The best measure of a CEO’s ambition is their thirst for leadership. CEOs who have big ambitions have an unquenchable thirst for leaders, while those who are content with their accolades and pleased with their results have no need for new talent. Boards and CEOs who are determined to grow will be committed to a world-class succession planning program and will espouse two main axioms, firstly that “the purpose of leadership is to create more leaders”, and secondly that “You cannot be promoted until you can be replaced”.
In your search, you should gravitate towards CEOs who know the growth rate of the company cannot outpace the growth rate of their executive leadership team. They must be committed to seeking and seeding leaders at all levels in the organisation if they want to deliver a growth rate that outpaces the market. Great CEOs understand this and will be able to provide evidence of institutionalizing processes and systems that develop leaders at every level in their organization.
During your executive selection, you need to look into how dedicated your candidate is to succession planning, by asking the following telling questions:
Question 1: How much time should you be spending on leadership development?
In these fast-paced times, it’s understandable that the CEO of an organization would always be busy with various aspects of his job, but no matter how full the schedule is, they should always make time for succession planning. The top 1% of CEOs know that their personal and professional growth rates are both directly linked to the speed at which they can develop new leaders within their organization. Many CEOs will dedicate 5% to 10% of their time to succession planning, but those of them who are truly dedicated to succession planning will allocate 40% to 55% of their time to seeking and seeding leaders inside their organizations. This means that they will hold meetings, identify, assess, evaluate, and develop leaders within the organization, with 2 to 3 weeks of 360-degree reviews, at least twice a year, and then they create development plans for their direct reports to identify the gaps and capabilities they need to develop, in order to be a proper successor and lead the organization.
Luigi “Geno” Auriemma one of the most celebrated basketball coaches in the world said “If you want to be a leader you have to make time for it. It takes time, and the best leaders listen. It takes a commitment to be present and being in the now.” Most leaders are not dedicating the time it takes to be a leader and this question is a quick litmus test to tell whether they are doing the job or not. It is akin to someone telling you that they love bodybuilding and when you ask them how much time they spend in the gym they say they go once a week. You know right away that they are not serious bodybuilders, and likewise, CEOs who spend less than 20% of their time on leadership activities are not serious about leading their team, they are just barely managing them.
Question 2: Discuss the following statement: You cannot be promoted until you can be replaced.
When you ask this question, observe how your candidate reacts; some candidates may be disgruntled and say that people should be promoted when they deserve it, regardless of whether a replacement can be found for them. However, candidates who believe in succession planning and who understand how personal and professional growth work, understand that they need to develop the bedrock underneath them, the foundation on which they will rely to rise up. These top performers understand that if they want to grow their business by 100%, they need to grow their leadership by 100%. Picture this in the perspective of a local organization with plans to go international: the CEO must find someone, internally, to handle their national responsibilities, before they can assume an international position, so the CEO’s ability to move up depends on their ability to replace themselves.
Question 3: What process have you created to develop succession planning in your organization?
This is an area where, unfortunately, over 90% of candidates will falter and fail to be up to par, which is why this question is so telling. Top candidates should exhibit a history of identifying the core capabilities that the organization needs to excel in, in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and realize the vision. There must be a concerted effort to institutionalize the development of these capabilities internally in the company.
All the company’s processes, policies, and systems should be aligned to this end. In your CEO assessment, your top candidates should be ones who exhibit a demonstrable history of identifying the core capabilities that the organization needs to excel at and which are required to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, and then have created regimented and institutionalized processes that creates, develops, nurtures and inculcates these capabilities across the organization.
In addition to traditional learning and development programs they can also institutionalize elements such as the mandatory assignment of a senior mentor to all new recruits, allowing groups to sit in as observers in board meetings to get a bird’s eye view of what’s happening in the business, lunch every fortnight with the business unit head, and many other initiatives to nurture a leadership narrative in the company. If you notice many of these I just mentioned are cost-efficient methods which are easy to implement. An effective leadership agenda does not have to be expensive, but it does require commitment from the Board and CEO to work.
Looking for more questions to ask a CEO? Read “CEO Assessment and Selection” to learn more about the 7 universal success factors for the Chief Executive Officer and unlock over 450 fail-safe questions that allow you to recruit top performers. Get more free CEO Assessment tips at https://tpgleadership.com/ceo-assessment-selection-book/ .
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