Reminding yourself of the basics is always good. Peter Cappelli from The Wharton School where he heads the Center for Human Resources gives a simple though not simplistic reminder in a recent article from HR Executive magazine.

The key question all HR leaders are asking themselves: How can I become a peer with the decision makers in my company? In other words, why am I not at the table as well?
The answer to this question is another question: Do you know the HR related issues that impact the business goals set by those leaders?

Cappelli suggests three examples:
• “What will the culture of the company be?
• “How will we get key players in the company to buy into our goals?
• “How do we find and develop the type of talent that is of concern to the company leaders?”

That reminds us of a discussion with an executive one day where he was saying his organization’s talent is critical. But when asked how HR was helping him with that, he looked surprised and said that was not HR’s role.

So maybe we should pause and ask ourselves two more questions: Do we know what matters to our leaders? Do we know what matters and where we should be involved?