Succession Planning: Does Your CEO Need a Coach?

Note: This is the sixth of 11 blogs featuring practical wisdom from the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 4: Succession Planning. Free to ECFA members, you can download the resource and video by clicking here.

Principle No. 6: Invest in Growing Your Leaders (Every Leader Needs a Coach)

Bill Conaty and Ram Charan preach this memorable one-liner in their powerful book, The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers:

“Only one competency lasts.
It is the ability to create a steady,
self-renewing stream of leaders.”

These two business leaders list 12 “Leadership Pitfalls” in The Talent Masters, including “not developing your own succession plan.” Boards should memorize the list and be alert to staff members practicing this pitfall: “’Running for office’—which is totally transparent to everyone else.”

So on your journey towards succession plan readiness—how high is your board setting the bar on these two big ideas?
   1) Grow your CEO.
   2) Inspire your CEO to grow leaders.

I know. I know. The daily to-do list pushes succession preparation way down. Critical budget needs leave inadequate funds for leader development. Stop! Reflect! Pray! Consider this wisdom:

CFO to CEO:
“What happens if we invest in developing our people
and then they leave us?

CEO: “What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”

Or this from Jack Welch, quoted by Jeff McManus in Growing Weeders Into Leaders: Leadership Lessons from the Ground Level: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

Or this from Paul to Timothy: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2, NIV)

Principle No. 6 includes four discussion ideas for inspiring your CEO to grow—so when succession happens, your next CEO will take the baton of a healthy, God-honoring organization. 

Check it out here: 

DOWNLOAD: ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 4: Succession Planning – 11 Principles for Successful Successions: “Every CEO is an Interim CEO.” The toolbox includes 
   • Read-and-Engage Viewing Guide (20 pages) – photocopy for board members
   • Facilitator Guide (10 pages)
   • 4 short videos (4-5 minutes each)
   • Additional resources and succession planning tools

BOARD DISCUSSION: Does your CEO need a coach? According to Soderquist Leadership, “92% of executives who received coaching said they would be willing to be coached again.”

MORE RESOURCES: Follow the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” color commentaries on Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Click here.

Does Your CEO or Pastor Need a Coach?

Social media lit up yesterday with the sad news of a top ministry leader being terminated. According to the official announcement from the board, “historical patterns of sin” prompted the decision.

It was a wake-up call for one pastor/blogger who suggested that maybe all pastors should have a back-up plan (another job in mind to support their families) in case they lose their livelihood from their clergy careers.

My suggestion: find a coach.

It’s ironic that superstar athletes all have coaches—but few ministry leaders think it necessary. For some, it’s almost a sign of weakness.

Yet pro golfers have niche coaches (swing coach, putting coach, etc.). Amazingly, Kobe Bryant scored 60 points to punctuate his last NBA game with the Lakers this week. He played in the NBA All-Stars game 18 of 20 seasons. Hmmmm. Kobe’s had a coach since junior high basketball.

So why do boards wait until crisis time to bring in outside help? What if—as part of a normal, healthy, biblically-functioning church or ministry—boards invested in their CEOs and pastors and helped them grow now? Helped them leverage their God-given spiritual gifts, strengths and passions?

Bill McCartney, former head football coach of the University of Colorado, and founder and chairman emeritus of Promise Keepers, has a great coaching definition:

“Coaching is taking a player 

where he can’t take himself.”

I’ve talked about blind spots before. But sometimes board members miss the golden opportunity—right in front of them: this month encourage your CEO to find a coach. (And this reminder from last month: board members need coaching too!)

My gut: every CEO and pastor I know would benefit immensely by engaging an experienced, God-honoring coach. 
   • Tenures would be extended. 
   • Encouragement would be enhanced. 
   • Spiritual sensitivity and Christ-like character would be enriched. 
   • Vision would sky-rocket.

The old Fram oil filter line is applicable:

“You can pay me now
or pay me later®."

Pay Me Now: Boards can invest time and resources up front—and grow their leaders.

Or Pay Me Later: Boards can wait for the crisis, the verbal fist fights, the closed door meetings, the Hatfields and the McCoys side-taking, the late night phone calls, the messy termination, the drop in morale and money, and worse.
Steve Brown, president of Arrow Leadership, says “leading me” is a Christian leader’s most important assignment. Your decision! Does your CEO or senior pastor need a coach?

QUESTION: Is there a former athlete in your organization or donor circle who has benefitted from a coach—and could share with your board and CEO why coaching might be the next step in leadership development?

Tame the Advice Monster!

Quick! Read this new book before your next board meeting!

“Tame the advice monster,” urges Michael Bungay Stanier, the author of the hot-off-the-press book, The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever. (Read my review here.)

The author notes, “We’ve all got a deeply ingrained habit of slipping into the advice-giver/expert/answer-it/solve-it/fix-it mode.” (One study revealed that doctors interrupt patients with advice within 18 seconds. Ditto, perhaps, the rest of us in the boardroom!)

Slow down and take a breath, says Stanier. “Even though we don’t really know what the issue is, we’re quite sure we’ve got the answer they need.”

Oh, my.  This is brilliant counsel for the boardroom, isn’t it? When your CEO poses a difficult question to the board—how often do you (and your board colleagues) jump in with the first fix that comes to mind?

(And we should note: most CEOs only give boards their most difficult problems. The easy challenges never make it to the board agenda. Welcome to the board!)

So how do you tame the advice monster?  Stanier says you must ask “The Best Coaching Question in the World.” I’m guessing that few board members see themselves as coaches. We’re advice givers. That’s why we’re on the board, right?

The Coaching Habit lists seven essential coaching questions:
   • The Kickstart Question
   • The AWE Question
   • The Focus Question
   • The Foundation Question
   • The Lazy Question
   • The Strategic Question
   • The Learning Question

Stanier says the best coaching question in the world is the AWE question:
“And What Else?”

At a workshop recently, led by the author, I was in a four-minute exercise with another board chair. I was instructed to ask four questions displayed on the seminar room screen. Stanier says “the first answer someone gives you is almost never the only answer, and it’s rarely the best answer,” so the AWE question is the perfect follow-up.
   • Q1: What’s the real challenge here for you?
   • Q2: And what else?
   • Q3: And what else?
   • Q4: So what’s the real challenge here for you?

In just four minutes—it was almost magical. I stuck to the bargain (whew—very hard) and just asked questions of my board chair partner. He responded to each question—and increasingly, in response to “And what else?” he dug deeper and deeper and—BINGO!—answered his own question and solved his own challenge.

What if the next time your CEO posed a prickly problem to your board, you put on your coaching hat—while humbling your advice-giving tongue—and then simply responded, “And what else?”

Paul writes in Galatians 5:22-23 (Amplified Bible), “But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

QUESTIONS: At your board meetings, are you an advice-giving monster—or a thoughtful, prayerful listener? Should we order several copies of The Coaching Habit and ask for a book review at our next board meeting?