A good human resource leader understands the fact that they cannot handle all the work by themselves. They will therefore accordingly assign work to the members of their team to ascertain better completion, hence fulfilment of company goals. In the current work set up for instance, more and more companies such as Amazon for instance, are allowing for employees to work remotely. Such setups cannot afford ineffective management in HR. This is because virtual teams are not only a new concept, but also a complex one. More than anything therefore, it is crucial for human resource leaders in such environments to know how to assign responsibilities to the   team members. Unless properly done, workload and administrative pressures may overwhelm the organisation.

In this context, Hr managers in today’s world need also have the right leadership skills.  These will allow  them to be able to better handle the day to day activities related to human resource which include negotiation, and building of consensus((Brewer and Brewer  2010). The human resource leaders should be able to draw on their leadership skills to gain support for the positions they take. For example, given the virtual teams that some firms currently choose to work with, it may be quite challenging to obtain additional funding to maintain such teams. In such a case therefore, the HR leader must be in a position to employ their leadership skills to convince the finance department and executive officers in the company that the funds are needed, and that   the disbursement of the same will lead to a significant return on investment. It is only where those in authority are convinced that the bottom line will be boosted that they can then be in a position to authorise the deployment of more financial resources.  Given that, a human resource manager will hardly succeed in such a venture unless they have the requisite leadership capabilities.

Improve Delegation Skills 

Taking this into consideration, Hamel (2013) mentions that the global business environment has been gradually changing and as this happens, human resource managers have to not only expand their roles, but also refocus their activities. Other than reacting to changes in the global economy, they in addition, have to look ahead of time, and make forecasts on possible global changes that may impact the human resource capital, and the activities of their organisations in overall. This is particularly crucial because any shifts in the global market set up is bound to affect their operations of individual  firms, even if to  a small extent. This is not only as regards financial outlooks, but also in relation to the labour market, and technology and trends.  With the continuous automation of many operations,  human resource leaders have to be well positioned to tell where they may need to hire more employees, and where they may have to cut back to create room for technology to be employed. In this context, it is essential that human resource leaders not only keep track of their leadership abilities, but also seek to sharpen them so as to stay up-to-date with the activities of the global marketplace.  They must develop their competencies to keep up with their dynamic roles. In so doing, they can as well be better positioned to deal with succession planning as they will be able to prepare their juniors to take up the roles in future.

This discussion illustrates that effective human resource leadership calls application of various competencies` including communication, decision making, critical thinking and delegation skills. Still, these skills should not be applied in a uniform manner, but should be adjusted to suit the specific contexts by assessing the needs of the organisation its self, and the existing external business environment. The better a human resource professional is able to adjust and apply these, the more effective they can be at executing their role in the given business set up.

References

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Chuang, S. (2013). Essential Skills for Leadership Effectiveness in Diverse Workplace

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Hamel, G., & Breen, B. (2013). The future of management. Cambridge: Harvard Business Press.

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