The board that manages your company needs to set a high standard for an incoming CEO. In an article for Chief Executive.net, Ram Charan, Dennis Carey and Michael Useem jointly argue for having a board in place that is capable and contains a wide range of knowledge and leadership, before the chief executive is appointed.
This is important because the board can control and dictate the environment that a new executive steps into. Their policies can thus lead to better performance from everyone else if they set the right example.
In addition to representing a diverse range of ideas, boards also owe it to themselves to stay, as the authors of this article put it, "well-balanced."
"The new rules of the game require that the board is well-balanced in the wisdom, experience, skills and networks of its current directors—and at the same time that the board understands that new directors will be needed to tackle newly emerging issues," the piece reads.
This is broad advice and can be interpreted in a number of different ways. One example can be seen in the recent push for companies to have more women involved, as this diversity can reportedly lead to improvement in performance, as an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer recently examined. It can be a way to represent more people within the company and to keep a consistent flow of talent and expertise.
But it's only one way, and the executive recruitment process depends on locating an individual to take the reins of the company with as honed a focus as the individuals on the board.
Finding people is easy, but finding the RIGHT people is not. YES Partners helps companies FIND the right people – for all company functions, across many industries and globally.
