Aspiring HR Director? Creating your personal transition strategy

Course overview

The step up from senior HR professional to HR Director is a major one. It requires a raft of skills that you may not have developed and a radically different perspective on your role. And when you get to the Board table, don’t expect to be immediately accepted as an equal – typically, you have to prove that you belong.

Fortunately, from research we know a lot more about the transition to HRD and how to manage it effectively. Among the key factors are:

• Developing a higher level of strategic and systemic thinking than is required in, say, a head of department role in HR. As a director, you have to understand and contribute to strategy for the whole business
• Building a strong network of champions, who will assist your transition – including at least one mentor, who has extensive HRD experience
• Establishing track record beyond the functional
• Building strong political skills that enable you to achieve through influence rather than control, while remaining authentic
• Expanding your financial literacy and knowledge of other business functions – an acid test is whether you could deliver a presentation to, for example, an audience of investors or financial experts, standing in for the finance director
• Recognising what you will have to let go of – often the toughest part of the transition – and what values you are determined to hang onto
• Clarity about how you will contribute to the efficient and effective functioning of a board – for example, knowing how to observe and critique a board meeting

Creating and following your Transition Plan speeds up the time it takes to achieve an HRD role. It also greatly increases your chances of stepping into that role relatively smoothly and being accepted as an equal by your fellow directors.

To discover how to build your Transition Plan, join me, David Clutterbuck on this unique one-day course. We will share our research and a decade of practical experiences, provide you with an extensive toolkit and help you clarify the steps on your own path to becoming an HRD.

If you are already an HRD and would like to encourage others into the role, please make colleagues aware of the opportunity.

About the presenter
David is visiting professor at Henley Business School, distinguished research fellow at The Conference Board and special ambassador for the EMCC

Course Details