CEO Ready

 

Issue No. 663 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Nov. 25, 2025) highly recommends a book for CEO wannabes—and current CEOs who are still lifelong learners. Plus, click here for recent issues posted at the NEW site for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including Time to Stand Up, by Bill Hull. Also, check out the 20 management buckets (core competencies). Co-author Byron Loflin coaches CEO candidates to “imagine where they are and what they’re doing ten years from now”—by having a cup of coffee with their future selves. “What would they say they’ve found most rewarding during those years?"   7 Judges You’ll Face in the CEO Interview Process Quick! Give me 10 key points to share with a candidate who thinks he or she is ready for the top spot: CEO. (I thought of three—but then I read this book. Oh, my. I know nothing!) The 20-page chapter with “Ten Ways to Work with Peers in Order to Be CEO Ready” is worth the price of the book. Chapter 5’s subtitle is a warning: “C-suite colleagues can’t get you the job, but they can kill your chances.” CEO Ready:  What You Need to Know to Earn the Job —and Keep the Job by Mark Thompson and Byron Loflin (Nov. 25, 2025)   I’m a big fan of recommending niche chapters. See Ball #2 in my Book Bucket chapter, “Mentor Your Team Members With Niche Books: Leverage their strengths with thoughtfully selected chapters.” So when I read Chapter 5 in CEO Ready—it was a no-brainer and a time-saver. The next time a leader asks me how to prepare for a CEO interview, my response will be: “Read Chapter 5, 'Prepare to Move from Peer to Chief.'” This book far surpasses anything I've ever read on this topic. It's comprehensive and so insightful. Many CEO wannabes, per the experience of the authors, are woefully unprepared—even when others have signaled that they are the top candidates. Wanna be ready? Read this. Did you know you will face seven judges during the CEO interview process?    1. You    2. Board of Directors    3. C-suite Peers    4. Current CEO    5. Owners (stakeholders and the “court of public opinion”)    6. Recruiters and Assessors    7. Direct Reports, Employees, and the Customers They Serve Here’s a taste of this must-read book from Harvard Business Review Press: #1. YOU. “Get to know your blind spots and fears, then learn to manage them.” Don’t skip the section on your top nine blind spots. Gut-check?    • Blind Spot #1: Overestimating your status as heir apparent.    • Blind Spot #4: Behaving badly if you’re passed over (again). “Get yourself a truth teller,” recommend the authors. By the way, Byron Loflin has interviewed over 1,000 CEOs and board members. Mark Thompson previously served as chief executive of the CEO Academy in partnership with Wharton and McKinsey. #2. BOARD OF DIRECTORS. Warning! Marshall Goldsmith, who wrote the foreword to the book, says that boards can smell inauthenticity “a mile away.” He adds, “It’s not that we hate suck-ups; it’s that we hate bad ones.” The authors warn: “Do not patronize, flatter, or ingratiate yourself with the board.” Yet… “Wanting the CEO job requires ego. Being great at the job requires humility.”    • Insightful: five factors the board will find favorable about internal candidates—and six factors that favor external candidates.     • The authors list eight “common reasons candidates are not selected” by the board, including personal or professional issues and proclivities such as “telling the world how smart we are,” “not listening,” and “failing to give proper recognition.”    • Must read: Marshall Goldsmith’s list of 20 workplace habits “you need to break,” featured in his bestseller, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. (Read my review.) By the way, read this helpful article on nonprofit searches from Bruce Dingman, “The Proper Care and Handling of Internal Candidates.” #3. C-SUITE PEERS. “No organization is better than its vice president level”—so how will your peers respond if you get the CEO position? Support you—or bolt? (Yikes!) Long before the CEO search begins, one leader says he “explicitly expects leaders to spend one day a week helping colleagues outside of their own areas to succeed.” Thompson and Loflin add, “That should be considered a minimum outreach for someone who wants to be CEO.” There’s more:    • “There’s a burdensome weight that about eight out of ten CEO candidates carry around: they need to prove they’re right. And frankly, you don't get to be in the running for a CEO slot if you haven't been right a lot. Yet, a big part of this shift is that, as CEO, you know on a good day you may only know about 20 percent of the answers you need.”    • Note: Dick Daniels warns about "the danger of the 15%. Some people can be right 85% of the time. It is a powerful gift. The danger is when they assume they are right 100% of the time. They become relationally dangerous 15% of the time when they are wrong but think they are correct." (Read my review of Leadership Briefs.) #4. CURRENT CEO. Many incoming CEOs are oblivious to the feelings of outgoing CEOs. One CEO told the authors that she swore to herself, “’I’ll never look back. But it was like cutting off an arm.’ She found it difficult to reconcile the fact that ‘the greatest impact I’ve ever had might be over.’”  In the section, “Expect Emotional Distress or Resistance,” the authors caution, “Prepare for the possibility that your predecessor will not step aside gracefully, even if they profess a desire to do so. Even CEOs who have announced their departure may change their mind.” And note: CEO Ready is not just for future CEOs. Current CEOs—all leaders and managers—will benefit from reading this book. The authors quote former HBS dean Nitin Nohria’s research on why leaders must distinguish between four different types of incoming challenges:     • Normal noise (“the small stuff”)    • Clarion calls (“the big ones—loud and sustained")    • Whisper warnings (“the trickiest to spot”)    • Siren songs (“the seductive distractions”) Pick one—any one! The book notes seven justifications why some CEOs postpone their exits:    • My successor isn't ready yet.    • The organization needs me now more than ever during this period of change.    • It's just not the right time to leave.    • The employees, customers, and shareholders won't stand for it.    • The board wants me to stick around.    • I need to work through the merger or latest transformation.    • I'm planning to leave after the next year or two (or some noncommittal period). #5. OWNERS (stakeholders and the “court of public opinion”). Note: Many of the readers of this eNews are leaders and board members of nonprofit organizations. While this chapter—“Engage with the Owners: Your candidacy depends on what your shareholders value”—may not be immediately relevant to the nonprofit world, don’t skip it. Read “Your CEO Readiness Pulse Check” at the end of this chapter (ditto—at the end of every chapter), and definitely read about the seven ways to win the “CEO audition,” and read the section, “Honor the Founder.” #6. RECRUITERS AND ASSESSORS. This chapter plows new ground—and reminds all of us we still have much to learn. Oh, my!    • “Embrace the scrutiny. Learn to live under the microscope of assessors and consultants who’ve never had the job.”    • “Some 53 percent of the time, the ‘obvious heir apparent'—the anointed successor in a CEO search—proves to be the wrong choice…” according to one of the leading firms conducting senior executive assessments.    • And this caution for all of us who love assessments: George Smart, founder of ghSMART, “…eschews many of the off-the-shelf psychological and behavioral tests that you may have taken already, because most are not validated—in a scientific sense—so they cannot predict CEO success.”    • Practical idea: “Write a five-page vision memo about being the next CEO…”    • Note: The 25-page appendices are jam-packed with assessments you may be asked to complete (descriptions of nine common diagnostic tools); assessment frameworks categorized into four major areas including conflict and change management; and assessments used by the major executive search firms—and how they differ. #7. DIRECT REPORTS, EMPLOYEES, AND THE CUSTOMERS THEY SERVE. You’ll appreciate (and learn from) the chapter, “Honor Culture, Comfort Customers, and Manage Celebrity.” Honest. There’s just WAY too much good stuff in this chapter too. Here’s a start: rate your competencies in the “seven officer roles of the chief executive.” (Did you know you’d have seven roles? LOL!)    • Chief Engagement Officer    • Chief Customer Officer    • Chief Gratitude Officer    • Chief Architect (“Can you reinvent what must change while preserving what works?”)    • Chief Culture Curator    • Chief Transformation Officer (Another warning! According to HBR research, “only 22 percent of CEO-led transformations succeed.”)    • Chief Communication Officer PERMISSION TO BE HAPPY! Gratefully, the authors wrap up this extraordinary book of warnings and cautions with a final chapter, “Permission to Be Happy.” They challenge CEO candidates to ask three questions: "What anchors you? What fuels you? What lights your sky?" If you’re looking towards the CEO role—or coaching someone eyeing that chair—I hope you’ll read this book. TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for CEO Ready: What You Need to Know to Earn the Job—and Keep the Job, by Mark Thompson, Byron Loflin, and a foreword by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. Listen on Libro (9 hours, 3 minutes). And thanks to Harvard Business Review Press for sending me a review copy.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) GUT CHECK! In Chapter 5 of CEO Ready, the authors preach that lifelong learning for leaders is a must. Ditto humility. Try this: “Last month I told you that I wanted to become a more effective listener when I interact with my team and during our executive team meetings. Based on my behavior in the past month, what suggestions would you have for me? Do you see anything that could help me become a better listener next month?” 2) In the chapter, “Win the Board’s Trust,” the authors list five questions you must answer to become CEO ready. Question #3: “Do you act like you’re always being evaluated, because you are? Even when there's no formal plan in motion, the board is assessing you in every interaction. Are you showing up with presence, curiosity, and maturity, even when no one says it's an audition?" 3) “What if…our CEO is hit by a bus?” If you’re a board member of a nonprofit ministry—succession must always be on your agenda. Check out videos and resources in the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series #4: Succession Planning.        SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #33 of 99: Protected! For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #33 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. PROTECTED! A True Life Story of God's Word Smuggled  Behind the Iron Curtain—and the  Influence of a "Tremendous" Man by Bob Kelly (Nov. 21, 2018) Have you ever felt unprotected? Fearful? Anxious? Sleepless? Worried? Second-guessing—“why-did-I-say-yes-to-this?” Bob Kelly’s short book packs a punch (dozens of punches!) as he bobs and weaves the Psalm of Protection through page-turning stories while smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain in the 1970s.    • Reviewed in Issue No. 399 (Jan. 15, 2019).    • Read my review on Amazon.    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #13 of 20: The Crisis Bucket. You think you’ve had a few zig-zags in your career? Read why Bob, the East Coast bank president, signed on with a Bible-smuggling ministry in California—while his car ended up near El Paso, Texas! (Read Chapter 8, “A Hard Decision.” A miracle story!) And, oh, my…did I mention his short stint selling life insurance? One interviewer’s assessment, “This applicant is confirming definitely a real lack of interview getting and closing capacity.” LOL!   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      Mistake #2 of 8: “Misunderstanding Board Member Roles: The 3 Hats.” Read more in the new workbook, The 8 Big Mistakes to Avoid With Your Nonprofit Board—and complete the worksheet on page 17, “What Hat Are You Wearing When…” IMPORTANT NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this website. New book reviews will also be archived here at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. And/or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. Shroud of Turin Museum Now Open! Orange County, CA “The Shroud of Turin: An Immersive Experience,” a $5-million, 10,000-square-foot museum dedicated to the world’s most studied artifact, opened to the public on Nov. 19, 2025, in Garden Grove, Calif. This landmark museum—the largest of its kind—will immerse guests into the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, presenting compelling evidence on the purported burial cloth He left behind. More info here. (Watch for my review.)   Page-Turner! When I started reading these stunning stories of redemption and transformation—I put down my pen and just read (and prayed). Read my short review of Cracked Vessels: True Stories of Real Life Restoration, by J.P. and Diana Spitz with Mark Ellis. Find more reviews at my Pails in Comparison blog.