Stop Waiting for Your Boss to Develop You
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Stop Waiting for Your Boss to Develop You
How to Champion Your Own Growth When No One Else Will
By Reanette Etzler, PHR | The Strategic HR Coach
Let me paint you a picture that is probably a little too familiar.
Your organization has a robust training program for employees. New hire onboarding, manager development, compliance training, leadership lunch-and-learns. You BUILT most of it. You ADVOCATE for it constantly. You have the data to prove it works.
And when was the last time someone pulled YOU aside and said: "Hey — what do YOU need to grow?"
If the answer is "recently" — congratulations. You work somewhere exceptional.
If the answer is "I honestly cannot remember" — welcome to the club. It is a big club, unfortunately.
The Advocate Who Forgets to Advocate for Themselves
There is a fascinating and frustrating pattern that shows up in almost every HR professional I coach. They are extraordinary advocates for everyone else in the organization. They fight for development budgets. They push back when leadership tries to cut training. They build the case for employee experience investment with data, stories, and conviction.
And then they accept the bare minimum — or nothing at all — when it comes to their own development. And not because they do not want to grow. Because they have been conditioned to put everyone else first.
"The most generous thing you can do for your organization is become the best possible version of yourself. That requires investment. In you."
— Reanette Etzler, The Strategic HR Coach
Why This Is a Business Problem, Not Just a Personal One
Johnny Taylor, President and CEO of SHRM, has talked extensively about HR's evolving mandate. The expectation is no longer that HR manages compliance and processes people. The expectation is that HR drives business outcomes, influences culture, shapes strategy, and delivers measurable value.
That is a significant jump from where most HR functions operate today. And it requires a significantly different skill set than the one that got you here.
Here is the business reality: an HR professional who is not growing is a liability risk disguised as a safe choice. Not in the legal sense — in the competitive sense. Organizations that rely on HR professionals who are not developing their strategic capability are leaving enormous value on the table.
What Strategic HR Development Actually Looks Like:
• Learning to speak in the language of business results, not HR metrics alone
• Developing the ability to connect people initiatives to revenue, retention, and risk
• Building skills in AI and technology that multiply your impact
• Strengthening your ability to influence leadership and be seen as a stakeholder
• Investing in your resilience so the inevitable hard seasons do not take you out
The Real Reason You Are Not Growing (And It Is Not the Budget)
I am going to say something that might sting a little, and I am going to say it with full respect for how hard your job is:
The biggest barrier to your growth is not your organization's budget. It is your own belief that your growth is someone else's responsibility.
When you wait for your boss to notice your potential and fund your development, you are outsourcing the most important decision in your career. And if they never notice — or never prioritize it — you end up exactly where you are, wondering why nothing has changed.
I have been in HR at every level. HR Director. Chief Administrative Officer. Executive coach. And I will tell you exactly what changed everything for me: I stopped waiting for the organization to invest in me and started investing in myself.
Not recklessly. Strategically. With a plan and a business case and an ROI calculation I could defend to anyone who asked.
How to Make the Ask (And Actually Get the Yes)
If your organization has development funds available and you are not using them, stop reading this and go find out what is available. Seriously. HR professionals leave development money on the table every single year because they are too busy managing everyone else's development to track their own.
When you are ready to make the case to leadership, use this framework:
Name the skill gap honestly. Not "I want to go to a conference" but "I need to develop my ability to connect HR initiatives to financial outcomes."
Connect it to a business priority. "As we focus on retention this year, my ability to design and measure the impact of our employee experience investments directly supports that goal."
Quantify the investment and the return. "This program costs X. Based on the time it will save me and the capability it adds, I estimate a return of Y within Z months."
Ask directly. Not "I was wondering if maybe..." but "I am requesting approval for this investment. Here is my plan for applying what I learn."
You teach managers how to have hard conversations. Have this one with your own leadership.
What You Can Do Right Now — Without Waiting for Anyone
Not every growth investment requires a budget or a boss's approval. Here are three you can start today:
Commit to one piece of strategic HR content per week. A podcast, an article, a chapter from a book. Accumulation over time is how expertise is built.
Find one peer or mentor who is operating at the level you want to reach. Ask them one question. Build from there.
Invest in one tool or skill that directly impacts your efficiency — so you have more time and energy for growth. (AI is a really good place to start. Just saying.)
"You are not going to feel perfectly ready. You are not going to feel like the timing is ideal. You have to decide before you feel ready. That is what growth actually looks like."
— Reanette Etzler, The Strategic HR Coach
The HR professionals who are winning right now — who have the title, the influence, the seat at the table — did not get there by waiting. They got there by deciding.
It is your turn to decide.
The AI for HR Crash Course is now available for download!
Want a roadmap for your own strategic HR development?
www.thestrategichrcoach.com | [email protected] | 530-520-5775
