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August 15, 2005
Saturday: First 100 days
Sorry to take so long to post on the first session I went to on Saturday. I went to a panel discussion on surviving the first 100 days as a new association CEO. The panelists had some scary stories to tell. Some of them, on their first day as a new CEO, were brought news like "we don't have enough money to make payroll on Friday..." or "our subisdiaries are going into chapter 11 and we're being sued..."
They survived to tell the tale, of course, so there were some positive stories as well. Here are some of the take aways I gleaned:
A big job in the first 100 days is discovering what you didn’t know. No matter how much they tell you and how much research you do, you won’t have the whole story, so you have to be pretty nimble in those early days as you start discovering the “truth” about the organization, both good and bad.
Firing people is not necessarily a bad thing. I wish we could have had more time on this topic, because it is obviously complex, but many panelists told stories of waiting too long to either fire or “out counsel” people.
There’s a difference between a CEO who is doing her job and one who is merely “keeping” her job. You’re probably replacing someone who was doing the latter, so the change can be a shock to people.
Posted by Jamie Notter at August 15, 2005 07:30 AM
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