For the past six months, we've advised a first-time CEO of a medium NFP. Though a seasoned General Manager, they struggled with a Board overly focused on internal operations, requiring them to produce constant reports and analyses. This left them with little time to drive the business forward
We quickly identified the need to shift focus—allowing the CEO to lead while the Board concentrated on governance and oversight. Because of lack of previous experience, the CEO was unsure how to address this with the Chair. During our consultations, we clarified roles and conducted a diagnostic. Equipped with this, the CEO initiated discussions with the Chair, revealing the core issues: lack of trust in the executive team and reliance on recency bias.
The very reason the CEO was brought in as a replacement was the hurdle preventing the CEO to add most value.
As an incumbent moves to a CEO role, they are now required to deal with complexities they have previously not dealt with. They are no longer deep experts – they need to be broad experts. These complexities involve managing multiple functions, the Board, a team of executives and having tough conversations and having to avoid “over-friendly” relationships.
We work with newly appointed CEOs, offering practical, results-driven advice to help them navigate complex stakeholder management. Unlike career coaches, we leverage our deep expertise in corporate strategy, governance, sales, marketing, HR, and professional development. Our approach combines strategic insight with a focus on inner wellbeing to help CEOs effectively manage their Board and executive teams.
Please email us back or visit our website Strategenies for a complimentary 30 mins no-obligation discussion on how we work with CEOs to understand, navigate and extract value from - data, digital and technology; people and organisational performance and business transformation.