03/12/2019
First, as shown in the bottom, are the real technical domains of HR. These are the disciplines you must understand, and you can learn them from books, academic courses, articles, and resources. Over time you will learn to specialize in one domain (recruiting, learning, compensation, executive development, coaching, etc.) and this can become the vertical bar of your T.
Second, and equally as important in your professional role, is your expertise as a consultant, problem-solver, and listener. The reason HR exists is to help people and organizations thrive: we cannot invent or design solutions in a vacuum. The alignment and subtle “soft corners” of a strategy that make it work, and this means you are a consultant above all else you have deep skills in listening, empathy, and figuring out how much change a team or company can take. Every HR business partner (our new Strategic HR Business Partner program dives into this) needs this type of expertise.
Third, you must develop expertise in business, your company, and your industry. This is not as simple as “business acumen” as many people call it: you should be reading the Wall Street Journal, keeping up on product, technology, and market dynamics in your industry. You need to know how your company makes money, and how operations like research, sales, marketing, manufacturing, and finance work together. This is why the best HR professionals spend time in non-HR roles: they learn what’s really going on, and then can come back to HR and add even more practical value.
Fourth, you must understand the tools and technologies of our profession. There are no HR solutions that don’t involve platforms, technologies, and data – so you need to know what these tools are, understand basically how they work, and have an avid and ongoing interest in staying current on this market. It used to be true that HR Technology was a sub-specialty of HR. Today it’s something we all need to understand, and you can build a deep expertise in this also if it interests you. (There is a bigger need for HR Tech architects than ever before, so specializing in HR tech is fantastic. The HR Tech Workshop program to really get under the covers.)
Think about an expert carpenter. Not only does she have to understand wood, design, and the trade of carpentry: she has to know about all the new drills, saws, and machines in their trade.
Fifth, you must have leadership knowledge and experience. Not only do we have to help companies assess, build, and reward leaders, we have to understand why leaders behave like they do, how they make decisions, and what it’s really like to lead. And we have to learn how to engage, convince, and involve business leaders. These skills are like the capstone skills in HR – and if you want to run an HR function, you also need to know how they apply to our function alone.
