Corporate leadership talent is a pressing strategic need today and a top priority for board members because they see it as increasingly influential on valuation. Many boards and leadership teams are treating executive leadership as a material risk. Yet only half of CEOs and directors are confident their company’s executive attraction, retention, and development strategy is positioning the organization well for the long term.

Chief people officers are crucial to improving companies’ efforts, both in their executive role and when they serve as board members. Some CPOs are combining a deep knowledge of their company’s business with strategic foresight and increased influence in the C-suite to build the board’s confidence in leadership for today and tomorrow. In this article, based on discussions with some 75 leading CPOs and a recent survey, we look at what those successful CPOs are doing and share their perspectives on why so many are further away from that goal. In addition, we suggest how others can build the foundation for more wide-ranging and influential relationships with the board by starting with a strategic focus on the leadership pipeline. More effective board relationships will also help CPOs address the other pressing issues for which companies are increasingly turning to them.^1,2

How leading CPOs are building strategic relationships

CPOs often say their companies’ work on executive succession planning is aligned with annual and strategic planning, and that they communicate with and track progress of identified successors. Nonetheless, data from two recent surveys show, executives outside HR far more rarely think any of these things are happening.

Whether the source of these differing views is a lack of visibility (since much of this work is necessarily done behind the scenes), a lack of communication between HR leaders and leaders in other functions, or a sense among other leaders that HR’s work on this isn’t valuable, the fact that leadership quality is an increasing material risk for organizations, one on which boards are focused, means that leaders need to start pulling together. 

Some CPOs have taken that need as an opportunity. Typically, these CPOs have started by having a particularly trusting relationship with the CEO, which often starts with CEO onboarding (see sidebar on the ideal CPO role in onboarding). CPOs who can discuss their deep knowledge of leadership team dynamics, skills, gaps, and risks in the context of a detailed understanding of the company’s strategy and operations can build credibility quickly. When that happens, one CPO told us, “The CEO wants you in the room all the time, they’re talking behind closed doors about the value your function is adding—and then the board reaches out to you too.”

Of course, being able to have those detailed conversations with the CEO also requires CPOs to stretch themselves beyond traditional HR expertise; in addition to knowledge of how their business works, they need to develop technological fluency, first-principle thinking, strong peer-to-peer relationships, and the courage to step outside the traditional HR lane. These capabilities are crucial for effective HR leaders.³

It’s also crucial that CPOs find the right approach to broadening their relationship with the board, which will vary from board to board. In general, however, CPOs can most effectively highlight their value by offering substantive knowledge at the right time, without waiting to be asked but also without offering extraneous information. We’ll discuss how to do that in detail below.

Room for growth in the CPO and board relationship today

Overall, CEOs and directors feel positively about CPOs’ contributions to their company’s ability to meet its strategic goals, with 86% saying CPOs are at least somewhat influential. And CPOs feel positively, too: 91% say they have the same or more influence compared with their peers at the same level.

When it comes to executive succession planning, however, only 29% of executives say the board is informed of succession plans for critical roles, and only 25% say the board regularly reviews those plans. Fifty-five percent of CPOs indicate their company has succession plans for the wrong executive roles.

At least some of the reason for these disconnections is likely how CPOs are spending their time with the board, a point underscored both by the data and by CPOs. Some CPOs, for example, perceive their boards to be putting more focus on the HR budget than on people results, or setting conflicting expectations, including overfocus on traditional HR activities relative to strategic issues. For example, CPOs may get brought in to help with a succession plan, but when they haven’t been included in any of the strategic discussions leading up to that point, it can leave them feeling ill-prepared for the job at hand.

When CPOs have more direct relationships with board members, they feel more prepared to answer questions. That’s hardly surprising, but it’s troubling that 24% of CPOs say they don’t present to the board in any capacity—not even preparing presentations they don’t present themselves—and only 23% of CPOs say they have a direct relationship with the entire board. CEOs and directors report higher levels of connection. 

All of this boils down to the fact that CEOs and directors think the board has a deeper and more informed relationship with CPOs than CPOs themselves do—and many CPOs are less able to offer the best advice, or know when to offer that advice, than they would like to be. It’s no wonder that 96% of CPOs want more time with the board, either as a whole or with board committees.