It’s time we said this out loud: HR professionals don’t need to be experts in everything. In fact, believing we should be might be holding us back from having an even greater impact.
Reframing expertise: what real leadership looks like
True HR leadership is not about knowing every answer. It’s about asking the right questions, staying curious, creating the conditions for collaboration and coming to the right answers together. It means having the confidence – and the humility – to bring in specialists when it matters.
Read more: HR leaders struggle to keep up with expectations
We can learn a lot from our C-suite colleagues here. The CFO doesn’t hesitate to bring in tax experts for specialist issues. Marketing teams often openly collaborate with external branding consultants. Why should HR be any different?
Too often, HR professionals internalise the expectation that they must be the single source of knowledge. But there is immense strength in recognising that credibility doesn’t come from omniscience, it comes from judgement, courage and collaboration.
Strategic delegation, not abdication
Let’s be clear: this isn’t a call to disengage or abdicate responsibility. As HR professionals, we still need foundational knowledge to ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, make informed decisions and maintain strategic oversight. But we shouldn’t feel the pressure to go it alone.
Empowering ourselves to work alongside employment law experts, inclusive culture strategists or wellbeing strategists doesn’t diminish our value, it enhances it. It signals professional maturity and a laser-sharp focus on outcomes over ego.
Changing the culture of expertise
This shift isn't just a personal mindset change, it’s a cultural one. Organisations that embrace a collaborative model of expertise tend to be more agile, innovative and inclusive. When HR leads the way in modelling this, it sends a powerful message across the business: it’s not about knowing everything, it’s about knowing how to build the right team.
Read more: HR expertise at the very top: Does it matter?
This approach also supports more inclusive decision-making. By inviting in diverse voices and lived experiences, especially when addressing complex issues like equity and belonging, we move away from top-down assumptions and toward real, reflective transformation.
Empowerment through partnership
Stepping away from the pressure to be all-knowing doesn’t dilute our influence, it multiplies it. It frees HR leaders to focus on strategic impact, trusted relationships and organisational culture.
And perhaps most importantly, it gives us the breathing space to model healthy, sustainable leadership.
Read more: Why clever leaders must master the art of self-discovery
So let’s take a leaf from our peers. Let’s redefine what HR excellence looks like. And let’s give ourselves, and each other, permission to not be the expert in everything, but to be exceptional in building partnerships that move the needle.
What’s one area you’re holding onto right now that could benefit from external insight? And what would it take to give yourself permission to share that load?
By Aggie Mutuma, CEO, Mahogany Inclusion Partners
