Viewpoint: Earn a Seat Without Missing a Beat Through Business Acumen

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• Engaging in ongoing conversations with others in the organization.
• Asking open-ended questions and really attending to the responses.
• Picking up on current challenges or points of pride.
• Digging deeper to truly understand the issues.

That is how you can transform routine communication into a vehicle for expanding your understanding of the business.

If you want to practice curious listening, though, you'll need to detach yourself from your ego and what you feel you should already know. As Wendy Tan, founding partner of the Flame Centre and author of Wholeness in a Disruptive World (Marshall Cavendish, 2017), cautions, "You have to be more interested in truly understanding than in protecting your image."

In an effort to maintain credibility, HR professionals will frequently mask critical knowledge gaps, figuring they can just "fake it till they make it." Yet, those who are courageous and confident enough to admit that they don't know something are rewarded—not just with the information they need, but also with greater credibility. Curious questions have the power to make us look smarter, more insightful and more interested. And they forge connections with those who can be a source of business acumen for years to come.

Become a Student of the Organization

Karen Huneycutt, senior manager of sales enablement and learning at Allsteel, says that while it's not necessary to have done the jobs of those you're working for, "having a deep understanding of the business will help you succeed." Toward that end, she encourages HR professionals to become students of the organization and take advantage of the vast, accessible and free resources that are available: "Know the organization chart. Read the memos and announcements that come out. Attend the stock calls. Read the annual report."

Those tools provide visibility to the formal structures and decision-making processes within an organization. But you must have a deep and evolving understanding of the informal side of the business too. Huneycutt suggests considering such questions as:

• How do things really get done?
• How are decisions made?
• Who gets a seat at the table?
• Whose behind-the-scenes counsel is routinely sought out?
• How do we make money?

Since business acumen frequently goes hand-in-hand with financial acumen, developing a working knowledge of the economics of the organization can go a long way toward enhancing your understanding and credibility. Does this require an accounting degree or MBA? Absolutely not. You just need a basic command of some fundamentals.

Begin by familiarizing yourself with your company's reporting processes, cycles and documents. Learn where year-to-date data are captured and track how the organization is performing against its budgeted or expected revenue numbers. This is critical because missing those targets frequently translates to belt-tightening measures that might affect the HR department.

Next, learn about the costs and investments that contribute to the organization's expenses. Depending on the nature of the business, the most significant expense categories usually include staffing, facilities, materials, inventory, and research and development. Understanding the dynamic interplay among those factors gives you a basis for appreciating decisions made throughout the company—and where your support will be most valuable.

If your company is publicly traded, stay abreast of what's happening with its stock. Although stock price is influenced by many factors, it also can indicate how the market views an organization. Stock price changes might also tip you off to the executive team's frame of mind and what kind of reception new (expense-enhancing) ideas might receive.

Finally, learn your acronyms because finance (like most disciplines) lives on alphabet soup. Start with ROI, EPS, IPO and EBIT—ASAP.

Network on Purpose

Networking may be among your most undervalued tools for building and expanding business acumen. And, because you likely already engage in a certain amount of networking, with some focus and intention, you can leverage that investment for even greater returns. This can be as ad hoc as consciously seeking out those in other parts of the business for coffee or taking advantage of the time before a meeting to ask those from different functions about a recent success or a new challenge they're facing.

Networking also may involve more structure. Seeking out mentors from other parts of the business can be great for your career. Attending departmental planning meetings is an efficient way to gain a deeper understanding of the pressures facing the organization, as well as the thinking behind its responses. Job shadowing and ride-alongs offer in-the-trenches insights. Cross-functional assignments and committees allow for new relationships and knowledge-building.

Finally, networking and perspective sharing may be formalized, as it is at Synopsys. According to Cassie Hamelman, HR business partner and senior manager of talent and leadership development, "We leverage a cross-functional group of vice presidents—our VP Advisory Council—to provide information and guidance. These relationships provide rich, ongoing business-related learning."

So, given your workload, internal customer expectations, and the need to stay current on talent development issues, does it really make sense to prioritize business acumen as well? According to Bennett Phillips, partner at the Advantage Performance Group, "Only if you want to be a strategic learning asset, be taken seriously, hold your own, and bring your expertise and know-how to life."

What About Your Work?

The work that you do offers the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the business. That is, if you take the time to reflect upon it.

Consider questions like these each time you wrap up a project:

• What business developments am I now aware of that I didn't know about before?
• What are leaders and employees most concerned about today?
• What did I hear about that requires more inquiry and investigation to make sure I understand the issues facing the business?
• Who else might benefit from these insights?

In addition, take steps to understand the following four key priorities to make sure you're ready to interact with your company's senior leadership:

• Understand the organization's strategy. Develop a keen appreciation for why the organization exists, what it's trying to accomplish, and how it intends to achieve its strategy.
• Identify the metrics that matter, and why. Understand how the organization makes money and from whom. Also, learn about other key factors such as customer satisfaction and market penetration.
• Remain current on the competitive landscape. Know the industry players as well as potential external threats.
• Explore opportunities facing the business. Engage in conversations focused on developments and possibilities so you'll be poised to support future directions.

Julie Winkle Giulioni is co-founder and principal of DesignArounds, where she leads multidisciplinary teams that create award-winning electronic and instructor-led training. She is an author and respected speaker on performance improvement, leadership, sales and customer service. Most recently, she is co-author of Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want (Berrett-Koehler, 2012). This article is adapted from https://www.td.org with permission from ATD. ©2018 ATD. All rights reserved.

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