SHRM26 Debrief · Leadership & Development · #2476
UnMuted Leader: Turning Insight into Influence in the Future of Work
with Trisha Zulic
"There comes a point in every career when the cost of silence outweighs the risk of speaking up."
What it was about
HR professionals mute themselves out of fear and learned helplessness, and that silence is more expensive than the risk of speaking up. HR needs to build clarity, courage, and conviction to move from insight to real influence with executives.
By the numbers
80% of the problems are caused by 20% of the actions or people
Pareto principle applied to workplace problem employees/managers
20% like change, 60% can go either way, 20% disagree
change management spectrum, and where most organizational effort is misallocated
2.5 HR employees for 3,000 employees across 14 dealerships
her HR staffing ratio at a former automotive employer
Key notes
- Stop saying 'no' to managers directly; instead give them factual information about risk, liability, and ramifications so they arrive at the right decision themselves.
- Update your own job description regularly, since HR roles have changed dramatically but HR rarely audits its own scope the way it audits everyone else's.
- Avoid sitting in the room during terminations when possible; being present makes the employee see HR as part of management and erodes the neutrality that lets HR serve as a trusted resource afterward.
The contrarian takeHR should generally avoid being physically present in the room during terminations, because it makes the employee perceive HR as aligned with management (undermining the neutrality that lets HR serve as a trusted, private resource afterward) — the opposite of the common assumption that HR must always be in the room to manage legal risk.
Take this back Monday
Do this for your team
Stop sitting in on terminations yourself — hand the manager the talking points and let HR stay the trusted resource afterward.
Say this in your next leadership meeting
The cost of HR's silence outweighs the risk of speaking up, so I'm giving managers the facts on risk instead of just saying no.
Watch out for
- Letting managers gatekeep information (or gatekeeping yourself with attorneys/managers) instead of getting the full picture before advising.
- Answering emails and staying reachable on evenings/weekends, which teaches the organization that you're always available and erodes your own boundaries.
- Staying silent in meetings or after being repeatedly 'circled back' on, which trains the organization to stop listening to HR altogether.
Fun fact · Trisha Zulic
Trisha Zulic wrote a book on getting quiet leaders heard: UnMuted Leader: Lead So They Listen.
If this landed, see these
↳ Go deeperLeadership Effectiveness That Delivers Results: Eight Organizational DimensionsMaps individual leadership silence onto the eight organizational conditions actually driving it.⇄ The counterpointChange-Ready or Change-Resistant? How to Assess and Elevate the Mindsets That Drive AgilityArgues the real fix is deeper mindset work, not better scripts for saying no.✦ The unexpected oneStop Demanding Fruit from Dead Soil: A Repair-First Approach to BurnoutThe same self-protective silence shows up here as burnout: depletion without repair, not a courage problem.