So you want to be a leader?
Chances are that the organization that you are working for, or do work for, has had a leadership shuffle in recent years.
Consulting firm Booze Allen conducted a 2005 study of the 2500 largest publicly traded firms in the global markets. They compared turnover and tenure of CEOs compared to 1995 and found the following:
1) CEO Turnover rates were up 300%
2) CEOs were getting younger, the average age dropped to 52 from 56
3) CEOs had 4 less years of experience, down to 24 years
4) CEOs had on average 5 prior jobs, down from 5.8
5) CEO tenure at the firm that they led was down more than 5 years to 15
6) Average tenure as the CEO dropped to 6.6 years from 8.8 years
7) CFO, COO and other C-Level positions had very similar results to those of the CEO
Most of the CEOs lost their positions because they missed targets or they endangered or embarrassed the organization. Think of the countless companies that were lead stories in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons.
Putting It Into Action:
Determine your Executive Leadership’s greatest challenges to meeting their targets. If you have been at the organization longer than the CEO, what wisdom can you share? Identify what you can begin doing today to signal to your leaders that you can help remove that target on their back.
With you along the path towards success,
Joseph