EXECUTIVE SEARCH AND TRANSITIONPrepare, Pivot and Thrive
The Risk of Getting It Wrong A change of leader can be a pivotal moment for organizations. How the Board chooses to handle this work can have long-lasting effects, negative or positive. Consider this example. For three years, the Board of an organization has struggled with a lack of faith in its executive director. The mild mannered director lacks personal energy and functions as a coordinator rather than as a manager. His leadership style creates a loss of momentum. Made up of young professionals, the board has let its frustration build, prompting this executive to feel that he has not met expectations. He resigns. The board decides it needs a real go-getter who will focus on fundraising, and it gets what it wants: a motivated, former intermediate staff consultant at a for-profit firm who drives ahead without consulting others. In fact, she often appears annoyed when others voice their opinions. Staff begins to filter out. Always involved in setting the organization’s agenda, the board soon realizes that it has made a mistake. The problem is the members have spent valuable social capital in promoting the new director as an organizational savior. The director leaves within the year and the organization –now significantly weakened and disheartened ---is forced to consolidate its programs and services into another organization. The Speed of Missed Opportunity Many Boards are under the mistaken impression that the best transition is one that is over with as quickly as possible. This is entirely understandable. The prospect of a potential leadership vacuum is scary. Moreover, an executive transition, if not painful, is certainly challenging for a volunteer board of directors, most or all of whom have regular jobs. Even if there is expertise on the board is there time in that person’s day to manage such an important process? Typically the board focuses on the executive search portion of a transition as the all-important activity. In reality the “opportunity window” opens with the Executive's decision to depart (or the Board’s decision to terminate). It is important to think more broadly, beyond the search, and embrace the entire departure-recruitment-selection/hire and post-hire transition as a series of opportunities for change. CentrePoint’s Executive Search and Transition approach provides the insights, ideas and tools to capture the range of opportunities presented by a leadership transition.
Direct phone inquiries to Bruce Meyers, 403-538-8609 or Email bruce.meyers@thecentrepoint.ca
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