📈 The HR Impact Equation: 1x vs. 10x

TL;DR

📈 The HR Impact Equation: 1x vs. 10x

🎯 Ruthless prioritisation: One leader’s bold example

❓ Your views on prioritising 10x initiatives

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The HR Impact Equation: 1x vs. 10x

Picture this: you’ve got 100% capacity—no more, no less. You can:

It’s a no-brainer, I’ll take option 2 every single time. 

But if it’s so simple, why are we all stuck in admin?

The “I have to” lie

Here’s where it gets sticky. I can almost hear you saying:

Here’s the truth: you don’t “have to” do anything. 

What’s really happening? We’ve bought into one of these classic traps:

My No-BS strategy 

Here are 5 non-negotiables you’ll always see me stick to—whether I’m a standalone Head of People or a Chief People Officer leading a team of 40. (Spoiler: a bigger team doesn’t mean less work. If anything, operations grow exponentially!):

🎯 Get ruthless with priorities. Focus on the top 3-5 things your business must achieve in the next 12 months. If a HR initiative doesn’t align, it’s parked for later.

🙅🏻‍♀️ Say “no” (without guilt). If it doesn’t align with business priorities, it’s a no. And no, you don’t have to apologise for it—your focus is on impact, not people-pleasing.

📍 Hold others accountable. HR isn’t here to do the job of a manager. If a task falls under a manager’s accountability, they own it—period. They can either deliver results or own the outcome. You’re here to work with them, not for them.

💥 Challenge limitations. Question everything. Can this process be streamlined—or skipped? Just because an idea worked elsewhere doesn’t mean it’s right for you. And always ask: “Is this mine to own, ours to co-own or someone else’s?”

⏱️ Optimise ALL the time. I don’t wait for some magical moment to “get around” to optimising. For me and my team, it’s an expectation that everything we do is scalable. The test? Can this process work for 1,000 people? If not, why are we even doing it? Stop, fix it and optimise now. It’s non-negotiable.

If you’re ready to stop playing small and start delivering 10x impact, commit to practising at least one—or better yet, all—of these 5 strategies this year.

But if you need a hand stepping up (pun fully intended)? Join my Step Up Bootcamp and tackle the journey with a cohort of like-minded HR leaders. Together, we’ll move from drowning in operations to confidently delivering what drives real business value.

Ruthless prioritisation: One leader’s bold example

Prioritisation often stumbles on Safety Bias, or FOMO—the fear of missing out. In my career, I’ve seen most leaders struggle between taking a risk and fearing loss, even when the potential gain outweighs the comfort of playing it safe. Saying “no” to distractions feels like a gamble.

Few have the courage to make bold, decisive choices, prioritising the critical over the comfort of ‘busywork’. And one such leader profoundly shaped my approach to ruthless prioritisation.

We had a blank slate and big ambitions

I was part of a tech spin-off with start-up autonomy, even though the parent company was well-established. Reporting directly to the CTO, we had a blank slate to build the entire HR function and employee journey from scratch.

In just 24 months, we grew from ~35 people across 4 countries to ~400. It felt like building a rocket mid-flight. Amid this rapid growth, our CTO came to me with a challenge: “We need consistency in hiring, performance and recognition decisions. We need a job ladder (career map).”

"I’ve never done this before"

I still remember that conversation vividly. “I’m excited to learn,” I told him, “but I have to let you know—I’ve never built this before.”

He paused, then smiled. “Thank you for letting me know,” he said. “I’ve seen you build things. I’m sure you can do this, and I’ll support you.”

Encouraged, I asked him for the timeline. His answer floored me: “This is urgent. We need it within a month.”

My jaw dropped🤯. “That’s not possible,” I said.

“Why not?” he asked.

I explained the situation. “We have so many parts of the employee journey to sort out, not to mention all the day-to-day work tied to hiring and onboarding. Our VP of HR is on medical leave, and we have only 4 People Coordinators juggling everything. It’s just… impossible.”

That’s when he asked THE question: “What do you need to make it happen in one month?”

Dropping everything

I paused to think. “I’d need to drop everything else I’m doing for a month,” I said, “and work with a vendor instead of building it from scratch.”

His response was immediate: “Done.”

If you could have seen my face at that moment! I stammered, “But I can’t drop everything😱. Our managers need this, and our employees need that…”

He interrupted. “Send me a list of everything on your plate.”

The next day, we sat down to go through it together. We discussed which urgent tasks could be handed off to the People Coordinators, which one’s managers could own, and what could wait. Then he sent an email to the entire organisation. It was a bold move.

In his email, he explained the importance of the job ladder and how it addressed the urgent need for managers, employees and the organisation as we scale over the next 12 months. He made it clear that I would be focussing entirely on building it over the next month and outlined which tasks would be reassigned or deferred. He reinforced that this was a team effort, asking everyone to support the mission.

To my surprise, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Managers reached out, not with complaints, but with offers to help the HR team. It was a moment of clarity:

With the entire company aligned, we delivered the MVP job ladder within a month. It wasn’t perfect, but it was functional. More importantly, it addressed the immediate pain points that had been holding us back. Over time, we iterated and improved it, but that first version was a critical step forward.

A belief that stuck

That experience solidified my belief that true leadership is about courage. It’s about cutting through the noise, identifying what truly matters and rallying the organisation to focus on the most important priority. 

It’s not about delivering incremental, 1x value by spreading efforts thin; it’s about delivering 10x value by concentrating time, energy and resources on what will make the biggest impact.

PS: In my career, I’ve met only a handful of leaders who truly nail this. Here’s what I’ve learned:

1️⃣ If I want others to prioritise, I need to lead by example—walk the talk.
2️⃣ If others can’t prioritise, it’s an opportunity to develop my influencing skills to drive prioritisation.

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