How to Turn Leaders Into Champions of Your HR Initiatives

The best way to make a leader an advocate is to get their input early in the planning stage of your initiative.

For example, an HR team launching a new performance management system invited the COO into early planning sessions to get their input on what “good performance” should look like across operations. On launch day, the COO introduced the new system at an all-hands, and they talked about it in every operations review for the next two quarters.

By inviting leaders to weigh in on your goals and own a piece of the rollout, you’re more likely to be successful.

Align your HR initiative to priorities that leaders are publicly committed to, such as growth, culture, retention, etc.

For example, if your CFO has been vocal about margin pressure, emphasize how your new manager training program will empower smarter decision-making and risk management. Or if your COO is focused on operational excellence, show how your onboarding redesign cuts time to productivity for new hires by weeks.

When a leader sees that your initiative directly advances something they’ve already staked their reputation on, they don’t just support it. They own it.

Leaders are looking for a narrative that highlights how your initiative will help the company “win” and that investing in it is important. If you give them a good story, they’ll carry it into every room they walk into.

The mistake is positioning your efforts as a project update: “We’re launching a new mental health benefit with expanded EAP access.”

Instead, frame your initiative as a defining chapter: “We’re becoming the company where people don’t have to choose between their job and their well-being — and we’re going to be three years ahead of our industry on this.”

Helping leaders connect emotionally to your initiative through your narrative is important. Including employee stories creates an emotional appeal, and data helps make the case.

Here’s an example:

“Our new manager development program had an 87% completion rate and a 4.6 average satisfaction score. In fact, one regional director went through the program last quarter, and she told us it was the first time in 15 years that anyone had given her real coaching on how to lead. And her team’s engagement scores have climbed every month since.”

Here’s another example positioning an open enrollment campaign:

“Over 94% of employees completed enrollment on time this year, and we received positive feedback on our efforts. One employee, who is a working dad, said he finally understood his benefits well enough to switch to the HSA plan and save his family $4,000 a year.”

Prepare leaders to become vocal advocates by giving them the communication resources they need to speak confidently about your initiative, such as a:

• 90-second talking points card for all-hands meetings
• Two-line update they can include in board materials
• Short video interview with an employee who benefited from a program
• LinkedIn post or quote for the company newsletter

For example, an HR team prepared the CEO to talk about a new employee value proposition by giving them a single index card with three stats, one employee story and a new tagline. He used it everywhere, and within six months, the EVP became ingrained in the company’s story.