As an HR leader, you are accustomed to playing two games simultaneously:
one is handling all the day-to-day challenges that impact team alignment, the other is thinking strategically about how to best position people to support your organization’s broader goals. You excel at making quick, intuitive decisions about how to support your internal clients, and you’re always thinking four moves ahead, seeing the whole board in front of you. Leveraging your firm’s structure, systems, and staff, you are an expert at infusing core values to support a long-term strategy.
In short, you are master at the professional chess board.
In case you’re a bit late to the game, The Queen’s Gambit is an Emmy-award winning Netflix miniseries about orphan-turned-chess-prodigy, Beth Harmon, and her ascent to the title of international chess master. Whether or not you’ve watched the series (or binged it several times over a weekend like we have), chances are good that you are always been thinking about your HR team’s next move to help your organization’s endgame. When the pieces work, it’s an amazing thing. But what do we do if we feel blocked, or struggle to anticipate what the person across the table is thinking? How do we proceed when faced with an unfamiliar strategy or lack a clear vantage point? We think these three moves may help:
1. Play on the Ceiling
One of the hallmarks of Harmon’s pregame prep is her visualization of the chess board on the ceiling the night before a match. By imagining the game from this perspective – that is, upside down and backwards – Harmon not only thinks through past matches and moves, but also mentally simulates potential ones, considering her opponents’ possible strategies. When faced with how to best position your organization’s people to align with its strategy, it may be useful to flip your vantage point: if there is an ongoing weakness within the team, perhaps the upside-down-and-backwards solution is playing to the team’s strengths. For example: if you know your organization always turns up for philanthropy, but never completes employee engagement surveys, consider tying these things together by incentivizing behavior with philanthropy donations for every completed survey. By looking at the situation ‘on the ceiling,’ you can better see what motivates your people, anticipate their moves based on past behavior, and make your own to ensure maximum results for everyone involved.
2. Call on Your Council
Harmon quickly realizes that the best Russian players strategically adjourn the game in order to consult with their compatriots and figure out how best to redirect the game in their favor. As she becomes more successful, several of her past opponents support her journey to compete in Russia at the International Chess Championship. Although they began as competitors, these players become loyal to her personally and committed to an American winning the Grand Master title.
If you’re tackling a new problem, always call on the people who are most invested in your success. Whether they’re experts, former opponents, friends or colleagues, their interest in you and your firm’s achievements makes them invaluable thought partners. HR professional associations are an excellent way to meet others in similar positions and expand your vendor relationships. Think of all your vendors – benefits brokers, learning and development specialists, labor and employment attorneys, talent recruiters, leadership development consultants – as not just a one-stop-shops for specific needs, but as thought partners to keep in your corner throughout your career: they spend their time in and out of client companies and see a gamut of best practices and ideas they can share with you. Remember the good ones, and put them on speed dial.
3. Unlock the Basement Door
Harmon initially discovers her love of chess when she wanders into a closed basement door. While downstairs, she encounters Mr. Shaibel, the orphanage’s janitor, playing chess alone, and asks him to teach her the game. Shaibel quickly discovers Harmon’s natural gifts and realizes her lack of opportunity to develop those skills from within the walls of the orphanage. He introduces her to the local high school chess team. After she leaves the orphanage, Harmon contacts Shaibel to help pay for her first chess competition, which he readily does.
As you progress through your career, think intentionally about the people you surround yourself with. What are the barriers to entry into your network? Do your people allow you to level-up? Which doors are open to you? Do you unlock doors that are closed for others?
“A lot of times people may not have access to the same type of education, the same type of opportunities. I think it’s about being cognizant of that,” shares Mario Portugal, Chief HR Officer at Beyond Limits. “Keep an open door and an open mind for those that may not have the normal path.”
By keeping an eye out for who is coming up behind you, you are ensuring your own success. After all, a person can’t be promoted without a ready-now successor to take their place. If there is no one there, consider why.
When firms level-up their strategy, they don’t always consider who their leaders are when their “first string” retires. Whether you're a rookie or playing like a pro, strive to build your network, remembering the people who helped you along the way, and bringing others along with you.
Like Harmon, at each stage of your career, you will face challenges that will cause you to reconsider the way you view the board. By flipping your vantage point, calling on your peers, and remembering to lean in on those above and below you, you can lead with clarity your piece of the organization’s strategy no matter the stakes of the game.
