How I Became a Success in HR 

I’m often asked how I became successful in HR. 

I’ve never viewed myself as such – I know some great people who I consider in a different league to me – but in the spirit of the type of list you’ll find in Inc or on LinkedIn I thought I’d give you my key lessons…

These are all things that are hallmarks of my career. I assume they are the secret to my unfathomable success 

• Sometimes just forget to have lunch and then announce to colleagues at about 4pm that you can’t believe the canteen is shut 
• Go through periods of insisting to your team that discipline is key and then blatantly ignore some rules due to expediency. Try to explain why it’s different for you
• Have a beard. I’m not being sexist, I’m just observing that I’m more experienced than ever and currently have a beard. It seems likely it’s causal
• Be of combined Welsh and Indian extraction. Or as close to that as you can get. If that seems tricky for you to achieve then adopt more of a ‘growth’ mindset
• Accept every mistake you make is a learning opportunity. Every mistake someone else makes is proof that some people never learn
• Hire people smarter than you whenever you can. Then tell them about how the last people you had working for you were even smarter to keep them in their place 
• Talk about big data when you know it’s not and robots when you know people mean AI just because explaining the difference has got a bit tiresome now
• Meet lots of people for coffee 
• Recognise that success is a complex amalgam of opportunity, luck, readiness, work, aptitude, environment and timing and the recipe to it can rarely be replicated and is unlikely to be found in a list
• Be able to poke fun at yourself

Best of luck