The Last Act of a Great CEO

(MoneyWatch) 

The Idea in Brief

You've just won promotion to an executive role. To succeed, you'll need to get up to speed quickly. What better source of wisdom than your predecessor? Yet few incoming leaders take advantage of this priceless asset, say Friel and Duboff. Some want to make a clean break with the past; others simply lack time.

But tapping your predecessor for insight can smooth the transition--benefiting you and your company. Take Intel. In the past two decades, the tech giant has had three orderly CEO successions, largely because it institutionalizes outgoing chiefs' mentoring of new CEOs.

How to capture your predecessor's knowledge? Take advantage of any formal succession processes your company has established. And initiate meetings with the outgoing executive to explore questions such as, "Which in-progress initiatives are most vital? Why?" "What cultural changes are needed?" and "Which of my team members can I count on to tell me the truth?"

The Idea in Practice

Five Ways to Capture Your Predecessor's Knowledge

• Empathize with your predecessor. During the transition, you and your predecessor may be less than perfectly comfortable. If the outgoing executive is retiring, he may feel that he's plunging into an abyss of insignificance. You may have anxieties about your own readiness to step into the role. Understand that you're both uncomfortable, and behave generously toward your predecessor.
• Solicit input about your new team. Ask your predecessor to identify your team members' strengths and weaknesses, their developmental goals, and their potential. Ask on what basis they were promoted into their roles. Find out who's most likely to tell you bad news when it needs to be told. And map out the dynamics and major alliances among members.
• Extract lessons learned. Ask, "What problems did you encounter early on in this role? How might I head off similar ones as I transition into the role? What other problems could come up that I'm not seeing, and how can they be avoided?"
• Share the "first 90 days" plan. In the earliest days, you'll need to make moves that exert a positive impact and that signal the key themes of your agenda. This includes ways in which you'll depart from your predecessor's strategy. Get your short-term plan on the table as soon as possible. Ask the outgoing executive which initiatives and capabilities spelled out in the plan are foundational and how best to usher them in. Probe for advice on low-hanging fruit you haven't yet spotted. If your predecessor is tempted to engage in any undermining activity, this sharing may help to bring him inside the tent.
• Don't assume you have to reach agreement. Evaluate your predecessor's opinions and perspectives on how to excel in your new role based on your knowledge of him. In comments you're inclined to dismiss, look for the grain of truth. In insights you're rushing to embrace, look for the grain of salt.

Further Reading

Articles

What New CEOs Need to Know, 2nd Edition

HBR Article Collection

January 2009

You knew that being a CEO would be tough, but this tough? The job is filled with paradoxes. For example, you bear full responsibility for your firm's fate, but you don't control all the forces determining that fate. And the more power you have, the harder it is to use. Worse, nothing in your past has prepared you for these paradoxical demands. No wonder half of all CEOs get fired.

How will you stay in the game? This HBR Article Collection offers powerful pointers. First, anticipate the surprises that blindside many new CEOs. Here's a preview: You can't run the company. And you're not the boss; the board is.

Second, correctly diagnose the situation you're facing: Are you turning around a company in serious trouble? Starting a new enterprise? Helming a rapidly expanding business? Realigning a firm that has just begun faltering? Select the right organizational strategies and leadership style for your situation.

Third, get the right things done in the right ways. For example, solicit input from peers and subordinates on your action plans; take responsibility for decisions; and make sure everyone knows who's accountable for what, when.

Only experience can help you excel as CEO. This collection helps you mine your experiences to master this toughest of jobs.

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