This helps HR managers…

• develop a self-concept built on creative contributions, innovation, and a real footprint.
• distinguish between the permanent and the “pliable” elements of their personalities and thereby name the expandable competence areas,
• get a realistic sense of their abilities,
• derive potentials and goals of personal growth,
• turn these into consistent and authentic practice, and
• expand their professional scope and leave a more meaningful mark.

You are in charge of your firm’s HR function, and your CEO or other executives keep confronting you with the average performance of your unit. You might not agree with their stark criticism, but you also believe that there is more in your team. There might be a lack of creativity, not enough business acumen, a poor sense of initiative, or too much reliance on processes and red tape. Some HR managers might not be right for their jobs. You need to diagnose the personalities and competence gaps in your team and know the specific improvements you can pursue with your team members.

Your company is caught up in a seemingly endless cycle of change. There might be redundancies or new acquisitions or divestments of entire businesses or parts of your business. HR takes over a key role in such moments. You do not want to leave anything up to chance and need to make sure that your people will be able to master the challenges ahead. Beyond the immediate functional expertise, you need to be able to anticipate and control the massive resistance and roadblocks along the way and stay in the driver’s seat in order to reach all of your deadlines, budgets, and performance goals.

Giving people more flexibility in choosing the time and place of work is a complex and intricate balancing act with major repercussions for the business. Any attempts at taking back new rights and liberties will never be accepted. You need to be aware of the consequences of your decisions. For HR managers, this needs effective project management skills as well as strategic and tactical awareness. HR needs to strike the right balance between the wishes and expectations of employees and the needs of the business in order to find and negotiate the best win-win compromise. This calls for top interaction skills during the project to find and implement the best possible solutions and to win and keep the required level of acceptance.

Sooner or later, every HR service will be have to face the question: Outsource or insource? “Reasonable” companies have come to realize that the right answer is: It depends. Moving recruitment back into the organization is one possible scenario of this typical debate. Digital resources create a new opportunity for faster and more economical recruitment that responds more to the market and the competitive landscape. HR management needs to put in place the organizational and human resources and enter the often unfamiliar terrain of external specialists for effective recruitment and competence development. Last, but not least, HR managers need to stand by the planned performance improvements and economies.

You have a pool of talented young HR managers at your disposal that need new challenges to grow. Every challenge is a new situation for them. And even though good didactics demands that people are allowed to learn from their mistakes, you do not want them to lose faith in their abilities – once bitten, twice shy. You want to give your HR managers a source of meaningful support and guidance to let them learn without having to risk major errors with unnecessarily negative implications for your business.