Normally, I agree with everything Laurie Ruettimann says. Not because I’m a robot, but because she’s right 99% of the time. .9% of the time we just see things through different lenses.
And .1% of the time we just disagree.
And this falls in that .1%.
I think that when you’re in HR you have to speak the language of business. I think speaking HR in business is the kiss of death – or irrelevance, which is really the same thing.
It’s not about furniture, it’s about influence. And when you’re influential you speak the language of those you influence.
Business people are everywhere in organizations. They’re in Finance (where they speak finance and business). They’re in Marketing (where they speak marketing and business). They’re in Operations (where they speak operations and business). They’re in R&D (where they speak r&d and business). They’re in Sales (where they speak sales and business). They’re in IT (where they speak technology and business).
Business people are most definitely at the top of the organization where the only language spoken is business. So if you want to influence the people at the top of the organization – all those people whose job titles start with a great big “C” — you have to speak to them in their language, not yours.
This quote from Frank Romer says it all:
People will sit up and take notice of you if you will sit up and take notice of what makes them sit up and take notice.
The bottom line is that language is important. Using language your target audience doesn’t understand ensures that you won’t be understood. It also ensures that you will have no influence. None. Zero.
So if HR is to be influential and interact with a certain type of furniture it has to be fluent in the language of business.
Actually, I’m pretty sure Laurie Ruettimann will agree with me.
chinagorman.com 