Strategic HR Directors — I know your world well. I’ve stood where you stand.

Strategic CHRO roles often face tough, hard-to-measure challenges. Discover how reframing them unlocks two key benefits — with a practical example from PresencePro.

It wasn’t uncommon to hear:

•           ‘Can you fix it please?’  

o          This was requested when people issues were too intangible for a policy to cover.

•           ‘Make it happen.’

o          This was often requested when an organizational measurement system had no real substance behind it.

Cue the internal voice: What am I supposed to do with this one? Why is this landing on my desk — again?

Then it hit me. These weren’t frustrations; they were invitations. Opportunities in disguise.

Challenge 1: 

‘Fix it!’ When solutions are built for misunderstood issues.

Sometimes the problem wasn’t the absence of measurement, but rather its irrelevance.

Across GCC organizations, I’d see metrics that served little purpose, like reporting how many attended a training program, without tracking how many applied what they learned. The data existed, but the insight didn’t. The real issue of training for increased productivity was marginalized. 

That same gap shows up when HR teams are asked to ‘include Executive Presence as a leadership competency’. When the concept of Executive Presence is not understood or agreed upon, even the best leaders who are generally the best learners, are unable or unwilling to commit their time to a proposed solution.

Today’s leaders, especially in modern GCC organizations, expect:

•           Independence in learning

•           Meaning that translates into their reality

•           Trust and hope, not more theory

•           Customization and choice

•           Multi-mode learning flexibility

•           Clarity through simplicity

•           Practicality, accountability, and measurable results

PresencePro was designed with this modern leader in mind, a Blueprint and toolkit built for measurable Executive Presence and sustainable leadership impact. It blends AI-assisted learning with data-driven insights to help HR and L&D teams achieve tangible ROI in leadership development.

Early participants have shown higher engagement and long-term behavioral change, both proof that when learning is relevant, it resonates.

Just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come — especially in leadership learning.

Challenge 2: 

‘Make a measurement happen’! — When the intangible becomes visible

Every HR leader knows the pressure of quantifying the unquantifiable. Loyalty. Psychological safety. Trust. Even Executive Presence.

Without definition, these critical elements become open to bias and debate and are practically immeasurable.

As Brené Brown told Adam Grant, ‘Executive Presence is useless. Nobody even knows what it means.’ That frustration echoes across HR strategy tables from Dubai to Dammam, and beyond.

That’s why business en motion created PresencePro and its associated PresencePro Navigator, a GCC-born, globally relevant system that transforms intangibles into measurable outcomes.

•           The PresencePro Blueprint defines what Executive Presence really is: a leadership trait that builds trust, influence, impact and change.

•           The PresencePro Navigator360 measures it fairly, through validated perception data.

•           And the PresencePro AI-assisted learning journey called Future-Proof Your Leadership grows it Executive Presence, linking insight to measurable leadership outcomes that align with business strategy.

The result? A leadership development solution that moves beyond activity to evidence of change and impact.

The Strategic Advantage for HR

In today’s GCC leadership development landscape, the CHRO should not be just the custodian of learning. It should see its role as the architect of measurable culture.

With PresencePro, strategic HR leaders can finally:

•           Define Executive Presence with clarity and consistency.

•           Measure it fairly, across teams and levels.

•           Develop it sustainably, through personalized, AI-supported pathways.

Where HR once had to ‘fix it’ or ‘make it measurable’, PresencePro has taken all of the hard work out of it for you. Executive Presence is now defined, measured and able to be developed.

A system built for modern leaders, measurable cultures, and the strategic HR function shaping the GCC’s leadership future.

 Authored by Debbie Nicol, owner of the business consultancy and learning organization ‘business en motion’, and creator of PresencePro