Build Connection

Building the kind of trust and respect that earns you a seat at the table. Build connection within your team.

To build connection, ask yourself these questions:

Who are your priority Connections – which colleagues and stakeholders are key to you delivering results in HR? Here’s a tool that will help you – build a stakeholder map
When are the opportunities you can identify, or create, to build your personal relationship with them?
How can you build your influence with key people and create a productive and mutually rewarding network?

Build Connection strategically

This involves taking a real step back so that you can get the full picture. Take a deep breath from daily pressures and book time in your diary to scope out three key areas:

Context – how does the political landscape work in your organization? Where does power come from and how can you leverage yours?
People – Connection is about empathy and humanity as well as time management. How can you make the most of every conversation by being fully present and skilled?
Process – It’s easy to be driven by our Inbox and others’ demands. What plans and practices do we need to prioritise in order to ensure that we’re constantly nurturing and deepening our key relationships?

The acid test of Connection is whether people deliver what you need at crucial moments. Taking a strategic approach means taking a look forward to what this would look like, if it went well. Then, work it backwards and identify the pieces of the jigsaw that build that picture. Many will be behavioural; deep listening, giving something back, as well as keeping promises, and that’s what we mean by tactical.

Build Connection tactically

Because we’re human, relationships are built in the moment. Neuroscience proves that our intellect can be rocketing along in a meeting and yet there can be a level of unease that prevents progress being made. We achieve nothing alone. We have to explore the other’s view of the world. HR people have the added challenge of being the upholders of values and morals in the employment relationship. In Connection, we recognize the critical nature of personal behaviour mastery as well as political awareness.

Being seen as a key influencer, collaborator and supporter

It is vital for HR to be proactively invited to, and fully engaged in, key planning activities. More than authority or job title, this comes from personal influence and credibility. We need to be involved at the early stages of long-term plans in order to ensure that the people agenda is fully recognized and catered for. We have the potential to add the most value to our businesses when we influence early. This only happens when we have built productive and resilient relationships.

Being Connected as partners in the business

Within our Enabler Perspective we talk about the importance of spending time to truly understand what drives and affects success in our organization. Building productive Connections helps us to deploy that insight in a way that has impact. We need to be seen to have a firm grip on the true business priorities and how HR can support them, and take a leadership role in driving them. Sometimes the ethical dilemmas we face can make us feel we need a certain distance. However, to fulfil our potential as business partners we have to be right there on the inside.

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