We're all guilty of it … we're guilty of working so hard to get tasks completed that we sometimes forget to keep our eye on the bigger picture.

In HR (human resources), this micro vision can keep us from being as effective as we should be. You need to know about your company and that takes macro vision so you see beyond what immediately impacts you. What does your company produce or what service does it provide … can you effectively put it into a 30-second elevator speech? Who are your biggest customers and biggest competitors? How is the budget divided up? What's in the pipeline for the future? How does your company expect to grow?

Admittedly, I never really thought about this until it was brought to my attention a few years ago. I had an inside HR position with a company that was acquired and then closed within a year. When I began speaking with recruiters they were all surprised by my knowledge of the business itself. And I was surprised to learn that this wasn't common.

If you don't have a good understanding of what's happening in your company, how can you do your job properly? The better you understand the business, the better you will be at recruiting the right people, managing costs, and strategizing for the future.

If you're not helping your company in this way, you're just pushing paper around. That may be fine for now, but make a plan for what you need to learn for the future. More and more companies are recognizing that just having a strong HR background isn't sufficient for higher level HR positions. HR has been hurt in the past by not understanding and being able to communicate with the management team on business issues.

Think about what you could do to make HR more of a business unit and gain the respect of the management team.