What +1 HR Leaders Don’t Do

What +1 HR Leaders Don’t Do

^{NJ Pesci: Former CHRO Scripps Networks Interactive}

Normally things begin with a conversation about what you should do to be a +1 HR Leader, and we will get to that soon. However, given the position HR finds itself in across industries, it might be better to talk about a few of the things +1 HR Leaders do not do and more importantly should not do.

The first thing that +1 HR Leaders should stop doing is focusing on activities vs outcomes. This is a common and easy thing to get caught up in. As an HR manager you have several administrative things to take care of and you get deeply involved in those. If you take a moment to look up, you will notice that a number of these activities either have no connection to the progress of the business or are little to no interest to the other departments in your business or organization. Too many of these activities are HR created and mandated. Performance reviews are one of these items, and don’t let legal tell you that you have to do them, you don’t. We stopped them in one firm and the performance of the company went up each year. Feedback is a good thing but the activities surrounding performance reviews might not be.

The second thing +1 HR Leaders don’t do is the difunctional rescuing of line managers. This one is all too common and HR managers often feel like they are doing something good by standing in for the line manager when the line manager decides that managing people is hard or uncomfortable. The line manager will step back, and HR managers are all too willing and ready to step in and manage their direct report for them. At times it is a performance conversation, or it might be a conversation about how the direct report interacts with the team they are on. If you are a +1 HR Leader, you know that the employee has a manager, and you are not that manager. In addition, you know that it is a huge time suck for you to do someone else’s work. Just stop! The line manager will thank you over and over again for rescuing them. Just stop!

The third thing is to never take any backhanded compliments that degrade the HR function. The quintessential backhanded compliment given to many HR managers is when the business partner says to the HR manager, “You're not like any other HR manager I’ve had before. You're different.” The only way to accept that compliment is to throw the entire HR function under the bus. They tell you that HR is always the NO police or never make it easy or make them do so many things that don’t make sense and are not helpful. And then you come along and show them what the function can do, and they tell you that you are different, and they can’t understand why you are in the HR function at all. It is nice to hear, but you just can’t accept it without tacitly agreeing with them about the function.

The fourth thing a +1 HR Leaders won’t do is party planning! Is there anything more degrading to the function than being asked to plan parties or luncheons or team building activities? Why are the HR leaders responsible for these things? Could you imagine asking the finance leader to plan such activities? It is not that anyone of us is above such things. It is the fact that this is how businesses see the HR function, as the party planners, the group that comes up with the fun icebreakers, the note takers at the meeting, the ones that must see what the travel plans are to ensure that the leaders of the company are not all on the same plane when travelling. And HR managers do these things to be helpful, to be a team player, and all they are really doing is ensuring that no one takes them or the function seriously when they want to have a voice.

These are just a few of the items +1 HR Leaders need to stop engaging in. Unfortunately, there are many more we can discuss in the future.

Thank You

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