Why HR leaders struggle to find their own support system

HR can be a profoundly lonely profession.

You carry confidential information that creates invisible barriers between you and your colleagues. You spend entire days helping others plan their careers, yet find yourself too exhausted to invest those same five minutes in your own growth.

And if you're a solo HR professional, the isolation intensifies. Your business leaders expect you to have all the answers, leaving no room to admit when you're struggling or have lost your spark.

Sound familiar?

Throughout my 15 years in HR, I was unconsciously searching for something that didn't exist at work: a trusted community that could provide the counsel, comfort, and clarity I was missing internally.

Now, after working with hundreds of HR leaders over the past few years, I've discovered that the need for HR community has never disappeared. In fact, it's intensified, especially for women in HR who are balancing caregiving responsibilities both at home and in the office and carrying the emotional load of the work with no outlet to share it with.

The power of peer connection: lessons from JSA

This reality crystallized when I launched the Job Search Accelerator for Women in HR in early 2025. Job searching is isolating and emotionally draining for everyone, but for HR leaders, there's an added layer of shame. We feel like we should know how to do this perfectly because we are HR.

Amazingly, community became the number one most valued feature of the program (now in its fourth cohort!).

Participants discovered they didn't have to navigate their HR job search alone. The JSA community:

• Shares relevant job postings and insider insights

• Provides encouragement during tough days and celebrates wins

• Offers constructive feedback on search strategies

• Shares valuable resources, and yes, laughs over ridiculous job requirements

• Helps spot opportunities and avoid mistakes that others might miss

Going it alone means making avoidable mistakes and missing opportunities that a trusted peer community would catch.

Community that doesn't end when the program does

What I didn't expect when I launched JSA was how much participants wanted to stay connected once their cohort ended. The relationships built during those weeks weren't tied to the job search itself. They were built on finally having peers who understood the specific weight of this work.

That's why every JSA graduate becomes part of the JSA WHR Alumni community. We meet monthly, and each meetup is an "Ask Me Anything" session where members from every past cohort can join, not just your own. It's a chance to meet other senior HR women beyond your original group, expand your network further, and ask whatever's actually on your mind, whether that's a specific job search question or something more general about working in HR. It's exclusive to JSA alumni, so the conversations stay candid in a way that's harder to find in an open group.

Your next step

If you're tired of sighing every time you see another email from stakeholders, if you're eating dinner at your desk again, if your HR role feels a lot harder than it used to be, it doesn't have to be this way.

The September cohort of the Job Search Accelerator for Women in HR is currently open at early bird pricing. Beyond the coaching and the strategy, you'd be joining a community that doesn't disappear when the program ends.

[Book a call here] to find out if it's the right fit for you.

I work with female senior leaders in Human Resources who feel stuck to help them love their work or find work they love. I write about:

👂 Executive & career coaching

📄 Career development and career transition

🎯 Job search strategy

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