Case Study #2 – HR Professional
Background
John R., the vice president of human resources at a global technology firm, had spent over 15 years mastering HR strategy, talent management, and organizational development. While he was well regarded within his department, his credibility among senior executives was inconsistent. Some leaders valued his views and saw him as a useful asset, while others viewed HR—and John himself—as playing a secondary role in driving organizational success.
“They appreciated that we had a competent HR function, but it wouldn’t occur to them to seek my counsel unless they had a specific technical HR question,” John reflected. “It wasn’t that they were dismissing me—they simply didn’t know what they didn’t know about what I could offer.”
After multiple failed attempts to reposition HR’s role at the leadership table, John enrolled in the ATA program. He hoped the experience, combined with insights from other change professionals taking the course who might be facing similar credibility challenges, would help him shift how executives perceived his role.
The ATA Experience
Roughly a third of the way through ATA, John began recognizing patterns in how some individuals in his cohort had successfully increased their executive influence. This led to an important discovery for him: He had been waiting for leaders to recognize his value instead of proactively demonstrating it.
“I had spent years frustrated that executives weren’t seeing me as a strategic partner,” John admitted, “but the truth was, I had never truly educated them on how I could contribute to their success beyond HR fundamentals.”
As he worked through ATA’s readings, discussions, and feedback from Daryl Conner and his cohort, John identified key shifts he needed to make:
- Reshape leaders’ expectations about the HR function’s strategic value and his advisory contribution to their professional success
- Apply what he’d learned about cultivating trust with the executives who were skeptical of HR’s strategic role
- Shift from functioning as an operational expert to a strategic partner
- Contribute to exploring options for addressing the most intractable, enterprise-wide challenges in ways that executives would listen to and act on
- Challenge leadership’s self-perception and provide tough feedback in ways that don’t produce defensiveness
Real-World Impact
Even before completing ATA, John began revamping his strategy to reposition HR as an essential asset that would be recognized as vital to executive decision-making on matters of consequence. He sought feedback from Daryl and his cohort peers to further refine his plan.
Two weeks after his final ATA session, he scheduled a one-on-one meeting with the CEO to present his approach. Instead of discussing HR initiatives, he framed the conversation around how executives could make better decisions and more effectively navigate high-risk situations by leveraging HR’s expertise in leadership alignment, culture, and organizational effectiveness.
The CEO not only endorsed John’s plan but volunteered to personally support his efforts in raising HR’s profile among the leadership team. With the CEO’s backing, John initiated a series of strategic conversations with key executives, where he identified leadership challenges affecting performance at the highest levels, proactively advised on workforce risks tied to major business initiatives and influenced succession planning decisions that shaped the company’s long-term strategy.
Six months later, John’s role had significantly shifted. He was no longer just managing HR operations—he was helping frame how executives interpreted key situations and explored options. “Before ATA, I was on the sidelines of executive strategy,” John reflected. “Now I’m at the center of architecting the company’s future.”
