Nofie Iman

Learning to be a great CEO takes time. Stakeholders, though, have little patience for leaders who are learning on the job. Dan Ciampa, in “Almost Ready: How Leaders Move Up” (HBR January 2005), cites The Center for Creative Leadership’s finding that 40% of new CEOs fail in their first 18 months and writes, “the churn rate is on the rise.”

Part of the problem may lie in how leaders are chosen. As Ram Charan says in “Ending the CEO Succession Crisis” (HBR February 2005), “Too often, new leaders are plucked from the well-worn Rolodexes of a small recruiting oligarchy and appointed by directors who have little experience hiring. Hiring a CEO is simply different.”

One difference is the importance of taking the long view — not only allowing a newly appointed CEO time to ride out the bumps of a few disappointing quarterly results but also ensuring that lengthy preparation precedes a new CEO’s election. As Charan says, “Choosing the CEO’s successor is not one decision but the amalgam of thousands of decisions made by many people every day over years and years.”

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