Why Chief Human Resource Officers May Just Be the Next Great CEOs

A strategic business partner

As companies mature, HR shifts from “the hiring and benefits department” or “the training team” into a consultative role as a strategic partner to the business. As such, HR professionals work hand-in-hand with business leaders to build the teams they need to achieve their goals. By the time they make it to the top of their profession, the chief human resource officer has guided the hiring, development and growth strategies for every department—and for the C-suite itself. They’ve led corporate-wide projects, from change management initiatives to organizational overhauls. They’ve dealt with global, regional and local employment issues. They’ve coached new hires, new managers and new executives. They’ve proven themselves in adverse situations. Few have a deeper understanding of what makes the company tick.

That depth and breadth of knowledge makes the chief human resource officer a serious contender for CEO. They not only understand how the business functions holistically and within each discipline, CHROs know how to identify, assess and motivate talent, build high-functioning teams, and keep the company out front today while preparing it for the future. The path to the CEO may traditionally have gone through the chief operating officer’s (COO) office (and the path to COO through sales or operations), but there’s an excellent argument to be made for the next leader to ascend through the HR ranks. If someone is considering how to become a chief executive, HR may be a terrific place to start.

Chief Human Resource Officers embrace coaching to deliver business results

Chief human resource officers understand, perhaps better than any of their C-suite peers, that a corporation isn’t a “thing”—it’s the collective output of people contributing their skills and experience toward a common goal. The CHRO’s remit is to create impact and return on the money invested in the company’s talent systems. One such system is training and development, an important aspect of which is coaching. Let’s look at coaching as a microcosm of the ways in which the head of HR is well-prepared to lead a company forward as the CEO.

CHROs know that the business impact of a strong coaching culture can be profound, and they work diligently to build it into the fabric of their organization. The International Coach Federation (ICF) found that more than 70% of employees who received coaching benefitted from improved work performance, stronger relationships and more effective communication skills, and 86% of companies recouped their investment in coaching.

Coaching Chief Human Resource Officers to move into CEO roles

Like any other leader, chief human resource officers have areas in which they excel and competencies they need to develop further to take on the penultimate corporate leadership role. That’s where executive coaching comes in. 

Executives who lean toward intellectual leadership encourage people to reconsider their assumptions, see things from different perspectives and look at issues in new ways. With the help of an executive coach, CHROs can learn to tap into their social and participative leadership comfort zones—they tend to be highly skilled at engaging others—to draw new ideas or alternative solutions out of people who otherwise might not consider them. They can become more adept at knowing when to take action vs. when to explore the nuance and complexity of a problem before doing so. And perhaps most importantly, they can learn to trust their ability to lead at the highest level. 

More than 40% of Fortune 500 companies use executive coaching services, and for good reason. Executive coaches can be invaluable in assessing strengths and weaknesses and helping the head of HR—or anyone else, for that matter—use the former effectively while managing, mitigating or “learning past” the latter. They are a knowledgeable yet entirely confidential sounding board for discussion and exploration of the most challenging, vexing or troubling issues, whether personal or professional. And because they have experience guiding high achievers through high pressure situations, they are trusted advisors CHROs can rely on to help them hone the competencies that will make them successful CEOs.