The first of a new series entitled "People Leadership Matters: Conversations with the Leaders Driving the People Agenda" conducted by Pat O’Donnell, Managing Partner of Principal Connections, was with Anne Kiely, former Chief People Officer at Aer Lingus, Board Director, author and one of Ireland’s most respected people leaders. (The following is an edited transcript of the discussion.)

Pat O’Donnell: Tell us about your leadership journey, and the experiences that have most shaped you as a people leader?

Anne Kiely: My leadership journey has been shaped as much by the breadth of sectors I have worked in as by any single role. I began in banking, where I developed a strong foundation in commercial discipline, governance and performance. That experience instilled a mindset I still carry today: understanding how the business creates value and how people contribute to that success.
The most significant influence on my leadership philosophy has been the discipline of starting over. Moving from banking to consulting at Accenture, back into financial services, and then into technology at Twitter EMEA required me to build credibility quickly, learn new sectors and understand business priorities before offering solutions. It taught me that the most effective people leaders are first and foremost business leaders.
My time at Twitter further shaped my thinking. Scaling the EMEA workforce from 250 to more than 1,000 employees, building HR infrastructure across multiple jurisdictions, and leading inclusion and diversity initiatives demonstrated the strategic and commercial impact of an excellent people function.
Stepping into the CPO role at Aer Lingus reinforced my belief that people leadership is fundamentally about business leadership. In a complex, unionised and safety-critical environment, success depended on aligning people strategy directly with organisational objectives. That experience confirmed for me that the most effective CPOs are those who view themselves not simply as HR practitioners, but as business leaders who happen to specialise in people.

Looking back, what did you underestimate most about stepping into a senior people leadership role?

What I underestimated most when stepping into my first senior people leadership role was the extent to which success depends on relationships and influence before technical expertise. I arrived with a clear view of what needed to change and a strong framework for delivering it. What I learned quickly was that progress depended far more on the quality of my relationships with the CEO, Board and executive team than on the strength of my strategy.
As I wrote in How to Be a Chief People Officer: Enabling People in the Evolving World of Work, a successful CPO needs the Board’s ear, the Executive Committee’s ear and their ear to the ground, all at the same time. Without those relationships, even the best people agenda will struggle to gain traction.
What surprised me most about operating at executive level was the visibility. As CPO, your actions become a signal to the organisation. How you respond under pressure, communicate difficult decisions and prioritise competing demands carries significant weight. I became much more intentional about how I showed up as a leader.
I anticipated the emotional demands of the role, but not their scale. Balancing compassion with sound commercial judgement remains one of the most important, and least discussed, leadership challenges of senior people leadership.

What do you see as the most significant people and leadership challenge facing organisations today?

The most significant people and leadership challenge I see today is the erosion of trust between employees and leadership, and between people and the organisations they work for. Years of disruption, including the pandemic, changing work patterns, economic uncertainty and rapid technological change, have unsettled the psychological contract between employer and employee.
In my experience, trust is built or broken through culture. Culture is not owned by HR; it is owned by the Board and executive team. When leaders communicate inconsistently, or make decisions that appear misaligned with organisational values, trust erodes. Once lost, it is exceptionally difficult to rebuild.
At the heart of this challenge is psychological safety. If people do not feel safe to speak up, challenge ideas or raise concerns, organisations cannot benefit fully from their talent. Psychological safety requires deliberate, consistent leadership and should be measured rather than assumed.
I believe the most effective response is to invest in leadership capability, particularly at the middle-management level. Trust is built through daily interactions between employees and managers. Organisations that develop, support and equip their managers to lead effectively, while reducing unnecessary administrative burdens, will be best placed to strengthen trust, engagement and performance in the years ahead.

How can people leaders best demonstrate their impact on organisational performance?

I believe the clearest distinction between strategic people leadership and traditional HR management is the starting point. Traditional HR often begins with the HR calendar: performance reviews, engagement surveys and pay cycles. Strategic people leadership begins with the business strategy and works backwards. What does the organisation need to achieve, and what does that require of its people, culture and leadership capability?
In my experience, people leaders demonstrate impact by connecting their work directly to business outcomes. As far back as my time at PTSB, I made a deliberate decision to present people data in commercial terms. Rather than reporting HR metrics in isolation, I link them to outcomes such as workforce capacity, productivity and the return on investment from transformation programmes. That reframing fundamentally changes the level of attention and investment the people function receives.
I have also found that strategic people leaders must possess the breadth to contribute meaningfully across the full executive agenda while maintaining deep expertise in their own discipline. Most importantly, they must communicate in the language of the business, not the language of HR.
Ultimately, impact is demonstrated through accountability. Strategic people leaders can point to measurable outcomes, not simply completed initiatives. A focus on results rather than activity is what separates the truly strategic from the merely busy.

What talent issue do you believe organisations are currently underestimating?

The talent issue I believe organisations are most consistently underestimating is the capability and effectiveness of their middle management layer. In my view, executive teams should be paying far greater attention to this group because it has the greatest influence on employee experience, retention and day-to-day performance.
For many years, I have been concerned about the growing burden placed on managers. They are expected to lead hybrid teams, manage performance, support wellbeing, navigate constant change and represent the employer brand, often with insufficient preparation or support. At the same time, management development budgets are frequently among the first areas reduced when cost pressures emerge. It is no surprise that many younger employees are deciding early in their careers that management is not a path they wish to pursue.
I also believe there is a structural issue. Too many managers spend valuable time on activities that technology should handle. Digital transformation is not simply about efficiency; it is about creating the capacity for managers to lead, develop, recognise and elevate their teams.
The return on investing in manager capability is measurable. It is reflected in engagement, retention and the strength of the talent pipeline. Organisations that prioritise and develop management effectiveness will consistently outperform those that treat it as a cost to be contained.

What distinguishes organisations that consistently attract, develop and retain exceptional talent?

In my experience, the organisations that consistently attract, develop and retain exceptional talent share three characteristics, and they are simpler than many people expect.
First, they are honest about their Employee Value Proposition (EVP). An EVP that misrepresents the reality of working for an organisation may help fill roles in the short term, but it creates attrition and cynicism that no recruitment strategy can offset. The test I use is simple: would current employees confidently recommend the organisation to someone they care about? If not, the EVP needs to change, not the marketing.
Second, they invest in the employee experience throughout the entire lifecycle, not just at hiring and exit. Feedback, recognition and, above all, the quality of the manager relationship determine whether talented people stay and grow. In my view, retention is won or lost through day-to-day management.
Third, they create genuine psychological safety. At Twitter, our DEI strategy was built on enabling employees to bring their authentic selves to work. Such cultures are difficult to build and easy to damage, but they are essential for attracting and retaining exceptional talent.
What separates the best employers from the rest is their commitment to trust, leadership quality and an environment where people feel valued, supported and able to do their best work.

How do you see the role of the CPO evolving over the next five years?

I believe the CPO role is evolving from functional expert to enterprise leader, and that evolution is already well underway in the most progressive organisations.
One of the biggest drivers is the growing focus on human capital within ESG and sustainability reporting. Investors and boards are scrutinising people data with increasing rigour, and the CPO is increasingly accountable for that narrative. In my view, this requires a different profile of leader: someone with strong commercial acumen, technological fluency, sound judgement on risk, and the ability to interpret external trends as confidently as internal dynamics.
AI will define the next phase of this evolution. Not because it will automate HR processes, which it already does, but because it will fundamentally reshape work itself. I believe future CPOs will become architects of workforce transformation, helping organisations identify which human capabilities remain uniquely valuable and how roles, careers and development pathways must evolve.
The capabilities that will define successful people leaders are commercial literacy, technological fluency, the ability to use people data predictively, and a sophisticated understanding of organisational design. Above all, however, I believe the most effective CPOs will retain an unwavering focus on the human dimension: building trust, shaping culture and demonstrating empathy. Those qualities remain beyond the reach of any algorithm and represent our most enduring source of value.

What workforce, workplace or leadership trend will have the greatest impact on organisations in the years ahead?

There are two trends that I believe will reshape organisations most profoundly over the coming decade, and their significance lies in the fact that they are unfolding simultaneously, with each amplifying the demands of the other.
The first is the democratisation of competitive advantage through AI. Capabilities such as supply chain optimisation, demand forecasting, marketing personalisation, financial modelling, product design, legal analysis and customer service, which once required years to build and represented genuine competitive advantage, are becoming increasingly accessible to any organisation with the right tools.
As a result, the primary, and potentially final, differentiator for many organisations will be their people. Technology will be widely available. Processes can be replicated. What cannot be replicated is human judgement, creativity, customer relationships and the ability to create value in unexpected ways. When the tools are equal, execution becomes the differentiator, and execution is fundamentally a human challenge.
The second trend is the emergence of the most generationally diverse workforce in history. Successfully leading five generations with differing expectations of work, technology, authority and feedback will require far greater leadership sophistication than many organisations currently possess.
Taken together, these trends reinforce a simple reality: organisations that invest in culture, leadership capability and talent development will be best positioned to succeed. Boards should view this as a commercial imperative, not simply an HR agenda.

What has been the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned throughout your career?

The most important leadership lesson I have learned is that credibility is built through consistency, not brilliance. People need to know how you will show up under pressure, when circumstances are difficult, or when the honest answer is uncomfortable. Without trust, leadership impact is fundamentally limited.
I learned this lesson early. In 1998, I was elected captain of the inaugural Irish Co-Ed Softball Team by my teammates. It came as a surprise because I was far from the strongest player on the field. Looking back, I believe they saw me as a safe pair of hands: someone dependable when things became difficult and someone they trusted to represent the team. That insight has stayed with me throughout my career.
Today, I believe consistency is one of the most important leadership capabilities. People are constantly reading signals from leaders, and organisational trust is built when actions, values and behaviours remain aligned across different situations.
A second insight that continues to influence me is the importance of intellectual humility. As leaders become more senior, success depends less on having all the answers and more on staying curious, learning continuously and creating space for others to contribute. The leaders I admire most combine credibility with genuine curiosity and a commitment to lifelong learning.

What advice would you give to aspiring people leaders seeking to make a meaningful impact?

My first piece of advice is to become genuinely curious about the business you are in, not just the HR function within it. Understand the commercial model, competitive environment, financial drivers and strategic priorities. The people leaders who make the greatest impact are viewed as business leaders who happen to lead the people function, rather than HR specialists with a seat at the executive table.
Second, build your credibility on outcomes, not activity. Develop the discipline to demonstrate what has changed as a result of your work, using data and evidence wherever possible. In my experience, the ability to connect people initiatives to business performance is one of the most valuable capabilities you can develop early in your career.
Third, invest in relationships, particularly with senior leaders and your management community. The quality of those relationships will determine both your influence and your effectiveness. I have always believed that successful people leaders need the Board’s ear, the Executive Committee’s ear and their ear to the ground.
Finally, commit to continuous learning. The world of work is changing too quickly for anyone to stand still. I have always had a growth mindset, and that has never changed. The most effective people leaders I know remain curious throughout their careers: curious about business, people and the environment around them.

What is the one belief about people leadership that has remained constant throughout your career?

The one belief about people leadership that has remained constant throughout my career is that people are not the most important asset in an organisation; they are the organisation.
Every strategy, plan, product and critical decision is ultimately brought to life by people who bring their ambition, values, relationships and experiences to work each day. The organisations that truly understand this, and treat the people dimension of leadership not as a function to be managed but as the essence of what they are building, are the ones that create something enduring.
That belief has guided me from my earliest days in banking through to the executive table at Aer Lingus, and it will continue to shape whatever comes next in my career. I believe our profession now has an opportunity, and a responsibility, to step fully into that reality. I know I intend to.
Despite its challenges, and perhaps because of them, leading the people function has always felt like a privilege. Few roles offer the opportunity to influence both organisational performance and individual lives in such a meaningful way. When I leave work standing a little taller because of the contribution I have been able to make, it reminds me why this role matters so much.

Closing Reflections
As the conversation concluded, several themes emerged with particular clarity.
Throughout her career, Anne has worked across multiple sectors, organisations and leadership environments, yet one principle has remained constant: the most effective people leaders are business leaders first. Whether discussing trust, culture, talent, organisational performance or artificial intelligence, she consistently returns to the importance of aligning people strategy with business outcomes.
Anne’s observations on trust were particularly compelling. In an era defined by technological disruption, economic uncertainty and evolving workforce expectations, leadership credibility, psychological safety and management capability are becoming increasingly important drivers of organisational performance.
Her perspective on the future of the CPO role was equally insightful. As boards place greater emphasis on human capital, workforce transformation and organisational resilience, the CPO is evolving from functional specialist to enterprise leader, with an increasingly important role in shaping business strategy and long-term value creation.
For Principal Connections, the conversation reinforced a reality that many boards and executive teams are now confronting. As technology becomes increasingly accessible and traditional sources of competitive advantage become easier to replicate, leadership quality, organisational culture and talent capability remain among the few truly sustainable differentiators. Organisations that invest in these areas will be best positioned to succeed in the years ahead.
We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Anne for sharing her insights, experiences and perspectives. Her reflections offer valuable guidance for boards, CEOs, Chief People Officers and senior leaders seeking to build organisations that are not only successful, but enduring.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

https://www.principalconnections.com/people-leadership-matters-anne-kiely/