2.  AsHR professionals continue to work to be
value-added strategic associates to the
business leaders they support, there are
some key behaviors to be kept in mind.
 Theseare the kinds of behaviors that have
proven to differentiate HR advisors as the
most trusted across a wide variety of
businesses.

3.  . Continually build solid relationships.
 Trusted HR Advisors primary focus is on how they
effectively and successfully build relationships
with those they support. They take time to get
to know the employees and leaders face-to-face.
 They go to projects / sites, make personal
contacts and connections, and spend quality
time in the actual environments where the
employees work. This gives them a deep
understanding of the business they are
supporting and is a behavior that builds
relationships.

4.  As an HR Professional, the leaders and
employees you support need to believe that
you truly understand their perspectives and
are aware of their issues. They need to
believe you are their partner and are there
to help them succeed at every stage. This is
most effectively achieved through face-to-
face discussions.
 As much as is reasonably possible, make
these connections early on and frequently
and then continue to sustain the
relationships moving forward by repeating
these actions.

5. . Let business leaders be leaders.
 The job of a trusted HR advisor is not to lead
for the leaders or run their businesses. Your
job is to be their advisor, to partner with
them, to establish guidelines for them, to
build credibility so that they heed your
advice, and to have faith that they know how
to run their business. It is not your job to tell
them what to do or how to run their
business.

6.  Yes,they will make mistakes, and if you
believe they are on the path to a mistake,
then it is your job to alert them about that.
But ultimately they get to decide if they
want to make the mistake. Some HR
professionals still believe that it's their job to
tell business leaders what they can and
cannot do instead of providing guidance and
letting them make the decisions.

7.  Letthem lead. Be there with them and be
their partner, but by all means, let them do
what they were hired and trained to
do, even if it means they need to learn some
hard lessons through their experiences.

8. . Exert impeccable influence.
 In order to exert impeccable influence as a
trusted advisor, you should know where to
focus your energy and place your influence
so that it is meaningful and has impact. In
order to do this, you need to understand
your business's objectives and top priorities.

9.  The general rule that has been successful for
many trusted HR advisors is to know the top
three priorities of your business and then
work to exert appropriate influence in those
areas.
 By doing this, you will not only get the
appropriate attention from the
workforce, but you will have meaningful
impact. Simply base your top three HR
priorities on those of the business and exert
your influence in those particular areas.

10.  Speak "Business" language
 Trusted HR Advisors avoid "HR speaks" as
much as possible and, instead, speak the
business language. Much of this translates to
the need to understand your company's
financial statements. This really is not an
option if you truly want to speak the
language of business leaders.

11.  If you do not understand your company's
financial statements and how your company
makes money, operates its resources then
you cannot speak the language of the
business leaders or provide adequate HR
support.

12.  Unfortunately, many HR professionals regard
understanding financial statements as an
option rather than a requirement of their
profession. After all, there are finance
professionals to handle that part of the
business.

13.  Although that is true, remember that you
should be focused on what is important to
the business leaders you support, and the
financial standing of the business is often
their most important concern. Therefore, it
should also be one of your most important
concerns and something that you can speak
about fluently.

14.  Create meaningful measurements
 Trusted HR Advisors proactively measure
performance and hold leaders accountable
for the HR actions and programs they have
agreed to undertake. This does not mean
that they act as the parent or police officer
but that they simply let leaders run their
businesses while actively working the HR
initiatives that support them.

15.  How to effectively do this is by deciding
exactly what your business leaders need to
accomplish relative to HR programs. Remind
them which HR programs support their
business objectives and provide them with
concise and realistic metrics for which they
will be held accountable.

16.  The measurements you establish with your
business leaders cannot be arbitrarily set.
They must be precise measurements that will
drive the results they need in their business.
This is what makes metrics meaningful and
doing this in a collaborative fashion with
business leaders is what makes one a trusted
HR advisor.

17.  Byconsistently employing these five listed
practices, HR professionals will begin to be
viewed more and more as trusted advisors in
the businesses where they work. They will be
sought after for guidance and counsel and
will continue to have a reserved seat at the
decision making table.
 From: Iyer Subramanian, Vijay Tanks and
Vessels Private Limited.