A CEO's guide to reenergizing the senior team - McKinsey Quarterly - Organization - Talent

A CEO's guide to reenergizing the senior team - McKinsey Quarterly - Organization - Talent

A CEO’s guide to reenergizing the senior team
In today’s tough and fast-changing environment, CEOs must help their top leaders to work through fear and denial and to learn new rules.

SEPTEMBER 2009 • Derek Dean


Excerpts:


When business conditions change as dramatically as they have in the past year, CEOs need to be able to rely on their best leaders to adapt quickly. But what should they do when their strongest executives seem unable to play a new game? The costs—organizational drift, missed opportunities, unaddressed threats—are so big that it’s tempting to replace leaders who are suffering from paralysis. But this is a mistake when, as is often the case, these executives possess valuable assets, such as superior market knowledge, relationships, and organizational savvy, that are difficult to replace.

Before sending promising executives off the field, CEOs should try to help them learn to play by new rules. While part of the task—making a compelling case for change, helping him or her meet new job demands—involves appealing to an executive’s rational side, there’s also frequently an emotional element that is at least as important. Empathizing with the complex emotions executives may be feeling as the assumptions underlying their business approach unravel can be a critical part of overcoming the fear, denial, and learning blocks keeping them stuck (see sidebar, “CEOs, tough times, and emotions”).

Helping senior managers swim through this thick stew of challenges is a perennial problem that has become more acute for many organizations over the last year. The credit crunch and global economic slowdown didn’t just cause the unraveling of many business models. They also unsettled the assumptions and confidence of many senior managers. Mopping up the collateral damage in the executive suite is now a mission-critical task for many CEOs and is likely to remain one even when business conditions begin to recover.

Overcoming fear

Overcoming denial

Overcoming learning blocks

Fear, denial, and the need to learn aren’t new challenges, but more senior executives are falling prey to them in today’s shockingly tough and fast-changing environment. It’s up to CEOs to help their leaders work through these issues, including the powerful emotions involved.

Read full article: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Talent/A_CEOs_guide_to_reenergizing_the_senior_team_2444
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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.