A cold shift in a supermarket set an unexpected career in motion. Tom Emery traces the decisions led to the C-suite. Reflecting on setbacks, stretch roles and hard-won lessons, he shows how adaptability, relationships and courage can shape a career in the people profession far more than any grand plan.
I was an accidental HR professional. Growing up, I wanted to work in public relations. I loved the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. The characters, the outfits, the champagne and I thought it looked like the perfect job for me.
I had absolutely no idea Human Resources existed. Didn’t know it was a thing. Yet I ended up spending over 20 years doing it, and several years since supporting other HR leaders. I even wrote a book about it, People People: Reach Your Full Potential as a CHRO.
How did it all happen?
It started in a corridor with two doors
It was 1999. My third year of university. I was working at Sainsbury’s in Fallowfield, Manchester. My job: chilled food. Yoghurts, cheese, and cold meat. I hated it. I wasn’t hardy enough to spend my days in and out of industrial fridges.
Off the shop floor, there was a corridor with two doors. One said Administration. The other said Personnel. I knocked on both doors and asked if I could work in there instead. The Admin Manager said no. The Personnel and Training Manager said yes.
That yes changed everything.
Retail was a brilliant place to cut my teeth. Hard work. Tight margins. Getting pulled onto the shop floor to cover checkouts when things got busy. It’s commercial. It’s the sharp end of business. I loved it. But I was young. Retail means working weekends. It didn’t fit. So, I moved on.
The greasy pole
My next stop was a family-owned software company. Successful, but paternal. Heart took precedence over head. They supported me through my CIPD qualification. But I learned nothing useful from the course itself.
Learning was coming from my experiences.
Then came a fast-growing telecoms business. 18 months supporting a contact centre. Whether it was managing someone caught dealing cocaine in the car park, couples doing things they definitely shouldn’t have in the disabled toilet, or dismissing someone charged with armed robbery at a petrol station, the experience taught me how to run a disciplinary hearing. Whatever the issue.
I was taken down a peg or two. I had two choices: fight it, or learn from it.
Three years in local government followed. Union negotiations. Long-winded processes. Tribunals. Stressful at the time. Invaluable in hindsight. Then HSBC. A skyscraper in Canary Wharf. It felt like me. I had a flying start. Made a good impression. And then the mask slipped. It became obvious to others that I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was taken down a peg or two. I had two choices: fight it, or learn from it.
I’m glad I chose to learn.
HSBC taught me rigour. Intention. How to plan. How to think about the future rather than just reacting to the present. In 2013, a new Head of HR arrived. I wanted to progress. But I was nervous to say it. One day, I sent him an email. I told him I wanted to get involved in more projects. He said yes.
That one email led to me setting up the first UK people committee, a leading role in nationwide HR roadshows, a global leadership programme in Brazil, a maternity cover as Head of HR for first direct, and eventually 18 months running HR Operations for the whole UK bank. A team of 75, with matrix teams in India and the Philippines.
HR Operations was never an ambition of mine. But it turned out to be one of the best things I did. The lesson? Take a chance. Send the email. What have you got to lose?
The C-suite
Redundancy followed in 2017. Luckily, I had options. One of them was Chief People Officer for a listed Wealth Management firm in the city. My first CPO role. My first C-suite experience. It was tough. Hard. And lonelier than I expected.
I had to learn governance on the job. Remuneration regulations. ExCo meetings. Board presentations. Executive recruitment. Executive development. The buck stopped with me. I worked long hours and through holidays. I grew my resilience the difficult way.
I learned relationships. But never quite cracked them. The C-suite can be a surprisingly lonely place. The people around the executive table were feeling the pressure. The uncertainty. The imposter syndrome. No one was admitting it.
Genuine connection matters more than most people acknowledge. But vulnerability feels counterintuitive at that level. You’re supposed to project confidence. Have answers. What I found was this: when I dropped my guard slightly, relationships deepened. When I admitted I didn’t know something, others did the same. That’s when trust gets built.
I also had to learn when to hold my ground and when to flex. When to push back on something I believed was wrong, even when the room wasn’t with me. I got better at it. But it never felt easy. And I never fully cracked the art of knowing when to press and when to let something go.
What I learned
My whole career has been a happy accident. But the things that made the difference weren’t accidental at all.
Do a wide range of things. I never planned to work in telecoms, local government, banking, or wealth management. But every single one of those environments gave me something. Variety builds adaptability. Adaptability builds experience. And experience builds value.
Push yourself into discomfort. The moments that stretched me were the moments I grew most. Comfort is the enemy of progress.
Build brilliant relationships. Not a network of acquaintances. Real relationships. Be vulnerable. Show the real you to others.
Learn how to manage up. Understand what the people above you need. Help them to be successful.
Lose your ego. Ask the questions that feel stupid. Hold your hand up when you don’t know. Progress is made through mistakes. Learn from them quickly and move on.
Be the mirror, not the judge. The most valuable thing you can offer in any room is the ability to reflect back what others can’t see in themselves, without judgment and without agenda. That takes confidence and real curiosity about people.
Be the adult in the room. Learn to manage your emotions. Not suppress them, just manage them. The person who stays grounded is the person others turn to.
Do the things that energise you. Pay attention to what lights you up. Do more of it.
My journey wasn’t linear. It wasn’t planned. I knocked on a door in a Sainsbury’s corridor in 1999 because I was cold and somehow ended up in the C-suite.
The choices I made after that were small ones.
Saying yes when it felt uncomfortable.
Sending the email.
Asking the question.
Getting back up after being knocked down.
That’s the journey to the C-suite.
Tom Emery is a Performance Coach and Founder of HEX and author of People People: Reach Your Full Potential as a Chief HR Officer
