| Step 1 - Get to Know Your Operational Managers | |
|
One of the biggest lessons I learnt as a young and idealistic HR Strategist and later as an Organisation Development consultant is that the HR and OD departments were actually out of touch with the demands of the operational areas. I had the unique experience of moving from the HR Strategy team into an operational management role within the same organisation. This completely changed my perspective of the organisation and the complexity involved in its service delivery and achieving business goals.
I discovered that the expectations on service delivery superseded my ability to be able to manage my staff, implement the performance management system, undertake in depth business planning, or any “on the business” activities – these were the first to go when I was under pressure to deliver. And it was expected that these be the first to go. Now as a good HR/OD practitioner I knew that “on the business” activities, when done well, could potentially help me to improve my service delivery, making it more efficient, increase my staff engagement and make for a more productive workplace all round. I put in a huge amount of effort to implement all the strategies being promoted by the HR/OD department. I have to confess, they didn’t all pay off. The main reason being that they did not account for the complexity and demands of operational management. So I started to redefine the strategies and implement them in a way that worked for me and my team. This involved a lot of relationship management and managing upwards. The message to be learnt here is to develop relationships with your operational managers which goes beyond just knowing their kids names and favourite hobbies. It is imperative that you understand what motivates them at work, what their values are, what is important to them about the work they do, and how this impacts on the way they go about their business. This information can then be fed into the HR Strategies so they can be implemented in a way that is easy for them and their operational demands. This will help to ensure the success of those strategies. We teach managers the importance of managing their staff through their values and other engagement techniques and yet, as HR/OD practitioners we don’t do this with the senior managers that we need to be implementing our ideas. Get out there – get your hands dirty learning about the activities involved in service delivery and the needs of the business. Get to know your operational managers and their personal needs and aspirations. Do this with authenticity and passion and you will increase your ability to influence others in the organisation and have your perspective sought after. |
