KPMG 12th People Management

Symposium

Internal Successions:
The role of HR

Marshall
Goldsmith
Marshall@MarshallGoldsmith.com
www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com
 Goals for today
• Review the human challenges in top
executive succession.
• Discuss the role of key stakeholders
in the succession process.
• Share ideas on how executives can
effectively coach – or unconsciously
sabotage – their successors.
• Share ideas for preparing the
successor for the succession
process.
 Publications
• Succession: Are You Ready,
Harvard Business Press,
February 2009.
• “How Not to Lose the Top Job”,
Harvard Business Review,
January 2009.
 CEO succession
– a human process
• Self – interest
•Ego
•Emotion
•Involving many key
stakeholders
 Passing the baton
of leadership
• The relay race
• It is hard when you are
winning
• It is harder when you are
losing
 Creating a great rest of your life

• Three sessions, 24 executives

• Frances Hesselbein, Alex Von Bitter and
me
• No formal structure, 1 ½ days
• “What am I going to do for the rest of my
life?”
 Letting go is hard to do

• Wealth
• Status
• Perks
• Power
• Relationships
• Happiness
• Contribution
 Key learnings
• No one to talk with
• Three key success factors:
– Meaning
– Contribution
– Happiness
• Success and failure stories
 The three roles
in the final year
• A. Running the business
• B. Developing your successor
• C. Creating a great ‘rest of your life’

• Start with ‘A’ – go toward ‘B’ –

finish with ‘C’
 Why developing internal
successors is worth the effort
• The cost of external failure
• Leadership development by
example
• Leaving a legacy
• Supporting key relationships
 Key relationships
in CEO succession
• The CEO
• Peers
• Direct reports
• Analysts / shareholders
• Customers
• The Board
 The CEO
• The ‘lame duck’ issue
• If the CEO doesn’t like you – it
probably won’t happen
• Managing the complexities of the
CEO – successor relationship
• The panic at the end of the process
 Peers
• The competition factor
• The need to continue the
company’s leadership team
• The balance between ‘not leading’
and ‘being too pushy’
 Direct reports
• The unique challenges of the COO
• The balance of ‘turn around’ and
‘treat people with respect’
• When your direct reports are the
CEO’s friends
 Analysts - shareholders
• How analysts can impact
succession
• New activism
• What about Carl or Kirk?
• Balancing ‘go for it’ and
‘honest projections’
 Customers
• Transactional or relationship
• How they can impact succession
 The Board
• The final vote
• How miscommunications
occur
• The Board member who
wants to be CEO
 The CEO as coach
• When it can work
• Why some CEO’s don’t want to be
coaches
• Working with an external coach
• The CEO as ‘coach facilitator’ not
‘coach know it all’
 Summary and discussion
• What are your succession
challenges?
• Final questions