Dave Ulrich

The HR Business Partner model continues to evolve, shaping how organizations deliver value through their people. In this week's newsletter, I explore nine key evolutions in the HRBP concept - from a heightened focus on stakeholder value to the emergence of AI-enabled HR practices.

As our field rapidly advances, I invite you to reflect: Which of these evolutions do you see as most critical for HR's future impact? What other key trends are you observing? Your perspectives enrich our collective understanding, so please share your thoughts in the comments.

Join me in exploring how we can harness these developments to create ever greater value for all stakeholders through human capability.

The COVID epidemic flared into a pandemic and now may be moving into an enduring endemic with lots of metaphors about how to face the future: reboot, reimagine, reinvent, remake, reset, revitalize, and so forth.

I would like to capture this future with the word renewal, with the prefix “re” meaning again and again building on the things we’ve learned in the past and “new” meaning in innovative ways.

As #HR leaders, how can we take what we have already learned and move forward in innovative ways? This article outlines five competency domains identified in the HRC2S study to guide us moving forward.

#leaders #future

Decades ago, Martin Seligman (father of positive psychology) defined learned helplessness as the state of people (and animals) giving up when they can’t predict the outcomes of their actions.

Today, he has delineated learned hopefulness as the condition where people use agency—or the power to choose—to control their environment based on three beliefs:

• Efficacy: I can achieve my goals to make a difference in the world.
• Optimism: I can continue to do so in the future.
• Imagination: I can interrupt the past and imagine and pursue a wide variety of futures.

These brilliant insights help me personally and help me help others. With agency (in using the three factors), people replace helplessness with hopefulness and create a better future. Agency becomes a fundamental principle for people to take charge of their circumstances and reach their potential.

Business and #HR leaders who incorporate these factors into their personal work habits and organizations’ work processes will be more effective.

How can you apply these principles to give you hope?

A newly appointed CHRO recently asked us a question that many HR leaders face: "Where should I begin transforming my HR function, with vision or action?" It's a deceptively simple question with real consequences. Vision without action creates cynicism. Action without vision creates random, unguided work.

In our latest article, my colleague Norm Smallwood and I make the case that the answer is both, and we offer a practical roadmap for getting there. We outline seven steps that move HR beyond the familiar goal of "strategic HR" to what we call "stakeholder HR," where the function anticipates and creates the future by engaging directly with customers, investors, and communities, not just employees and executives.

What struck us most in developing this framework is how often HR transformation stalls at strategy. Many HR functions do excellent work aligning with business priorities, but fewer take the next step of asking external stakeholders what they actually want and need from the organization's human capability. When HR leaders make that shift from looking in a mirror to looking through a window, the impact on stakeholder commitment is remarkable.

We share a human capability taxonomy, practical templates for stakeholder interviews, and a prioritization framework that helps teams focus on the initiatives that deliver the most value. This isn't a future prediction. It's a present practice that we've seen work with clients navigating real transformation.

How are you approaching the transformation of your HR function? Are you leading with vision, action, or finding ways to do both? I'd love to hear what's working and what challenges you're facing.

Every HR transformation conversation eventually arrives at the same question: how does AI actually change the way HR operates, not in theory, but in the specific work of corporate HR leaders, specialists, generalists, and service teams?

In this week's article, my colleagues from The RBL Group, Norm Smallwood and Mike Panowyk along with contributors Dave Eberhardt, Rob Dicks, Astik Ranade, and Megan Brody from PwC's Workforce Transformation Team and I tackle that question head on. Together we have been involved in hundreds of HR transformations, and we are seeing AI reshape every element of the HR operating model in ways that go far beyond simple automation.

One insight that stands out is how differently AI impacts each part of the operating model. Administrative and service work will see the highest percentage of tasks performed by AI, while the strategic advisory work of HR business partners and corporate HR leaders will be augmented rather than replaced. The real opportunity is not just efficiency but using AI to move HR from reactive reporting to proactive, stakeholder-centered value creation. We also share a practical framework showing how #AI applies specifically to corporate HR, specialists, generalists, and services, with concrete examples in each area.

AI is not a panacea for the #HR operating model, but when combined with human ingenuity, it becomes a powerful catalyst for delivering the stakeholder value that HR transformation promises.

How is AI changing the way your HR function operates? Where are you seeing the greatest impact, and where does human judgment remain essential? I would love to hear your experiences and start a conversation about what comes next.

We all have aspirations for how HR can create more value, and my colleagues and I have been sharing ideas on stakeholder HR, AI-enabled operating models, and human capability. But here's what I keep noticing in my conversations with HR professionals around the world: it's often not the big strategic challenges that slow us down. It's the daily annoyances, the computer glitches, the missed flights, the relationship tensions, the moments of self-doubt that quietly erode our energy and focus.

I've experienced all of these in just the last ninety days, and I suspect you have too. So in this week's article, I drew on wisdom from thinkers like Herbert Simon, Marshall Goldsmith, James Clear, and Dale Carnegie (and even a meme from my grandkids) to offer six selfcare tips for keeping inevitable distractions from becoming stumbling blocks. The core idea is simple but important: achieving our goals and creating value for others almost always starts with taking care of ourselves. Letting go, learning more, laughing often, and moving on are not signs of weakness but strategies for sustained impact.

How do you overcome the distractions in your work and life? What practices help you stay focused on what matters most when the small stuff piles up? I'd love to hear what works for you.

We celebrate holidays with rituals that become routines: gathering with family, sharing meals, giving gifts, expressing gratitude. These routines give structure and meaning to our lives. But here's what I've noticed over the years: while the routines remain, the actions often need to evolve. My family still spends time together at Christmas, but now we visit our adult children rather than them visiting us. The routine endures; the execution adapts.

Organizations work the same way. Every organization has five fundamental routines that define how work gets done: how we treat people, use information, manage conflict, allocate rewards, and make decisions. These routines have been studied by Nobel laureates and organization scholars for decades because they form the operating system of any enterprise.

The challenge is that many leaders struggle to recognize when their routine actions have become outdated. Not evolving these actions causes organizations to get stuck responding to historical expectations rather than current realities. This helps explain why failure rates remain stubbornly high, with even Fortune 500 companies seeing 40 to 50 percent turnover every decade.

In my latest article, I offer a diagnostic that business and HR leaders can use to assess whether their organizational routines need updating. Just as holiday traditions adapt across generations while preserving what matters most, organizational routines can evolve while maintaining their essential purpose.

What routines in your organization might need fresh actions to match today's context? How do you know when it's time to update how things get done?

HR professionals today know more about what drives organizational value than at any point in the field's history. The competencies are documented, the research is strong, and the case for HR's value added for all stakeholders has been made convincingly. So why does so much of that expertise still struggle to land?

Erin Wilson Burns and I have been thinking about why this gap persists, especially now. The transitions facing organizations today are among the most significant in generations, and HR is uniquely positioned to help navigate them. But having the right answer is not the same as having influence, and influence is what turns HR competency into real organizational impact.

In this week's article, we identify what separates HR professionals who consistently shape their organization's direction from those whose recommendations sit on a shelf. The good news is that influence is not a personality trait. It is a set of skills that can be developed, around clarity, confidence, and courage.

Where have you found it hardest to gain traction in your organization? And what has helped you break through? We would love to hear what works.

The future of HR depends on developing next-generation leaders who can deliver real value to all stakeholders. But how do we move from talking about what HR professionals need to actually building those competencies?

Over the past year, my colleagues Dick Beatty, Patrick Wright, Cori Jones, and I (along with dozens of thought leaders) have been working on this challenge through the Global HR Leadership Experience (GHRLE). In our latest article, we share what we have learned about elevating HR professionals, including the content they need to master, the learning experiences that accelerate growth, and the early results from our initial cohort.

What struck me most was the enthusiasm and competence of the participants. Their ambition, agility, and commitment to creating stakeholder value gives us remarkable confidence that HR's best days are ahead. One participant captured it well when they said the experience was transformative in expanding their thinking about HR's impact on customers, stakeholders, business results, and their own leadership.

Whether or not you can join a formal program, the ideas in this article offer a blueprint for your own development journey, both what to learn and how to learn it.

What development experiences have shaped your growth as an HR professional? What competencies do you see as most critical for the next generation? We would love to hear your perspective (and, if possible, to join us in the next GHRLE offering in April)!

Disruption is not new. From creative destruction to COVID to the Iran War, external events have always intruded on our personal lives and professional work. What is new is the speed and intensity with which those disruptions reach us, leaving little time to absorb one crisis before the next arrives.

What I find most useful in moments like these is not trying to predict or control what is happening out there, but focusing on what is within reach. In my latest article, I share five principles that business and HR leaders can act on right now, starting with how to find certainty in the middle of uncertainty and how to personalize your response so that the people around you feel genuinely supported rather than just managed.

The leaders who emerge stronger are the ones who treat disruption as a signal to clarify values, deepen relationships, and move toward action rather than away from it.

I would love to hear how you are navigating this moment. What helps you or your organization stay grounded when the world feels unstable?

People often ask how I personally use AI in my work. When I learned that over 50 percent of LinkedIn posts and comments are likely AI generated, not just enhanced, I felt a stronger pull toward transparency. I think it's time to answer that question openly, perhaps even with a little vulnerability.

I use AI, but I put human ingenuity first. AI synthesizes the past and offers parity that everyone can access. Human judgment, creativity, empathy, and wisdom create what is genuinely new.

In this week's article, I walk through the eight steps I use to generate ideas with impact, showing where AI helps and where it simply cannot. This weekly process of creating, editing, posting, and engaging takes me 15 to 20 hours, and I believe that investment in human connection and learning is well worth it. I'll also confess that when I recognize posts or comments that are clearly AI generated, I tend to skip them. I'd rather engage with a person than an algorithm.

How do you integrate AI into your work while keeping your authentic voice and perspective? I would love to hear your approach so we can learn together.

What separates a leader people want to follow from one they simply report to? After decades of studying and working with leaders across industries and levels, I keep coming back to one primary answer: Personal Proficiency. It is the domain at the heart of effective leadership, and it is the one that makes everything else possible.

In a world where 65 to 75 percent of people say they do not want to move into leadership positions, this matters more than ever. Leaders with Personal Proficiency do not just manage people and tasks. They clarify what they stand for, build others up, act with both courage and humility, and turn inevitable tensions into productive outcomes. These are not abstract ideals. They are learnable, observable, and measurable skills.

In my latest article, I share six principles of Personal Proficiency that have become increasingly relevant as disruptions and distractions pull leaders in every direction and potentially reduce confidence in leadership. I have also included a simple self-assessment to help you reflect not only on how you are living these principles yourself but on how consistently you are helping others do the same.

Which of these six principles do you find most difficult to sustain under pressure, and what has helped you stay grounded when it matters most?

The end of the year naturally invites reflection, that pause between what was and what could be. But transitions aren't just a December phenomenon. They happen throughout our lives and careers, at home and at work, sometimes by choice and sometimes by circumstance.

I've been fascinated by how NBA all-stars make remarkable progress during their first four years through intentional off-season work. Players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander nearly tripled their scoring averages by treating each transition from season to season as a steppingstone to growth. The same principle applies to business and HR leaders navigating job changes, role shifts, or life changes.

In coaching leaders through transitions (and going through a few of my own), I've found that progress comes from three perspectives: looking back to learn, looking inside to clarify, and looking ahead to impact. In today's newsletter article, I share nine tips with reflection questions designed to turn transition moments into genuine inflection points for growth rather than stagnation.

As you reflect on 2025 and anticipate 2026, I'd love to hear from you. What transitions are you facing, and what have you learned about making them work?

Most leaders I work with are highly competent. They can set a vision, execute a strategy, develop their teams, and deliver results. And yet, something is still missing. The gap is rarely about skill. It is about presence.

In today's article with co-authored with Dave Jennings, we explore what it means to intentionally show up, not just in the moments that feel high-stakes, but in the daily interactions that quietly define how others experience you as a leader. The way you present yourself, manage your attention, shape a conversation, or follow up after a meeting sends signals that either build or erode your credibility and connection over time.

We offer seven practical tips for leaders who want their presence to match their potential. Some of them may surprise you; we hope they help you (and those you coach) be more intentional about showing up for impact.

What does intentionally showing up look like for you? And where do you find it hardest to stay fully present?

AI is being adopted faster than any technology in history, yet when we ask leaders how far along AI is on its s-curve of impact, most say only 30 to 40 percent. We are using something we don't fully understand, which creates both enormous opportunity and legitimate concern.

In this article written with Dan Yager, we suggest that AI progress might benefit from guardrails, much like the safety rails we accept in daily living and in more complex policy choices around finance, environment, and human rights. During the early Industrial Revolution, few employers established guardrails as organizations expanded, which eventually led to government involvement and significant new laws, but those laws came about a century too late. Things move a lot faster these days.

We propose six guardrails that help business and HR leaders responsibly channel AI progress toward stakeholder value. These range from paying attention to and actively engaging in evolving regulations to establishing internal AI advisory teams, building employee trust through transparency, connecting AI with human ingenuity, and measuring impact on business outcomes rather than just activity. The goal is not to slow AI adoption but to ensure it delivers lasting value for employees, organizations, customers, investors, and communities.

What guardrails has your company put in place to guide AI? I would love to hear how you are navigating the balance between AI opportunity and responsible implementation.

If you had one wish for the human capability agenda in 2026, what would it be?

I have many hopes for the year ahead: stakeholder HR continuing to evolve, business leaders sharing accountability for human capability outcomes, AI complementing human ingenuity, organizations building cultures that deliver value, and leaders using their power to empower others.

But if I had to choose just one priority, I would choose improving employee mental health. People are the nucleus of any organization, and when their mental health languishes, everything else falters. Organizations don't think, people do. And when mental health hinders thinking, doing, and feeling, the other hopes I mentioned won't happen.

What concerns me is that while the physical crisis of COVID has abated, the mental health challenges have lingered. Research shows that loneliness and emotional disconnection remain defining features for many adults who feel isolated, left out, and lacking companionship. Employee engagement scores worldwide have remained flat or slightly declined which shows relevance of mental health in work and well as social settings.

In my latest article, I share five actions that business and HR leaders can take to improve mental health in organizational settings, from creating a mental health culture to personalizing options to integrating mental health into ongoing business activities. Taking care of oneself and others is simply the right thing to do.

What do you do for your personal mental health and the mental health of others? I'd love to hear your perspective and learn from what's working in your organization.

Nearly everyone can recall being on the receiving end of some form of bias or cognitive distortion, whether racism, ageism, sexism, or countless others. These experiences cause personal distress and organizational dysfunction, yet they persist in workplaces everywhere.

As we observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US, my colleague Marcus Shaw and I reflect on how Dr. King's teachings extend far beyond political activism to offer practical wisdom for leading organizations in our increasingly complex, AI-enabled global world. In this article, we share personal stories of feeling like "the other" and translate Dr. King's enduring principles into four imperatives for building more humane human capability at work: respect for all, service, courage over time, and meaning and purpose.

Dr. King reminded us that no work is insignificant and that the time is always right to do what is right. His counsel helps us move beyond cognitive distortions toward organizations where everyone belongs and can contribute their unique gifts.

What personal experiences have shaped how you think about belonging and inclusion at work? How do Dr. King's teachings influence your approach to leadership? I invite you to share your story in the comments.

Most change efforts fail or fall short, not because the ideas are wrong but because we focus on just one piece of the puzzle.

After years of exploring change through LinkedIn posts and conversations with business and HR leaders, I've come to believe that sustainable change requires attending to three interconnected elements: mindset, skillset, and setting. Each alone is incomplete. If you don't change how people think, new skills won't be used. If you don't build skills, new thinking stays theoretical. And if you don't change the organizational systems around people, both mindsets and skillsets will decay over time.

This insight has profound implications for anyone trying to close the gap between who they want to be and who they are, between aspirations and actions, between future opportunities and present challenges. Whether you're leading organizational transformation, coaching individual leaders, or working to evolve the HR function itself, these three metathemes provide a foundation for making change actually stick.

In my latest article, I share specific actions for each element, from redefining problems through narrative therapy to conducting calendar tests that reveal where skills need development, to modifying the systems and routines that either enable or undermine lasting change.

What has been your experience with making change stick? Which of these three elements, mindset, skillset, or setting, do you find most challenging to address in your own change efforts?