October 6, 2014 | Read Time: 9 minutes
When Adren Wilson showed up for his first day of work last month as the chief executive of Public Allies, a group of colleagues met him at the entrance to his new office building in downtown Milwaukee with an enthusiastic welcome. He bantered with them about favorite sports teams, admired the family photos on their desks, and later joined the entire staff for a potluck lunch.
Throughout the day, Mr. Wilson paid close attention to the many greetings. “Is this something they say because they believe they need to say it?” he wondered. “I’ve been in places where people say, ‘Welcome, we’re excited to have you,’ and that’s not always the case.”
He quickly concluded that the sentiment was sincere. It was clear to him that the organization, which trains young adults for leadership roles, had painstakingly laid the groundwork for a smooth changeover ever since its longtime chief, Paul Schmitz, announced last year that he would step down after 21 years at the charity, 14 as CEO. The staff, Mr. Wilson could tell, was ready for him.
As the economy picks up and baby boomers retire, many organizations are experiencing the upheaval and anticipation of welcoming a new boss. In a 2012 report by BoardSource, 17 percent of nonprofit organizations said they had an executive who’d been on the job for less than a year or a chief executive who planned to leave in the coming year.
Whether succeeding a long-serving leader like Mr. Schmitz, taking over at a time of crisis, or simply guiding an organization through the choppy waters of post-recession nonprofit life, stepping into a new CEO role is always a challenge. The potential for growth is great, but so are the risks: While hiring that new leader is one of the most important decisions most boards will ever make, experts say, equally important is providing critical support during the months that follow to help the captain chart a successful course.
Little Help for Rookies
Yet some data suggest that executive transitions don’t always go smoothly. In a recent survey by the Bridgespan Group of more than 200 nonprofit CEOs who were new to the job, nearly half indicated that they had had little or no help from the board in their transition process.
One executive put it this way: “The board essentially said, ‘We’re glad you’re here. Here are the keys. We’re tired.’ ”
Organizations should resist that urge, says Lisa Walsh, a partner at Bridgespan, which helps nonprofits with executive transitions. “These moments of truth that boards have to both select and then support new leaders are either fabulous opportunities to catapult the organization forward or totally missed opportunities that can throw an organization into disarray,” she says. “Boards need to be prepared.”
At Public Allies, the support for Mr. Wilson will extend for months. Mr. Schmitz, who left the organization in August, has a short-term consulting arrangement in which he is available to answer Mr. Wilson’s questions.
“This is better than having an overlap. He’s there, and he’s the leader,” Mr. Schmitz says. “It puts him in the driver’s seat.”
Still, organizations should tightly define the role of the outgoing CEO—especially when he or she has been in charge for a long time, says Ms. Walsh. Transferring information, handing off key relationships, or finishing up other discrete tasks is helpful to a new leader, she says. But vague arrangements can make the transition harder by creating divided loyalties and halting a new CEO’s momentum. When in doubt, she says, “less is more.”
A new leader typically has a vision for the charity and wants to make changes. But how quickly to act depends on the health of the organization, whether a new boss is replacing a beloved founder, and the expectations of the board and key donors.
Pat Nichols, president of Transition Leadership International, thinks it’s best for new executives to wait 100 days before making any major changes and instead to spend those first weeks on the job engaging with the new organization rather than altering it.
“There is a strong temptation when you’re newly hired to come roaring in with your guns blazing,” he says. But come across as hard-edged and arrogant, he says, and a new leader risks alienating the very people who could help make changes over time.
Half-Hour Introductions
Michael Nyenhuis took the top job at AmeriCares in January, after 14 years leading MAP International, a Georgia charity that promotes global health.
Just a couple of weeks before starting his new job at the disaster-relief and aid nonprofit in Connecticut, he sought counsel from one of the group’s most significant private donors.
“You’ve made these sorts of CEO transitions before,” Mr. Nyenhuis recalls asking the donor, who had led several major corporations. “Give me some advice.” The reply: Spend a half-hour with every single staff member.
So he did. Starting alphabetically by first name, Mr. Nyenhuis met with two people each day, asking where they were from and what they loved about AmeriCares. The goal, he says, was to talk informally with people to establish rapport and start building relationships. It took three months to get through the entire 150-person staff roster.
Mr. Nyenhuis waited a few months before making changes to personnel and programs.
“You’re relying on the good will and trust that you’ve been able to develop so far,” he says of that time. Still, he adds, “I’ve had staff members say to me very honestly, ‘The idea sounds good, but we don’t know you that well yet.’ ”
A Song About Databases
The listen-and-wait approach is a good one even when an organization is deeply familiar, says Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA. Ms. Leonard worked at the environmental organization for several years in the late ’80s and early ’90s as a recent college graduate. She went on to build a career as an environmental campaigner, writer, and filmmaker. When she returned as Greenpeace’s new leader in August, the staff met her with greetings of “welcome home.”
But while the organization’s core values were familiar, she had a lot to learn about how the place operated. So she followed advice her Greenpeace supervisors had given her decades before whenever they sent her to work in foreign countries.
“Listen to what people say, and listen to what’s not being said,” she recalls them telling her. And now, she says, “That’s what I’m doing. I’m listening to side conversations, looking at body language, what people are saying with their feet—do they want to walk up to me and talk to me, or not?”
But not every interaction is laden with strategy or expectations. Greenpeace’s data team, for instance, wrote a song for their new boss about every database they used.
“In 1996,” they sang, strumming a guitar, “the data team didn’t even exist.”
It worked. “I will never forget the names of the databases,” Ms. Leonard says.
Building Trust
On orders from the chairman of the board, Janet Froetscher dressed carefully for her first day as chief executive officer of Special Olympics, which runs athletic events for people with intellectual disabilities.
“We’re a sports organization, so come to your first day of work in your athletic clothes,” Tim Shriver, the chairman and former chief executive, told his successor.
In a turquoise zip-up jacket and sneakers, Ms. Froetscher, who had previously led the National Safety Council, began her third stint in the CEO chair by shooting hoops with athletes at Special Olympics’ Washington headquarters.
In the weeks and months that followed her start last October, Ms. Froetscher settled in by asking questions. The chief-executive job comes with a bit of inherent loneliness, she says, and new leaders don’t have a confidant. So she tries to be circumspect about how and when she shares her opinions and thoughts.
“You don’t necessarily say, ‘Here’s what I’m thinking.’ You say, ‘Could you give me your impression of this?’ ” she says. “I wouldn’t lay out my opinion, or even my working hypothesis. Otherwise you influence the way the conversation goes.”
Unique to Ms. Froetscher’s situation is that her predecessor, Mr. Shriver—son of the charity’s late founder, Eunice Kennedy Shriver—is now chairman of the board. That means he’s available for guidance. “Clearly we don’t always agree on everything, but it’s really helpful to know what train of thought he went through,” she says. “He’s going to have the benefit of knowledge I don’t have.”
Finding Allies
A new leader is wise to cultivate a strong relationship with the board chair, says Mark Lipton, a professor of management at the New School who also advises new executives. Although it’s tempting to want to find an ally early on elsewhere within the organization, doing so can be risky, he adds.
“Somebody who’s extremely politically savvy can really endear themselves to someone quickly,” he says. “How does that CEO know the degree to which they can trust that person?”
A more judicious—and more productive—approach is for new executives to cast a wide net and be inclusive, Mr. Lipton says. Doing so can help them figure out how to make a decision or solve a problem and build trust among colleagues along the way.
Ms. Leonard, at Greenpeace, says she thinks it’s essential for new leaders to know themselves well. “Get really clear about the things that come easy and the things that are a struggle—and then surround yourself with people who can help you compensate,” she says. “If we try to do everything, we fail.”
Eventually, the job, people, and tasks become more familiar. That sensation of constantly taking in information and assessing new situations evolves, with time, into action.
Mr. Nyenhuis, at AmeriCares, was about eight months into his tenure when he crossed that line. It happened when he was speaking at a fundraising event at the home of a donor.
Out of habit, he introduced himself as “the new CEO of AmeriCares.” For the first time, that label sounded wrong. He paused and told the crowd, “I think this is the last time I’m going to say I’m the new CEO.”
