How To Become An Expert In Just About Anything in HR – Fast!

Taken from Success in HR - by Alan Collins

1.  Get real.   

It starts with you, so drop the excuses.
Pinpoint the competency you want to improve. Is it labor relations, organization development, compensation, talent acquisition, or using social media technology in HR?
Be specific.  Nail it down.  Then accept that you need to improve in this area.
Don’t be a defensive little jerk or try to rationalize it away.  Instead, get feedback and detailed information so you can discover where there are opportunities to grow your expertise.

2.  Get a plan. 

Lay out a written, detailed plan.
70% of the best development occurs the job, so brainstorm tasks and activities you can implement within the framework of your current role.
These could be project assignments or temporary fill-in opportunities to gain experience first-hand.
Then, resolve to starting cutting the crap from your life.  Mindless TV watching. Surfing the web. Bar hopping.  Start freeing up precious time for your development.

3.  Get role models.   

Seek out mentors, coaches, peers, consultants, retirees or former employees.  Pick multiple role models, each of whom excels at one thing you want to improve rather than looking for one person with the whole package.
When working with them, reduce what they do into a set of principles, best practices or rules of thumb that you can use, document and apply.  In my labor relations example, my role models were my boss and two other “mentors” she connected me with who had extensive labor relations experience.

4.  Get the “bible.” 

Every skill or competency has one or more books that has been written about it.
Get and read them all.  Go to Amazon and buy them either in print, for your kindle or on audio.
Absorb one book a week until you’ve gone through them all.  Then re-read them.  Going through them a second time will begin to cement the information.
I wound up accumulating over 40 books on labor relations and found myself constantly referring to them and re-reading them for years.

5.  Get and stay up to date.

Read magazines, blogs, newsletters.  Also devour relevant articles in HR Magazine, Workforce, HR Executive, Business Week, and Fortune as part of your regular diet.  If you travel a lot, tear out articles or bookmark blogs or websites to read on your flight.

6.  Get alerted.

Google alerts is a great way to stay up to the minute on key trends, emerging issues or hot topics.
Let’s say you want to know everything about “health care cost containment” or “leadership development” or “talent management.”  Put these key words in google alerts and you’ll get updates on these topics when something new is posted online.  It’ll be sent directly to your e-mail address. You can set up as many topics and you want…and can choose to be alerted once a day, a week or month.  Your call.
Takes 5-10 minutes to set up.

7.  Get in a class.

Locate seminars, conferences, workshops or webinars.  These can be in or outside your organization.
Find one that is taught by a guru, consultant or author in the field. You want an expert  so that you can turn their experience into your knowledge.
It would be great if the session is recorded.  That way you can turn your car or gym into a mobile learning center.

8.  Get a partner.

You will learn and grow faster with a buddy.
If you can find someone working on the same skill, you can share learnings and support each other.
Taking turns teaching each other the new ideas you’ve acquired is one of the best ways of cementing your learning.

9.  Get in an association or club.

You can shortcut your learning curve dramatically by becoming a member of a specific HR association and attending their conferences.
These can be at either the national, state, regional or city levels.  For example, if you’re looking to improve your organization development competency, the OD Network is your ticket.
There are similar specialized groups for just about any HR area.
You’ll make dozens and dozens of important and beneficial contacts.
Most associations have archives of tapes from past years’ events, so you can “attend” two, five, even ten years of conferences as if a time machine was at your disposal.

10.  Get in LinkedIn groups.

Whatever specialty in HR you’re interested in, there are at least a couple LinkedIn groups for you.
Joining them enables you to instantly create a “learning” network of like-minded HR professionals interested in your topic.
In addition, you can post questions, get fast answers and post an idea to pre-test it before you run it by your boss or go off to implement it.

11.  Get into sharing.

Get in the habit of regularly sharing what you’ve learned.
It could be sharing what you’ve learned from an HR seminar at your staff meeting.
Or providing an e-mail summary to your boss.
Or doing do a lunch and learn with some colleagues.
Or creating your own blog and posting short articles on your experiences as you go.
Knowing beforehand that you’ll be teaching something to others forces you to learn more deeply.

12.  Get feedback…continuously.

As you progress, don’t be afraid to get feedback from your clients, mentors and your boss.
As I was improving my labor relations expertise, I solicited feedback from Plant Managers (my clients), field HR leaders (colleagues) and my boss.
I told them to be brutally candid in their comments.
Then I listened.  I didn’t rebut. I took notes.  I said: Thank you.
And that’s all it took.
To conclude, if you want to achieve your full potential in HR and become the captain of your own career, you can’t afford to leave your development to chance.
So get started now.
Decide on an HR competency area you’d like to grow or become an expert in.
Pick 3-4 of the items above to start with.
Then start making it happen.
One year from now you’ll be happy you did.
Onward!