An exclusive interview with world-renowned thought-leader in leadership development
Human beings do not like change. Change takes longer than we think, and the process can be arduous. With today’s organisations facing higher demands in an ever-changing global market, identifying, developing and retaining talent becomes something that many wrestle with.
In this exclusive interview with H360, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, prolific author of the New York Times and Wall street Journal bestsellers, “MOJO” and “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” shares his insights on how to achieve effective succession planning and how to better manage change at our workplace.
On Succession Planning and Change Management
Halogen360 (H360): Succession planning is a process for identifying and developing employees with the potential to fill key leadership positions in an organisation. It was primarily a C-Suite issue for the highest-level executives such as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), but has now become more than that. Employees in every organisation are expected to be responsible in their own succession planning for his or her role. What are your views on that?
Marshall Goldsmith (MG): Succession planning is an excellent discipline. it is also a very positive idea to implement. Preparing people in multiple levels of management has a good payoff. It is beneficial when managers start training people who are able to take their positions, because even if they do not end up succeeding in the role, it is an excellent growth opportunity. This doesn’t mean that everyone will be ready to assume a new position, it just means that managers are in the process of preparing other people.
In some cases, succession planning happens on many levels except the CEO’s. There may be a back-up plan for the CFo or the Head of Human Resource, but there is no back-up plan for the CEO. It still is very important for a succession plan to be in place at the CEO level and this is the responsibility of the board.
H360: Along with succession planning, change management is pivotal. However, research has shown that many change management efforts record a decimal percentage of success. Why do you think the failure percentage is so high?
MG: The main reason change management fails is not due to strategy, it is because of people and culture. The failure of change management occurs when people and organisations do not appreciate the people dynamics involved. instead, they solely focus on strategy as if the company is run by robots and machines. leaders also often neglect the cultural and political implications and end up not being able to handle the behavioural challenges faced. The question of “Who is going to be the next CEo?” is not a trivial question, and very often, it is a game breaker.
Often, I witness a typical scenario where a merger occurs between one company with a younger CEO and the other with an older CEO. The older CEO is a boss during the merger, but there’s a clear possibility that the younger CEO in the other company is going to be the next CEO. What happens then? Many of the great people who report to the older CEO leave because they assume that this younger person is moving in, and would bring in his own team to run the business. They start to leave because they don’t see themselves being involved in the future of the company. Gradually, some of the values from one part of the company will start to disappear.
“The main reason change management fails is not due to strategy, it is because of people and culture.” – Dr Marshall Goldsmith
H360: What advice then, would you give to a successor, or someone taking over any leadership roles in an organisation? What are the top three things you would ask him to do and avoid?
MG: The Dos:
1. Listen and learn: The new person really needs to listen to the organisation and learn about what’s going on at a level that is much deeper than the initial level of knowledge. No matter how much the person has been briefed, there is a great depth of knowledge, especially institutional knowledge, that the person will have to fully grasp. This is especially so if he has just moved into the organisation.
2. Learn to make personal assessments quickly: The new successor needs to make some quick personal assessments because they may be thrown into a position where they have to decide who stays and who leaves.
3. Focus on establishing a vision for the future, with respect to the past: This is a very important point, yet often neglected. I have seen a female CEO do a great job of turning around the girl scouts in the USA. One of the ways she successfully did so was to build on the tradition with the future in mind. I think it is very important that the new CEO build on the past while envisioning the future.
“Focus on establishing a vision for the future, with respect to the past… it is very important that the new CEO build on the past while envisioning the future.” – Dr Marshall Goldsmith
The Dont’s:
1. Don’t over-assume: Don’t assume whatever you been told is 100 percent correct. Don’t assume there is not a whole lot of knowledge behind what you have been told.
2. Don’t over-inflate your own ego: you see this happening all the time. When new people enter different industries and companies, they think they know everything. However, they may end up leading the company in a terrible direction if they don’t put aside their own ego to learn with humility.
3. Don’t assume that your new company is going to be like your old company: There are some internationally renowned companies (which we will not name here) that are excellent in developing leaders. However some of the top leaders of these companies who have left to run other organisations have turned out to be ineffective. They were very effective in a particular company culture but they were not effective in some of the other new cultures. What happened is that they had a little too much arrogance, a little too much “This is how we did it in the past”. They assumed that what worked in their previous company would work in their new companies, and sometimes, that isn’t true.
H360: For an outgoing CEO or the person handing over the reins, the succession and change management process is equally important. What advice would you give to these people who have dedicated much to their organisation?
MG: I would say the first “Do” is something that almost no one does.
The Dos:
1. Prepare a great future for yourself: The first thing I ask is, “What are you going to do when you leave?” and “How are you going to spend the rest of your life?” Most outgoing CEOs are not that old, and if they don’t focus on what they are going to do when they leave, they would face a substantial crisis, which happens a lot. if you look at statistics, many CEOs who leave and don’t have something exciting to keep them occupied may find that their life goes into a void. It is a radical change that many don’t plan ahead for.
My advice is to plan well for that next step of your life. If the outgoing CEO has some place to go to that leads to happiness and meaning, the transition process usually works very well. On the other hand, if the CEO has nothing to go to, then the process tends to fall apart because the CEO doesn’t want to leave and falls into “emptiness”.
2. Put in the time to develop your successor: I believe that for internal succession, one should take the time to develop a successor and keep that as a part of your job scope.
3. Let go: As things progress, you need to let go, delegate more and let the successor take on and focus more on the future. When it’s time to leave, you are well prepared to walk out of the door in peace.
The Don’ts:
1. Don’t try to look good by squeezing out numbers in your last year: Anybody who runs a huge company can make the numbers look good by cutting the budget and there are a variety of tricks where you can make your numbers look good for a year. However, that doesn’t really do much good for the long-term interests of your company. There’s a temptation for the out-going person to leave on a positive note and to look good, but my advice is not to do that. one of the classiest CEos I have known did the opposite. He made some very good long-term decisions and positioned the company for the future. His last year didn’t look good on the books, yet he did the right things for the company, focusing on a great future for the organisation instead of himself.
2. Don’t become so fixated on running the day-to-day business: realise that developing people takes time, so don’t be too busy just working all the time. Take the time to develop your successor.
3. Don’t forget to prepare for a graceful exit: Don’t become so fixated on the business that you don’t make the time investment to prepare for a graceful exit, to say goodbye to the people who helped you to have a great life, and to position the company for the future.
On Leadership
H360: How would you describe your leadership type?
MG: I think there are different types of leaders, and where I am, I am not a leader of large numbers of people but I am a thought leader. I find happiness and meaning in being a leader of this type. I am not a CEO and I don’t run a large organisation. I am someone who helps successor leaders get better, I am their teacher, their coach. I also have millions of people who have read something I have written, and hopefully it has helped them in their lives.
H360: We train young leaders from age 10-25 and we believe in starting them young on learning about leadership. What will be some of your best advice for our youths?
MG: The more leadership experiences they can get when they are young, the better. This is so that they can get more opportunities in different settings. These opportunities, learnt at a very young age will help them as they grow older. For example, the great leaders of people love leading people and the only way you can try is to practise leading people. The focus should also be on interpersonal learning, not just conceptual learning. Be happy now, build great relationships with people and follow your dreams.
