Leadership Transitions & Culture Evolutions

Culture is the fabric of an organization – it’s important to get it right to have a workforce ready, willing, and able to pursue the strategic course the new CEO will be setting.  That’s why it’s often near the top of a new CEO’s to-do list. A recent article in Forbes, How to Reset Company Culture: 15 Expert Tips for Newly Hired CEOs, got me thinking, “There’s a lot of great stuff in here (jotted down a few things for my not-so-new CEO self!), but how can a new CEO find the time to prioritize and pursue evolving culture along with everything else on their plate?”

Both the newly hired CEO and the organization will have spent a tremendous amount of time and thought in the selection and hiring process and it’s easy to mistake the new CEO announcement as the finish line. Just as critical is the intentional transition that should follow as the CEO becomes accustomed to their organization and team (and vice versa!) and starts to shape the evolution of culture, strategy, and operations. This applies to CEO’s promoted from within, too – the view from and of the CEO chair is very different from the chair they had.

A good early move for that new CEO is to create their own self-onboarding plan. Take a step back, assess the organization’s culture and people from the new seat, envision where you want to take the organization’s culture and who you need on the bus to get there, plan your next moves, and execute and communicate with intent. That’s where our team can help.

PeopleAK is known as Alaska’s premier recruiting and staffing firm: over our 40 years of doing business, we’ve placed plenty of CEO’s and other key executives at many of the organizations that power AK. Along the way, we’ve learned a thing or two about what makes for a successful CEO transition after the hard work of sourcing, evaluating, and hiring. Beyond recruiting, PeopleAK has expertise and resources in professional development, teambuilding, engagement, and strategic HR to help a new CEO plan and navigate an intentional transition and evolution of their organization’s culture and team. Forbes’s 15 tips start looking a more manageable with our team at your side! Here are a few highlights of where we can help a new CEO:

Assess & Strengthen Your Team: Brooke, our energetic and thoughtful Clifton Strengths Coach, helps C-suite leaders understand individual team strengths before making staffing changes. Gallup Strengths Assessments and Team Mapping support effective change by aligning roles with strengths and informing communications that will resonate with the team. Putting strengths front and center focuses the team on the HOW of change, giving confidence that the team is well equipped to navigate the many changes ahead.

Get the Right People on the Bus: Many CEO’s will find they need to change the complexion of their leadership team to pursue their cultural and strategic evolution they’re envisioning. That can mean switching seats or bringing new executives onto the bus. Our expert recruiters, Kristen, Jacqueline, and Tanor, are standing by to help the new CEO develop candidate profiles, assess internal candidates, and source, evaluate, and hire external candidates: anything the new CEO needs to get the right people in the right seats.

Make a People Plan:

• Evaluate vacancies, time to hire, retention, engagement, and other key people metrics
• Review and update organization charts
• Be ready to recruit with a market-based compensation structure, current job descriptions, and a recruiter on standby
• Consider temporary staff and contractors instead of employees for projects and specialized skillsets
• Expand strengths assessment to build a strengths-based people culture
• Develop a communications plan – especially critical when navigating change
• Augment your communications plan with soft skill training

Plan and Manage Change: Change is hard to get right and takes resources. We can help in two ways:

• Change management guidance using proven models and principles
• Providing interim staffing to support projects and other change initiatives

Have HR Experts Do the HR: Just like most of us will call in an expert for our electrical or dental work, it’s smart to have HR professionals on hand when working on your people. We’ve all seen examples of poor execution in HR marring broader strategic change. Patty and Thomas have served as HR VP’s and are available to provide ongoing fractional HR leadership, interim HR leadership, and to consult on strategy and as HR issues arise.

Give that Forbes article a read. If you’re a new CEO, C-suite executive, or other stakeholder ready to for an intentional leadership transition and cultural evolution, give us call.