Stepping into your first CHRO role is exhilarating—and can also be brutal.

In 2024, the Talent Strategy Group reported a 15.5% turnover rate among CHROs/CPOs—a 36% increase over the prior year. Their 2023 report found 86% of new CHROs/CPOs were first timers in the role (i.e., had not held a CHRO or CPO position before). As of 2024, 80% of new appointments to CHRO/CPO were women—the highest rate since the report began.

In other words: there has never been more demand for CHROs—and never more pressure.

I’ve written extensively about how burnout for HR leaders (especially women) is often misattributed as personal failing, when it’s actually a symptom of unsustainable systems and invisible emotional labor. First-time CHROs sit right at the intersection of those broken systems and impossible expectations.

For those stepping into the role—or considering it—here are six hard truths every first-time CHRO should know to maximize their impact and protect their sanity.

1. If you don’t have a standing seat at the table, you’re just a director with a fancy title.

Let’s be direct: If you’re not in the room where strategy is set—early, often, and without needing a special invitation—you are not a true C-suite partner.

Red flags you’re “CHRO in title only”:

• Hearing about strategic shifts after the Board deck is already written
• Being asked to “communicate” or “operationalize” decisions you didn’t help shape
• Your input is limited to headcount, compensation approvals, or “culture clean-up” after big decisions are made

The Fix: Negotiate your seat explicitly.

• In your first 90 days, clarify expectations with your boss. Do not assume your presence is implied; confirm it. Which high-level meetings are you expected to attend?
• At what stage are you brought into M&A, restructuring, or strategy conversations? Where do you own decisions vs. advise, or execute?
• Bring relevant data to the conversation. Use people analytics, compensation benchmarks, and turnover data to frame HR topics as business risks and opportunities, not “HR issues.”
• Draw a line in the sand. If you’re consistently treated as an implementer, address it directly: “Right now, this role is operating more as an HR Director than a CHRO. Here’s what needs to change if you want me to deliver the impact you hired me for.”

A CHRO role without real strategic authority is one of the fastest paths to frustration—and eventual exit.

2. Organizations are experiencing unprecedented employee mental health challenges, and quick fixes only exacerbate the problem.

Every CHRO I know is drowning in organizational mental health and well-being issues: crisis leaves, burnout, stress claims, impossible workloads, and leaders quietly falling apart.

What most organizations do instead of solving the problem:

• Launch another wellness app
• Host a one-off “resilience” webinar
• Add an EAP slide to new-hire orientation

Meanwhile, the workload, expectations, and organizational culture stay exactly the same.

Managing work stress isn’t about meditation and time management. It’s about structural overload: invisible labor, unclear roles, chronic understaffing, and cultures that reward overwork and self-sacrifice.

If you don’t address those root causes, you’re stuck playing whack-a-mole: chasing the latest crisis, soothing the loudest leader, triaging the next breakdown. That hamster wheel is the fastest way for you and your team to burn out.

How a first-time CHRO should approach mental health differently:

• Audit the work, not just the feelings. Where are expectations unrealistic? Where does span of control make good leadership impossible? Push for structural fixes:
  • Re-scope roles and spans of control
  • Align headcount with actual demand
  • Rebuild meeting norms, decision rights, and escalation paths
• Treat burnout as an operational risk. Include it in enterprise risk discussions with the same seriousness as financial or cyber risk.

3. Financial literacy isn’t a “nice-to-have”—it’s your license to operate.

If you cannot read a P&L statement as fluently as a resume, you are already behind. Many first-time CHROs fall into the trap of being the “people person” while leaving the “numbers stuff” to the CFO. This is a career-limiting mistake.

To influence the Board, you must frame talent problems as financial risks and opportunities, not just cultural issues.

Red flags you’re speaking “HR” instead of “Business”:

• You advocate for initiatives based on “engagement” or “sentiment” without linking them to productivity, retention savings, or revenue risk.
• You fall silent during margin discussions unless the topic explicitly turns to headcount.
• You rely on the CFO to translate your budget requests into ROI for the CEO.

What to do about it: Find your “Money Mentor.”

If your financial acumen is shaky, admit it privately and fix it immediately. Befriend the CFO or a strong VP of Finance. Ask them to walk you through the unit economics of the business. Leverage learning platforms like LinkedIn Learning, SHRM, WorldatWork, and other resources to strengthen your financial fluency.

4. You are now the “Chief Truth Teller” (and it’s going to be lonely).

As CHRO, you are often the only person in the building paid to tell the CEO when they’re wrong. Other executives may protect their fiefdoms or agree with the CEO to secure resources. Your role is different: you must hold up the mirror.

The “Emperor’s New Clothes” Dynamic:

• If the CEO’s behavior is driving away top talent, you have to say it.
• If a strategic pivot is confusing the workforce, you must articulate that confusion.
• If the executive team is “nodding along” in meetings but resisting in private, you have to call out the artificial harmony.

What to do about it: Build “Truth Equity” early.

Don’t wait for a crisis to disagree with the CEO. Start with small, low-stakes feedback to establish that you are a trusted advisor, not a “yes person.” This establishes the psychological safety required for when you need to deliver the hard news later.

5. Every generation can—and must—learn from each other.

Right now, CHROs are navigating a workplace that spans Gen Z to late-career Boomers, with Millennials and Gen X squeezed in the middle.

The lazy narrative is:

• “Gen Z is entitled.”
• “Boomers won’t let go.”
• “Millennials are burned out and bitter.”

None of that helps you lead.

In my coaching and consulting work, I see something different: each generation is reacting to the conditions they inherited. Younger employees are pushing on boundaries and balance because they watched older generations burn out. Senior leaders resist change because they built their careers with a completely different playbook.

Your job as a first-time CHRO is to:

Name the strengths in each group:

• Gen Z: Courage to question norms, demand transparency, and call out inequity
• Millennials: Systems thinkers who’ve lived through multiple economic shocks and can spot structural issues quickly
• Gen X: Pragmatic translators who often bridge old and new ways of working
• Boomers: Institutional memory, stakeholder savvy, and deep relationship capital

Design systems that leverage, not flatten, those differences:

• Peer mentoring that runs both ways
• Cross-generational project teams
• Leadership development that asks senior leaders to unlearn as much as they learn

When every generation is invited to teach and learn, your culture becomes more adaptable—and you’re not stuck mediating the same intergenerational arguments on repeat.

6. You are the organization’s “Shock Absorber”—so you need your own suspension system.

As CHRO, you absorb the anxiety of the organization. You handle the layoffs, the harassment claims, the executive firings, and the CEO’s 2:00 AM panic emails. This is “toxic handling,” and if you don’t have a release valve, it will break you.

The signs of “Compassion Fatigue”:

• You start viewing employees as problems to be solved rather than people.
• You feel a sense of dread on Sunday nights (specifically related to the emotional load, not the workload).
• You find yourself unable to empathize with friends or family because you “gave at the office.”

What to do about it: Build an external Cabinet.

You cannot vent to your team (you’re the boss), and you often can’t vent to your peers (they might be the problem). You need a network of other CHROs, an executive coach, or a mentor outside the organization. Do not attempt to play this role in isolation. If you’re stepping into your first CHRO role (or thinking about it) and want a strategic partner in your corner, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

This is the work I do every day with CHROs and senior HR leaders: stabilizing the role, tackling burnout at the root, and building systems that actually work for the long term—not just the next quarter.

Next step:

Start building your support team and/or reach out to me to schedule a confidential discovery call to talk about what you’re navigating and how I can help.