HR leaders need to remain calm but assertive in times of chaos – here's how to supercharge your power
Understanding who you are is paramount to getting the best out of yourself. However, for a leader, it’s essential. When you attain the position of a leader within your company, your self-awareness becomes even more important, as you need to be mindful of innate traits that may affect your ability to be impartial. Inherent biases and drummed in learnings can make it difficult for anyone to be a true independent leader and assess any situation objectively, however, there are techniques that can help you.
“Self-mastery is the key to great leadership,” Joe Hart, organisational psychologist and founder of True Perspective, said. “It is a combination of knowing your strengths, aligning with your purpose, and understanding how to regulate your emotions. I call this self-mastery, as it requires a lot of work and self-reflection to be able to get all three elements humming together. Self-mastery is less about achieving a level of leadership but more about how well you calibrate your behaviour through your awareness. It’s a bit like how pilots are constantly adjusting the flight path to ensure they get to the desired destination. It’s not a set and forget, otherwise small changes in the environment will set you off course.”
The first step
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses is the first step to putting yourself on the path to mastering leadership. Most people are promoted because of their strengths so recognising them and refining those personal assets should make you a better leader. At the other end of the spectrum, identifying your weaknesses and being honest about them will allow yourself to be honest with what you need to address.
“Get really clear on your purpose so you can articulate it,” Hart added. “You also want to seek feedback from those that know you well to understand if how they are experiencing you is aligned with your purpose. This is about walking the talk. When it comes to emotional regulation, you need to be able to bring your body back into a state of calm. You achieve nothing when you are hijacked emotionally.
“By taking a strengths assessment, you are able to understand and communicate with your colleagues about the sort of preferences you have and how this will support your work. When it comes to purpose, having the opportunity to consider your values, what is most important to you and how that will help your team succeed is critical. It’s not enough to simply describe your role and the tasks you are responsible for. You need to link who you are with everything that you do.”
The calmness effect
Remaining calm in any situation will help you as a person and as a leader. Being able to step back, breathe deeply and assess the situation independent of emotion is not an easy task but one that is signifies great leadership.
It is not something that will happen overnight but you can head towards that path with practice, experience and being able to stand back from any situation and take the time, even briefly, to think through the facts rationally.
“Being able to remain calm and composed while engaging in a debate will benefit everyone,” Hart said. “You’ll make better decisions, have better relationships and be far more efficient. As a leader, you need to encourage people to know their strengths, identify their purpose and regulate their emotions. However, you also need to demonstrate it for yourself.
“There is no better way to convey the importance of something than by doing it yourself. If you’re one of those leaders that says ‘Do as I say not as I do’ then stop smiling when you say it. It’s bad leadership and it’s encouraging behaviour that will develop bad leaders.”
Self-development in HR
Helping people develop is a crucial role for human resources. Whether it is dedicated training, workshops and/or one-on-one sessions, human resources needs to be part of the process.
“Human resources needs to play a very important role which starts with self-development,” Hart added. “Human resources needs to stop trying to do it all for leaders and get involved with them. They play an incredibly important role in identifying the needs of leaders and what will enable the organisation to succeed. They need to source capable organisational development professionals to partner with, however, they need to see themselves as leaders, do the work they are prescribed for leaders and relate to them as fellow leaders aiming to be great.”
