By Holly Jones, JD
Lori Kleiman draws upon her 35 years of experience in HR to counsel and lead other HR professionals to take the next steps in their careers. In her recent BLR presentation, HR’s Place at the Executive Table, she shared a wealth of tips and tricks that she has used to understand the needs of executive leadership and to get herself into the strategic position with businesses and organizations of all sizes.
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In each of her presentations, Ms. Kleiman likes to share a chart depicting four areas of focus for HR leaders going forward. These focus areas include being a strategic partner, an employee champion, an administrative partner, and a change agent — phrases we’ve likely heard and considered in just the past year. Yet, the key takeaway from this chart is that these four forward-looking topics come from a book titled Human Resource Champions — a book that was published in 1996.
Kleiman notes, “It’s important that we know that, 20 years later, we are still talking about exactly the same thing. So what we want to do as HR people today is stop waiting to be asked. Stop waiting for your invitation. Rather, step up and take that seat at the table. Be that strategic leader that people are looking for.” So how do HR professionals do this? Kleiman recommends taking her SEAT approach — specifically, being a Strategic Executive who is Action-Oriented and Tech-Savvy.