Practicing the Art of Accompaniment
Practically speaking, what is an executive advisor?
In my last post on executive advising, I described it as the “art of accompaniment” provided by someone who listens well, asks probing questions, and draws on a significant experience in a complex leadership role. Leadership is profoundly challenging work, but it can also be rewarding work, especially if you decide you aren’t going to do it alone. As I talk to leaders today, I am concerned about the significant number who are thinking about walking away, and I am passionate about helping them to develop strategies to flourish in these vital roles.
The post below describes my work with three leaders to understand the practical aspects and benefits of having an executive advisor accompany you on your leadership journey. Leadership can be lonely work. A 2012 Harvard Business Review snapshot survey found that 50% of CEOs experienced feelings of loneliness in their role, and 70% of first-time CEOs who felt lonely believed that it negatively affected their performance. The examples below demonstrate that this doesn’t need to be the case. The clients below have permitted me to share their experiences with an executive advisor. Their identities and circumstances have been adjusted to preserve their anonymity. It has been a privilege to accompany all three of them.
The Endurance Leader
I started working with Tim, the longtime CEO of a non-profit doing economic development work, more than 25 years ago. When we started working together, Tim was a gifted, promising leader who rose through his organization rapidly. He loves the mission of his organization and the people he serves. He learned the business of the non-profit quickly. To his credit, Tim realized he was at his best when he could have regular conversations with an advisor outside the organization about critical strategic decisions, leadership team development, key personnel moves, and investments in the organization to help it grow and fulfill its mission.
We spoke regularly, sometimes every few weeks, sometimes every few months, but he knew he could pick up the phone whenever he needed advice for the long journey that is leadership. My advising work with him was not project-specific but focused on leadership growth and development as he led a single organization. Topics of focus include leadership team succession planning, CEO-board relations, innovation and development of a new business entity, and financial risk analysis. The non-profit he serves has an excellent reputation and significant influence in local, regional, and national economic development. He has cultivated and developed an effective board committed to the organization and invested in his personal well-being.
Tim is a very talented leader and would have been successful without my help. Based on our longstanding relationship, he was one of the people who encouraged me to move into executive advising full-time. He explains that our conversations help him to identify unexamined assumptions, re-frame critical problems, and to develop a series of plans I have enjoyed watching unfold with great success over decades. He approaches our conversations with honesty, vulnerability, and humility. He is one of the CEOs I admire most.
Trusted in a Crisis
Mary is a higher education leader with a diverse set of experiences that led her to be tapped as an interim president of a nationally ranked higher education institution in the U.S. Her institution was immersed in a significant financial crisis and surprise vacancy in the presidency. While she has all the skills to be a president, Mary does not aspire to a university presidency. But she loves her university and was willing to serve when the board needed someone who was trusted on the inside and could provide stability in the middle of a significant institutional crisis.
Mary contacted me because she wanted an experienced leader who had led through crises to accompany her from the beginning of her appointment until her successor arrived. I was impressed with her courage, candor, and humility. We met weekly, and we would talk for an hour about the most pressing items on her agenda. She would present a problem she was facing, and I would listen actively and ask questions about all facets of the problem (personnel, financial, political, symbolic, media, board relations, and structural aspects). She made occasional calls outside our appointed time when she needed urgent advice. She was under tremendous pressure from all quarters throughout her term of service, handled her role magnificently, and handed the reigns over to a grateful successor.
Midway through her tenure, Mary confided that the stress of crisis leadership was taking its toll on her. She wasn’t sleeping well, worked constantly, and the problems kept coming. No job can prepare you for the sheer volume of demands in the CEO role. This is especially true in a crisis. During her tenure, she realized that the role makes a total claim on every aspect of a person’s life. I had lived this life as well. Together we developed some executive time management strategies, a wellness plan, and we discussed some ways for her to have more sustainable boundaries. Our engagement ended when she finished her appointment as interim president. She took a well-earned rest and is now in a new leadership role. Her university was very fortunate to have Mary when they needed her, and I am grateful for what I learned while I accompanied her.
A Healthy CEO 360
Marco was an experienced CEO hired by a corporate board to lead a company after the retirement of a long-tenured leader who had a rocky relationship with the board over the last few years. Marco had insisted, as a part of his contract negotiations, that the board retain an external consultant to facilitate a comprehensive 360 evaluation at the end of his contract’s first and fourth years. The CEO wisely understood that it is essential for a leader to know where he could improve and to understand any concerns that might otherwise be avoided in an effort to be conciliatory or avoid conflict. The board and Marco wanted an open and transparent relationship and no surprises and engaged in this review to ensure mutual success and accountability.
As a CEO who has undergone processes like this, I was retained to facilitate this comprehensive review. In this case, the client was the board itself, not the executive. To begin the process, I met with the board chair and CEO to define the scope of the review, discuss the timeline, and clearly define my role as an independent facilitator to gather important information from interviewees (including the CEO and the board individually). We agreed that my final report would consist of 1) a description of the process; 2) a summary of the anonymous feedback from board members, executive team leaders, and a few key customers; 3) my interpretation of feedback and recommendations. These reports were shared with the CEO in a private meeting first to clear up any factual inaccuracies or misunderstandings that might have surfaced during the process. Once corrections were made, these reports were shared with the board in a face-to-face meeting. Based on these reports, the board chair wrote a final evaluation letter to the CEO with a copy to the board. The board chair also wrote a letter to all participants in the process, thanking them for their candor and affirming the CEO’s continued leadership.
This process went exceptionally well. Through the process, board members expressed that they learned much more about the CEO’s leadership and management style than they would have known based on several board meetings each year. One board member said, “I didn’t realize how fortunate we are to have such an effective CEO. The staff loves working with Marco as much as I do, AND I see that the staff have internalized our company’s key goals.” The process also revealed a misunderstanding between the staff and the board about the CEO’s appointment process. This allowed the board to clear up this confusion in a way that would have been awkward for Marco to do himself (if he had even known about it!).
Nobody enjoys being evaluated, but I commend Marco and the board for effectively anticipating, initiating, and participating in this guided process. Marco completed the process with a clear understanding of his performance and others’ perceptions of it. The board also expressed deep gratitude for his service and an unwavering commitment to stewarding this talented leader well into the future. Too often, boards initiate a process like this after trouble emerges or as a way for a consultant to address problems that the chair should be managing with the CEO on an ongoing basis. This was not the case for Marco.
I continue to accompany Marco as an informal advisor and professional acquaintance, and I admire his accomplishments. My specific accompanying role, in this case, was with the board chair and the board in general. I accompanied Marco in a different way than the other two advisees. Still, I know more about what makes him an effective leader because I was fortunate enough to listen to people talk about his considerable gifts and strengths.
Advising as the Art of Accompaniment
You may notice that all three of these cases describe successful leaders—and one board—trusting the knowledge, experience, and integrity of an outside advisor to support leadership sustainability and organizational success. It is no surprise that these talented people are all willing to be vulnerable to get better at what they do. I don’t claim any credit for their successes. They are the ones who hold the leadership role and must blend my advice with the advice of others and the needs of the organization. Reflecting on our conversations over the years, I observe that a confidential space to talk with someone who understands the burdens of the work led them to important insights about themselves and their leadership. The fact that they have also sustained themselves as leaders for long periods gives me great hope for leaders who decide they will not walk the pilgrimage of leadership alone.
Are you ready to stop walking alone in your executive role? Are you anticipating a comprehensive executive evaluation as a CEO or board member? Contact Michael Le Roy for a free, confidential consultation to see if executive advising services are right for you.