The CEO in Transition: The 100-Day Cycle and Other Survival Patterns

Even before the corporate scandals that shook the nation last
year, the CEO's term had been on a downward slope. Jim Lukaszewski,
founder and chairman of the Lukaszewski Group Inc., which
specializes in crisis management, pegs the CEO life span at around
32 months, giving CEOs "a year to find the bathroom, a year to get
something done and a year to build a legacy," he says. "If they are
there longer than three years, I call it the 'immortality
syndrome.'" A major reason why so many CEOs get shown the door so
quickly: failing to live up to promises they made at the outset.
Another reason is that CEOs tend to think 10 minutes ahead of time
rather than 10 years. As one of your organization's key message
makers, you must understand not only what makes your leader tick,
but how he or she can integrate into your organization. Below is a
blueprint for you and your CEO, compliments of Lukaszewski:

Expectations and realities that flow beginning with your CEO's
first day:

People want action from day one. They expect the CEO to walk in
the door and begin making changes, making things happen.

People expect change even though they fear it. Everyone is well
aware of the tension during transition. Tension increases
apprehension. Employees cannot understand why the people at the top
of the mountain can't work everything out. They actually believe
there is a plan. CEOs can't take the time to worry about this now
because the clock is ticking on their own performance.

Change is continuous. From the CEO's perspective, the
organization will change significantly about every 100 days during
the first three years, even if everything goes smoothly. The first
600 days present your CEO with the principal opportunity to have an
impact on corporate culture. Corporate culture can only be modified
through significant fundamental change within the organization as a
whole. Old habits never die; they need to be removed.

Cultures are modified with positive, forward pressure applied
constantly: The recipe for culture modification has four crucial
ingredients:

A strong, positive leader (a visionary).
Verbally driven management styles.
Goals everyone can understand, accept, and achieve.
Constant positive direction, clarification, and
validation.

Nothing your CEO learned prior to taking over will seem to be of
great value . . . because it cannot be. Your CEO hasn't yet really
begun to know the organization. Being totally in charge is totally
different. It will be lonely.

During the period covering days zero-to-100, your CEO must be
prepared to:

Act fast: Implement a time-lined program of action the day you
begin. If that is impossible, set incremental goals and guidelines
that achieve rapid situation assessment and the elements of a
"move-forward" timeline within 72-to-96 hours of becoming CEO.

This approach will:

Test those who could be the CEO's key advisors and future
leaders.
Beat the bureaucracy that's probably the reason for past
non-progress and is the repository of the "good old days."
Scare the nesters who think they have finally found a place to
retire.
Subvert the "could haves", "would haves" and "should haves"
that torpedo progress and your success.

Communicate immediately: Help your CEO plan a daily one-page
newsletter or plainspoken e-mail or voice mail written by the CEO.
Winston Churchill did this throughout both World Wars I and II. He
called them "Minutes." Churchill also wrote special orders called
"Action This Day." You might want to institute a similar approach
for things the CEO needs done now.

The CEO's "Minute" is a daily early morning 150- to 300-word
message stressing three major topic areas: productivity,
performance, and items of interest. The first two sections are
factual and relate to operational goals and objectives. The last
section is the CEO's direct communications link to everyone in the
organization. It's talking directly each day to each employee about
things that are on the CEO's mind and theirs.

Related

Recent