HR's Role in Developing Leaders

Many HR professionals deal with constant stress in their jobs. Why? Because they are dealing with what seems like never ending “people problems” that arise among employees, leaders AND teams.

But, what if it didn’t have to be this way?

People who become leaders and managers in their companies are typically promoted to those positions because of their talent, work ethic, and ability to get results.

What’s often missing for these leaders is the training to know how to lead, motivate, and care for the people on their teams (aka ’emotional intelligence’)—and as a result,?as “people problems” arise, they are handed to HR to “fix.”

This puts a lot of pressure on HR, and on top of that, HR isn’t WITH the people on a daily basis to fully understand the context and be the ideal resource to resolve all of the issues.

This also disempowers leaders and managers, because they feel that when these “people problems” arise, they don’t know how to solve them.

There is definitely a better way…

Because the skillset of managing people is different from the skillset many leaders and managers previously needed to do their jobs, that means IT’S TIME TO TEACH A NEW MINDSET AND SKILLSET.

This is a perfect opportunity for HR to ‘partner’ with these leaders and managers as a COACH by supporting and teaching leaders to ‘fish’ rather than ‘catching the fish for them’…

The valuable aspects that HR offers such as understanding of human behavior, advocating for equitable treatment of employees, mediation and conflict resolution can be TAUGHT to leaders and managers throughout the company.

As a result, this MULTIPLIES the value and impact HR brings and cascades it throughout the company by empowering leaders and managers to address their own “people problems” with greater CONFIDENCE AND EFFECTIVENESS.

The role of HR shouldn’t always be solving every people related problem. The role of HR can be a partner to TEACH and COACH the leaders through the mindset and skillset of solving people problems.

It’s time to move leaders from BOSS to COACH. It’s time to move HR professionals from the place of being the front-line problem solvers to being coaches of the leaders who will do the work of solving those problems for their own teams.

Many of our HR colleagues with our client companies buy-in to this vision and have partnered with us to ‘jump start’ this learning process for their leaders.

By equipping leaders to become true coach-leaders who confidently coach, motivate and inspire their teams while also achieving outstanding business results, these HR professionals are transforming their workplace culture – and are no longer feeling like they are doing it alone.

So, how can HR better coach managers in their organization?

If you’re an HR professional who sees the leaders in your organization struggling to manage their people and productivity effectively, I get it.

Working in HR myself for many years, and subsequently coaching leaders from the front line to the C-Suite for over 13 years, I've seen the all-too-common ruts many leaders can fall into.

For many leaders, it’s no fault of their own - since they are often promoted because of their excellent ability to do the work or get results. Leading others, however, requires a COMPLETELY different MINDSET AND SKILLSET than actually doing the work.

So, what can HR do to help fill the gap when leaders come to you for help?

How can you coach them to greater success on a day-to-day basis...teaching them to 'fish' and not 'catching the fish' for them'?

Here are four tried-and-true coaching competencies to close the gap:

1) Active Listening

Listen for more than what the leader is saying with their words. Pay attention to underlying thoughts, assumptions, beliefs, and values that are driving their words. Notice body language, energy level, and tone of voice.

2) Curious Questions

This includes being present with the leader. Respond with questions that demonstrate attentiveness to what they are saying. I call these “customized questions,” which means they are questions specific to what the person just said. Be intentional to remove your own judgments, filters, biases, and assumptions so you can ask open-ended, curious questions. This will help you get to the bottom of what is really going on with the leader.

3) Affirm and Acknowledge

It’s so important to identify the gifts, natural strengths, experiences, knowledge, and specific characteristics of the leaders you work with. Many times, these leaders have so much to contribute and so much natural ability to lead?(even if it does need to be refined). But those leaders often miss how to leverage their strengths. And because they are so good at these things, they often expect it should be easier for others?(another great awareness many leaders need to be alerted to).

4) Share Observations

A powerful coaching tool is sharing your observations. Observing is simply calling attention to something that is factual or true that you notice. It doesn’t mean stating an opinion, it simply means noticing (i.e., “I noticed that you seem stressed when you talk about...). By simply stating your observations, you help leaders achieve a greater level of self-awareness and maybe even clue them into something they’ve been missing.

Coaching is transformational. And, we are passionate about helping leaders move from BOSS to COACH LEADER and partnering with HR to grow and sustain a healthy workplace culture.

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Alissa DeWitt,?MCC, CPC, CERS,?is the Founder, CEO and?Executive Leadership Coach at Executive Impact, an organization dedicated to developing coach leaders and building leadership dream teams. With 30+ years in business and leadership, expertise in human behavior working with leaders from the front line to the C-Suite, and competencies as a Master Certified Coach, Alissa is the creator of ‘The Coach Approach to Leadership.'

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