| Issue: You
will be far more effective as an HR pro
it you project top
executive style and polish.
Benefit: Not only greater respect from your
company’s top management, but the ability
to work with them on a much stronger footing.
Action: Apply
these eight power tactics from top executive
coach Debra Benton.
If you are
tired of playing “second
fiddle” to your company’s
CEO, president and other corner-office
executives,
it is within your power to turn the
situation around and step into the
spotlight.
“You will be more likely get a seat at the
`power table' if you look and act in a memorable,
impressive, credible, genuine, trustworthy,
confident, competent, comfortable way around
them and everyone else,” says Debra
A. Benton, one of America's top executive
coaches and the author of several bestsellers
on executive image. “They won’t
necessarily be easy on you, they will
test your consistency and strength.
Put if you
pass those tests, they will treat you
as a peer.”
Here are eight of Benton’s strategies
for making that transition happen:
1. Be different
and better than other HR people they’ve
dealt with in the past. Study other HR specialists,
trying to see
them as the CEOs do. Do things better and
differently.
2. Project
a top executive attitude that is productive,
constructive and non-critical
of others. The most powerful way to gain
acceptance is to expect it and give it to
others.
3. Dress
at the level of the people you want to influence.
4. Comport
yourself like a winner. That means good posture,
a relaxed facial expression
and a slow and purposeful way of moving and
speaking.
5. Ask
questions, don’t assume. Don’t
interrogate people about broader business
issues, but don’t let mutual mystification
set in. If you and general executives agree
to go on misunderstanding each other, you
will be the one who loses.
6. Use
humor. If you do, they will choose to include
you because you make dismal, boring
business more enjoyable.
7. Don’t
just do for others, ask of others too. Doing
so show that you value
them. That keeps things even and shows your
courage.
8. Step
up to the plate in meetings. You’re
in a meeting for one reason - to contribute.
Do not sit back and wait until you have the
most brilliant input or until they ask you
a question. Instead, insert yourself pleasantly
but assertively with comments like “Good
point, Joe” or, “Here’s
what my group did when he hit a similar roadblock
last year.”
Final tip: Deal
with muckety-mucks as humans, not as “the bosses.” They are
just like you, faced with the same concerns,
fears, frustrations, family issues and health
worries that you have. Should you treat them
well? Of course! Just treat them as equals.
That’s what they are, after all.
|
