606: CEO Readiness: How Boards Decide Who Gets the Top Job

606: CEO Readiness: How Boards Decide Who Gets the Top Job

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

  1. Seek feedback aggressively. Create a circle of truth-tellers: colleagues, mentors, even family, who will tell you the truth.

  2. Check your ego daily. Build humility into routines by asking: "Am I genuinely interested in others, or focused only on myself?"

  3. 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.

  4. 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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125: Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. AppleTV vs. HBO Max (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #9)

125: Netflix vs. Disney+ vs. AppleTV vs. HBO Max (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #9)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

21 Dec 202030min

124: What Bob Dylan teaches us about digital strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #8)

124: What Bob Dylan teaches us about digital strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #8)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

14 Dec 202028min

123: Career strategies don't build themselves (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #7)

123: Career strategies don't build themselves (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #7)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

7 Dec 202028min

122: What is strategy, Understanding Michael Porter, ex HBR editor & MBB partner. Joan Magretta

122: What is strategy, Understanding Michael Porter, ex HBR editor & MBB partner. Joan Magretta

Joan Magretta, M.B.A (Harvard)., Ph. D., is an award-winning contributor to the HBR, where she was the strategy editor (1990s). Prior to that Joan was a partner at Bain & Company. As part of her distinguished career, Joan worked closely with Michael Porter and published number of important books, including her latest books: What is Strategy: https://amzn.to/2Jp80LV Understanding Michael Porter: https://amzn.to/39EECMj Free training episodes here: https://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo We use affiliate links whenever possible (if you purchase items listed above using our affiliate links, we will get a bonus).

4 Dec 202059min

121: Strategy is in the details (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #6)

121: Strategy is in the details (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #6)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

30 Nov 202025min

120: Focus only on valuation is shortsighted (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #5)

120: Focus only on valuation is shortsighted (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #5)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

23 Nov 202028min

119: How to be a leader (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #4)

119: How to be a leader (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #4)

Hello everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this newsletter, we're going to focus on four major themes from last week's news. To listen to the audio version of this newsletter, search for "Strategy Skills" in any podcast app. To get a written copy with links to mentioned articles sign up here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

16 Nov 202028min

118: How to build a pandemic strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #3)

118: How to build a pandemic strategy (Monday Morning 8 a.m. #3)

Hello, everyone! This is Monday Morning 8 a.m., a weekly newsletter where we distill the insights from all of the distractions, articles, and emails that you receive in your inbox every day. In this week's newsletter, we're going to focus on one overarching theme—risk—and you'll see that theme running through all of the big stories this week. So let's see how this new Monday Morning 8 a.m. format goes. Every week we will look at 3-4 themes, or one theme and 3-4 subthemes. What are the big stories and what are the big implications. Let us know if you like or dislike the style. If you're enjoying the Monday Morning 8 a.m., I'd love it if you shared it with a friend or two. You can send them here to sign up. We try to make it one of the best emails/podcasts you get each week, and we hope you're enjoying it. Get written version of Monday Morning 8 a.m. with links to articles we mention: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

9 Nov 202022min

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