In modern HR, there are a few truths we often treat as self-evident, especially when it comes to the chief human resources officer role.
We believe, for example, that:
- The CHRO is increasingly a stable, long-tenured transformation leader, guiding organizations through multiyear AI adoption and workforce reinvention.
- And after years of progress, the role now commands a secure and respected seat at the C-suite table, standing alongside CFOs, CIOs, and other business leaders — if not always in compensation, then certainly in share of voice and influence.
- And as the most gender-diverse position in the C-suite, the rise of the CHRO also signals meaningful progress in leadership diversity and impact.
- Today’s CHROs reach the top HR role with the capabilities, time horizon and organizational support required to navigate a rapidly evolving, AI-driven labor landscape. And once there, clear pathways increasingly open into broader enterprise leadership roles, including COO, CEO or general management positions.
But as we head into 2026, it seems that these apparently self-evident truths are, at best, far more complicated than many of us believe. At worst, they’re based on assumptions that are overly optimistic or simply untrue.
My firm partnered with Findem to produce a deep analysis of more than 25,000 CHRO profiles, a survey of nearly 200 current CHROs and over 50 face-to-face interviews. What we found is that life as a CHRO is unusually complex right now — and the lived experience of the role contradicts many of the assumptions outlined above. Behind the headlines and conference keynotes sits a reality defined by a set of persistent paradoxes.
The transformation paradox
CHROs are expected to drive rapid, enterprise-wide transformation while also safeguarding long-term culture. Yet many do not remain in the role long enough to see that change fully embedded. While 86% of surveyed CHROs say their role is changing “significantly” or “dramatically,” average tenure has fallen from six years to just 4.8.
Why it matters: High turnover raises a fundamental question about the durability of transformation efforts when their primary sponsors exit before outcomes are fully realized.
The influence paradox
CHROs are more visible and strategically involved than ever, with more than 6 in 10 viewing themselves as peers to other C-suite leaders. Yet formal power has not always kept pace with expectations.
Why it matters: Only 12% rank among the five highest-paid executives, and many still report needing to “influence without authority” to secure commitment to people strategies — undermining their ability to lead at scale.
The diversity paradox
At 68% female representation, the CHRO role is the most gender-diverse position in the C-suite — a clear positive. However, progress on ethnic diversity remains uneven.
Why it matters: While the proportion of White CHROs declined to 70% in 2021, it has since risen again to 73%, raising the uncomfortable possibility that momentum on racial and ethnic representation has stalled.
The success pathway paradox
Today’s CHRO role increasingly demands business fluency, commercial insight and cross-functional credibility — yet most leaders still ascend through traditional HR career paths.
Why it matters: With roughly 3 in 10 CHROs bringing prior experience from commercial roles (sales or marketing), a gap may be opening between what the role now requires and how future CHROs are being developed.
The aspiration paradox
Many CHROs see the role as a platform for broader executive or advisory leadership. In practice, however, post-tenure outcomes often fall short of those ambitions.
Why it matters: Forty-two percent move into lower-level HR roles after leaving the C-suite, and just 5% go on to become CEOs — suggesting a misalignment between aspiration and the likely career destinations available to CHROs.
Taken together, these findings reveal a role under pressure, with demands far outpacing current capabilities — and a reality that is far more complicated than conventional assumptions suggest.
Making sense of apparent contradictions
Effectively, the CHRO — or an equivalent role — is being asked to lead enterprise-wide change while simultaneously reinventing HR itself. If there are deep tensions in how organizations value people leadership, they must be addressed.
I’m not suggesting this is easy, but we believe the way forward is to be bold. One option is to continue along the traditional trajectory — expanding responsibilities incrementally and solidifying HR’s seat at the leadership table. Or, we can seize the high ground, starting from the recognition that significant change is needed to make the CHRO role truly effective.
The way to become the CHRO you want to be and escape the five paradoxes is to stop acting like the CHRO the organization expects you to be. Instead, redefine the job, narrow the agenda, elevate the HR system and start behaving as if you really are (and deserve to be) a true enterprise leader.
Focus on what actually moves the business
Too many CHROs try to solve all the company’s problems, from culture to leadership to skills, AI, talent, engagement, transformation and change management. That can mean you end up overloaded and ineffective — so instead, identify the 3 to 5 business-critical outcomes the CEO genuinely cares about and anchor the entire HR strategy around those.
Everything else is noise. Even better: Co-write a new job description with the C-suite that lays down at last what transformation actually means here, what time horizon is realistic to accomplish that and what trade-offs everyone agrees to.
Be a business leader, not a personnel expert
In my experience (in both conducting this research and our firm’s other activities), I see that the CHROs who both shape their own destinies and move their companies’ needles always think in terms of:
- boosting value creation
- accelerating productivity
- deepening capability
- reducing organizational friction
- never being seen as anything else than leading a function constantly racking up a stream of quantifiable, profit-oriented commercial outcomes.
In other words, they stop leading “HR” and start leading how the organization works.
Our findings suggest that we still have a ways to go. But that there is a real path to making the vision of the CHRO more than an attractive idea, and instead a substantive, well-compensated and deeply satisfying real-world role.
I can’t see any paradoxes in wanting to achieve that. Can you?
