Coaching Your Successor

This is the 4th in a series of five posts from a book review of Succession: Are You Ready? by Marshall Goldsmith (Harvard Business Press, 2009).

Beginning: Goldsmith argues persuasively that getting an external coach for senior managers, especially CEO’s, just makes sense. And I agree. Would you want a junior executive in the training and development department, however experienced in executive coaching, to coach a new CEO and expect the new CEO to share some of the most private of thoughts? (Truth is, both Marshall and I are external coaches to such clients.) Marshall shares some great tips in this section that are worth paying close attention to.

Become a CEO Coach–Facilitator: Should you, the outgoing CEO, want to act as a coach? Goldsmith offers tips about trying to uncover the strengths and challenges of CEO candidates. Such things as 360 assessments, organizational or climate surveys, and the like can be used to discover trends. Goldsmith also nicely lays out his signature feedforward sessions that involve key stakeholders in the process.