New CEO, Old Team.
by Smart, Brad
In "New CEO, Old Team" (Chief Executive, April/May 2008)
the authors said, "CEOs have had little guidance on how to judge
whether to keep most of their inherited team, or look for new
blood."
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A simple but effective approach that has worked for hundreds of
CEOs is to, in the first weeks, conduct interviews with each team
member, saying "I want to get to know you, so let's schedule 2
1/2 hours in which you walk me through your career history, discussing
for each fulltime job your major successes, failures, key decisions, key
relationships and how each boss would appraise you. Then, tell me about
your career goals and finish with your best advice for me--what should I
do to succeed?"
Many CEOs have reported that they have figured out who should stay
or go based on these interviews, and it's a huge advantage to have
those insights in the first few weeks on the job. A similar
chronological interview has enabled GE, Honeywell, Barclays and hundreds
of other companies to achieve 80 percent-plus hiring success.
Brad Smart
President
Smart & Associates
Wadsworth, IL
COPYRIGHT 2008 Chief Executive
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Copyright 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights
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NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.