Why Aren’t More Chief People Officers Becoming CEOs? The Real Talent Strategy Gap
Every modern company claims that “people are our greatest asset.” It’s on websites, in annual reports, and repeated in town halls. Yet when you look at who actually becomes CEO, one role is still shockingly underrepresented: the Chief People Officer (CPO) or head of HR.
In theory, if talent truly drives strategy, then the person responsible for talent should be a top contender for the corner office. In reality, that almost never happens. So what’s going on?
Drawing from insights originally reported in Inc. on the strange disconnect between people-first rhetoric and leadership reality, let’s unpack why more Chief People Officers don’t become CEOs—and what needs to change if businesses are serious about building leadership pipelines around people, not just products or P&L.
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The Myth vs. Reality of “People-First” Companies
Companies love to talk about being people-centric. They roll out engagement surveys, wellness benefits, learning platforms, and flexible work policies. The Chief People Officer is often showcased as a strategic partner who shapes culture and builds future leaders.
But when the CEO chair opens up, the short list almost always looks the same:
- Former CFOs, trusted for their mastery of numbers
- Division presidents, lauded for revenue and market growth
- COOs or operations leaders, respected for execution and scale
The person who has spent years designing leadership frameworks, driving organizational change, and stewarding culture? They’re rarely seen as the natural successor.
This disconnect reveals something uncomfortable: for all the talk, people leadership is still treated as a support function, not a core engine of business performance.
Why Chief People Officers Are Overlooked for the Top Job
1. A Narrow Definition of “Business Experience”
Boards and investors tend to equate “CEO-ready” with a specific toolkit: direct P&L ownership, market-facing responsibility, and financial performance. Many Chief People Officers don’t manage a revenue line, so they are instantly slotted as “non-commercial.”
That’s ironic, considering that modern CPOs sit at the crossroads of strategy and execution. They see:
- How org design speeds up or stalls growth
- Where leadership gaps threaten execution
- How compensation, incentives, and culture drive performance—or sabotage it
But because this impact is harder to express as a simple revenue figure, it’s underestimated or misunderstood.
2. The Legacy Perception of HR
Even though the role has evolved dramatically, many still quietly associate HR with compliance, benefits, and back-office processes. That legacy image lingers, especially at the board level.
When the conversation shifts to CEO succession, decision-makers too often think:
- “We need someone who knows the numbers.”
- “We need someone who has run a business unit.”
- “We can’t put ‘the HR person’ in charge.”
This isn’t about competence; it’s about outdated mental models of what HR leaders actually do in high-performing, people-driven organizations.
3. Visibility and Storytelling Gaps
Another factor working against CPOs is simple: visibility. CFOs and business unit leaders are constantly presenting to the board, investors, and the market. Their wins are obvious—a strong quarter, a successful launch, a strategic acquisition.
CPO wins are just as significant but often quieter:
- Reducing regrettable attrition in a critical function
- Successfully integrating teams post-merger
- Building a leadership pipeline that makes growth possible
These are huge value drivers, but if no one connects them clearly to business outcomes, they don’t translate into “CEO credibility.”
4. The Way We Measure What Matters
Most organizations still overweight financial metrics and underweight people metrics in executive evaluations. A leader who hits revenue targets despite burning out teams may be perceived as “high potential,” while a CPO who quietly prevents a wave of costly departures gets polite recognition but little strategic credit.
As long as the scorecard is biased toward short-term financial outputs, the person optimizing the human system—often over the long term—will be overlooked.
Why Chief People Officers Might Be the CEOs We Need Next
Here’s the twist: the very forces reshaping business today make the skill set of a strong Chief People Officer more relevant than ever at the CEO level.
Consider the challenges most CEOs now wrestle with:
- Hybrid and remote work models that demand new approaches to leadership
- Relentless competition for top talent in almost every industry
- Culture, trust, and ethics under constant public scrutiny
- AI and automation changing jobs faster than org charts can keep up
These are, at their core, people and organization problems. They require leaders who can:
- Design resilient, adaptive organizations
- Communicate with transparency and empathy
- Develop leaders at every level, not just manage performance
- Align culture, incentives, and strategy so people pull in the same direction
That’s exactly the territory where a forward-thinking Chief People Officer lives every day.
What Needs to Change: From HR Leader to CEO Contender
1. CPOs Must Claim a Bigger Business Mandate
If you’re a Chief People Officer who aspires to the top job, you can’t wait for perceptions to change—you have to actively reshape them. That means:
- Owning or deeply influencing workforce planning tied to growth targets
- Translating culture and engagement initiatives into hard business results
- Partnering with finance and operations to show how people strategy drives performance
When talent strategy is visibly welded to revenue, margin, and innovation, it becomes far harder to dismiss the CPO as “non-commercial.”
2. Boards Need a Broader Definition of Leadership Readiness
Boards and CEOs who truly believe people are a strategic advantage should make that belief visible in succession planning. That might mean:
- Inviting the CPO to present directly to the board on strategic topics, not just compensation or headcount
- Considering rotational assignments where CPOs lead a business unit or major initiative
- Including people and culture metrics alongside financials in CEO performance evaluations
When the system defines “ready for CEO” differently, different leaders will emerge as contenders.
3. Companies Must Align Their Narrative with Their Reality
There’s also a brand and credibility angle. If an organization loudly markets itself as people-first but never promotes leaders with deep people expertise into the most powerful roles, employees will notice the contradiction.
Over time, that gap between message and reality erodes trust. One of the strongest ways to signal that people strategy truly matters is to elevate leaders whose careers prove it.
From People Function to Power Function
The question isn’t whether Chief People Officers are capable of becoming strong CEOs. Many already operate as de facto co-architects of strategy, especially in fast-growing or transformation-heavy environments.
The more relevant question is this: Will companies and boards update their mental models quickly enough to leverage this talent? Or will they keep saying “people are our greatest asset” while continuing to select CEOs almost exclusively from finance and operations?
If organizations want resilient cultures, sustainable performance, and leadership that can navigate a world defined by talent and change, they can’t afford to relegate the people function to the sidelines.
It’s time for Chief People Officers to be seen not just as guardians of culture, but as prime candidates for the top job—and for companies to finally practice what they’ve been preaching for years about putting people at the center of the business.
