The Leadership Skill HR Professionals Say Matters Most During Change

There's something that happens in a room full of HR professionals. You feel it in the conversations before sessions start, in the questions from the audience, in the way eyes light up when a speaker says exactly what someone has been carrying around in their head but couldn't quite articulate. A realization that this work matters, that people matter, and that we are all here trying to get better at both.

That was the energy at the 2026 Central California SHRM Workplace Symposium, and I left it carrying a renewed sense of purpose about what leadership demands of us right now.

The Room Voted. Communication Won.

Kicking off the event, 200+ HR leaders participated in an open poll: What is the most important leadership skill during times of change?

Many offered great options — adaptability, patience, compassion, resilience. All important. All necessary.

But when the votes came in, one answer rose to the top: communication.

It didn't surprise me.

Being in a room full of HR professionals, people who think deeply about organizational design, talent strategy, compliance, culture, they realize the thing that holds people together or breaks them apart is whether their leaders can communicate.

Communicating with clarity. With authenticity. With enough compassion that people feel seen and understood.

This distinction matters. Communication must be intentional and impactful, otherwise it is noise that people ignore.

Change Doesn't Confuse People, Poor Communication Does

We are living and working through an era of relentless change. Workforce shifts, artificial intelligence transformation, evolving employee expectations, economic uncertainty — take your pick. The pressure on leaders to navigate it all is tougher than ever.

And yet, one of the most consistent findings in organizational research is that employees don't resist change nearly as much as they resist not knowing what's happening or a lack of understanding their role. Ambiguity is the real threat to trust.

The speakers at the symposium reinforced this from multiple angles. Whether the conversation was about building culture, leading through adversity, or developing the next generation of managers, it's not about having all the answers. It's about showing up and being honest about where you are in finding them.

Storytelling: Your Ultimate Leadership Skill During Change

Here's what I want HR professionals to think about in the weeks following an event like this one: Knowing that communication is a mission-critical skill is only half the battle. The other half is understanding how to do it in a way that moves people.

And the skill to unlock this transformational ability is leadership storytelling.

Real personal storytelling. The kind where a leader stands up and says: Here's where we are, here's what we faced, and here's where we’re going.

Stories do something data and strategy slides cannot accomplish themselves. Touch people deep enough to where they feel compelled to act. Leadership stories create shared meaning between the speaker and audience. They translate vision into something people can internally locate within themselves.

Think about the most impactful communicators you've worked with or studied. Chances are, they weren't necessarily the ones with the most information. They were the ones who could make you feel why it mattered. That's storytelling. A leadership skill anyone can learn.

Meeting Keynote Speaker John Bernatovicz, Founder of Willory

What We Carry Forward

Walking out of the symposium, I thought about the HR leaders reading this who are heading back to organizations navigating real transitions — restructuring, new leadership, culture resets, strategic pivots. The work is hard. The stakes are real.

Here's takeaway for the room:

Your people don't need perfect leaders. They need human ones. Someone willing to communicate through the uncertainty. Someone who believes everyone has a role to play. Someone who listens to understand what others need from them.

Lean into your voice, that’s your most powerful asset. Develop your personal and organizational stories. Weave them into your communication playbook.

When change comes, the organizations that thrive are the ones with leaders who know how to connect with teams at a personal level. It doesn’t get more personal than a story.

David Ghodsizadeh is the founder of Storytelling 4 Success, a business that teaches technical professionals and executives how to connect, lead, and inspire in the workplace through leadership storytelling. Everyone has a story to tell. Do you know how, why, where, and when to tell yours?