HR Business Partners: The Superpowers to Evolve from Partnering to Leading

Partnering and leading are two very different things, not only in their definitions, but in the practical meaning they have in the context of business.

Being a "partner" is not the same as being a "leader". The kind of skills, competencies and capabilities needed to become an effective business partner are different from, although sometimes overlapping with, what's needed to become an effective leader. More importantly, and this is a fundamental contrasting principle between the two, the scope of the influence and power of a business partner and business leader are vastly different. One is much more limited than the other.

But there is a more subtle, but significant difference between partner and leader.

When a professional in any field sees him or herself as a partner, he or she will act in that way, even when they have the potential to become more. When a professional in any field sees him or herself as a leader, he or she will act in that way, even if they don't have all the skills and competencies, yet, to fully and effectively perform the leadership role. It's self-fulfilling prophecy in action in the business context.

Obviously, this applies to Human Resources. Being an HR Business Partner is not the same as being an HR leader. They act, behave, operate and see themselves in radically different ways.

An HR leader may be a business partner, but a business partner is not always a leader.

For a long time the role of HRBPs was, mostly in theory, a “strategic” function meant to guide other business functions and leaders in achieving their business goals through people operations. However, in practice, the experience of HRBPs has not been completely “strategic”, but mostly “transactional”. This means that they spend most of their time running day-to-day support or partnering operations for their internal clients rather than strategic ones.

And here we arrive at our current workplace predicament and HR dilemma: given that among the top 10 challenges that businesses are dealing with today PEOPLE's challenges always show up in the first three to five, is it too much of a stretch to think that since business challenges actually have people solutions and HR, therefore, shouldn't be just "partnering with the business" but, indeed, becoming THE business leader?

As we see it, given all the people’s challenges that businesses are dealing with now (attraction, retention, culture, employee experience, productivity, performance, brand reputation, and the implications for the financial bottom line of the organization) it is only natural to think that there is an actual and evident gap between what those businesses are doing to solve those problems and how HR is currently stepping approaching its own role in the organization, to the role that HR could and should have in leading the way forward.

In our view, this is the most extraordinary time for HRBPs to take the lead and evolve from “partners” to “leaders”. Most organizations are facing some of the complex business challenges they have ever dealt with, and most of them have to do with people. Rather than becoming discouraging for HR about how their organizations have approached people's challenges before, or how HR itself has stepped in to add value, it seems to us that this is a unique opportunity for HR to move from just having "HR operational frameworks" (which are only good for the technical work of HR as a "partner", but not to build influence and leadership capabilities as a leader) to having a deep, strong, almost stubborn belief in itself and its potential to lead the way forward and evolve from partners to leaders.

This is why we have a long-standing and strong contention with the way some of the "experts" in the HR space have used their influence to architect and shape what they think HR should be: a good technical partner, and not an influential business leader.

For them, it is only about the technical work and specific, transactional and sometimes administrative acumen of HR. To me, in contrast, it is about inspiring HR professionals to believe in themselves and fully accept their new role as leaders trailblazing the way forward for people and organizations.

There is a significant philosophical difference between the two models above. An HR professional who only sees him or herself as a "partner" may have all the technical qualifications and may know all the "HR operational frameworks" needed to do a great technical, administrative HR work. But that's all of it. The value that that person can add will always be limited by the transactional scope of the role (a scope generally defined by others, not by the HRBP) and the technical expertise she or he may have. On the other hand, an HR professional who believes in his or her potential to lead the way and who knows it is possible to add the greatest amount of value to their organizations by solving business problems with people solutions, will hop on the journey to learn how to become an effective HR leader and will believe that they can do it very well. Their leadership role is not defined by what others want them to do, but by what they believe they can achieve through formal authority given to them because of the unlimited value they create, or by the power of their influence that they build with trust and effectiveness.

It is important to mention here that names and titles matter little in this conversation. An HRBP can be the most effective and influential leader in an organization, delivering great people solutions to business challenges. A CHRO/CPO may operate just in transactional ways, doing even less than is expected from a "partner". The title doesn't make the difference, it is the outcomes of the work done and how it is done.

What do HRBPs need to evolve from partners to leaders?

Superpowers

There are eight SUPERPOWERS in which HRBPs can stand out and create the most remarkable and memorable experiences for their stakeholders and never-seen strategic value. Those eight superpowers are:

Superpower 1: Connector (Connect Business and HR Strategy)

The ability to connect business and HR strategy is fundamental to evolve from partnering to leading. This means that HRBPs have to understand what that business strategy looks like and the meaning for HR. Creating HR strategy or operations disconnected from the business strategy doesn’t work because we don’t know if what we are doing in HR is, in fact, contributing to the achievement of the strategy or hindering the organization and the people from it. These are two immediate actions to realize this superpower: understand the business strategy (talk to the people who created it and understand what they need) and, only then, set up your HR strategy by connecting the specifics of HR to the achievement of the business strategy.

Superpower 2: Translator (Understand the "language of the business")

This superpower is intimately related to the previous one. We will say this: we love HR… but we don’t love HR jargon in the context of a business conversation. This isn’t to say that our language doesn’t matter or isn’t important, but it means that we don’t want to force anyone to understand US. We choose instead to understand THEM. It isn’t “altruism” to try to understand our business stakeholders. It is that in doing so we are much better prepared to translate our strategies and operations to their language for their understanding. An HRBP may say “why don’t we teach them our language? Why don’t they learn about HR, too?”. That would be a fair point. But… “… if the mountain doesn’t come to us” (as the saying goes), let’s go to the mountain instead. Once again, this is the power of choice. Choosing to wait for our clients to understand what we mean may take much longer than for us to understand their language and translating ourselves for them.

Superpower 3: Collaborator (Collaborate and co-create with non-HR stakeholders)

One of the biggest challenges that we have come across in HR is that a number of corporate leaders think of people matters as an HR thing and, well, not as a corporate thing. Take performance as an example. Because traditional performance is such an awful process (or for whatever other reason), corporate leaders instead of taking ownership of corporate performance throw it to HR and even tell people: “oh, sorry… We don’t even want to do this… but it is an HR thing”. No wonder why so many people dislike or don’t trust in HR. The alternative to this is another superpower: collaborating and co-creating people processes, strategies and operations with our stakeholders. This isn’t just a “nice to have” or a “we are inclusive and we want to hear from you” kind of thing. It is a way to engage them, get their buy- in and, equally (if not more…) importantly, to make them co-responsible.

Superpower 4: Identifier (Identify business challenges and helps solve them from HR)

Closely related to the three previous superpowers: when HRBPs understand the business strategy, learn to speak the language of the business and collaborate with their stakeholders, they are also able to identify the most pressing business challenges. In doing so and with their understanding of people operations they can connect the dots and propose potential solutions to solve those complex business challenges from a people perspective. This is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary possibilities that HRBPs can create: solving business challenges from a people perspective. We have a unique vantage point here: we have now learned the business strategy, the language of the business and how to collaborate with others… and we can connect that with our knowledge of HR and people. Quite a superpower, isn’t it?

Superpower 5: Influencer (Influence other leaders in the organization)

Sometimes HR leaders do have significant authority vested in them by the power of their role and by the trust they have garnered from the top leaders in the organization. However, this is rare. So, if we don’t have power because of our function, title or championing by the highest leaders in the organization, how do we make change happen? Well, the second best thing: the power of influence. That may sound like a circular definition as power is indeed influence. However, for HRBPs, it becomes more of a sequence: having the power to make change happen and to lead the way we have to influence others in the organization. That happens by building trust. And, in the context of the eight superpowers described here, building trust depends on how well we understand the priorities and language of our stakeholders, how much we collaborate with them and co-create. Influencing is a must-have superpower for HRBPs in organizations where HR has been left “powerless” by their culture.

Superpower 6: Communicator (Communicate effectively with internal clients)

An important complaint we hear often from HRBPs’ stakeholders is the lack of effective or timely communications. Communicating regularly with internal stakeholders is a superpower that generates an immense amount of trust. It is important to mention that “communicating” something “effectively” doesn’t mean “spreading good news”. Not everything will be good news, sadly. An HRBP may need to communicate confidential and sensitive information to a business leader that warrants a strong response from the organization and that leader. This is part of the job (and, in fact, it is part of everybody’s job, too). There are two essential components of this “effective communicator” superpower. The first is that communicating effectively and regularly builds trust, empathy and respect. That matters a lot in the short and long run. The second is that, if HRBPs mess up sometime (and it will certainly happen. Nothing to be ashamed of as failures/mess ups are just part of the journey toward progress and improvement), the effect will be lesser compared to that if HRBPs haven’t been effective communicators.

Superpower 7: Coach and Consultant Coach and consult people across the organization)

One of the most beautiful possibilities of evolving from “partnering” to “leading” is that the foundation of the job of an HRBP also evolves from “telling” or “informing” to coaching and consulting. Coaching and consulting are some of the ways in which an HRBP can actually operationalize their influence.

Superpower 8: Data-oriented (Create a data-informed HR strategy and operations)

Gut feelings matter, but it’s much better when they are backed up with data. This means two things: sometimes the gut feelings of an HRBP will be proven true by an evidence-based, data-informed approach. Other times, those gut feelings will not have a standing when confronted with data. Whatever it is, though, the approach should be that whenever HRBPs approach their internal stakeholders they should have their ideas and proposals for strategy and action backed up by data. This creates a much stronger case for HR influence and, for a lot of business leaders used to speaking a data language, it also generates additional trust and rapport. They will know that you did your homework as an HRBP.

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