168 | The 5 Things That Will Help You Become a Successful HR Director

If you want to become an HR director one day, or you already are one, and you want to make an even bigger impact in your role, it can feel hard to know what to focus on or what to do. You may already have your CIPD qualification. You've probably built up years of experience, and I know that you're probably working incredibly hard, but those things on their own don't seem to be enough and what to do about it can feel really unclear 'cause there's no clear roadmap.

So this episode of HR Coffee Time is here to help. From my work with more than a hundred aspiring and existing HR leaders, I've identified five key areas to focus on that will make all the difference for stepping up into an HR director level role, or thriving in the one that you are already in. I'm really looking forward to sharing those five key areas with you today, and if you want to see how you are already doing in those five areas and also get some tips on how to do even better.

You might find my free HR Leadership Impact Assessment helpful.

It only takes 10 minutes. You can find it on my website, bright Sky hr.co uk, or by checking out the podcast show notes or YouTube description, I'll make sure there are links to it in all of those places. If you've listened to or watched the podcast before, welcome. It's great to have you back if we haven't met before. Hello, it's brilliant to have you here today.

I'm Fay Wallis, a career and executive coach with a background in HR and I specialize in empowering HR and people professionals to have

successful and fulfilling HR careers Through this free HR Coffe Time podcast, through the Essential HR Planner and through my Inspiring HR leadership Programme. But now let's dive into those five key areas that are going to help you become an impactful and inspiring HR director who people are excited to work with. And I think the fifth area is going to be a bit of a surprise because it's something that I don't think is talked about enough.

Even though it makes a huge difference to your chances of getting through the final interview for an HR director position, or increasing the respect that your colleagues have for you, if you are all ready in that role. So make sure that you listen or watch all the way to the end. I really don't want you to miss the fifth area. It's such an important one. Now, let's start with key area number one, which is confidence. And I want to be really clear about what I mean here.

I'm not talking about feeling supremely confident all the time because if someone feels completely confident in every situation. That would actually be a bit worrying. What I'm talking about is something much more grounded. It's the competence to try things that feel outside of your comfort zone and to be able to handle challenges, setbacks, or criticism without getting overly sensitive or being self-critical and hard on yourself.

Instead, you can pick yourself up, learn from the experience, and move forward. This matters for so many reasons. Not only will you feel happier and more resilient, but when you take on that forward focused growth mindset, you spend less time second guessing yourself and more time taking action and helping the organization you work for to succeed.

If people see that you don't fall apart when things get difficult and that it's safe for them to challenge you, disagree with you, or ask you to try new things, they feel more confident and comfortable working with you. And because building that type of confidence is so important, you'll find

that I've created lots and lots of HR Coffee Time podcast episodes that are focused on different ways of doing this. In fact, I even talked about it in the last episode of HR Coffee Time, which was episode 167. So if you haven't already listened to or watched that episode, you might want to hop back and listen to that one once you finish listening to this one of course.

Now let's move on to the second key area that will help you become an HR director or to thrive in the HR director role that you already have. And this second key area is being strategic. This is one that I hear HR professionals worry about all the time. It may be one that you worry about too, because so often I hear of people being told they need to be more strategic, but no one really explains what that actually means.

In practice, being strategic isn't about using complicated models or big words. It's about understanding what really matters to the organization,

focusing your time and energy on the things that will make the biggest difference, and also making decisions with the bigger picture in mind. It means being able to step back instead of getting pulled into constant firefighting or operational detail. Something that I know is so easy to have happen, and some of the many benefits you'll notice when you start being more strategic at work are that you are much more likely to be included in important conversations.

Your input is taken seriously at a senior level. You're trusted to help shape the future of the organization, not just respond to it or be the last person to hear when important things are happening. It also changes how you experience your role. Instead of feeling constantly reactive or overwhelmed, you start to feel more focused, more intentional, and more in control of your impact. And again, because this is something that I know so many people can find difficult or daunting.

I have covered strategy and being strategic on the podcast a lot of times before, so I have a whole playlist of episodes that you can listen to. If this is something you'd like to focus on, I'll make sure that I link to the playlist in the show notes and in the YouTube description, and you can also find it along with a whole load of other playlists. On the podcast page of my website, BrightSky hr.co uk.

Okay, let's move on to the third key area that will help you become an HR director or thrive in the HR director role that you're already in. And this key area is influencing. because as an HR leader, your role isn't just about having good ideas, it's about getting people to listen to those ideas and to act on them.

So that means. Influencing in all different ways. You've got to influence upwards with senior stakeholders. You've got to influence across the organization and down throughout the whole organization. You even have the potential to influence people outside of your organization through your reputation, your network, and your public presence. Now the good news is we all already have the ability to

influence because influencing skills are skills we're born with. After all, we have to influence our caregivers to feed us and look after us, whether that's crying or smiling at them. As babies, we develop those techniques and we develop even more influencing skills as we get older. But at work, there will come a time when the influencing skills that come most naturally to you and that you are most used to using aren't quite enough.

You'll need to learn how to expand your approach, how to adapt your

style to be more appealing to others who might like being influenced differently to how you influence. You also need to become more intentional about how you communicate, and this really matters because influencing is what turns ideas into action. It's what helps you get buy in, gain credibility, and create real change.

Without it, even the best ideas that you have can end up going nowhere, which can leave you feeling really frustrated and feel like people just aren't taking actions on the things you would like them to do. Again, I have some earlier episodes of the podcast to help with this if it's an area that you'd like to focus on. Two you might want to listen to after you've finished listening to this one are episode 34, so quite an old one now.

It's called Influencing: How to get buy-in for your Ideas at work, and also episode 44, Succeeding as an HR professional, how to influence at a senior level. But now let's move on to the fourth key area that will help you become an HR director or thrive in the HR director role that you are already in. And this key area is about empowering others. This is where I see a really important shift happen as people

step into more senior level roles. Earlier in your HR career, you can create lots of value from what you do, but as you move into leadership, your impact comes much more from what you enable other people to do. And that's where things like coaching skills become so important because instead of just jumping in with the answer and solving every problem yourself, you can start to ask thoughtful questions.

You can help people think things through, and by doing that, you help build their confidence and their capability. When you empower others, you build stronger, more capable teams. You create space for yourself to focus on strategic priorities, and you are not the bottleneck for every decision or problem. It also builds trust and engagement and helps people to feel supported, not controlled. Then over time, that has a huge impact on both performance and culture within the organization.

Finally, the fifth key area, the one that you may have been waiting for, because I send right at the beginning of the episode that this is the area that is often overlooked and not really talked about. So this key area is being distinctive and having a clear HR leadership identity. This is about being really clear on who you are as an HR leader, what you stand for, the value you bring, and your philosophy around hr.

So being able to clearly explain your thoughts about why HR matters, and how HR with your leadership helps the organization to succeed. Because at more senior levels, especially HR director and chief people, officer roles, people aren't just assessing your experience. They're asking themselves, what is this person known for? What do they really bring that's different? What would it feel like to have them on our leadership team? This is what helps you to stand out in interviews.

It helps you to build a strong reputation and it helps you to be remembered. Without it, you can come across as capable, but a bit generic.

With a clear HR leadership identity and knowing what makes you distinctive, you become credible and compelling. So now we're at the end of this episode. I'll quickly remind you what those five key areas are because I know how easy it is to forget them. They are confident, strategic, influential, empowering, and distinctive. If you'd like to see how you're doing in these five key areas and get tips on how to strengthen them.

Do try out my free HR Leadership impact assessment that I mentioned right at the beginning. And if you'd like more personalized support and you're in an HR business partner, HR manager, head of HR, or HR director role, I would love to welcome you into my Inspiring HR Leadership program, where we dive into these five key areas together, building up your confidence, your credibility, and your impact at work.

I really hope you've enjoyed today's episode and that it helps you have a successful and fulfilling HR career. If you found it useful, I would be so grateful if you could give it a like on YouTube. Oh, that's so exciting. When the likes come in or rate and review the podcast, in the podcast app that you're listening to it through, it means.

So much to see those lights, ratings, and reviews. I truly, truly appreciate every single one of them. They really help encourage other people to take a chance on the show as well. So thank you so much. If you do manage to do any of those things, and I am looking forward to being back again in two weeks time with the next HR Coffee Time episode for you. Take care in the meantime.