606: CEO Readiness: How Boards Decide Who Gets the Top Job
The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving
Why boards hire outsiders over insiders
Byron discusses lifecycle moments, transformational disruption and when external candidates appeal to boards.
Byron Loflin, Global Head of Board Advisory at Nasdaq and co-author of CEO Ready, explained on the Strategy Skills Podcast why many talented executives never make it to the top.
" Because you perform well isn't going to automatically get you the job."
Boards are looking for more than results. They look for humility, curiosity, and authentic relationships across stakeholders. Byron shared a personal lesson from riding with Ronald Reagan before he was president:
"He was genuinely interested in others. And that surprised me. I didn't get the sense that he was a pompous or aristocratic kind of person. He was genuinely interested in identifying what are you interested in? What makes you tick?"
He also warned that unchecked ego is one of the biggest risks to leadership:
"Ego is a powerful motivator when it's focused properly. But when it becomes dominant in one's personality and drives inappropriate types of responses to the needs of others… Ego can become a significant problem."
To counter ego, he recommended building close, truth-telling relationships. This is what Byron said about conversations with his children:
"I listen to them very closely when they speak to me and I invite them to speak truth into my life."
And he reminded us that succession is political:
"Surprise is the enemy. Structure is your friend."
Finally, boards now expect leaders to be fluent in technology and disruption:
"The expectation of management delivering understanding on the relevancy of AI to your organization with the emphasis on relevancy."
Actions you can take now
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Seek feedback aggressively. Create a circle of truth-tellers: colleagues, mentors, even family, who will tell you the truth.
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Check your ego daily. Build humility into routines by asking: "Am I genuinely interested in others, or focused only on myself?"
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Engage all seven stakeholders. Byron identified investors, employees, vendors, customers, communities, regulators, and the environment as decisive. Map your relationships and strengthen the weakest link.
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Signal reliability to boards. Remove surprises. Show discipline in how you work and how you communicate.
Become AI-fluent. Don't chase every trend. Focus on the relevancy of AI and digital disruption to your business and be prepared to explain it clearly.
Get Byron's book, CEO Ready, here: https://tinyurl.com/z87xz94h
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