CHRO in the Shoes of CEO - Best Possible Incumbency

As the spectrum of modern CEO proficiencies overlap with that of CHRO, the latter is most suited to be the future former.

Often assigned the corner space in the industry and deemed a cost center, the HR department is hogging all the limelight for all the positive reasons. The HR professionals are not just the cogs of the machinery which handles the back-office functions but are currently defining the new order of the machinery itself. 

Over the last two decades, there has been a transformative shift of the roles of CHRO from support and administration to the business growth strategy. The epiphany on the corporate world that talent management is the stepping stone to business principles and profits has helped change the notion about the potential of CHROs.  

For future leadership and management roles and succession planning, CHROs are proved to be the second most suited lot out of all the CXOs to be the CEO of a company after the COO. The claim is a part of the study by Ellie Filler, Senior Client Partner, Korn Ferry and Dave Ulrich, Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. There are many attributes that they have up their sleeves which make them a potent mix. Some of these attributes are leadership style, thinking capabilities, and emotional intelligence.  

Any other leader might have all of these skills but the characteristic feature that acts as the catalyst of differentiation is the experience of choosing the right talent and organizational structuring. In a nutshell, people before the strategy is the talisman of leading CHROs of global powerhouses.  

Real life illustrations only strengthen the philosophy of this phenomenon. When Mary Barra, Anne Mulcahy, Nigel Travis, Bernard Fontana, and Lisa M. Weber ascend to the highest pedestal, there’s a lot at work than a simple hand of luck. These things at work are the perfect balance of the people management skills, marketing, finance, and technical skills.