Eight Leadership Skills Essential to HR Leaders
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SHRM, February 2009
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The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has released research entitled "Leading Now, Leading the Future: What Senior HR Leaders Need to Know." This research, culled from groups of HR practitioners, consultants, and academics with various areas of HR expertise convened in summer 2008, finds eight leadership skills essential for senior Human Resources leaders.
This research continues in a trend of similar research in finding that a common theme among successful senior HR leaders is understanding the broad operations and processes driving business. Equally important is the ability to explain the role of human capital issues and solutions in the context of broader business operations linking finance, operations, and marketing.
The
eight essential leadership skills that SHRM identifies are:
- Knowledge of business, HR and organizational operations
- Strategic thinking and critical/analytical thinking
- Leading change
- Effective communication
- Credibility
- Results orientation and drive for performance
- Ethical behavior
- Persuasiveness and the ability to influence others
For senior HR professionals employed in global organizations, SHRM found that they need to possess both a global mindset and the flexibility to adapt to changing global business needs.
Ethical behavior was also identified as key for HR leaders. Emerging skills that HR leaders will need to develop include global intelligence and an aptitude for technology.
