Being in the driving seat – Results Driven #4

How to get better at driving through results

HR has a reputation for rushing into solutions … HR is eager to please and is keen to look busy. However, as this series of blogs on Results Driven has clearly shown, quality is better than quantity whilst business partnership is the most powerful way of delivering great results.

How does HR ensure it has the right focus, energy and outputs to achieve the desired business results? First of all, it is not necessarily about ‘what’ HR does which will determine how successful it is in achieving its results. Rather it is ‘how’ it goes about delivering results which is the key to its success!

It is essential that your HR Partnership model reflects the needs of the business
Understand the key drivers for change and be aware of the implications for your organisation’s services, products and structure
- How could these affect the HR offering?
What are the core business challenges?
- HR needs to understand these challenges so they can design their strategy and prioritise their activities
- What are the key HR implications of these changes and challenges?
Review key research to understand what the best HR communities are focusing on

How good are you at driving through results?

Now you’ve done all the leg work in understanding what results driven actually means for HR how good do you think you are at actually putting this into practice? Why not test yourself by asking yourself the following questions – at the very least you answers will highlight your strengths and identify your development needs.

How is the Team working towards explicit strategic objectives? How is everybody in the team contributing to our success?
How do I work with my team to identify those activities / tasks which are non-urgent but important? How do we ensure we invest most of our time and energy in achieving these results?
How do I regularly review and challenge the time I spend on ‘putting out the fires’? How do I do ensure that our day-to-day priorities are completed?
How do I continuously challenge the effectiveness of our teamwork and the cooperation with others? How comfortable am I in taking calculated risks or trying out new ways of working?
How do I manage regular queries, requests for information or advice from other parts of the business? How do I work with my team to find smarter ways of responding?
What consultative approach do I use to get things done (e.g. canvass opinions, respect other peoples workloads, manage pace in line with other priorities and / or make it relevant)?
How do I actively sponsor projects (e.g. by identifying and removing blockages, steer the steering committee and / or co-presenting to higher echelons)?
How do I drive for business excellence (e.g. by finding ways of doing things better, beating internal and / or external standards)?
How does my team follow a clear project planning and prioritisation template?

Some development suggestions

Well after that little ‘test’ you may be thinking that you may need to start doing things differently so here are a few suggested development options which you may find useful.

Rapid decision making and action

A useful daily question:

“What decision shall I make today in order to bring about an improvement tomorrow?”

At the end of each week find answers to the following questions:

What actions have I taken this past week to make progress on my business goals?
What has been the best opportunity, this week, from which I have had to learn?
What are the key challenges facing me next week?

The Inertia test

Examine the everyday behaviour of your people in meetings:

Do they know why they are meeting? What is their explicit purpose for the meeting?
Do meetings generally run on time? Do they reach a conclusion?
Is there a decision simplicity (in the form of yes or no to a choice between a, b, or c)?
Is there always someone designated to take a decision from the meeting?
Are decisions designated a timescale i.e. by when will this decision be made?
Are individuals assigned responsibility for actions?
Are actions to implement the decision designated a timescale (milestones and deadlines)?

If you hesitate or answer No to a number of these, then there is probably inertia in your team – a failure to take action. How do you overcome this inertia? – Rewrite the test, based on your answers, into positive statements and these become your guidelines!

Delivering a distinctive contribution

In this series of blogs on Results Driven we have been focusing on encouraging HR to aim high, think big, focus on quality and carve out a niche in the organisation where it is clear to everyone that HR is making a distinctive contribution to organisational life. By distinctive contribution we mean being driven by results which delivers value that is uniquely created by HR i.e. without HR it would not have occurred.

Therefore, when HR is truly focused on making a distinctive contribution it is being results driven.

To find out how CourageousHR can support the development of your HR Function please email [email protected] to arrange a call to discuss your specific development needs.