95% of my job revolves around talent management. Since the term talent management is overused, my definition of talent management includes:
- Ensuring Talent is available
- Ensuring Talent is given rewarding career opportunities
- Ensuring Talent is in the right place at the right time
In order to achieve those three things, I spend a lot of time sharing my opinions, including business opinions, education opinions, personal opinions and gut opinions. HR leadership roles demand giving opinions on so many levels that it is easy to fall into a very bad trap: Giving opinions when they are not asked for.
What brought this topic to mind was a special I saw on PBS a few days back. The series is called Forgiveness: A time to love, a time to hate. This was a graphic and intense look at the concept of forgiveness from some of the most personal, intimate places: forgiving the apartheid regime for atrocities against your family, forgiving the radical protester for shooting your father who is a police officer, forgiving your wife for leaving you and the kids.
A point was made that resonated with me profoundly. Simply put, forgiveness was almost impossible to grant if the person seeking forgiveness did not ask for it. Those wronged could in their mind (and with time) justify wrongful actions, could feel less intense anger, and could even empathize with the person who wronged them. But they could not complete the cycle of forgiveness until the one seeking forgiveness acknowledged the hurt and asked for forgiveness.
So what is the HR takeaway? Employees are well intended. Employees are also in need of much help and advice from HR. But for an employee to be really ready to heed the advice—they need to ask for it. More importantly they need to be open to it. The cycle of learning (as in the cycle of forgiving) cannot really begin until the “student” asks for it.
How do you navigate this with employees?
- Be a knowledge leader in your HR discipline, so when someone asks for advice, you are ready.
- Continually work on building trust within your organization, so employees will feel comfortable reaching out. This is HUGE.
- If you feel you must give advice when it is not asked for, have a really good reason. Like to mitigate an illegal action.
- Know that it is always OK to give un-asked for advice in authentic conversations, but don’t get frustrated if your advice is not considered gospel.
And if you do get frustrated… you can always ask for forgiveness later.
After some soul searching, my new weakness is just that. Offering solutions when not solicited. But, sometimes, it is simply misunderstand, since my reasoning is just to help.
This blog supports my view that HR needs to show their face more to employees and promote the “open door policy” of communication. Making employees comfortable to talk to their HR managers about concerns in the workplace can improve employee morale and fix problems that may eventually grow out of proportion. It is good for HR Mangers to listen and probe for more information vs giving advice not asked for. This goes for personal and business matters. HR Managers should legally go so far in advising and then refer their employees to an Employee Relations Manager or the Employee Assistance Program, whichever is available. Having this comfort to speak to HR Managers with the understanding that they are there to listen and implement change, then the HR Managers must follow through on there end and give advice when asked and to make solutions immediately when necessary. This can be a part of HR’s goals and strategic plan to ensure they are looking out for their customers (the employees). Having this type of support can result in employees trusting their HR team and improving work life balance. It can also reduces challenges of communicating to the employees key changes in the company when necessary that can effect the employees personally. This way the employees and the operations team can be in alignment to meet the goals of the company.
I am glad to be a visitant of this arrant site ! , thanks for this rare info. After some searching, my new weakness, that’s all. It offers solutions when not asked. But sometimes it is simply not true, because my argument is only to help.