Tips for Aspiring CHROs

Your first CHRO role will break you if you walk in unprepared. Becoming a CHRO is not a promotion. It is a full identity shift, and most first-timers underestimate it badly. First, realize that technical HR expertise is your entry ticket, not your value. No CEO hires a CHRO to manage compliance or file performance reviews. They hire strategic thought partners who can drive enterprise value through talent. Second, build political fluency fast. Influence, not authority, moves the needle. You must navigate power dynamics with the board, the C-Suite, and your own team without losing your principles or your leverage. Third, understand that your calendar is your strategy. Where you spend time signals what matters. If you get trapped in back-to-back operational meetings, you will wake up six months in and realize you have built nothing impactful. Fourth, know that psychological resilience is non-negotiable. You will be the emotional shock absorber for the organization. CEOs will vent, executives will rage, employees will plead. You must learn to absorb emotion without letting it shape your decisions. Fifth, accept that lonely is the baseline. You are not "part of the team" in the traditional sense. You are a confidant, a challenger, a counselor, and sometimes a shield. Find mentors and peer groups outside your company, or risk burnout. Your first CHRO role will be the hardest thing you have ever done and, if you do it well, the most transformative. Learn more by reading the Talent Sherpa at https://buff.ly/7gbNuT9

Most senior HR leaders I talk to want the CHRO role. Almost none of them will get there. Not because they aren’t talented. But because they are optimising for the wrong things. I’ve spent the last decade working with people leaders of all levels and capabilities. I’ve learned that the gap between an HR Director who gets stuck and a top CHRO isn’t about doing more HR. It is about doing different work entirely. It’s why so many CHROs are coming in from different functions. If you are stuck at Director level, here is likely why: 1. You’re building processes, not systems. Directors perfect the performance review cycle. CHROs ask how that cycle connects to the talent pipeline, comp strategy, and operational risk. The Shift: Stop obsessing over individual workflows. Start mapping how five broken processes create £200k of "People Debt" that will block your next funding round. 2. You don’t speak the language of the business and execs. If you can’t read a P&L, you can’t do this job. 41% of sitting CHROs say business acumen is the biggest gap in hiring senior talent. The Shift: Stop presenting engagement scores. Start translating retention into ROI and explaining how a £60k hire impacts unit economics. If the CFO isn't asking you follow-up questions, you aren't speaking their language yet. 3. You’re scared of the data. Boards don’t want dashboards. They want diagnosis, prognosis, and prescription. The Shift: Move from "Attrition is up 5%" to "Attrition in our top tier is costing us £340k annually. Here is the three-lever plan to fix it." 4. You underestimate the politics. A Director told me recently: "I thought I'd spend 80% of my time on strategy. I spend 60% navigating relationships." You have to influence without authority and deliver hard truths without burning bridges. The Shift: Treat every stakeholder conversation as practice for board-level influence. Get comfortable being the person who says the uncomfortable thing in the room. 5. You lack executive presence (and no one has told you). This is the brutal one. 78% of leaders believe weak presence is the primary career blocker. It’s not about being loud; it’s about whether people believe you when you say something will get done. The Shift: Watch the CHROs you admire. Notice how they frame problems, how they handle silence, and how they take up space. Then, get a coach who will be honest with you. If you do want it? Stop spending 80% of your time being great at operational HR. Start spending 50% of your time learning to think like a business leader who happens to have deep HR expertise. That is the actual job.

There are some great conversations happening right now about the future of the CHRO role and advice for the first-time CHRO/CPO. If you've been at the C-Level running HR, Talent, L&D or People & Culture, you need to help drive new thinking... Advice to a First-Time CHRO: You’ve just stepped into the top People role. Congratulations. Now comes the real challenge — shifting from HR leader to system architect. Everyone will tell you the same things: “Learn the business.” “Earn trust...be empathetic” “Be strategic.” All true. But here’s what actually separates the CHROs who survive from those who scale impact. 1. Think Like an Architect, Not a Caretaker You’re not here to manage processes — you’re here to design how the business runs. The best CHROs treat People systems like product systems: dynamic, integrated, and built to learn. Map how performance, learning, and decisions flow — then rebuild for speed and clarity. 2. Measure Decision Quality, Not Sentiment Engagement is useful, but it’s lagging data. If you want to see real culture health, measure how fast teams align, adapt, and execute when things get messy. That’s what drives scale — not how many people say they’re “satisfied.” 3. Use Data Only if You Own the Decisions Dashboards don’t change companies — decision rights do. Data matters only if you can act on it. Make sure you have authority around hiring velocity, capability investment, and leadership performance before you start analyzing. 4. Partner Capital Investors are paying closer attention to People strategy — not as HR oversight, but as a growth lever. The best CHROs are now working directly with boards and investors to translate leadership quality into capital efficiency. Think like a bridge between business intent, human capability, and financial outcomes. 5. Treat AI as Infrastructure, Not Initiative AI isn’t a tool to adopt — it’s a layer in your operating system. Design systems where people and AI learn from each other in real time. That might mean redesigning roles, data loops, and performance metrics so the organization keeps getting smarter — automatically. 6. Lead for Learning Speed The companies that win in this era aren’t just efficient — they’re adaptive. Your job is to build an organization that learns faster than it burns out. When learning speed becomes a core competency, performance and culture take care of themselves. The Real Mandate Your role isn’t to “own HR.” It’s to architect the conditions where performance, trust, and AI all scale together. Do that, and you won’t have to fight for a seat at the table. You’ll be the one who designed it.

Nobody becomes a CHRO because they mastered every function of HR. You became a CHRO because someone believed you could have positive enterprise-wide impact. That is a different skill than being an HR expert. I have met CHROs who never ran compensation or never built a talent acquisition function from scratch. CHROs who came up through OD or labor relations and had to learn total rewards in real time. Every single one of them figured it out. What you need in that seat is not a complete résumé of HR experience. You need strong judgment and the ability to surround yourself with people who are excellent at the things you are still developing. You need to know what questions to ask and who to trust with the answers. The expectation that you must have done everything before you lead everything is the expectation that keeps great leaders from stepping into great roles. You were not hired to be the expert in every room. You were hired to lead the person who is. What HR function are you most concerned about going into a first CHRO role? #FirstTimeCHRO #CHROIntelligence

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗛𝗥 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗛𝗥𝗢. Becoming a CHRO means you: 🗣️ 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗛𝗥 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀. Instead of just reporting a "10% drop in attrition," you present the multi-million dollar impact on recruiting costs, lost productivity, and training expenses. You are as comfortable with a balance sheet as you are with a talent matrix. ♟️ 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝗥 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀. Don't just "build a leadership program." Instead, identify the key product launch that's at risk due to a leadership gap, and design a targeted talent solution that directly enables that launch's success. 🤖 𝗣𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀. Partner with the CTO to pilot an AI-augmented team structure. Your job is to build the business case, measure the productivity output, and design the new roles needed for scaling. HR should ensure employees have the tools to be optimally productive. 📈 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀. The new toolkit requires fluency in corporate governance, finance, and investor relations to be a credible partner to the CEO, CFO, and the rest of the ExCo. 🚀 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. You’re no longer stewarding internal people programs. Instead, you’re shaping how employees, investors, candidates, and the market perceive the company's culture, leadership, and future. You influence the story told at earnings calls, board meetings, and in the press about how talent forms a competitive advantage. How have the requirements of CHROs changed in the past decade? Share your experience in the comments. 👇 🔖 Save this post for later or share it with a colleague preparing for the CHRO leap! #CHRO #HRLeadership #FutureOfWork #ExecutivePresence #BusinessStrategy

Being a CHRO can be lonely. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an incredibly rewarding role, filled with purpose and the opportunity to make a real impact. But despite the upsides, the responsibility of balancing the needs of leadership and employees, handling sensitive information, and managing emotional demands can be a handful. That’s why being part of a peer network is so vital. It provides a space to come together, share challenges, and find inspiration in one another’s experiences. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending IMD’s CHRO Round Table at their stunning campus, where we delved into the theme of Managing Cultural Transformation and Building Psychological Safety. The energy was palpable as a handful of peers from leading organizations in banking, pharma, semi-conductors and consumer goods shared their stories of cultural change. Though we come from diverse sectors, the challenges we face are strikingly similar. While practices in another organization may not directly apply to yours, core principles travel much better! Here are some key takeaways from our discussions that highlight some of those transferable principles: - Collaborate Closely with Your CEO: If you’re driving cultural change in isolation, true transformation is unlikely. Engaging with your CEO is key to making it happen. - Integrate Cultural Change into Organizational Strategy: Cultural change must be anchored in your organization’s strategy and purpose. Don’t just replicate good practices from other organizations. - Take Small, Tangible Steps: Change doesn’t need to happen all at once. Take incremental steps to tackle challenges. - Embrace Ambidexterity: In today’s fast-paced world, organizations must balance daily operations with ongoing transformation. Striking that balance is crucial for long-term success. - Care for the unchosen, for these teams or divisons which work behind the scenes often without the spotlight or the recognition they deserve. A huge thank you to Lars Häggström, Jean-François Manzoni , David Bach and the entire IMD team for creating this much welcome space, and to the 50 other CHROs I had the pleasure of meeting. Together, we can navigate the complexities of our roles and inspire each other to create meaningful change.

A CHRO I deeply respect once said something that stopped me mid-sentence. She said: "I have been in every leadership meeting for three years. I genuinely do not know what would have been different if I had not been there." She said it without self-pity. She said it as a diagnosis. We spent the next two hours talking about what it would mean to change that answer — and everything I share with CHROs now came from that conversation. The advice no consultant had given her — and that nobody had given me either, for years — is this: Stop defending HR's seat at the table. Start earning it. Not once. Every quarter. The test is deceptively simple: What decision did the business make better last quarter because of HR's input? Not a process. Not a policy. Not a program.......... A decision. Because presence is not influence. And the organisations that treat those two things as the same are the ones where HR will eventually find itself present at a table where fewer and fewer decisions are being made. The CHROs I have watched earn genuine business influence — not just access, but real consequentiality — share three habits. They own talent risk, not just talent metrics. The difference between "our attrition is 18%" and "we are about to lose the three people who built this system and no one else can maintain it" is the difference between a dashboard number and a board conversation. They contribute to decisions before they are invited to. Walking into a conversation you were not asked to join and saying something the business did not know it needed to hear is not overstepping. For a CHRO, it is the job. They measure their impact the way the business measures everything else — in decisions made, outcomes changed, risks avoided. Not in processes improved or headcount filled. The CHRO I spoke to that day is one of the most consequential HR leaders I have seen operate since. Not because she got a bigger seat at the table. Because she changed what happened at the table when she was there #CHRO #Leadership #ElementSkill

Most next-gen HR leaders aspire to be CHROs. Few actually make it there. Jennifer Wilson, Partner & Global Co-Head of the Human Resources Officers Practice at Heidrick & Struggles just called out why: "Finding the next generation of CHROs is harder than ever." CEOs expect more from their CHROs than ever before. Rising CHRO turnover. A pipeline that can't keep up. The math doesn't add up. Over my career, I've watched dozens of HR leaders chase the C-suite dream. The ones making it create their own path. They're building breadth AND depth across HR, while others just build depth in one area. 𝗝𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗛𝗥𝗢𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁 𝗼𝗻: "Distinguish yourself: be willing to relocate, take on cross-functional projects, think bigger, and build your external network. The best talent moves around and learns from every experience." The HR leaders getting tapped for CHRO roles next? They're not staying in one lane. They move from HR generalist roles to COE specialist roles. They take the CHRO chief of staff rotation that scares most people away. They volunteer to lead the transformation project that spans HR, operations and technology. Along the way, they master transformation from both the people and business perspective. 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗛𝗥 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗥. They understand that collecting experiences matters more than collecting titles when you're building for the C-suite. What experience helped shape you most as an HR leader?

I've been on a CHRO kick lately—and for good reason.  The role is evolving faster than any other in the C-suite. Here are five skills CHROs need today that they didn’t just a few years ago. 1. Business Acumen & Data-Driven Leadership CHROs are applying the same analytical rigor to workforce planning that CFOs bring to financial metrics. They're using predictive analytics to forecast talent needs, measuring the ROI of learning programs, and tying HR initiatives directly to business outcomes. 2. Cross-Functional Partnering & Tech Savvy Today's CHROs are setting the roadmap for AI across the organization. They're sitting at the table with the CTO and CIO, making strategic decisions about which processes to automate and which require the human touch. This isn't about being a technologist; it's about being conversant enough to be a true strategic partner. 3. Change Leadership This is perhaps the most critical skill and the one that’s hardest to develop. Leading through rapid AI transformation requires CHROs to drive cultural change at scale. They're managing employee anxiety about job displacement while simultaneously fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning. They need to be great communicators, being transparent about what's changing and why.  And they need to be patient. Changing hearts and minds takes time. 4. AI Strategy & Talent Acquisition Here's what the best CHROs understand: Nobody wants to work somewhere doing boring, transactional work. So they're focusing teams on the most meaningful work, using AI to eliminate the mundane. This makes their companies magnets for top talent—including the AI specialists everyone is competing for. These CHROs have a clear vision for how AI and humans will work together, and they communicate it relentlessly. 5. Managing Diverse Career Paths Because HR is now so tied to business results, we're seeing more people from outside traditional HR backgrounds excel in the CHRO role. Former CFOs, COOs, legal experts, and strategy chiefs are excelling in the role. Why? Because modern HR is about business transformation, not policy administration. Here’s what this means in practice.The CHRO role has fundamentally transformed and there's no going back. If you're a current CHRO, assess whether you're developing these capabilities and positioning yourself as a true strategic partner. If you're hiring for this role, recognize that the best candidates may not come from traditional HR backgrounds; look for people who understand that modern HR is about guiding companies through transformation. What challenges are you facing as you navigate this shift? Let's learn from each other. #tothetop

I've been working with many fractional CHROs for over a year now. Across Middle East. India. Singapore. UK. USA. The ones who win clients consistently? They don't "post and pray." They treat LinkedIn like a system. Here's what actually works: 1. Lead with problems, not credentials. Nobody cares you have 20 years in HR. They care that you can fix their attrition problem in 90 days. Every post should make a founder think- "this person gets my pain." 2. Build a content rhythm you can sustain. 3 posts a week beats 10 posts one week and silence for a month. Consistency signals reliability. And reliability is what fractional hiring is about. 3. Turn every client win into a teaching moment. You helped a startup build their first HRBP layer? Write about the framework. Share the thinking. Case studies dressed as lessons are the best sales pitch. 4. Comment like it's your second content channel. Your ideal clients are posting too. A sharp, thoughtful comment on a founder's post does more than another generic carousel. 5. Make your profile a landing page, not a resume. Headline = who you help + what changes. About section = proof + clear next step. Featured section = your best 3 posts. The fractional CHROs filling their pipeline from LinkedIn aren't doing anything flashy. They're just showing up with clarity, consistency, and real expertise. That compounds faster than any cold outreach sequence. What's the one thing you'd add to this list? ♻️ Repost to help more people realise this. Follow Atul Raghav for more on AI, Authority, and LinkedIn.