8 Superpowers

of a Strategic
HR Business Partner
Superpower 1: Connector
(Connects Business and HR Strategy)

The ability to connect business and HR strategy is fundamental to evolve

from partnering to leading. This means that HRBPs have to understand what
that business strategy looks like and the meaning for HR. Creating HR
strategy or operations disconnected from the business strategy doesn’t work
because you don’t know if what you are doing in HR is, in fact, contributing to
the achievement of the strategy or hindering the organization and the people
from it. These are two immediate actions to realize this superpower:
understand the business strategy (talk to the people who created it and
understand what they need) and, only then, set up your HR strategy by
connecting the specifics of HR to the achievement of the business strategy.
Superpower 2: Translator
(Understands the "language of the business")

This superpower is intimately related to the previous one. People (leaders and
employees) don’t understand, let alone like HR jargon in the context of a business
conversation. This isn’t to say that HR language doesn’t matter or isn’t important,
but it means that you shouldn't force anyone to understand that language. You
have to choose instead to understand THEM. It isn’t “altruism” to try to
understand your business stakeholders. It is that in doing so you are much better
prepared to translate your strategies and operations to their language for their
understanding. An HRBP may say “why don’t we teach them our language? Why
don’t they learn about HR, too?”. That would be a fair point. But… “… if the
mountain doesn’t come to us” (as the saying goes), let’s go to the mountain
instead. Once again, this is the power of choice. Choosing to wait for your clients
to understand what you mean may take much longer than for you to understand
their language and translating yourself for them.
Superpower 3: Collaborator
(Collaborates and co-create with non-HR stakeholders)

One of the biggest challenges for HR is that a number of corporate leaders think
of people matters as an HR thing and, well, not as a corporate thing. Take
performance as an example. Because traditional, annualized rating-based
performance evaluation is such an awful process, business leaders don't take
ownership of corporate performance and instead throw it at HR and even tell
people: “oh, sorry… I don’t even want to do this… but it is an HR thing”. No
wonder why so many people dislike or don’t trust in HR. The alternative to this is
another superpower: collaborating and co-creating people processes, strategies
and operations with your stakeholders. This isn’t just a “nice to have” or a “we are
inclusive and we want to hear from you” kind of thing. It is a way to engage them,
get their buy- in and, equally (if not more…) importantly, to make them co-
responsible.
Superpower 4: Identifier
(Identifies business challenges and helps solve them from HR)

Closely related to the three previous superpowers: when HRBPs understand the
business strategy, learn to speak the language of the business and collaborate
with their stakeholders, they are also able to identify the most pressing business
challenges. In doing so and with their understanding of people operations they
can connect the dots and propose potential solutions to solve those complex
business challenges with people solutions. This is one of the most beautiful and
extraordinary possibilities that HRBPs can create: solving business challenges
from a people perspective. You have a unique vantage point here: you have now
learned the business strategy, the language of the business and how to
collaborate with others… and you can connect that with your knowledge of HR
and people.
Superpower 5: Influencer
(Influences other leaders in the organization)

Sometimes HR leaders do have significant authority vested in them by the power

of their role and by the trust they have garnered from the top leaders in the
organization. However, this is rare. So, if you don’t have power because of your
function, title or championing by the highest leaders in the organization, how do
you make change happen? Well, the second best thing: the power of influence.
That may sound like a circular definition as power is indeed influence. However,
for HRBPs, it becomes more of a sequence: to have the power to make change
happen and to lead the way you have to influence others in the organization.
That happens by building trust. And, in the context of the eight superpowers
described here, building trust depends on how well you understand the priorities
and language of your stakeholders, how much you collaborate with them and co-
create. Influencing is a must-have superpower for HRBPs in organizations where
HR has been left “powerless” by their culture.
Superpower 6: Communicator
(Communicates effectively with internal clients)

An important complaint heard often from HRBPs’ stakeholders is the lack of effective
or timely communications. Communicating regularly with internal stakeholders is a
superpower that generates an immense amount of trust. It is important to mention
that “communicating” something “effectively” doesn’t mean “spreading good news”.
Not everything will be good news, sadly. An HRBP may need to communicate
confidential and sensitive information to a business leader that warrants a strong
response from the organization and that leader. This is part of the job (and, in fact, it
is part of everybody’s job, too). There are two essential components of this “effective
communicator” superpower. The first is that communicating effectively and regularly
builds trust, empathy and respect. That matters a lot in the short and long run. The
second is that, if HRBPs mess up sometime (and it will certainly happen. Nothing to
be ashamed of as failures/mess ups are just part of the journey toward progress and
improvement), the effect will be lesser compared to that if HRBPs haven’t been
effective communicators.
Superpower 7: Coach and Consultant
(Coaches and consults people across the organization)

One of the most beautiful possibilities of evolving from “partnering” to “leading”

is that the foundation of the job of an HRBP also evolves from “telling” or
“informing” to coaching and consulting. Coaching and consulting are some of the
ways in which an HRBP can actually operationalize their influence.
Superpower 8: Data-oriented
(Creates a data-informed HR strategy and operations)

Gut feelings matter, but it’s much better when they are backed up with data. This
means two things: sometimes the gut feelings of an HRBP will be proven true by
an evidence-based, data-informed approach. Other times, those gut feelings will
not have a standing when confronted with data. Whatever it is, though, the
approach should be that whenever HRBPs approach their internal stakeholders
they should have their ideas and proposals for strategy and action backed up by
data. This creates a much stronger case for HR influence and, for a lot of business
leaders used to speaking a data language, it also generates additional trust and
rapport. They will know that you did your homework as an HRBP.