Improving HR | Managing Stakeholders

THE BIG IDEA

There are a couple of biases that underpin HR's relationship with stakeholders - and, if left unaddressed, they can lead to a state of learned helplessness, or even permanent victimhood.

The first bias is immediacy.

Put simply, most members of HR are running in real-time, swamped by inbox overload, and unable to get everything done. The net result is a lived reality of “whatever’s next…” and both clients and HR have reached acceptance of this as the uncomfortable norm.

And, in this norm, both clients and HR have learned to play the game of?“who shouts loudest is more likely to receive a response.”

Immediacy adds an extra boost to this game: “who is shouting loudest RIGHT NOW?”

In a limited bandwidth situation, the loudest voice I’m hearing right now is the one to whom I’ll respond.

Ready to juice the game even further?

Let’s add in a bias for seniority.

If John from Manufacturing complains about the payroll process, we may handle the complaint and move on. We may even dismiss the complaint because we know that “the process will figure it out at some point.”

Or, too often sadly, we may play the toxic HR game of “lay the blame”.

Either way, John’s complaint won’t climb very high up our flag-pole.

But what if the complaint comes from Cindy, our Chief Finance Officer?

Will we dismiss Cindy as just having to wait. Will we shrug our shoulders and tell her: “I don’t know, you’ll have to speak to Payroll…”

Of course we won’t. Because HR is too far in thrall to seniority; we simply do not respond to all levels of the organization the same way. We may want to believe we do… but we really don’t.

Put together, these biases can lead to a heady stew indeed. And the net result is that everything is deemed important, regardless of how important it actually is - a sure recipe for stress and burnout.

TRY THIS

To a large extent, our response to clamoring stakeholders is a matter of personal resilience, and the only lasting antidote is to build coping strategies and emotional support for the warrior in the ring.

This seems obvious, right?

Yet, very few HR groups take a structured approach to such supportive scaffolding - instead leaving it to ad hoc eye-rolling, kind-of-whining-kind-of-coaching discussions or, as we Brits might say, adopting an attitude of "chin up, carry on..."

As a result, we have developed a pattern of celebrating/recognizing/rewarding the Surviving Hero(ine) over and above that of driving change into our actions, decisions and relationships.

For many in HR, it is better to be seen as bravely not-sinking than it is to swim or even, perish the thought, learn to water-ski!

One approach that I recommend here is a regular - daily/weekly as opposed to monthly/quarterly/annually! - triage of pressure points at the team level.

Get together to discuss where fires are burning and, more importantly, how your team-mates are coping - what they're trying, what they're learning, what they could do differently...

It's imperative in these sessions that you don't seek to "fix" either the process issue or stakeholder(s) in question - the aim is to support and coach your team-mates to grow personal resilience as they continue to move forward and manage the situation.

Make this a regular practice and you'll begin to see within those two biases of immediacy and seniority and how they are creating unnecessary pressure on, and within, your HR team.

And, over time, you'll reinforce with your team what's important versus just being noisy.

USE THIS

I use this influence vs. impact grid in my formal stakeholder management work, and it can also be a useful heuristic for day-to-day stakeholder response.

For example, in response to a loud complaint we may fall into the trap of managing a stakeholder closely (e.g. doing process steps for them, hand-holding them through decisions, etc.) when all we really need to do is be aware they're having difficulty and guide them to the right resolution source (i.e. keep them informed).

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated.” ~ Brené Brown

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