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Guest Bio
Charlie Ackerman is a seasoned HR executive and organizational strategist with over 35 years of experience. He served 16 years as the Senior Vice President of HR at Bosch North America, where he led initiatives in executive coaching, succession planning, and global HR system design. As the President of Charlie Ackerman Consulting, he now advises organizations on talent strategy and business transformation.
Embarrassing Beginnings: A Humorous Anecdote
Early in his career, Charlie wrecked his plant manager’s brand-new Cutlass Supreme while trying to get it washed. The incident happened right before a shift change, ensuring the entire facility witnessed the aftermath. While it was a tough moment, Charlie took responsibility and emphasized the importance of accountability and empathy, even in the most uncomfortable circumstances, like explaining a collision caused by a 78-year-old driver.
Career Highlights: Transformational Success at Bosch
Charlie’s most notable accomplishments span two major initiatives. First, he led the global redesign of Bosch’s HR system, drawing from the Dave Ulrich model to create a scalable, efficient framework. Then, he spearheaded the North America Success Factors initiative, which prioritized sustainable growth and culture transformation. As these two efforts evolved, they revealed four key pillars that grounded both strategy and execution: developing local leaders at every level, driving accountability throughout the organization, reducing structural complexity, and fostering diversity and inclusion. Anchored by operational excellence and executive sponsorship, these pillars empowered Bosch to build an agile, future-ready HR system that delivered lasting impact.
Navigating Change: Overcoming Resistance in HR
Change is never easy, and Charlie emphasized the natural resistance people have to transformation. His insight: “You can’t change the people, change the people.” But this mindset is layered with care and coaching. To lead successful transformation, Charlie emphasized clear and consistent communication, coaching for those on the fence, support from leadership at all levels, and allowing graceful exits for those not aligned. This approach helped navigate resistance and ensured HR redesigns had lasting impact.
Communication: The Key to Successful Transformation
A pivotal moment in Charlie’s career was managing a fatality incident early on. This heartbreaking experience taught him the necessity of empathetic, transparent, and continuous communication. He learned to never brush over grief or loss and to take the time to rebuild trust. From then on, Charlie’s communication mantra became: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them.”
Lessons Learned: The Importance of Belief and Support
Charlie’s philosophy on success centers around belief as a core mindset for leadership. He outlines four key principles that have guided his approach to both business and life:
- Believe in a purpose that one person cannot achieve alone
- Believe in others
- Believe in yourself
- Believe the mission can be achieved
These beliefs helped shape Charlie’s leadership journey. He credits his success to the incredible people he’s worked with, the steadfast support from leaders in both Germany and North America, and the unwavering partnership of his wife of 38 years.
Essential Skills for HR Leaders: A Roadmap to Success
As Charlie reflected on his long career, he highlighted a few foundational capabilities that every HR leader should aim to develop. These are more than just professional assets; they serve as vital enablers of long-term, meaningful transformation. Charlie believes true HR leadership is rooted in a combination of business understanding, operational excellence, and human-centric change. Drawing on decades of experience, he outlined four areas HR professionals should focus on to drive lasting impact:
- Master business acumen: Understand top-line and bottom-line drivers, revenue, profit, and cash flow.
- Prioritize talent identification: Know how to recognize and place the right people in the right roles.
- Embrace project management: Essential for running initiatives that scale.
- Invest in communication and change management: These skills form the foundation of successful transformation.
He recommends resources like Seeing the Big Picture by Kevin Cope and becoming certified in frameworks like Prosci for change management.
Ready to Lead with Impact?
Charlie Ackerman’s journey shows how humor, humility, belief, and structure can create lasting impact. His work at Bosch and beyond offers a roadmap for transformational HR leadership built on communication, strategy, and trust. Listen to the full episode for more insights. Listen here
Episode Summary
In this episode of Skilled, Charlie Ackerman reflects on his extensive HR career, from humorous beginnings to leading large-scale transformations at Bosch. Through stories of success, challenge, and growth, he offers powerful insights on change management, leadership, and the core values that sustain long-term success.
Resources
- Learn more about Charlie Ackerman
- Connect with Growthspace
Key Takeaways
- Embrace responsibility: Taking ownership, even in tough situations, builds trust and accountability.
- Foster business acumen: HR leaders must understand financial drivers like revenue, profit, and cash flow to align strategy with outcomes.
- Champion communication: Clear, consistent, and empathetic communication is vital to navigate resistance and lead transformation.
- Build trust and relationships: Effective leadership is grounded in human connection and mutual belief.
- Unite around shared purpose: Teams thrive when aligned around goals no one person can achieve alone.
- Commit to lifelong learning: Staying sharp through continued education drives personal and professional growth.
- Elevate talent strategy: Identifying and developing the right people strengthens organizational capability.
- Apply project management: Effective execution of HR initiatives requires structured planning and follow-through. Embrace change management: Proven frameworks and tools help guide organizations through transformation.
Chapters
00:00 – Embarrassing Beginnings: Charlie shares a humorous story about wrecking his boss’s car early in his career.
05:13 – Career Highlights: Charlie reflects on transformational success through HR system redesign and growth initiatives at Bosch.
10:17 – Navigating Change: A deep dive into overcoming resistance with empathy, communication, and clear vision.
15:06 – Communication: The Key to Transformation—Charlie shares a pivotal story that redefined his approach to leadership communication.
30:31 – Lessons Learned: Belief and support as the pillars of effective leadership and sustained organizational success.
40:49 – Essential Skills for HR Leaders: Actionable advice on business acumen, talent strategy, project management, and change enablement.
Watch the full conversation here:
For a deeper dive into the conversation, listen to the full episode here:
