How can HR leaders inspire their team to make an

impact

The first thing you need to do as an HR professional is to stop managing and start leading. What's this all about? Leading by example. In many companies, HR has unfortunately become another administrative department, in some ways similar to the finance department. Isn't that sad?

HR has a heavy workload and people seem to prioritise admin instead of focusing on what really matters most, and the reason you work in HR: people. 

Let's put it this way: 

When you spend most of your time managing people, you don't have the time to inspire them to be the best version of themselves. You are constantly busy because you feel you need to be "on top of things", and the only thing you do is look at contracts, reports, dashboard and KPIs.

When you start leading people, you start delegating, giving them more responsibility and giving them the space to grow. You don't feel the need to manage everything, because you empower a team to do more things and learn more in the process.

When you start leading, you'll free up time that you can dedicate to what matters the most: inspiring your people to be leaders themselves, to uncover their purpose, understand why they work for you and align that with the purpose of your organisation.

Stop managing, start leading

Ask them about their dreams and take them seriously.

When I was leading teams, I usually planned a couple of days where we all got together to

• strengthen our relationships,
• boost our team spirit and
• align what we were doing, and wanted to do. 

There was a crucial step in the first session: I asked them about their dreams. 

I told them that while it was great that they were working for our company and doing what they were doing at the time, it  probably wasn’t what they had dreamt about, nor what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives.

When they started sharing their dreams, it was so inspiring to see so many beautiful ideas and initiatives they had in mind. Everyone was fascinated by them. 

You may think I was encouraging them to leave the company! You know what?

Most people you work with will leave at some point.

They might stay a year or two with you. Some may stay longer. But in the end, either you or they will move on to a new challenge. 

Your responsibility as a leader is to help them get closer to what they really want to do, to their dreams. By helping them acquire the skills and  experience they need for what they would love to do in the future, you’ll not only be helping feel happier and fulfilled, you’ll also increase their loyalty to you, your team and organisation. 

In other words, if they feel you are helping them to achieve their dreams, they will be happier, more productive and stay with you longer.

Establish the link between what's important to them and their role within the company.

An essential part of building high-performing teams is to find the link between what's important to them and the impact your company is making on others and the world.

Some personal examples

My core purpose is to help people. I can deliver on my purpose in many different ways, but the core won't change or, at least, it would be difficult because it's linked to who I am. Making the association between what my company or the products I sold, and what was most important to me, helped me to be successful, happier and stay longer working for those companies.

When it comes to you and your organisation, try to see what impact your company’s activities are making on others and the world, and find a link to something that matters to everyone who works for you.

If there is no link at all, you know that your organisation isn't a good match for that person and that you both will be happier if your relationship comes to an end. 

Inspire other leaders to do the same with their teams.

Ok, I can do all this and own it because HR is my department, I have control over it. But how can I change the rest of the organisation?

It all comes to the same principle, leading by example. As mentioned before, it is always easier when change comes from the CEO, aligns with the leadership team and trickles down to the entire organisation. That said, change can start anywhere. 

How to make millennials want to work for you

Millennials are a good example of this. There probably aren't many sitting on leadership teams at any reasonably sized organisations. But they are changing those organisations because they want different things both as employees and customers.

If you start with your team, you will be leading by example, and others across the company will be inspired to do the same. Purpose delivers better and more sustainable results. You will demonstrate that by focusing on making a positive impact on others, your KPIs, dashboard and reports will be more impressive.

Powered by purpose - Energise Your People to do Great Work, Sarah Rozenthuler

What’s coming next?

Have fun in tomorrow’s “Purpose alignment between individuals, teams, and organisations” lesson, where you’ll learning about 

• Running a company that’s so strongly aligned with its values that people will give their all when working for you! 😃

So stay tuned!

To learn more about Kenjo’s solution to increase employee satisfaction, click here. Grab a demo from Kenjo. We’ll show you around, and you’ll be armed with more info than when you started.