Leading Age - January/February 2011 - 34

12 Steps for a Board Hiring and Onboarding a New CEO
1. Determine date to hire new CEO. 2. Review the past five years’ strategic plan and results. 3. Brainstorm goals and leader characteristics needed to grow into the future. 4. Revise the strategic plan for next five years. 5. Update the job description to include the new strategic plan and leadership characteristics. 6. Obtain a human resources expert or a search firm to help guide and facilitate the interview process. 7. Outline a timeline for the interview process and a date for completion of hiring. 8. Search for internal candidates. 9. Search for external candidates if needed due to lack of suitable internal candidates or to confirm internal candidate choices. 10. Hire CEO. 11. Develop a 100-day onboarding plan collaboratively with the new CEO. 12. Evaluate the effectiveness of the CEO at months six and 12.

5. 6.

Respect the existing culture. Successful onboarding begins by not trying to change the culture—at least not too quickly. If the community has been doing well, don’t try to shake things up immediately. If you observe dysfunctional behaviors, take swift action. Be visible and approach people. Are you the type of leader who lives on the computer or who feels naked without your smart phone? Get out of your office and speak with the people who work for you or who live in your community. Become more than the photo posted on the Web site or in marketing collateral. Get clarity on expectations (yours and others’). Take steps to ensure that your strategic plan is up to date. Seek help (from an executive coach or a mentor). Don’t be stoic. You’ve heard the adage, “It’s lonely at the top.” Self-imposed isolation can be particularly true for new leaders who do not want to show anyone that they are on a learning curve, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Many organizations are now providing executives with an executive coach to help them avoid the pitfalls of the first six months. With the cost of replacement potentially several times the executive’s salary, engaging a coach can be a wise investment with a large return.
LeadingAge magazine | January/February 2011

Develop your vision and convey your leadership point of view. Spend time thinking about where you want your community to be in the next five, ten or more years. What do you stand for? What are your values? Ken Blanchard has spent a lifetime talking with leaders about sharing their leadership point of view and shares his insights via video. 8. Assess and build your team. In step 2 above, we suggest you ask questions and listen intently. We also recommend you observe the interactions of your leadership team. Spend time with your team at an off-site retreat where you can share your vision and leadership point of view. Find out about their ideas. Remember to really listen to what they have to say. 9. Make early decisions on small, quick fixes. We don’t recommend making any major decisions merely for the sake of displaying your decision-making skills. We do recommend, though, that if you can have a big impact from making small changes, don’t wait! You’ll earn trust and respect from employees for making their lives easier. 10. Celebrate successes. Successful executives are focused and action-oriented. Sometimes they are so busy achieving success that they forget to celebrate what they have accomplished. Every 30 days, spend time reflecting on what you and your team have accomplished. If there’s a need for course correction, that’s okay. Just be sure to acknowledge those successes.

Each of these recommendations can be built into a 100-day action plan that will enhance the success of any leader moving up or into a new organization. The next time you are considering hiring a new leader for your community, remember that 30-50 percent of new leaders fail. These recommendations, combined with the experiences of CEOs and leaders who successfully onboarded into their organizations, can be used to develop your own onboarding roadmap. Specific examples of onboarding successes and recommendations from the executives in this study are here.

Mark Steele is vice president and regional operations manager for American Baptist Homes of the West. Sylva Leduc is managing partner of Sage Leaders Inc., an executive coaching and leadership strategy firm based in Scottsdale, Ariz. The authors’ presentation from the 2010 Annual Meeting is available here.

Leading Age - January/February 2011

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