Michael Shook Executive Vice President
I lead the Organizational Performance Business Unit at Endeavor Management. Our passion is to help organizations perform optimally by enhancing the leadership’s...
As we work with CEOs and Boards of Directors at many different companies, we are starting to see some changes in what Boards demand from their CEOs. Some of the things we see are pretty standard (Corporate Strategy) but some of the things are less traditional in terms of what CEOs in the past were most responsible for. Lately, our clients’ Boards are holding CEOs primarily responsible for three items, those they feel have the greatest impact on their organizations.
The biggest challenge we see with CEOs is that often they are focused (appropriately so) on the strategy which drives the financial returns of the organization and managing those returns to the satisfaction of their equity owners. However, in the pursuit of the right strategy, many CEOs are mismanaging or don’t understand the “How” and what a CEO does to directly impact the How.
To many CEOs surprise, the latest Board surveys are telling us that Boards are really concerned about employee engagement (only 33% of US employees are considered “engaged at work”), and that research tells us that succession planning and employee development in many organizations are suffering due to the pandemic. For many, the focus on financial returns has caused the “How” to create less than optimal and sustainable organizations.
In future articles, we intend to speak to each of the three areas and what we see in terms of best practices for Strategy Development and Implementation, Human Capital Management and the Management of Organizational Culture.