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.
