HRBP - Partnering Leaders

In a HRBP role, you partner senior leaders. Why should they see you as a valuable partner?

If as a HRBP you are thinking about what will give you success or satisfaction, you are on wrong track. At best you will be tolerated.  You need to think ‘what’s right for business?’ and need to be perceived as ‘thinking about business’.

As a HR partner, you are going to have sometimes sensitive/confidential conversations with leaders. These conversations can only happen in a ‘safe space’.   Hence think of how to build ‘trust’ in partnership.

With different leaders, different styles of partnering work. Some like to use you as a sounding board, some prefer getting recommendations, some are more action oriented, some prefer thinking through problems before acting.  You need to spend time with leaders in various forms – individual meetings, staff meetings, town halls, etc  - to start understanding what style of partnership might work with him/her.

These are some of principles I find relevant when I partner leaders.

What are principles you use? What’s been your experience?

 

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Sourav

The Plant and The Machine!

He asked me 'Will he move out? He is the one who has built this team from scratch to where it's now.'

I tried sensing emotion behind the question. Was it a feeling of attachment, of fear, or of discomfort?

I thought it was a combination of all emotions.

The person who was moving out was struggling with his own emotions. He asked me 'Is this a message to me? Am I not doing well?'

I felt for him. But I sensed the need for a change of guard.

He had built the business to a certain size. He had 'seeded' an industry at its nascent stages. He had made saplings sprout and overseen their growth to a healthy and beautiful plant

There was enough opportunity now to make plant grow to a tree. Essentially, market was poised for explosive growth. But same skills that had held him in good stead in ramp up stage threatened his success in explosive growth stage.

Soon a new leader came in. His style was diametrically opposite to previous leader.

No more was there space for experiments and pilots. Everything had to be done on a large scale. Feedback style changed to more direct and less encouragement.

It felt less like a lab/playground and more like a war machine.

We knew what we wanted to achieve and we will get it!

Did we succeed? We seem to be on the right path.

Was leadership change necessary?

Well. I don't know.

At this time, I am left with a few observations/questions:

• Do we typecast 'preference' as 'strengths' and exclude possibility of leader being able to use learned (non-preferred) behavior too?
• Plant and Machine are roles appropriate to different growth stages of a team/business. Different roles can be played by same person. But at times it may be necessary to change leadership too.
  I relate more to a plant than to a machine. At same time I feel there is a lot to learn in the machine mode.
• Sometimes a leader is impatient to make an impact. It is important to guide the leader's energy in right direction. It's possible that when one has a hammer everything looks like a nail.

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Sourav