Across the organisation of today, HR plays an important role. Given the diversity of involvement in different aspects of operations, staying up to date with the essential knowledge could be challenging. The HR professionals of today, more than ever, must continually work to develop their knowledge and leadership skills in order to be able to coach others.
A key strategy to ensure growth is to assess your own leadership style and seek honest feedback, so you can truly lead by example.
Leadership qualities that HR must have
According to Harvard Business Review (HBR), what really sets HR leaders apart is the fact that they are “truly concerned about developing others.” This is a good place to start as, in the absence of a genuine interest in helping employees to grow, the HR team of a company is not likely to be very effective in developing leaders in the organisation. The genuine desire to promote the professional development of others is a key strength that is essential to the effectiveness of HR leadership.
From weakness to strength
The most common weaknesses of HR professionals include the following:
• Resisting a goal that requires pushing beyond one’s limits
• Looking only within rather than without
• Lacking a strategic perspective
• Poor anticipation and slow response to problems
These, then, are also the areas where high-performing HR leadership scores very well, turning these around to make them their strengths and separating themselves from others. In other words, high-performing HR leaders exhibit the following behaviours:
• Establish stretch goals and actively work towards those
• Connect with the outside world
• Develop a strategic perspective when it comes to tackling issues
• Proactively analysing issues and solving problems
These are traits that stand one in good stead across all functions of a business. By performing well on these parameters, HR leaders improve their credibility in advising and coaching others in their organisation in the matter of good leadership qualities. This, though, requires the HR leadership to be self-aware, as well as to seek honest feedback from their colleagues and exhibit a continual desire to do better.
Self-assess
The simplest of the leadership qualities that HR leadership can express is to regularly take a self-assessment, study the results closely and act upon them to make improvements. Self-assessment tools are many – just Google them to pick something that works best for you. Most such tools are free to use and quick in their processes, hence taking away some friction from the act of getting started. The key here is not so much picking the perfect tool as it is the act of making a selection and regularly using a tool.
Seek feedback from your team
Honest feedback for an effective assessment of one’s leadership style can also come from 360-degree feedback. Why this is effective is chiefly because colleagues are less likely to be weighed down by a bias in evaluating the HR leader’s performance than your own assessment might be. Such feedback could also uncover leadership qualities requiring improvement that your self-assessment might have missed, and help you zero in on the skills that demand your priority focus.
Always strive to do better
Expertise in developing leaders is a key requirement for which HR is sought out. However, to truly lead by example and offer coaching that others can count on, never sit back, and keep trying to improve your leadership performance, build your skills and regularly assess your performance.
