HR Unfiltered - brought to you by SOPEOPLE E9 - Being good at ‘HR’ is no longer enough - in discussion with Tom Emery
30 snips
Jan 26, 2026 
Tom Emery, author and coach behind the CHRO coaching framework, discusses his book People People and a composite CHRO named Joanna. They explore why a seat at the table is not enough. Topics include commercial curiosity, enterprise leadership, human-centred change, mindset shifts, setting boundaries, and a simple Monday 9am reset to regain agency and influence.
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Say No To Do HR Better
- Don’t let HR be everything to everyone; practice constructive boundaries and learn to say no in service of strategic focus.
- Use selective refusal to protect time and deliver higher-impact, enterprise-level work.
Seat At The Table Is Not Enough
- The old goal of 'seat at the table' is obsolete; HR must demonstrate value once in the room by thinking and speaking as enterprise leaders.
- That requires commercial curiosity: know how the organisation makes money and how people levers amplify differentiation.
Tom Woke Up Three Years Into Exec Meetings
- Tom confesses he sat through long exec meetings doing other work until he woke up three years in to use his voice beyond people updates.
- That habit nearly wasted his place at the table and taught him to add value outside the HR agenda.
