Achieving YOUR Success From THEIR Failure

Getting to the top in any organization is tough. Staying there is even tougher. However, if you’re looking to be in the corner office, there’s hope. As we move further into the ever-changing future of business, the corner office becomes a revolving door. New ones in, old ones out. Here’s what you can expect and put in your career plan.

For many college graduates, including the experienced professionals who go back for that graduate degree, getting one of those picturesque corner offices will take a whole new strategy. Jumping into a company and working your way up isn’t too likely anymore. There are too many forces acting on the top seat for anyone to be able to plan it with great success. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan on being in the right place and the right time.

As you plan your career, consider the fact that the Department of Labor predicts that the growth in top executive positions, for now, is projected to have little or no change. Actually, the future isn’t much brighter either. The expected growth in top occupations through 2016 is expected to be only 2 percent. To make this even tougher for those high achievers and big dreamers, the competition is growing evermore keen. Graduate enrollment is increasing by about 2 percent each year. By 2016, we should have a considerable amount of qualified candidates for these higher level positions. That is, unless corporations change the requirements to limit the number of potential candidates.

Okay, so there aren’t a lot of new positions being created. There are still a bunch of top jobs that I can fill, right? Maybe not. Executive positions are seen as extremely critical to organizational performance. Executives that leave one organization will most likely fill an executive position in another company, a pattern that will limit the number of opportunities for new entrants to such occupations.

While this isn’t exactly the good news you were hoping for, there is still plenty of opportunity to gain a corner office. Just a few years ago, Heidrick & Struggles estimated that the success rate of executives was less than 40 percent. That means that more than 60 percent don’t do the job they were hired to do. Much of this is contributed to businesses scrambling and comprising on their search for talent in an ever increasing competitive and globalized marketplace.

In IBM’s 2008 Global CEO survey, 24 percent of executives admitted that the future will include more change than they can deal with. The previous study, two years prior, indicated issues for only about 6 percent. It’s fairly safe to assume the success rate will continue to decline (as the current economy has proven).

Here’s your opportunities. New positions aren’t going to be created but existing ones will become open as executives fall from grace. Sure, companies will recruit from the outside, even though research shows this isn’t the best move but they may investigate their internal succession pool first. You may want to research your current company’s history on this to get an idea of what they look for. Don’t be surprised if that’s hard to determine.

As for why these executives are tossed out, there are a lot of reasons. If you find yourself in the running for the top spot, here’s a few things to Heidrick & Struggles suggest you remember from those who’ve fallen. Some reasons they fail include:

· An inability to develop a relationship with the board,
· Didn’t understand the business,
· Didn’t consult with a sufficiently broad group to assess the situation of the business they just took over, and
· Didn’t share the results of their findings with those who could him in creating the turnaround plan.

If you want to get to the top, it might be more useful to avoid planning a clear path for it. You may want to plan to be just a level below them. With such high failure rates, organizations are obviously struggling with processes for choosing the right candidate. They aren’t sure what they need. Therefore, it might be best to just be in the pool of candidates they choose from. Of course, there’s always the option to be a CEO by starting your own company.

Author:

Todd Rhoad, MSEE, MBA is Director at BT Consulting, a career consulting firm in Altanta, and can be reached at todd.rhoad@blitzteamconsulting.com.

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Comments

Arrieb says:
August 20, 2009 at 10:37 am
Interesting perspective on executives. Daunting percent on their success rate though, I was not aware that it was that low.
Thomas McMillan Jr. says:
August 22, 2009 at 11:39 am
I'm surprised by no mention of the boomer generation. Although the recession has slowed their retirement, their will be a time when the business world will be scrambling to fill roles that this experienced group vacated due to retirement. Although each organization has one CEO, there are lots of SVPs, VPs, and director roles.