Change your thinking when appointing your new top team member

Looking back, I am horrified by the number of mistakes I have made over the course of my career when it comes to appointing people to the top team. Interestingly, when I have appointed them from within the organisation, the outcomes, over time, have usually been better. And if you read Amanda Goodall’s book, Credible, you will see evidence that suggests that CEOs appointed from within the organisation do better, statistically, in terms of their longevity in post and their organisation’s outcomes. ?

But Goodall wouldn’t suggest that new members of the C suite, senior management team or whatever you choose to call it, should always be appointed from within the organisation. But, before you look outside, first consider: do you have anyone already on board whom you can train up to be a really good X director?

If we are being honest about ourselves, how often do we sit down before drafting an appointment process, and figure out what the current top team looks like in terms of skills, behaviours, personalities and so on? Focus on?teams and team development in the world of leadership has often felt to me like the tomato sauce on top of a plate of food: not the main dish itself, but something fairly minor that makes the meal taste better.?

If you are to be successful as the head honcho in your organisation, you will only do so if you have developed a balanced team, which provides strong leadership and skill to the organisation. The mistake that people so often make is to think through the job purpose and job description for the new operations director, or whatever, and then pick whoever comes top of the assessment contest.

But the new operations director will have to be the jigsaw piece that fits as perfectly as possible with the other jigsaw pieces in the top team, in order for it to deliver excellence. And remember that, pretty much always, someone will feel threatened by the outsider coming in, and as the leader you’ll have to deal with that.?

So, everyone on that top team will need to reflect on how they, and the team as a whole, will need to adapt in order to get the very best from the new member. When individuals at the top resolutely refuse to accommodate the new joiner, or when they are simply unable to flex their own modus operandi in order to blend with the new team, the future is bleak.

How many leaders have you come across who have done an outstanding job at one organisation, only to fail at the next?* We rush to the assumption that they had reached the limit of their capability, but that so often doesn’t wash.?

We waste so much talent through our own fixed mindsets in the way we onboard senior leaders. So: what to do?

1. When you are appointing someone to your leadership team, acknowledge that it will be a new team. Rather like zero-based budgeting, design your team from scratch after taking an eagle’s perspective on where you have got to as an organisation.?

2. If this is a highly significant (and expensive) appointment, invest properly in doing it well. Get someone from outside to work with you to give you perspective you can’t get on your own.?

3. ?Ask that person to work with you for several months (about two days a month should do it) to mentor the new appointee, helping them to understand the new culture and the recent history of the organisation, and to observe and comment on senior team meetings.?

4. ?As the boss, have regular check-ins with both the new member of the team and the mentor.?

5. ?Ensure that any corrections to the’ flight plan’ are made to ensure that pain points do not become crunch points.?

A quick look at the money.

Let’s say a new member of the senior team costs ￡100,000. The cost of finding them, through headhunters etc, will be at least ￡25,000. The cost to the organisation and having to onboard the new member, slowing down the achievement of the organisation’s plans (which should not be regarded as a sunk cost) almost inevitably, I would put at about ￡20,000. If the person doesn’t deliver the goods, and you have to exit them, the disruption, the legal fees, and any payoff I guess would come to at least ￡30,000.?

My point is that, in blunt economic terms, investing in the appointment of a new senior leader over a period of several months, and considering it as a major strategic move that will better enable you to achieve the organisation’s mission is to adopt a much more positive mindset, far more likely to deliver success sooner and more efficiently.?

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*I’d really appreciate comments from anyone who has come across this phenomenon.?