The Way of the HR Warrior: Leading the CHARGE to Transform Your Career and Organization

by Monica Frede, Keri Ohlrich, PhD

Human Resources has immense power to affect an organization’s bottom line as well as its culture, but it gets a bad rap. In The Way of the HR Warrior Monica Frede and Keri Ohlrich aim to inspire an HR revolution. The Way of the HR Warrior is a guide for HR professionals who really care to demonstrate the true power of the HR department to influence business strategy and the bottom line, especially in the changing landscape of business with a multi-generational and global workforce, the gig economy, the knowledge economy, the rise of conscious consumerism, and increasing regulations. The list of challenges is long, but a common thread impacting the success every business has is its human capital. When management empowers their HR department and the HR professionals step up and master the fundamental competencies of their position, those who work up close and personal with people in the office can take up their rightful role as an HR Warrior! An HR Warrior is courageous , humble , accurate , resilient , goal-oriented , and exemplary . Alongside the practical advice in the book, readers will find real-life stories from Ohlrich and Frede about how they have applied the CHARGE framework in their own careers and organizations to great effect in their 25 years of experience as HR leaders working for small organizations, start-ups, and Fortune 500 companies. Ohlrich and Frede bring a warm, purposeful, heart-centered toughness to the role of the HR professional that is both instructive and inspiring. Through their CHARGE framework, they share their tough-love approach to developing the core skills needed by HR professionals to become HR Warriors. In this book, readers Witty and brutally honest, this book is for anyone who makes HR their business.

Genres: Nonfiction, Historical Romance

224 pages, Paperback

Published September 7, 2018

Reviews

[Sammy Lam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way of the H.R. Warrior is a book about human resources and how to be a considerable Human Resource(HR) professional.The author reveals opportunities and challenges of human resources throughout the book. It guides people who are interested in Human resources or HR professionals to affect business strategies. Monica and Keri unveil the importance of Human Resources and how it plays in the role of an organization’s essence and its traditions.The book mainly focuses on six traits which are courageous, humility, accuracy, resilience, goal oriented, and exemplary.
One moment that made me understand how important a high quality human resource professional can be was “As HR professionals, we can be influencers, even game changers in the business landscape”(pg 16). This quote made me realize that HR professionals can affect the people around them and lead their co-workers in the right direction. I can correlate with some parts or the book, for example “Believing in the long game:Not all solutions have to be an immediate win”(pg 27). Often I find myself playing the long game whether it's holding on to clothes or holding on to sports cards until its value goes up.The authors did an exceptional job in thoroughly explaining what it takes to be a high quality HR professional by giving real life situations as an example.
One of the best parts about the book is HR Wennie To Warrior Assessment because I got to learn more about myself and my strengths and weaknesses.I learned that I’m an HR Wennie and that I need to improve on a lot of things but that's okay.The best quote in this book has to be “Warriors are not afraid to share their valuable insights, even if those insights are contrary to popular opinion.”(pg 53). This quote came to my attention because of how I had this problem where I was afraid that people would judge me for my own opinions.This really inspired me to be valiant and express my opinions even if people criticizes them.
I would rate my book 3.5 stars because I sense the book could’ve been better. The book could’ve had a better ending.I wish the conclusion was as good as the Hunger Games. The ending of Hunger games was bewildering and captivating, I felt like I was in my happy place. I would say this book is worth my time since I really got to learn more about HR and how to improve my communication skills. This book taught me that if you want people to perform at their best ability you would have to lead them by gaining their trust and by being inspirational.

[Marcia Anglarill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I am not an HR professional. But I play one on TV. Kidding!! I, like most people, have worked in companies or organizations with HR issues. I figure that understanding HR professionals better and the role of HR in an organization will help me in my position and career growth. This book looked inviting, practical and informative. It was! I gained a whole new appreciation for HR, its challenges and potentials. But I also found the advice in this book applicable to me and/or other professions as well. It helped me to see how some of the work issues I have, or am experiencing, could be better handled and how I might play a role in the solution. I loved how the book was structured, from getting the reader to assess where they currently stand professionally and how their organization is doing to the CHARGE model, to the practical applications and specific challenges. The style of writing was very friendly and familiar. It really felt like the authors were talking to me, not at me. It was also entertaining and sharp. I was glad to read at the end that the authors are considering another book. I agree that there is a lot more to stay on this subject and these are the persons to say it. I highly recommend this book for anyone working in or thinking of a career in HR, but also to any business or career professional who wants to work better with HR and help their own careers as well.