WHAT the Best HR Leaders Know and Do

One of the foundational elements of being a successful Human Resources leader is what I like to call the “WHAT” of HR—namely the content knowledge, capabilities, and experiences of being an HR leader.

“WHAT” implies knowing and speaking the language of the business, but perhaps more importantly, it relies heavily on the ability of HR leaders to ask good questions first—the kinds of questions that cause others to make good decisions and tough choices about business and people issues to drive performance.

Where do you stand in relation to these key components of what the best HR leaders know and do?

• Human Capital Strategy and how it relates to the value chain by which your business makes money;
• Leadership and Talent Development and how you identify, acquire, and develop leaders and other key talent for the organization;
• Change Leadership and how well you and your team take an active leadership role in planning and orchestrating both routine and transformational change for your organization
• Your ability to provide Advice and Partnership as trusted coaches and counsel to the operating, line, and/or other functional leaders you support.
• Your ability to Drive Performance by building a performance culture, ensuring appropriate incentives and consequences are in place to influence the right behaviors, maximizing the value of compensation and benefits‐related costs, reducing headcount, and/or redesigning the organization to be more effective and less costly.
• Board Relationships and how much you and your team understand and contribute to the HR matters that board members care about, including executive compensation; succession planning and talent management; diversity initiatives; employee safety and well‐being; environmental sustainability; and human capital dashboards supported by people analytics.
• The degree to which you and your team are willing and able to assess your HR Excellence by looking in the mirror and asking, “Do we have the talent, processes, operating model, and credibility we need in HR to do what the company needs of us, and if not, what are we doing about it?”
• The ability you and your team have to see around corners, to understand the changing nature of the workforce, workplace, and work itself—and the implications these trends have on the Future of HR.

You may be wondering, where are all the other things you are doing as an HR leader—such as employee relations, high volume hiring, policy interpretation, shared services, and more? Granted, all are extremely important and foundational to high‐quality HR work, but doing them well is an expectation. They are not what will set you apart from others as an exceptional HR leader. That’s where these key components, and your aptitude relative to them, come in.

If you found this information valuable, for more on these and other ideas, check out my book, THREE: The Human Resources Emerging Executive, available now. Learn more and preview THREE at www.exexgroup.com/publications/three-book.