To rise to the HR director role senior leaders must trust their ability to provide commercially astute advice
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Rising to the top job in HR typically takes more than people leadership expertise, according Karen Gately, founder of HR consultancy Ryan Gately.
“While you may be highly regarded for your understanding of people and the ability to coach managers to get the best from their team, you also need a reputation for being business-savvy and a key influencer of organisational outcomes,” added Gately.
“Being appointed to the role of HR Director usually demands capabilities across the broad spectrum of general management responsibilities.”
Gately said successful HR directors influence the priorities set, decisions made and actions taken by leaders in pursuit of the organisations vision and strategic objectives.
“Your ability to impact the way your organisation goes about leveraging the talent and energy of your work force is key to been seen as the right person to lead the HR team,” said Gately.
“At the heart of success is the trust and respect you earn.”
Gately said that among the most important capabilities you need to be appointed HR Director are these:
Take steps to develop your understanding of what drives your organisations success in the context within which you operate.
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Understand your organisations competitive advantage and how the people across your organisation influence your market position and ultimately success. Develop also your understanding of governance and the role the HR Director plays in ensuring ethical and lawful business practice.
If you’ve spent the majority of your career working in an HR department create time to spend in the operations of your business.
If you lead a team, encourage that they also learn from the experience of getting ‘their hands dirty’ in roles across the business. One HR Director I work with spent time following each step along the process from customer order to delivery and learnt invaluable lessons about how the business operates and what is needed from the HR team.
Show that you are focused on how HR practices impact organisational priorities and maintain a clear line of site between the advice you give and the commercial outcomes your organisation is striving to achieve.
Earn trust and respect by behaving in ways that build confidence in your ability to be astute, rational, pragmatic, ethical as well as empathetic.