Dear Caroline,

My leader tells me that I need to be more strategic as an HR partner but the role is so busy! I do not know how or where to start given how busy my working day is.

It can be difficult to get feedback like this, when you are in a role that is busy with day-to-day tasks. Its important to try to get to the root of the feedback and your manager is vital in helping you discover what this means for you both. 

“Being Strategic” can mean a variety of things and sometimes is a label for something we might not be considering in terms of meeting business objectives through a larger future- focused lens.  If we break down the component parts, strategy is all about future planning and bigger picture thinking. Where do we want to be? How do we get there?  What are the resources we need to be successful and how do we measure that success.

From your question, I have summarised two key issues you have identified:

• What does strategic mean to your manager and how does she see you achieving this level of bigger picture thinking?
• How can you manage your time in role to free up space for strategic thinking and planning?

Here are some of the steps I have taken in my own career to understand and action feedback like this, which ultimately is a great opportunity to learn and grow your own skillset and abilities, depending on what you do next.

Take a breath

Remember strategic thinking is all about a different way of thinking. It is about removing yourself temporarily from the fast pace of your day-to-day transactional activities to see your work, how you make key decisions, the timelines you adhere to through a wider lens. It’s about considering both the impact and value add of your activities, to the overarching company goals and objectives. 

I have learned that strategic thinking should not be considered something only those in senior roles do but rather an activity that can serve you well. Break it down into non-nonsense language – What’s the big plan and what’s your role in supporting the business to meet the needs of the plan? This requires exercising the brain muscles that give you clarity and bigger picture understanding. It is not an immediate skillset you can master, but by spending a little time every week/month to stand back and see the work with a wider lens, you will grow your ability to question the business activities in a more efficient and effective way. This will lead to you being in a better position to ask better questions which create much better decisions. This requires time and focus and cannot be done when you are inundated with your day-to-day activities unless you purposefully carve out time.

Investigate the Feedback

It might be helpful to explore this feedback in a more detailed sit down with your manager to understand how she views strategic thinking and compare this against the tasks that consume your time. Ask her for areas what she can help you identify opportunities to be more strategic, using examples from her own career/experience. This step really helps you to align what your manager expects strategically of someone in your position and what you can achieve with your manager’s support and encouragement. Once you have had this conversation, it’s important to take time to consider your current way of managing your time and the impact of the tasks on your desk to your ability to think bigger picture.

Co-Create SMART Goals in relation to building your strategic thinking muscles

Co-create some development goals with your managers support to strengthen your strategic thinking muscle. It is also helpful to leverage your network of mentors across the business whom you see as being strong in the areas of strategic thinking or planning. I have found that having mentor/mentee conversations in my career have provided me with a safe space to talk about my knowledge gaps or vulnerabilities when it came to bigger picture thinking and the ideas that they provided me with from their own experience were invaluable. Ask them for their input.  You will find that your colleagues are more than willing to support you when you ask for their advice/tips.

Consider if there are opportunities for you to ask better questions when proposals or tasks are put in front of you. When you review your workload do you consider asking questions such as:

Why is this important? 
What is the impact of not getting this done?
Does this best belong to me within my role given my goals and objectives? 

When your business stakeholders ask you for urgent action (the curveballs of every HR professionals’ day!), talk to them about the underlying interests in the urgency and coach them on how they can approach the issues in future in a more planned and organised way. I have found that a lot of noise can be made about workplace issues are opinions of one or two individuals and not reflective of a wider group. A lot of time can be wasted on these types of issues so always ask for the data to support the need for your time and attention to such issues.

One to Ones are Key

I have found having regular conversations with the business leaders I support are critical for me in my strategic thinking and planning process. Ensuring regular touch points allows me to discover barriers to teams and leader success and I support leaders in mitigating these obstacles before they arise. It is amazing how turning up and engaging in regular simple discussions can feed positively into your insights into the business, which you can then leverage in your strategic planning.

A good example of this is predicting attrition and forecasting future hiring requirements simply but discussing risk and impact to business goals on key team members in your one to ones and to plan accordingly to bridge any gaps.

Prioritise the Wins

Once you have your tasks reviewed, consider what brings you closer to your role purpose and what brings you further away. I like to complete a review on my task list each month, identifying if it’s an urgent/non-urgent, high v low impact.  This helps me divide my calendar up each week (which I like to do on a Friday) and this simple action provides me with the time to stand back and look at the wider picture and make better decisions when my headspace is clearer.

Relationships are Everything

In my experience, ensuring you invest in your relationships with the people you support and work closely with across all functions is vital. Its important to not underestimate that simple check in after Christmas, that hello in the corridor, that sit down before someone in the canteen and sparking up conversation. Your colleagues are valuable sources of insights and information and simply grabbing a coffee with someone you work with can lead to experience and knowledge sharing that can feed into your strategic thinking and planning. Plus – we all need work friends to make our days a lot more enjoyable.

I hope that sharing my own experience has been helpful. No one size fits all and you will find ways to manage your time to become more strategic in a way that works for you. 
Best of luck and remember that no one became strategic overnight – it takes ten years to become an overnight success!

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Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, this column offers general commentary only. It is not legal advice. HR practitioners and employers should obtain independent advice in relation to particular issues.