CEO Succession Unveiled

Posted on January 02, 2018 by Pedro Pinto, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Extending Your Corporate Legacy
A company’s corporate legacy rests on the efficacy of the long-term vision of the CEO. However, legacies, like leaders, vary, and no two are the same. When two or three candidates present great characteristics for potential company leadership, deciding on the perfect person will require a focus and paradigm beyond what CEOs often consider because of their figurative proximity to the position.

Within the frequently lengthy and intricate grooming process, it would be prudent to involve a third party that can provide a different perspective on potential CEO selection. Qualified executive coaches can assist and provide CEOs useful guidance to enhance the overall process of choosing a company’s next leader.

Executive coaching is not just a corporate formality forced upon administrative chiefs. Its purpose and function extend far beyond required company rituals and red tape. An executive coach can be the tool needed to prepare your future CEOs and nurture their innate and learned leadership skills.

Candid Consideration
A great CEO makes tireless strides to maintain a hand on the pulse of every element of his company from investments to profits to employee satisfaction and concord. Often, leaning solely upon evaluations and conferences fails to provide an adequate temperature of the company’s state. When considering the most critical factors of the corporate entity, presiding CEOs should consider candidates that understand what makes the company successful beyond the bottom line: the workers.

Potential leaders have to value more than economic gains. Grooming candidates will mean involving them at all levels of the company. Genuinely being connected to the business means being related to all company employees, not just the board of directors.

While developing close relationships as CEO with professionals in the company can be a positive thing, proximity introduces obstacles to honest conversations and real perspectives of office happenings. A CEO is just too close to the matters at hand to expect employees to be outspoken about important affairs.

The familiarity between the CEO and his employees could limit the level of honesty as it relates to strengths and weaknesses in office engagement and performance. This is where good executive coaching can be beneficial. One of the most significant advantages of hiring a coach is gaining a professional who can survey the current happenings and give frank and honest feedback to the presiding CEO. He will be able to provide and receive sincere evaluations from parties of all levels of the company without personal feelings or attachments to muddy the corporate waters.

Blind Spot Elimination
The office of CEO is a demanding one which few have genuinely experienced on a personal level. Fulfilling this role is the only way to know best (and first hand) what the job entails. Because of this particular knowledge, he may be inclined to seek candidates he believes has the current and future requirements to be successful as a CEO.

The focus may be unintentionally narrow based on experiences in the CEO role. While that may sound problematic, there are positive aspects to this. Grooming a future leader by encouraging traits that align with a favorable philosophy is an excellent tactic.

An even better strategy is employing the aid of an executive coach who can join the team with a fresh perspective, pinpointing the areas in which additional work and change should begin. This can prevent missing any potential blind spots that may be overlooked in the grooming process. Executive coaching offers neutrality, a quality every CEO should find invaluable as he embarks on the journey to identify new leadership.

Management Metamorphosis
A conversation with any high-level executive will most likely reveal management as one of the essential skills to master when running a business. CEOs are arguably managers of people (and office) at the most elevated of levels. Developing their styles over the course of the years, they bring to the table concepts and procedures learned while working with others as well as personal strengths and areas of confidence.

A CEO looking to groom a potential candidate might strongly advise management mastery and demonstrate expertise CEOs themselves have found personally successful and advantageous. In selecting a new CEO, the present leadership would be wise to assess the outcomes of management styles of the succeeding candidates to ensure they possess excellent interpersonal skills.

An executive coach is trained in the ability to audit subordinate-to-superior relationships for common issues and struggles that, on the surface, can appear to be project or performance related. We are all creatures of habit, but coaches frequently find that old management styles rarely correspond with the people to whom they are intended to manage. While the intention of the leadership is pure, the real problem may lie in the managerial technique.

A coach is particularly beneficial in helping a CEO or candidate discover styles in which all employees excel. The coach’s interaction can help achieve higher productivity, a decrease in HR consults, and increased workplace satisfaction.

Finding a suitable successor for a CEO position is not a flighty decision, and an executive coach should be a pivotal part of a corporation’s process. Working together, a CEO and a qualified coach can ensure the best candidates have the exact qualities needed to lead the company into a brighter future successfully.