The Advice I’d Give CHROs If I Weren’t Afraid to Hurt Their Feelings

CHROs: The Advice I’d Give You If I Weren’t Afraid to Hurt Your Feelings

1. The business isn’t ignoring HR because they don’t value people.

They’re ignoring HR because HR hasn’t always done the work to understand what the business is actually trying to solve.

Advisory starts before the meeting.

It starts with discovery.

What pressure is the business leader under?

What outcome are they being measured against?

What language are they using?

What problem are they actually trying to solve?

Then you bring your point of view.

In their language.

Not as a program.

Not as a list of HR best practices.

As a business solution.

1. Stop treating revenue like someone else’s number.

If the business is missing the number, HR should be asking:

Where is talent part of the constraint?

I recently heard a CHRO describe a business that was missing its targets.

At first, it sounded like a market problem.

But the real constraint?

Not enough people in revenue-driving roles.

Recruiting pipeline too slow.

Retention leaking in the wrong places.

That is where 100% of the focus should go.

Not another generic talent initiative.

The business problem tells you where HR should aim.

1. Stop hiring for the past.

Over-indexing on historical experience causes you to miss people with transferable skills, real adaptability, and the judgment the business needs next.

Making good decisions with incomplete information is not a soft skill.

Neither is learning fast when everything changes.

If you only hire people who have already done the exact job, you build a team for the business you had.

The people you hire determine both your team’s capability and your own capacity.

1. Hire hard, manage easy.

If you want more strategic space, stop building a team that needs you in every decision.

The amount of room you have to think is directly tied to the strength of the people underneath you.

Hire people who can challenge you.

Extend you.

Maybe even succeed you.

That is how you create time.

Not by blocking two more hours on your calendar.

1. Stop being the last person in your company to sharpen your own edge.

You tell everyone else to keep growing.

And then you’re too busy to do it yourself.

The right room can save you from solving everything alone.

A peer group gives you the shortcut from someone who has already been through it.

That is not indulgent.

That is how you stay sharp enough to lead at the level the business now requires.

Because CHRO mastermind groups don’t take time.

They make time.

If you’re a CHRO at a company with 500+ employees and this resonates, DM me  ([email protected]) .

I’m happy to share more about our CHRO mastermind groups.