The Only 2 Things You Need to be Successful in HR

Actually, the two things I am going to share with you will help you be successful in any career.  For over 30 years, I have observed human beings at work like a clinical sociologist.  My main areas of interest have been – what is motivation and what makes people successful in the work environment?  It is the latter topic that I am focusing on today.

Yes, the technical part of the occupation is important.  Good Human Resource people are knowledgeable in the law, compensation schemes, etc.  But the very core of success rests on two very important traits:

1. Confidence.  Let me call this the “Palin Factor.”   I don’t care about your political leanings, we have to admit that Sarah is short on experience, but she exudes confidence.  Most executives in organizations possess this trait.  People trust them to lead because of it.  When you are confident, you are influential, you speak well; you carry yourself well and you are respected.

2. Likeability. I talk about this in my book, “The Way” which you can order on my blog. Let me call this the “John Reiner Factor.”  Early in my career I worked for John who was the Employment Manager.  John would come into work, delegate the assignments to another recruiter and myself and go schmooze all day.  We loved him in spite of the fact that he didn’t seem to do much in our department. Everyone one in the company liked him.  When he quit to go back east a couple of years later, the General Manager was almost in tears.  John went on to run a major division for American Express in later years.  John Reiner was very high on likability.  Since my association with John, I have seen many, many other employees get fired, laid off and passed over for promotions because they didn’t possess the “John Reiner Factor” and I have witnessed the successful ones because they had it.

Admittedly, I have seen people who got pretty far without one or both of the two traits, but they rarely lasted in their high positions.  They aquired power because they possessed some bit of knowledge that was critical to the corporation, but when others acquired that knowledge, they were gone.

The good news is that you now know what is required to be a raving success; the bad news is if you don’t have them already, it takes work to get them.  I’ll be talking about how to acquire confidence and likeability soon.

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