5 Habits of Highly Successful HR Managers

#1: Look Inward First

A key ingredient to retaining top talent is simple: don’t overlook them. When a new position opens up, successful human resource managers make a habit of first looking to existing employees. Only after confirming a position can’t be filled internally do they focus on external candidate recruitment.

Preferring to promote from within helps create companies that people don’t want to quit. It also links with how successful HR managers realize that retaining top talent isn’t just about writing bigger checks.

#2: Listen

Not every HR problem must be solved quick-smart. Sometimes it’s helpful to just lend an ear. Open yourself up to your staff. Give them space to talk about what irks them.

Keep in mind some of the benefits of giving someone your full attention:

• Listening to people precedes understanding them.
• Listening is the best way to learn about people’s problems.
• Listening can prevent problems from escalating.

Many great leaders prioritize listening — Richard Branson, Indra Nooyi, Ursula Burns, and Howard Schultz. Perhaps more should. Indeed, there’s compelling evidence that leaders need to shut up and listen more.

If you’re an HR professional and want to improve your listening skills, consider reading McKinsey’s guide for executives. In it, the author goes into detail about three behaviors to practice:

• Show respect and let everyone around you know they have something unique to contribute
• Keep quiet and make your speaking time count by asking questions rather than having your say
• Challenge the assumptions that are beneath the surface of every conversation

#3: Know the Business Inside and Out

All-star HR managers have an acute understanding of their company’s business and clients. They know how the company earns revenue. They know who are their most valuable clients (who are often also their most profitable clients) and who are their largest clients (who aren’t necessarily the most profitable). They can have insightful conversations about all kinds of topics related to the business, such as: What does our social media strategy need? Will this product be successful?

High performing HR managers don’t just consider the role of HR as being hiring and firing, employee training, managing payroll, and handling internal communications.

#4: Let It Get Messy

HR can be a minefield. As a HR professional, you’ve got to do so much. Always do performance reviews. Never withhold praise. Don’t have favorites. Update the employee handbook.

By all means, the job of a truly successful HR manager is never done. Along the way, you’ll make a few mistakes. Well, perhaps more than a few.

Within an HR department, successful HR leaders don’t just adopt a “fail better” approach that supports employee experimentation. They also acknowledge that creative and innovative companies are often necessarily messy. It’s not realistic to expect perfection every time.

#5: Know When to Enforce and When to Ignore

Do successful HR managers stick to policies and procedures 100% of the time or occasionally let them slide?

HR professional Mary Anne Osborne writes that if you’re going to make an exception for one person, then you should be willing to make the exception for all. HR consultant John F. Schierer writes that the least successful HR people blindly follow policies and procedures. Between them, Osborne and Schierer have over 50 years of HR experience. Saying that one’s right and the other’s wrong would be too simple. The successful HR manager applies a more nuanced approach. She knows it’s impossible to follow all rules all of the time. Yet she weighs up this fact of business with knowing that it’s perilous to break some rules — and she knows which ones.

In practice, successful HR managers go beyond weighing up which policies and procedures to follow. You’re more likely to find them wiping old HR policies from the books and contributing to business strategy.

By Lee Bob Black.

P.S. Bibliography:

• Amy Letke, “Top 10 HR Mistakes That Can Cost You A Ton Of Money & Get You In Legal Trouble,” Integrity HR, archive.
• Anne Fisher, “What Does Your Top Tech Talent Really Want?” Fortune, archive.
• Bernard T. Ferrari, “The Executive’s Guide to Better Listening,” McKinsey, archive.
• Edward E. Lawler III, “Corporate Strategy: How HR Can Become a Player,” Forbes, archive.
• John C. Maxwell, “The Best Leaders Are Listeners,” archive.
• John F. Schierer, “12 Habits of Highly Successful HR Leaders,” Forefront, archive.
• Liz Ryan, “Horrible HR Policies to Nuke,” archive.
• Mark O’Connell, “The Stunning Success of Fail Better,” Slate, archive.
• Mary Anne Osborne, “KISS — Keep It Simple Strategies: A Toolbox for First Line HR Managers,” archive.
• Meredith Soleau, “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful (and Young) HR Pros,” May 2013, archive.
• Mike Myatt, “Why Most Leaders Need to Shut Up and Listen,” Forbes, archive.