Serving on a search committee tasked with hiring a new CEO is not for the faint of heart. It’s an exhaustive process and it’s right up there with parenting in regards to being thankless. If you get it right, you may get a few small kudos, but if you get it wrong, you’ll likely be skewered, usually in public.

The good news is if you start early (at least nine months out), communicate well as a board, and resist the temptation to take shortcuts along the way, hiring the right CEO can be a relatively smooth process.

At KeyStone, we like to think of CEO search in three phases, the “Three A’s.” It is important to consider all three phases in the process. Boards often tend to rush over the first, and forget about the third, but doing so will often lead to an unsuccessful or disappointing CEO hire.

The Three A’s:

1. Assess

In preparation for a CEO transition, it is important the board of directors deeply understands the health of the business. This means going beyond the numbers and getting a diagnosis of both the operating culture and the level of morale/engagement of the employee base. There also needs to be an objective assessment of the real capabilities of the team beneath the CEO. What strengths and gaps will the new CEO inherit when joining the company? We have found many times that boards are surprised by what they learn when they go through this exercise. It’s not that the current CEO is hiding anything, but by the nature of their role, they are not always aware of what’s happening within the ranks.

Soliciting this information can feel a bit uncomfortable for both the board and the outgoing CEO. Utilizing an outside firm to gather this information is often the most effective as they can elicit more honest/objective feedback.

This phase is also when the board should thoughtfully discuss and choose who will serve on the search committee. Getting to the right hire has a lot to do with who is on this committee. The rest of the board must put a lot of trust into a small group of individuals (usually 4-5) who will be responsible for a lot of heavy lifting on behalf of the rest of the board.

2. Act

As the title implies, this is the execution phase of the process. Hire a search firm, recruit candidates, interview candidates and choose the right one. There are plenty of chances to send a search off the rails in this phase of the process, but given this is the area most people understand and focus on, I won’t linger on this piece. Suffice it to say you can do everything right in this phase and still make a bad hire if do a poor job on the other two A’s.

3. Assimilation

After naming a new CEO, the board, and particularly the search committee, breathes a collective sigh of relief: “It’s finally over and we can now resume our regular activities.” Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Dropping a new CEO in the chair and expecting they take the reins and dictate direction immediately is one of the biggest mistakes we encounter. Any new CEO, no matter how talented or accomplished, needs some level of assistance assimilating into the new company to ensure the business moves in the right direction as quickly as possible.

Assuming the board has done their work well in the first phase (Assessment) there is a lot to be shared with the new CEO. What gaps exist in their team? What parts of the company are engaged and working well, and which pieces need attention? Great executives don’t fear issues and challenges, they expect them. What they do fear (and loathe) are issues that are hidden and become a surprise; things that don’t come to their attention until it’s too late. In the worst cases, these surprises have been the complete undoing of the new CEO (and a black mark for the board). At a minimum, they will delay the effectiveness of the new CEO and slow company momentum. In the best situation everyone understands the good, the bad and the ugly, and in not afraid to discuss it openly.

Just as in the Assessment phase, these conversations are not always easy for board members, and in fact may be a little difficult for the new CEO (since they happen so rarely). The best way to ensure the right communications happen is to hire a qualified executive coach to assist the new CEO through this assimilation. However, the board must stay engaged with the CEO and the coach over that first year to ensure the right conversations are happening. In fact, Assimilation should be a discussion topic at every board meeting for at least the first year of the CEO’s tenure.

About the Author:

Mike Frommelt cofounded KeyStone Search in 2002 and has over 25 years of recruiting/search industry experience. He has conducted hundreds of senior level assignments throughout his career with a more recent focus on president/CEO assignments.