Being a good leader will help your Human Resources department gain employee and employer trust.
By Jennifer Blanchard | HRTools.com Business Writer
It’s often said that leadership skills come naturally to people. That may or may not be true, but there are definitely several stand-out characteristics that all great leaders have.
If your Human Resources (HR) department wants to lead employees to success at your company, it needs to embody the nine characteristics of a great leader.
The nine characteristics are:
- Excellent Character—Great leaders instill trust and are trustworthy. They “walk the walk” and “talk the talk.” They never make promises unless they intend to keep them. And people respect them because of this.
If you want your HR department to be respected internally, you need to mean what you say and practice what you preach. For example, if you tell employees you are available when they need you, always be available. Set appointments with employees and keep them. Inform employees right away if you can’t make an appointment and reschedule.
- Passion—Great leaders are passionate about their work and about their roles as leaders. They are viewed as working for the good of the team. This passion causes others (namely, the people the leader is leading) to respond in a positive way.
If you want your HR department to stand out within your company, you need to be passionate about what you do. Don’t just be an HR department, be an HR department on steroids. Announce your services. Seize every opportunity to make your department known. Take part in as many activities at your company as possible.
- Confidence—Great leaders are confident and they inspire confidence in those who they lead. And confidence is often the maker or breaker in a situation.
For example, in a recent speech given to more than 700 sales consultants and corporate employees, former NBA player, Walter Bond, said that confidence is what differentiated his high school and college basketball teammates from his NBA teammates.
When Bond played high school and college basketball, he said his teammates’ confidence levels always fluctuated. Some days they were confident, other days they didn’t think they could do it.
Not once, he said, did his NBA teammates’ confidence levels fluctuate. That’s what made them successful. That’s what got them into the NBA.
If your HR department is ever going to have a “seat at the table” and gain the respect of employees, you need to be confident in your department’s skills, talents and abilities. You need to know that your department is valuable and what you have to offer is necessary for your company’s success. As they say, believing is 90 percent of achieving.
- Organized—Great leaders are organized. They know what’s what. They have a plan. They know (for the most part) each move they need to make in order to reach their end goal.
Your HR department needs to be as organized as possible. Keep track of deadlines for new hire paperwork. E-mail employees a week before open enrollment to let them know it’s coming up. Proactively market your services. Employees (and your employer) will be able to tell if your department has its stuff together or not.
- Purpose-Driven—Great leaders know what their purposes are: in life and in their work. They remain focused on that purpose and use it as the driving factor for their successes. Being purpose-driven is necessary when leading a team, and is especially important in uncertain times and situations.
You need to determine the purpose of your HR department and use it as a driving force for the successes of your department internally. What are you trying to achieve? Yes, you are trying to hire/fire and get people benefits and a paycheck. But what else do you want to do? Do you want to educate employees? Do you want to become more strategic? Do you want to implement additional programs into the workplace?
Knowing what your goals are will help you determine the right steps for your department to take to get it where you want to be.
- Tolerance—Great leaders are extremely tolerant—of ambiguity, of “storms,” of politics, of anything that will get in the way of their success and the success of the people they lead. This tolerance helps great leaders stay calm, collected, professional and focused on the main purpose.
As an HR department leader, you’re most likely already tolerant. But be even more so. It will only strengthen your relationships with your company and with employees.
- Analytical—Great leaders are able to view situations and projects as a whole, and can also break them down into steps needed to take, in order to reach their goals. Great leaders are “big picture” thinkers and planners.
Your HR department should have a vision—where do you see your department in five years? In ten? Once you know what your ultimate goal is, you can then work backwards to figure out the steps you need to take to get there.
- Committed to Superiority—Great leaders maintain high standards and set the bar high for themselves and those they lead in order to achieve excellence. They refuse to accept anything but the best.
As an HR department leader, be committed to excellence. Handle employee requests in 24 hours, if possible. Immediately update employees on anything relating to them and their employment, such as benefits changes, upcoming training opportunities, new policies, etc. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Positive Attitude and Mindset—Great leaders are positive thinkers. They focus on the end result and rarely deviate from that thought, regardless of circumstance. They use phrases like “when it happens” instead of “if it happens.” They turn limitations into possibilities.
Your HR department has a pretty big hurdle to overcome: Moving from “all HR does is hire, fire and payroll” to “HR is a strategic partner within the organization and is an important part of retaining our people and meeting/exceeding our bottom line.” But by keeping a positive attitude and looking at everything that happens through a positive lens, you can do it, one step at a time.
Being a good leader is a challenge. Being a great leader is even more difficult. But with some hard work, dedication and a commitment to these nine traits, you will be on your way to leading your HR department and your employees to a bright future at your company.
<p>It’s often said that leadership skills come naturally to people, but there are definitely several stand-out characteristics that all great leaders have.</p>