Get out of your office.

Yo VIP lets kick it.

Jason-

In your last post you mention a lot of good stuff, and one of the things that caught my attention was that you touched on the importance of building internal relationships a couple of times, and I think that this is sometimes overlooked. How HR is viewed within the organization has a great deal to do with the nature of the relationship that HR has with the organization…as a function and as individuals.

I think that we can look to some ancient wisdom for guidance on this one.

The poet-philosopher Vanilla Ice encouraged us to “Stop. Collaborate and listen.” Powerful stuff. Powerful stuff indeed, and I do not claim to entirely understand what the prophet had in mind with this line, but it might be advice worth considering.

Part of what makes HR work hard is what everyone else thinks they know about HR.

The less the rest of the organization knows about you (as an individual and as a function) the more they are going to make up their own story, based on what they think they know about HR and the most recent episode of The Office.

I think that it is vitally important for HR professionals to be students of the organization, to be students of the people within the organization and to be always on the look out for an opportunity to add value.

Get out of your office. (now)

Ask questions and listen.

Know the business.

Know the people.

Find a way to add value.

Be in partnership.

We all want to rock the mic like a vandal…and the lack of internal relationships or the wrong kind of internal relationships can easily stand in our way.