Summary
Solo HR professional strengths are the fastest way back to strategic work, not an extra step to add to an already full calendar. This post looks at what happens when a Human Resources Department of One works in their strengths zone every day.
Post 4 of 7: Opportunity | Growing on Purpose: The GROWW Framework for HR Departments of One
On October 2nd, I learned my People Operations role would be eliminated. I was about a third of the way through a four-day workweek (4DWW) pilot planning project, and my employer asked me to stay long enough to finish it. We agreed I'd stay through the end of the year.
I could have done the minimum, considering the circumstances. Instead, some of the best work of my career came out of the next three months.
The 4DWW project started with a cross-functional group taking a course and co-designing the pilot's broad strokes together. Then it became primarily mine, and I created a comprehensive plan: a leadership pitch, staff messaging, a full Pilot Success Handbook, success metrics and a reporting process, and an on-demand training program built in phases for staff and people leaders. I thrived in this project while transitioning my regular duties to others and processing being let go for the first time in my career, despite knowing it had nothing to do with my performance.
What carried me through wasn't willpower. It was leaning into what I already did best. CliftonStrengths, the Gallup framework I use with coaching clients, gives language to that instinct. It ranks 34 natural talent patterns by how strongly each shows up in a person. Looking back, I used all of my top ten strengths: Input and Intellection to research and think it through, Relator to connect with the working group, Responsibility and Discipline to keep showing up for a project I wouldn’t benefit from, Connectedness to trust there was something in it for me anyhow, Futuristic to picture what the pilot could become, and Arranger and Maximizer to organize the pieces into something strong.
The result surprised me. Those three months were some of the most enjoyable working months I have had. I got more done in that stretch than in almost any comparable window before it, and nothing important slipped through the cracks.
Gallup's research points to something specific here: people who get to use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged in their work. Solo HR professional strengths, used deliberately, are the difference between effort to keep up and momentum to move forward.
Solo HR professional strengths, used deliberately, are the difference between effort to keep up and momentum to move forward.
The HR Department of One role tends to keep the person in it in catch-up mode, with plans for strategic work crowded out by administration, compliance, and unplanned interruptions. The strategic work sits untouched at the end of the day on Friday, and the solo HR professional may feel drained and defeated. I had so many weeks like that before those three months, when the strategic work that aligned with my strengths was given regular time.
Solo HR Professional Strengths Are the Fastest Path to Strategic Work
This is where the Opportunity pillar of the GROWW Framework gets practical instead of theoretical. Opportunity isn't about asking for a promotion or a bigger budget. It's about noticing the talents already there and building the work around them. That's the strategy underneath every other strategy a solo HR professional will ever build.
That's the strategy underneath every other strategy a solo HR professional will ever build.
Solo HR professional strengths don’t just show up in big final projects. They appear in smaller moments too. At a previous organization, I wanted to understand what people across the company believed our shared purpose was. I was handed a backlog of work when I started that job and I never felt caught up. A survey would have been faster. Instead, I used my Relator and Responsibility strengths and invited people to walk with me. One person at a time, during a break, we'd walk and talk, and I'd ask the same question every time.
Back at my desk, I'd log a few notes in a spreadsheet, building the dataset one conversation at a time. It took longer than a survey, but it was worth it. In a role that can feel isolating even when it's going well, I had real one-on-one time with everyone in the building, and every walk left me feeling energized.
Eventually, all those walks became a report I compiled for leadership and the team. The information was useful, but the deepened relationships and the resilience those days built in me were the real results. A survey would not have built any of that.
You Don't Need to Try Harder to Get Better at This Job
Most solo HR professionals aren't short on effort. They're short on time, and spending that scarce time trying to work harder or faster instead of doing more of what already works is the slower path.
Notice where your own strengths already show up during a normal week. Not the assessment results sitting in a folder somewhere, the actual moments: the report you enjoyed writing, the one-on-one conversation you didn't want to end, the plan you built because you couldn't stop thinking about it. Those moments are data. They're telling you where thirty more minutes a day would do the most good, and they cost nothing to notice.
What I Want You to Notice About Your Own Week
Before you close your laptop each day this week, take one minute to write down the single task that felt the most like you, the one where the time moved differently. Don't judge whether it was important enough. Just name it. That's the raw material everything in this pillar is built on. Even if coaching isn't the next step for you, that reflection alone should point you toward where spending a little time each day will result in net gains. I'd love to hear what you notice.
If you're ready to build a real plan around your strengths, that's exactly the work inside my Starter Coaching Package: three sessions, a CliftonStrengths assessment, and a clear next step. The first move is a discovery call, which you can book with the button below.
About GROWW Leadership
GROWW Leadership helps mission-driven leaders and organizations turn intention into impact through leadership and sustainable growth coaching, training, and organizational design. Founded by Kristie Steele in Eugene, Oregon.