How to Become a +1 HR Leader

^{NJ Pesci: Former CHRO Scripps Networks Interactive}

When most HR managers hear about the +1 HR Leader concept, they are drawn to it. It's intriguing to them, it makes sense, it’s even aspirational for some. Many often believe they are already doing +1 HR leader like work, and that may very well be the case. In this article we will explore some of the pieces that should be in place to be a +1 HR Leader

Here are some of the things you can start doing now to have an impact as a +1HR Leader:

1. A +1 HR Leader focuses on outcomes not on activities.

This can be hard sometimes for HR managers, because they are often very busy doing tasks or activities driven by the HR function and not the business. Unfortunately, they become remarkably efficient, yet highly ineffective. Focusing on outcomes means you must understand why you're doing the things you do, and not just do them because you always have. As a +1 HR Leader, you must ask yourself the following questions to shift from activities to outcome. Ask yourself, why am I doing this? Ask yourself, what would I be doing if I wasn't doing this activity? Ask yourself, how does this activity add value?

Several years ago, I asked a young HR manager what she would be doing right now if she wasn’t working on getting the organization to complete its performance reviews? She was confused and had no real answer. For those of us who have chased down line mangers for hours or devised reward systems or punishment methods to get individuals to do a performance review, you know why I asked the question, and what a colossal waste of time it is to work on such things.

One of the obstacles for people who want to move from being a traditional HR manager to a +1 HR Leader is that they don’t know what to do if they are not working on HR activities. Unfortunately, many of those traditional HR activities don’t add any value anyway. Performance reviews and performance ratings, just to name a few non-value adding activities they work on (more on that in future +1 HR articles). To be a +1 HR Leader you must be thinking about outcomes all the time. You must understand that you are in a business, so go find things that add value to that business and fix them. No one will tell you what these things are, you will have to discover them.

2. A +1 HR Leader understands the business.

Understand your business, its performance, the competition, the market, and the business situation you are facing. Understand your business in a way that is deeper than just repeating back things you heard in an earnings meeting, or in a quarterly review. Understand your business completely by taking apart the numbers. Go get all the numbers you can and study them. Ask questions and be humble enough to be taught be different people in the organization. Understand the numbers and ask yourself, what's the one number no one would want to share with the CEO if it were bad? That might be the most important number, start there. Look for patterns and problems in the business and then think about how you might help solve these problems.

3. A +1 HR Leader looks to fix systems and process.

The third thing you can do is begin looking at all the system and processes that exist in the work streams of your business, all of them. Whether it's marketing, finance, sales, HR, or operations, look at all of them inside your organization. Look at them from an organizational design perspective first. Ask yourself these questions, are we organized and designed to execute the systems or process we have, and, if not, do we need to make changes?

When looking at systems and processes your focus should be to drive out touch, time, and cost. When you do that, you will find a bottleneck in every process. It doesn’t matter how good the process is, there is one part that is not as effective as the rest. You can add value to the company by eliminating those bottlenecks. For example, can you go from 18 months to launch a product to 12, because you took out touch, time and cost in the systems or process? That's what a +1 HR Leader can do. But you must understand the business to suggest these changes. +1 HR Leaders are curious people, they are always looking for problems that no one else can see and solving them.

4. A +1 HR Leader uses all the tools they have at their disposal.

Use the tools you've learned on organizational design, on business development, on succession planning, on problem solving, etc. Use those tools repeatedly and you will build up a repertoire of tools over your career and a +1 HR Leader will know when and where to use them.

5. A +1 HR Leader will practice, practice, practice.

With number four, using tools, comes number five, practice, practice, practice. A +1 HR Leader will practice early on in their career. You don't want to find yourself as the Chief HR Officer having to do your first organizational redesign at that time. Use your tools early and often, practice, experiment, and try new things. You want to start using your tools and practicing your craft when you are at a level or in a position where you can't really hurt your company if your practice session doesn’t work out as planned. Practice early practice often, so later when you do have big impactful things to do, you will have practiced and seen most of them already.

6. A +1 HR Leader will have thick skin.

Having thick skin will be important. Be prepared for people to question what you're doing in a non-HR sandbox. They will remind you that you are the HR person, and you hire and fire people, you don’t work on things in the business. And finally, you might find that your HR colleagues will give you more grief than the people in the business for stepping outside the HR box. Have thick skin and know you are doing the right thing for the business, don’t give up or give in.

Thank You

Thank you for joining us this week. If you enjoyed this read please share with your HR friends and feel free to reply to this email with any comments or feedback!