Efficient business to business prospecting for Human Resources

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this video is all about how we can be taken seriously build trusting and effective working relationships in a confident way as hr business partners but actually any any business partner this video is not just for hr business partners it's really for anyone who is working with any business and partnering a business i'm going to split this video into three parts part number one is going to be where we are in a brand new role and a brand new organization part two is going to be about our current role and current organization and part three is going to be about a 4c model i would like to share with you that will help you structure and approach conversations with your stakeholder group in a productive and effective way you are in a brand new role brand new organization the best way is to turn up with your list of questions always be ready to ask lots of questions and behave in a very curious way you will be able to understand what's going to be expected of you what are their current challenges and what you need to do to help them really perform and solve their problems and for you to perform quite effectively from day one and this is something actually that i did a couple of weeks ago where i'm now partnering a brand new executive lead for the portfolio i've been working with for a number of years our first one-to-one meeting i turned up with a list of questions but i also use that as an opportunity to ask the current executive lead if they had any questions for me to start with i was really mindful that i didn't want to turn up in this meeting overpowering the meeting by just asking loads of questions so my style tends to be pretty much consultative conversational type way where i often say so do you have anything in your list to ask me otherwise i actually have a list of questions that i would like to ask you in order for us to contract and establish a working relationship and for me to understand as to how i can support you best and how we can work in partnership this meeting actually lasted hour and a half and it was an amazing opportunity to really go into all sorts of level of detail as to how we can work together as a team there are some very simple questions i ask that i believe not many ask and then overthink about it such as do you read emails do you like long or short emails do you like detail or just high level this is something that i find we just go in without really understanding as to how the other party other person wants to work with us so in this example with my current executive lead he shared with me that he doesn't read his emails very often but what we have agreed is that i would send him every friday an hrbp weekly update that i would put in my subject line with just a few bullet points as to what's happened that week and what we are going to do the following week for him to be mindful of that he then has an opportunity to read it either friday afternoon or monday morning before executive meetings for him to be up to date as to what's happening with the portfolio from people's side human resources side sometimes when we have to speak if we don't have one-to-one meetings what we have agreed is that either he will text me or i will text him and as soon as we are freed that day we are going to call each other and have a conversation rather than ask pas or anyone else to set up any meetings sometimes their diaries can be really really busy we have also agreed to meet every other week so bi-weekly meetings until he gets up to speed with the portfolio when these meetings will become monthly meetings i also use this as an opportunity to ask him about his objectives what he will be measured against by the chief executive and how i can help him achieve his objectives there is one question i like to ask pretty much anyone i work with and that is what would wake them up at night when it comes to work and business and that often really helps me understand what they're concerned about and what i need to put in place to minimize any escalations minimize any concerns and really help them feel supported that we are on top of our challenges and risks and sometimes businesses will be going through all sorts of challenges and interesting situations i do find it's our job as hrbps to flag up anything that needs to be on their radar sometimes we may not have always good news but that's okay what we do need to do is report what's going on and put anything on their radar and risk register as to what's going on to minimize any surprises and minimize any escalations if you are in your current role and current organization and really trying to think as to how you can be taken seriously how you can build better working relationships especially where you find yourself not really working quite well with your portfolio and you feel some of these working relationships could be a bit better let's say you had a bumpy start let's say you changed roles internally and now you're thinking as to how you can position yourself and your role in a quite structured effective way that will really really help you be taken seriously and build effective working relationship my suggestion is if you have worked in your current role for quite some time now and really thinking as to what you could do is to set up a meeting with your allocated stakeholder group and set up those individual meetings whether it's separate senior leadership team leads or department head or executive lead depending on who you partner with as an hr business partner and really in that meeting ask questions such as what are their objectives what's going on and how you can help them achieve their objectives but at the same time i think if you are finding you are not be taken seriously but you want to be taken seriously is to really explain to them what your role is all about so in those meetings you could say we have worked together for quite some time now i'm not always sure you're taking my advice and suggestions seriously this is what my role is all about and i really would like to find a way as to how we can work together in partnership and really be open as to how you feel we when we partner a business it's a two-way street it's a two-way process and when we find ourselves that relationships are not always working well it's our job to give them some feedback as well so my my suggestion and my encouragement to all of you when you find yourself in these situations is to pause think and reflect and set up these meetings to recontract with your stakeholder group and really position your role and what your role is all about what you hope to achieve they will really appreciate you turning up with not only problems but also solutions and options and use it as an opportunity to really add value and scope a plan as to what you need to focus on for the next three months six months or 12 months i do have an example to share of where i was in this situation as in i'm an hrbp same organization but second portfolio and sometimes us as internal candidates can be taken for granted as in there can be an assumption that we simply know everything even though it's a brand new portfolio brand new senior leadership team that you just don't know a lot about as i was never in that situation before i had made an assumption as to how i could just go into it and one of the lessons learned as as in what i could have done differently is to wait to have a one-to-one meeting with a relevant executive lead before i started to send email updates actions updates etc they actually didn't like that and in a way complained to my manager who just asked in passing because they happened to be in the same room and he asked how i was doing and they made a comment around oh sonja's just sending emails and she didn't really double check if i needed to know that information or not my manager provided feedback to me which i then used as an opportunity to set up a meeting and say i understand you provided some feedback as i'm your new hr business partner i'm really keen to understand as to how we can work together and effectively in partnership let's let's have a meeting and discuss the level of detail and how i can support you best and that there was an opportunity to build a working relationship with this individual but also build trust and confidence and position myself as to what i can do for them as well and i used an opportunity to ask questions such as their work in style leadership style communication style so everything i mentioned before in part one and also an opportunity to ask about what their concerns were how i can help them perform better and how i can help the portfolio our departments that we're responsible for be seen as productive and efficient and effective and there was an amazing opportunity to establish a new relationship a new working relationship going forward so even though it started a bit bumpy but there was a great lesson learned for me and that's something i'm sharing this video for you to kind of understand don't take that initial feedback especially if it's not always positive feedback always kind of find a way to to use it as an opportunity to build a relationship rather than overthink and dwell on any not really negative feedback but just to remark to sort of say you know it's not really working out that great but just as soon as you know about that feedback from other people or from your current law manager use it to build a relationship to say i understand you provided this feedback i'm really keen and interested to find a way for us to work together and learn as well as to how i can help you and the portfolio be successful for the last part of this video i would like to share with you a 4c model i have used quite a lot as a tool and framework to really help me build trust in relationships from day one when i'm meeting people when i'm partnering people and also use it as a coaching tool in my meetings with my stakeholders as well that i need to have from time to time 4c model stands for contact contract conversation and conclusion contact is all about why do we need to work together are you my current law manager are you my peer group and do i need to work with you are you my allocated stakeholders i need to work with and support so there is often a good reason as to why you need to work with them in the first place so therefore we are making a contact with them to establish new ways of working contract is all about what our role is all about and what their role is all about what are our mutual objectives and how can we support each other to ensure we work in partnership but also for their business area and department to be as successful as possible what can we do for them to minimize any surprises what can we do for them to spot opportunities and what can we do to be ahead of the game and as business partners it's quite important to establish early on what value we are adding to them as a business and what problems we can solve what we can create for them that they will be using as a tool as a framework or as a plan conversation part is all about working style leadership style communication style and agreeing up front as to how you need to communicate meetings you're going to have what you need to discuss in those meetings emails texts phone calls anything really that may make you overthink as to what they need from you my suggestion is to ask in those early meetings to really establish as to how you can work together to minimize any surprises and for you to not overthink as to whether they like long emails or short emails or emails at all ask these questions upfront it will make your life and job a lot easier believe me conclusion is about what we've just talked about what we've agreed and next steps and when is our next meeting and what are we going to talk about in our next meeting and it's as simple as that you pause there and what you have just done is have gone through a nice little cycle to establish a brand new working relationship with your stakeholder you can use this model to contract with your manager with your peer group with your teams if you're managing anyone as well you can use this model for all sorts of conversations and all sorts of stakeholder group to really help you understand as to how you're going to work together and work it work in partnership that's it for this video please let me know in comments as to how you contract how you build trusting relationships how you ensure you are taken seriously any any feedback you have received or acted upon i really would like to understand as to how you do this see in the next video bye for now