If you’re a business leader looking for an opportunity to have real impact on your company — and position yourself for the top job — which career path is best? CFO? COO? CMO? What if we told you that the CHRO role might be the best job you could ever have, with real opportunity for reshaping an organization? That the CHRO role, although at first it may look career limiting, can have more impact than any other position reporting to the CEO?
Why More Executives Should Consider Becoming a CHRO
What role could be the best job you’ll ever have, with the potential to have more impact on the organization than any other position reporting to the CEO? CHRO. Yet business leaders without an HR background can be reluctant to take the CHRO role, because of their negative perception of HR, their fear that the role won’t have an impact, and their concerns about lacking necessary functional knowledge. These fears are unfounded. Interviews with search professionals, CEOs, and CHROs with non-traditional backgrounds confirm that “outsiders” are particularly suited to the role because of their focus on business results, their willingness to push leaders, their embrace of risk to generate opportunity, and their set of diverse business skills. As a result, interviewees report that the CHRO role is one of the most impactful of their career. Often underutilized and overlooked as a lever for business impact, the CHRO role can be a great career move.