When effective HR and impactful leadership come together, that is the key to fully leveraging business potential. But to begin with, how do we define effective leadership? It’s the kind of leadership that is attuned to company culture and that prioritizes strategic planning.

HR’s Role in Supporting Diverse Leadership

In order to build trust, get buy-in and lead efficiently, executive teams need emotional intelligence to be able to gauge and influence organizational culture. This is a prerequisite for being able to devise fruitful, comprehensive strategies that will positively impact business at all levels. This calls for gaining greater familiarity with the science that underpins successful leadership skills and abilities, including the role that HR can play in this landscape.

In addition to being in tune with company culture, executive leadership teams that deliver results are diverse, reflecting the demographics that make up the organization as well as the community beyond it. The dialogue around cultural fit has progressed, and it is vital that HR keeps up with this change. When employees see diversity reflected in executive positions, it drives home the message that their careers have room to grow with the organization. In turn, seeing opportunities for professional advancement can be a strong motivating factor for upping one’s productivity and workplace performance.

After all, organizations that support their employees’ professional success are likely to retain them. This directly speaks to the role that HR plays in acquiring, developing and engaging talent long term. HR professionals are thus ideally positioned to support leaders in attracting top-notch talent and in ensuring that the candidate experience and employee onboarding processes run smoothly, including assessing and promoting talent from the internal marketplace.

Aligning Organizational Priorities with Recognition Programs

Amidst so much change in the landscape of work, being able to identify company-wide priorities is necessary to avoid diluted focus on the driving force behind an organization. This will maintain a competitive edge and ensure all stakeholders are guided by a shared mission and values, as well as a universal understanding of achieving these common objectives.

Moreover, as decision-making cascades through the various levels of an organization, it is imperative to have a widely-recognized purpose that helps orient leaders. Here, HR leaders can develop strategies and tactics to maintain leaders’ focus on high-priority items that notably impact company performance. To enact this commitment to top priorities, leaders need to demonstrate authenticity by recognizing what truly matters. Often times, there is a discrepancy between the stated vision of an organization and what actually gets recognized in tangible ways. This is where HR leaders can intervene, by crafting formal and informal recognition mechanisms that have the desired impact.

HR professionals who are looking to enhance their skillset in this domain can now sign up for the Effective Leadership + Effective HR = A True Business Partnership Micro-Conference, happening February 28. At this half-day event, explores how HR leaders can set up leadership teams for optimal success and attendees will hear from trusted organizational executive teams as they delve into the vital role that HR plays in strengthening leadership and building trust.