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5 Priorities for First-Time Chief People Officers

By Kelly D. Anderson, Blaise Desnoes and Kimberly Fullerton
March 2026
| 0 min read

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Key findings

  • First-time chief people officers must lead as business executives first — understanding P&L, competitive strategy and value creation.
  • HR leaders must personally engage with AI tools and connect workforce strategy to tangible business outcomes like productivity and revenue growth.
  • Success hinges on understanding the CEO's top priorities before launching any agenda. Misalignment erodes credibility faster than any skills gap.
  • The pace transformation must match organizational readiness. Chief people officers can build internal trust through transparent, authentic communication.

Stepping into the chief people officer role for the first time? Don’t expect merely another rung on the ladder. Becoming the leader of an organization’s HR function means making a fundamental shift in your identity, scope and expectations.

At a recent breakfast discussion we hosted in Menlo Park, two first-time functional leaders — Lyra Schramm, chief people officer of F5, and Kara Jordan, chief people and culture officer for Gen Digital — offered up candid reflections on their path to the role, including what has surprised them most, what they’d do differently next time around and what matters most in their expanded remit.

Below we look at five themes that emerged in this discussion.

The era of HR as a back-office function is decisively over. Credibility today requires deep business fluency — not just in P&L mechanics, but in how the company actually creates value. That means being able to clearly articulate the strategy, growth priorities and where leadership is placing its biggest bets, as well as understanding how the company is perceived by investors, the competitive landscape and the external forces shaping the industry.

Knowing the business also means understanding the operating model: how products are built, how revenue is generated, where the biggest cost drivers sit and which capabilities the organization must build to win over the next three to five years. Both panelists described early months that felt like a “baptism by fire,” particularly when working for CEOs with strong financial or product backgrounds.

It is critical to establish where you can drive most impact. Avoid trying to fight all battles and instead prioritize leading and influencing where it is most important.

Key takeaway: If you want a seat at the table, you must show up as a business leader first, and an HR leader second.

Regardless of industry, we are in the middle of a technological revolution that is reshaping how work gets done. AI is no longer a future concern — it is already transforming operating models, roles, workflows, and talent strategy. HR has a uniquely strategic role to play in helping organizations redesign how work happens, reimagine roles and support leaders in integrating AI meaningfully across the company.

Both leaders emphasized that people leaders must personally engage with AI tools, understand their implications, and lead adoption from the front. Just as important, AI strategy must be tightly tied to value creation. Whether the goal is faster speed to market, greater innovation capacity, higher productivity or revenue growth, HR plays a critical role in ensuring workforce strategy and operating model decisions translate technology into real business outcomes.

Key takeaway: You don’t need to be a technologist — but you do need to be fluent, curious and credible.

The single most important determinant of success is how well you align with the CEO. Both leaders emphasized how HR leadership must deeply understand what the CEO cares about — strategically, financially and personally — and prioritize accordingly.

A common early career trap is arriving with a long list of “things to fix.” In reality, the chief people officer’s effectiveness depends on focusing energy on the handful of issues that matter most to the CEO and the business at that moment. Misalignment here can quickly erode credibility, regardless of technical HR expertise.

Key takeaway: Before you assess what needs to change, align tightly on what matters most—and why.
 

One of the hardest won lessons shared is this: You cannot want transformation more than the company is willing to pursue it. Even when the case for change feels obvious, organizational readiness and leadership appetite matter a lot.

In some cases, this means sequencing change more slowly. In others, it may mean reprioritizing and pacing components of change differently than you originally planned. As leaders become more senior, tolerance for misalignment tends to decrease, not increase.

Key takeaway: Transformation succeeds only when leadership intent, organizational readiness, prioritization, and timing align.
 

An often-overlooked early mistake is neglecting your own internal leadership brand while consumed by transformation, restructuring and board work.

When change is happening “behind the curtain,” employees can struggle to understand who the HR leader is, what they stand for and how they advocate for the workforce. Intentional communication — beyond all hands meetings — is essential to building trust and visibility, particularly in periods of disruption.

Key takeaway: Your credibility with employees does not happen automatically. It must be built deliberately, alongside the work and is created by the actions you take and how you communicate. Authenticity and transparency are important in translating decisions and strategy.
 

• • •

First time chief people officers rarely step into calm, well ordered environments. More often, they enter moments of disruption, transition or reinvention. The role demands range: strategist and operator, board partner and employee advocate, technologist and human translator.

As Lyra and Kara showed, the path is rarely linear, and that’s okay. What matters most is intentionality: in relationships, in learning the business, and in deciding where to invest your energy.

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