The talent management advice below was taken from various online sources. Find the original articles by following the links after the tip.
1. If you’re an HR leader, nothing will make you look better than a talented HR team.
Hire people who are at least your equal or preferable a little bit better. Too many B and C players will ruin your department and your leadership reptuation. – Paul Sohn, 30 Powerful Tips to Be an Outstanding HR Professional
2. Successful people don’t have all the answers; they’re the ones who ask the best questions.
The better the questions, the better the answers. And in my experience, asking the right questions—the really good questions—takes work. Like everything else, asking good questions takes experience because finding the right questions, the ones that elicit really insightful and strong answers, comes from a lot of trial and error. – Dan Oswald, Ask the Right Questions—Find the Right Answers
3. HR is a creature of, and serves, the business strategy.
It’s important for HR people to know what that strategy is and what makes the business tick so the approach to HR can be tailored accordingly. Never think of HR in isolation, because if HR professionals think of themselves as ‘just HR,’ that’s what the rest of the organization will think, too. – Bob Brady, The 9 Essential Skills of Human Resources Management – How Many Do You Have?
4. Provide opportunities for growth and development.
Ensure that managers and direct reports are having quarterly conversations about career goals and the knowledge and skills that need to be developed for advancement. Instead of formalized training programs, maximize informal learning, mentorships, job rotations, and other developmental experiences. – Kevin Kruse, How to Create an Engaged Workforce
5. Mine your network for thought leadership and learn
From a knowledge perspective, who you know can also help you expand what you know. Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn can serve as supplements to the traditional lunchtime professional seminar, in terms of both meeting new contacts and spreading information. Well-curated groups on both networks enable a constant, fluid exchange of professional information. This will also help you quickly synthesize any trends or broader issues as you get access to more people and information.
Just as you’d go to professional lunches with colleagues to identify problem spots and share experiences, (and they may be pitifully or productive in your locale) discussion groups on social networks can provide an active forum to table real-world problems, and help you discover methods, solutions or resources you might not otherwise find. – Bob Calamai, 5 Tips for New HR Professionals
About the Author: Jocelyn Pick
