Executive Transitions: Include Some Video

Video can accomplish a lot for you during an executive transition. Especially if you're global or have a number of company sites.

During change people want a sense of some stability and continuity. They also want to know what the new exec looks and sounds like, as well as what (s)he sees for the future. It's a time for accurate information. Without answering some of the questions that people have in their minds, they'll fill in the blank spaces themselves--the mind abhors a vacuum. Human nature says that what gets filled in won't be half as good, accurate, or helpful as the reality.

I spent the morning working with a client's PR person and Nick Blair of A-Media.  We've got a terrific opportunity to create a genuine "passing of the baton"  video that honors the outgoing exec by highlighting key corporate moments during his career--then brings in the new leader in a way that establishes credibility as well as a sense of direction. How that gets done will avoid the deadly "talking head" approach. Nick's inclusion of photos and effects, video, lighting, and timing are making this an exciting project. And it's something that I believe people will actually want to watch. (It will be uploaded to the company intranet as well as distributed as hard copy).

If you've got a transition or change, latch onto the obvious. Do something visual that will calm nerves, offer useful information, and build confidence and hope at a time when it's needed most.

photo source: www.stormvideo.com.au

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Surprise! CEO: "Hardly Any Real Change"

I just interviewed a CEO who had been with the same global company for 35+ years. The idea was to create a corporate communication piece that used his career to highlight key changes in business over the years. Pretty good idea, huh?

CEO: Nothing has really changed.

Me: (Thought bubble: I'm in trouble and a long way from home.)

CEO: Really. I could name challenges that have to be managed but they aren't what I would call changes in the fundamentals. I've seen price controls, increased competition, global market expansion, customers going out of business, new technology, increased health care costs...nothing changes how we fundamentally do business.

Here's what I see as the truth of the matter:

• Run your company the way you run your household: Balance the checkbook properly.

• When something new happens, get your people together and decide the best way to deal with it.

• Don't fall in love with every new gadget--In our case, every new "opportunity." Do an honest analysis and decide if it's worth it.

• Tell people the truth about what's happening and do it as quickly as possible.

• If you want people to do something differently or better, then train them. But don't get caught up in fads.

• Pay people fairly.

I was reminded of something the wise King Solomon said long before the Change Management era:

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; 
there is nothing new under the sun."  Ecclesiastes 1:9

There are changes, but are they in the fundamentals?  What do you think?

 

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CEO Selection: Celebrity, Savior, or The One You Already Know?

In 2001 Jim Collins grabbed a lot of peoples' attention with his book Good To Great. Collins and his research team went through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial performance improvements over time. They settled on 11 to highlight in the book.

Why did this pop back into my mind now? Because of the CEO selection topic.

I work with large organizations and am involved in the CEO selection process with some of them. Here are 3 observations from that experience:

• The "Celebrity" factor in the USA is strong enough to create desire amongst some Board members to chase a high-profile prospect. Media buzz is very powerful. Charisma can be more magnetic than substance.
  
  
• If the company has been having performance problems, then finding a "Savior" seems like the obvious solution. Saviors don't come from inside the organization. They are normally recruited as a result of their well-publicized performance at another firm. Or they may be in the Celebrity category. But they are always from the outside and therefore appear to know more than anyone currently sitting around the management table.
• Finally, the "Internal Candidate." In good times, Internal Candidates make out pretty well. "Why mess with success" if the internal choices have had a part in it? That would lead to the other side of the internal thought process: "If we're doing lousy, then our internal candidates must be part of the mess and therefore could never lead us to a solution."

If you find yourself playing a role in CEO succession--or watching the process with interest--then. . .

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