The working relationship between a board and the CEO must be successful. It’s that simple, but it’s not that easy.
Are you looking to optimize or improve the relationship between management and the board? Are differences in personality and communication style impacting a key executive’s ability to effectively perform their duties? Are tensions growing between the CEO and various factions of the board? Have you done all you can to make it work with the leader you have in place? Are you faced with the challenge of bringing on a new CEO and want to ensure an effective ‘on-boarding’ process?
How to make it work
On-Boarding
Invest in an executive coach during the ‘on-boarding’ process for your newly hired leader and increase the chances for a successful transition during that critical first year.
DEVELOPMENT
Often the best candidate comes out of the operation, but lacks experience in the board room. Coaching can accelerate this learning process, and take the mystery out of dealing with outside directors or trustees.
IMPROVEMENT
Looking back, most boards can identify an incident or behavior that lead to the difficult decision to terminate their CEO and initiate a new search. But, can they remember giving that individual clear feedback, asking for improvement, and setting goals for getting back on track? Here is where coaching can often help the CEO turn things around and avoid the need for replacement.
Ultimately, boards hire and fire chief executives, a process that takes a lot of time and involves a lot of risk. To optimize this key relationship, directors and trustees can turn to Inner Capital where founder Katie Pushor has been serving boards as a director, advisor or coach since 1998.
Serving the board
Katie Pushor has the unique perspective of having been both a CEO and a director. She currently sits on the board of a Fortune 500 company, a bank, and as a trustee for a national non-profit. As chair of the compensation committee, she has seen first-hand the expense involved in replacing top talent. Her ability to quickly gain the trust and confidence of all parties, understanding the context and utilizing a neutral perspective to create real improvement makes the difference. Unlike many national firms, Katie works with her clients in-person– not over the phone or via Skype. This focused, real-time approach creates meaningful results in a time-effective manner.
Invest in the success of your board’s most significant asset — an effective CEO.
Contact Inner Capital for a confidential consultation.
100 Directors and CEO’s tell the story
Together with her co-author, Dorothy Light, Katie set out to speak with over one hundred CEO’s and corporate directors to learn what they were really looking for in the boardroom. The result was published as the valuable guide Into the Boardroom: How to get your first seat on a corporate board.
Want to learn more? Click here.