Boards, as the guardians of CEO succession, invest early to consider internal contenders, identified as the best performing CEOs, before comparing them with external candidates.
CEOs are critical to deliver the organisation's success in this disruptive age with 44% of the value of the organisation attributed to their impact. Yet Odgers’ global research indicated a 15% gap in confidence that CEOs will deliver the mandate which could limit success for all stakeholders.
Odgers supports the Board or the Nominations Committee navigate the sensitivities and confidentiality of CEO succession journies, which can elapse over 2 years, by:
- Working with the Chair to establish the Success Profile for the CEO, outlining what is required to deliver the future, next-level success for all stakeholders.
- Partnering with the incumbent Chief Executive and Chief People Officer to prepare and evaluate the internal contenders, and through LeaderFit CEO assessments, establish their readiness and succession potential.
- Collaborating with internal contenders to define the plans to address their experience gaps, grow their impact and engage more with the Board and possibly investors.
- Providing the Chair and/or Nominations Committee with a map and plan to attract external talent early to compare with the identified internal ‘successors’, as well as clarify the ‘emergency successor’.
- Supporting the Board navigate the blended successor pool to make the best and timely heir appointment whilst mitigating ‘flight-risks’ of valuable internal executives.
Odgers LeaderFit CEO Assessments
Our LeaderFit CEO assessments combine market and leadership benchmarking, structured 360 feedback (optional) and psychometric profiling to direct the investments in development and the Board’s plan. Odgers also offers LeaderFit Impact surveys to keep the Board apprised of internal contenders’ development and/or coaching to accelerate their readiness to take up the CEO baton.
