heard and seen”.
Pioneering change
Winning support for HR programs can often see HR directors working through the bouts of resistance that often come with change. But Cremin says such challenges can be overcome if leaders are open to adapting their pitch.
“Some organisations still feel uncomfortable talking about the economics of people. Ultimately, if you want strong support across the business, people will need to clearly understand the economic effect of the program, how the program will impact the business, risks and opportunities associated with the program, and the risks of not doing the program,” she says.
Cremin explains that while a finance director is likely geared towards understanding the costs and benefits of a program, an operations manager is more inclined to want to know how the program will affect processes and the experience of staff.
When it comes to building robust internal networks, she says it’s “really a matter of showing people that you have heard them, understand them, and are part of their team trying to solve the problems that affect them”.
In saying this, Cremin highlights the benefits of HR directors being well versed in “behavioural economics”. Exposure to other sides of a business allows for a broader perspective on business processes to be realised, and the context of decisions to be unearthed.
This includes knowing how to effectively communicate decisions to different groups across the organisation.
Encouraging teams to focus on strategy achievement – something Cremin says should be given more relevance than simply existing as a “stuffy document on the shelf ” – also requires HR directors to thoughtfully tend to each individual in the organisation.
“The most critical thing in engagement is people understanding and believing that their actions matter,” Cremin says.
Bouncing back
Cremin isn’t immune to the career hurdle. In acknowledging that there is sometimes merit in walking away, rather than betting more than you are prepared to lose, she says resilience is one of the universal attributes of a great leader – even more so in an industry that she recognises as involving “some really personal and really charged things at times”.
It’s their “ability to be unflappable and not let things get under their skin”, she says.
While Cremin is inspired by people’s strength and their ability to continue viewing the world with compassion despite their hardships, she believes what sets great leaders apart is their ability to push boundaries one step further than others – even after they’ve picked up the pieces.
“What is the genuine probability of each outcome?” It’s the fundamental question Cremin advises HR directors to ask when they find themselves having to navigate stormy seas. This is an approach found to be just as useful when working through conflict management.
Opening dialogue on a regular basis is considered by Cremin to be the best form of prevention against conflicts arising, but in the event that they do, she tells HR directors to not take it personally.
“When you engage in the personal nature of conflict, your ability to creatively problem-solve and think clearly is significantly eroded,” she says. She also advises directors to keep the conflict bound to “the immediate scope” and turn away from introducing past “bones of contention”.
Being a leader also comes with managing a tighter schedule. Having mastered her own, no matter how busy it gets, Cremin hands down a few sure-fi re tips: keep your to-do list to no more than five items; order these based on their value to the business; and plan the day ahead first before opening your inbox, as “you are better equipped to prioritise your workload based on your agenda, not someone else’s”.
Succession planning
Part of being a successful HR director includes identifying talent early on and providing training at every level of the organisation. Otherwise, “you can still end up with gaps”, Cremin says.
Rather than “focusing on replacing a person or position”, she believes “it’s more a matter of ensuring the organisation has the biggest and broadest possible talent pool and skill inventory, and ensuring the structures are in place to utilise them”.
“Agility is key in any succession planning,” she adds.
While Cremin finds it rewarding to see someone “really hit their stride and come into their own”, she finds it challenging to step back when she sees people obstructing their own success.
“We all have to tread our own path, and it takes maturity to not want to do it for people. I’m still learning,” she says.
DLPA DLPA is a bespoke leadership and business development program provider that drives strategic objectives and unlocks the potential of current and emerging leaders. With corporate strategy at the heart of programs, our team works closely with clients to identify key barriers to their success, develop leadership skills, and empower people to reach higher levels of performance. Contact: [email protected] or 1300 766 339.
