"I can’t think of anyone saying, 'Get me a CEO with an HR background,'" said John Wood, vice chairman of the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. That may be because it's really already part of the job description. Every CEO needs to be in some sense the chief HR person. In most corporations, the talent—and the care and feeding of the talent—really is the primary job of the CEO, he adds.

Working in the HR field can be quite mundane and administrative. But in recent days, HR leaders have been taking more strategic roles in their organisation and it is not impossible for them to get into a higher rank. These are 5 things you should do to get into the C-suite:

1. Empower and engage people

People are the ones that keep the company going. Thus, managing them is the most important part of the process and it should be something that HR is already good at. HR is thought as the voice of the people, the team builder and guardian of the company culture. A CEO has to be able to build, engage and motivate teams very much like the soccer coach analogy by Barathan Pasupathi, CEO of Jetstar Asia, “A CEO is not an active striker or defender, but a coach who gets results from the team, by motivating, strategising and getting everyone behind the team goals and aspirations.” and who better than an HR leader to do it?

2. Know the business

It is crucial to really know the business to be on the top. Knowing the business doesn't only refer to the process and the products, but also understanding the customers. Without customers, businesses won't exist after all. One way to get insights of this area is via cross-functional projects. HR leaders would have the opportunity to work with other departments in the organisation, such as the operations team to understand processes as well as the marketing team to understand the products and customers.

3. Speak the language of the business

Besides engaging people, a key thing to manage a business is speaking its language. It includes embracing the use of technology, data and analytics as well as being able to see things in terms of financial impact – an aspect many forward-thinking HR leaders have already picked up on. So the next time you talk about how many successors you have developed for the role, link it back to the money you've saved by not having to hire externally as a result. 

4. Hands-on experience outside of HR

Knowing and understanding the roles in managing business is not enough without any experience. In order to be a CEO, join any career development opportunities your organisation has. It could take up a three to six-month stint in other functions. But what if your organisation does not currently have such a development opportunity? This would be a great time to bring it up. Not only would this help you in achieving your goal of becoming a CEO, it can also be used as an engagement and career development tool further down the hierarchy, as well as help the different functions of the organisation work better together.

5. Balancing between employees and the business

To be a CEO with HR background, it is important to keep the balance between being the voice of the people and achieving the goals of the business. Sometimes, being too focused on one aspect make us neglect other aspects. If you're taking on too much of one side, you will have loyal employees but not the desired business results, and vice versa. You might get the desired business goal but have problems retaining employees.  

With a bit of luck, and a lot of effort, there's no reason why you can't be in the top position!

 

Source: HumanResource