Page 213 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

194 • CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization

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I knew I could do the job, and I finally got to prove it. I had
an incredible boss who gave me a chance to verify myself. He sent me
to Germany to represent him. I was in a meeting, questioning
the CEO, and I myself was only one step above an administrative
assistant.

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My manager kept a list of people he watched who don’t report to him,
but he’d try to work their career path. “Can we agree to make this
person available for a different opportunity?” he’d ask the person’s
boss. They’d say, “We’re thinking about it.” So he’d say, “I’ll take that
as a yes.” And he’d follow up in six months to make sure something
had happened.

The higher up the corporate ladder, the more retained headhunters
are used to recruit senior executives. Retained means that the firm is paid
in advance to search for candidates as opposed to contingency employ-
ment agencies, which are paid only after they find and place
(usually) lower-level candidates.
Fifty percent of CEO searches are done using search firms (pro-
gressively less as you go down the ranking). The larger firms have the
resources to compare levels of quality and excellence in thinking
capabilities and problem solving, leadership and interpersonal skills, emo-
tion and motivation, influence, etc. between North American, Latin
America, or northern and western European executives. They have com-
petitive pay assessment tools and special pay arrangements (e.g., employ-
ment contracts, severance, change-of-control programs, corporate events
such as IPOs, spin-offs, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures) and
special retention programs. They have performance measurement stan-
dards in selection, goal setting, pay for performance, and shareholder
expectations.
To fit a “best in class” profile, you are viewed as more recruitable by
search firms if you’ve been in a classic and respected blue-chip company,
leave for a few years to join a McKinsey & Company or Bain to gain