HR professionals often find themselves caught in the tactical weeds—processing transactions, responding to crises, and executing programs—while longing to have strategic impact at the leadership table. This session provides a practical roadmap for elevating your role from administrative support to strategic business partner and organizational architect. Through real-world examples spanning startup scaling, organizational transformation, and cross-functional operations leadership, participants will learn how to think strategically about people, culture, and organizational design while still managing day-to-day HR responsibilities. You'll discover how to identify strategic opportunities hidden in operational challenges, communicate HR's value in business language that resonates with executives, and position yourself as an indispensable strategic advisor. This highly interactive session covers essential strategic competencies: conducting organizational assessments, using people analytics to drive decisions, aligning HR initiatives with business objectives, and building business cases that secure executive support and resources. We'll explore how to balance short-term operational demands with long-term strategic planning, and how to develop the business acumen that earns you credibility beyond the HR function. You'll learn specific frameworks for strategic workforce planning, organizational design principles that support business goals, and techniques for facilitating strategic conversations with leadership teams. We'll also address common obstacles strategic HR professionals face—from limiting beliefs about HR's role to organizational cultures that resist strategic HR involvement—and how to overcome them. Participants will complete a strategic positioning self-assessment, practice translating HR initiatives into business impact language, and develop a 90-day action plan for increasing their strategic influence. Whether you're an HR team of one seeking greater impact or part of a larger function looking to elevate the entire team's strategic capability, this session provides the tools, confidence, and roadmap you need to become the strategic hero your organization needs.