Phase One: Situational Assessment
An organization will be in turmoil during a CEO retirement transition if adequate time and attention have not been given to clearly communicating the transition process, roles, time frames, and CEO selection criteria. Board members and senior managers will often feel confusion, anger, distrust, and a lack of direction. These feelings will infect the rank-and-file staff, causing morale issues, unnecessary rumors, and organizational stagnancy.
Both board members and employees struggle with emotional attachments to the current CEO, including an inability to see the future without him/her. They fear how a new CEO may alter the organization and do away with all of the things that have made it successful to date. Yet using the phases outlined above to develop a clear picture of the organization's future direction, and the type of leadership qualities, skills, and experience needed to continue the organization on a path of success, helps the board and employees tie the organization's success to a plan versus to the current CEO.
By defining the organization's "next era," the focus is on skills needed in the future instead of on the current CEO's shortcomings or, conversely, on the perception that the organization will never be able to find a comparable replacement. Continually trying to fill someone else's shoes is a sure setup for failure for a new CEO. Therefore, a major goal of phase one is to steer the organization to a new vision of the ideal CEO without denigrating the current CEO's contribution and style.
Through the current board and select senior managers identifying the organizational objectives for the new CEO via the strategic plan, not only can the organization focus the recruitment process on individuals with the capability to carry out this plan, but the likelihood that a new CEO will take the organization in a direction not desired by the board is greatly reduced.
In today's challenging behavioral healthcare environment, leadership is about producing a change and setting direction. Some of the CEO skills required, as pointed out by former NCCBH president and CEO Charles Ray (now of CGR and Associates, and who also works with the author), include:
- visioning
- systems alignment and communication
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empowering and motivating
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learning and continuous improvement
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mission-mindfulness and
- strong business acumen
Another major issue that needs to be dealt with during a CEO transition is senior managers' expectations for promotion, feelings of job security, and overall feelings of competence and value under new leadership. Senior managers who are not of a similar retirement age might be considered for the CEO position. Retaining valuable employees, whether or not they meet the criteria for promotion to CEO, is a critical objective of succession planning. By participating in defining the organization's strategic direction and the skills needed by a future CEO, senior staff members often come to realize that this is not a job they want, or that they need to work on their skills to meet the qualifications. This lays the groundwork for candid discussions between the CEO and senior staff about career planning. This type of communication and reassurance of senior employees' value accomplished during phase one, when the key criteria for the new CEO are defined, sets the stage for ongoing buy-in and support for the new CEO (whether hired from the outside or inside). All of the above is true for board members or key community stakeholders who believe they are qualified for the CEO position. The work involved in phase one gives the board a set of tools to clearly and respectfully explain why someone is or is not qualified.
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