Hi everyone, 

My main interest includes studying leadership and I'm always interested in CEO profiles. However I seem to find this trend - there arent any CEOs who are from the HR department - most CEOs I read usually come from either a technical background OR if they're from the commecial side, they usually were either from Finance, Accounting or Marketing.

I think the reason behind this is maybe perhaps HR is not really looked upon as a crucial field in the business and therefore the board of directors usually look at other departments to elect aCEO. This is just my reasoning, what do you guys think?

Regards

Vijay

Dear Vijay,

You are very correct when you say that HR dont become the CEO. But the reasoning you gave is not very convincing. HR is a supportive role to any business. Th nature of activities performed by HR do not give results directly. Eg - The sales team of an organisation abtained better results due to the new incentive plan laid put by the HR dept. Now in situations like these, the credit will always go to the sales team. The reason being, sales contribute directly to the company. Same goes for the functions like finance or operations.

Thus we can say that the reason why hr dont become CEO is nothing but the sheer nature of the operations, the HR carries out.

Regards,

Arun

This Topic as such always hover around all HR Professionals. I have also seen many people not opting for HR though there main interest is in HR mainly because HR people cant reach at the top most level .

But this is a Myth as far as HR people are concerned. Though HR is considered to be a supporting activity it is mainly because of HR only. They dont add any value to the offerings. Also the value sahould be added in such a way that it can be measured. HR people have to have out-of-the-box thinking. They should try to find unique but original solutions to problems and not ready-made internet used and copy pasted material.

Turning back to the topic. There are many instances were u will find HR guys at the top position i.e. CEO position. But the true fact is that HR people cant become CEO unless they gather certain cross-functional skills related to say, marketing or finance or even IT. They have to have knowledge of all this to reach at the top. Also CEOs have a power to take strategic decisions thus HR should possess all these competencies. They should not restrict themselves to HR only.

Plz. guys remove this wrong notion or myth from ur mind and commit urself to give 110% of all u have. CEO position is not far away.