How a CEO knows it’s time to go

When does a CEO know it’s time to go? Well, one way is when the board shows you the door.

But sometime before that, when does a CEO know it’s time to go even when he’s still on a hot streak?

If you are the CEO, no one but you can answer this question. But we can give you some clues about what you should keep in mind. It may be time to go if…

• You no longer have fun. Deep down you’ve been feeling this confusing feeling: the same old thing. You find yourself sighing before, or worse, during meetings that used to light your fire. His mind drifts to golf or escapades or something, anything, much more often than ever. Leadership is a liability and you haven’t admitted it to anyone but your dog.
• You have achieved all the organizational goals you set out to achieve. Life is good. You and your team made it. Maybe you’ve even won accolades and awards. But what now?
• You can’t imagine what the organization will look like or where it will be in five years. At the beginning of his career, “the vision thing” was a piece of cake, but now he has a hard time seeing around the corner.
• You are finding it harder to make the tough decisions. To say goodbye to someone? OK, if he thought it was legitimate and something the organization needed, he did it. Now pulling the trigger causes you more stress than the employee leaving. Closing a program, product line, or service? Much more nightly anxiety than it used to be.
• You reply with “I fixed it five years ago” when the staff comes up with a new idea. After a while, the chief innovator can become the main obstacle to innovation. He’s already done that and doesn’t want to do it again, even as market gurus say “change” is the name of the game in the flat world economy.
• Their skills no longer match the organization’s challenges or opportunities. You came as a builder, you built, and now what do you do? Or you’re a financial wizard who redesigned the organization and made it profitable, but now the organization’s challenge requires a marketer, visionary, or technocrat. The organization needs new blood and you no longer have the correct blood type.
• You feel like doing something new. You’ve always wanted to go out on your own. Risky? Yes, but oh, go ahead. You have counted your years to 65 and you want to spend them doing what matters most to you. You have accumulated assets. Now you want to accumulate experiences, or better yet, you want to give back time, talent and treasure. You want to serve.
• You feel that you have allowed yourself or others to slip into that danger zone where you or they confuse your identity with the organization. Founders are especially susceptible to this pitfall, but any long-time leader can fall victim to reading their own press. The danger for the organization is that the emperor may be naked and no one can or wants to share the bad news. The danger for the leader is a potentially very difficult emotional adjustment when the break finally occurs. Less worship, fewer perks, no power. You forgot that the organization is not about you.
• You and/or the organization are under serious political or financial pressure. Nobody can be a CEO without pressure. Nothing new here. But now the pressure is at a level that it has never been before. Or the pressure is coming from sources that previously provided unwavering support. Or the pressure is more on you, your vision or style, than on the challenges of the organization. How serious does the pressure have to be for the CEO to know it’s time to go? It all depends. But when you’re shaving or putting on makeup in the morning, look into your eyes and honestly assess the question. The organization may be better off without you.
• You are guilty of some kind of violation of professional ethics and you know it. Too many high-profile corporate and government scandals have occurred in the last decade to ignore the unfortunate possibility of this one. If the shoe fits you, wear it, get it, change it, but don’t keep running away from it. Prison is not a good retirement community.
• You are tired, physically, emotionally, mentally, maybe spiritually. There is no shame in being tired. When he announced his retirement, even Green Bay Packers superstar quarterback Brett Favre said, “I’m mentally tired.” Tired does not mean you are old. It means you’ve given it your all and need a snack.
• Your spouse, family, or friends want more from you. Many leaders announce that they will be moving to “spend more time with my family,” but this is often a convenient euphemism for “I’m leaving before they kick me out.” That said, family and friend considerations are real and valuable. It’s an old saying but one with power: “No one picks an epitaph that says, ‘I wish I’d spent more time at the office.'” Organizational leadership comes and goes, friends last a lifetime, families are forever.

Unlike political leaders, corporate and nonprofit CEOs don’t typically work under term limits. When they leave is the decision of the board or of themselves. CEOs, by definition, don’t have many people telling them what to do. Therefore, the ability to recognize clues that it might be time and honestly consider them with mentors and confidants is a huge asset.

CEOs who stay too long are probably more common than CEOs who leave early. We are creatures of habit. We like our house and the community. We have adult children and grandchildren nearby. We find it more difficult to make a change because the mirror says that we are getting older. It is not sinister. is human

However, CEOs who outstrip their effectiveness or enthusiasm are doing no one a favor, least of all themselves. Our egos and insecurities tend to make us forget that leadership is a temporary stewardship. It always comes to an end. The trick is to end it when it’s best for everyone.