Buying Success Insurance

4. So, what can a CEO do to ensure that this misguided thinking and resulting failure don’t take place?

a. Be aware of the problem and its enormous cost to the organization. Treat it like any other $2.7 risk to the company.

b. Buy insurance…some form of on-boarding process.Hire a coach who's worked with executive on-boarding before. It's the best investment (and cheapest) to insure the risk

c. Engage Human Resources. HR should not just in hiring executives, but also make sure there’s an orientation/on-boarding process in place before executives arrive. Oftentimes, it’s up to the individual business sector, executive assistant, or worse yet no one to set up a comprehensive organizational introduction. In fact, many executives are merely introduced at a working meeting or executive conference. That’s the extent of on-boarding before such new executives are asked to dive into often heated and contentious negotiations without any background or cultural lay of the land.

Next Post...watch for more that the CEO do ensure the success of a new executive.

You're Both Wrong!

This is the third of a number of posts about on-boarding for executives:

3. Who is at fault for this failure rate?

a. The company or organization thinks: We invested a lot in this executive. He or she will figure out what has to be done.

b. Incoming new executives think: I’ve done this before; I’m smart enough to figure it out. What got me here will get me to the next level. Everyone wants to see some immediate results.

c. WRONG! A pox on both houses.

(This Q&A appeared in CEO Magazine in June, 2009)

The Cost of On-Boarding if NOT Done Right

This is the second of a number of posts about on-boarding for executives:

2. What are the stats regarding such on-boarding when it goes bad?

a. In his book, The First 90 Days, Michael Watkins of the Harvard Business School states the blunt, disturbing truth: “Studies have found that more than 40-50% of senior outside hires fail to achieve desired results. Estimates of the direct and indirect costs to a company of a failed executive-level hire range as high as $2.7 million.”

b. In my experience as an executive coach, I’ve watched new executives come in like a freight train, turn the place upside down and take down walls before they know which ones are load bearing and which are merely cosmetic. Typically, their “death spiral” begins very early on and can take as little as a year and sometimes two for them to finally be ejected as a threatening organism to the tribe. Peers, subordinates, and even the very bosses who hired them will foment or back such a rejection—directly or indirectly.