Conducting a CEO search that involves external candidates, several internal candidates or both is a time-consuming and intense process. The timeframes associated with meeting and interview schedules can be demanding. For this reason, many boards choose to assign these responsibilities to a special search committee which it creates to take on these tasks on the board’s behalf. If, however, the board chooses to take on these tasks as responsibilities of the full board, directors will need to recognize and plan for the additional work they are assuming. A CEO Search Committee’s responsibilities typically include:
• fleshing out the details of the search process;
• creating a CEO Leadership Profile that defines the competencies, attributes and experience necessary for success
• identifying and contracting with any external resources involved in the process (e.g. search consultant, compensation consultant, etc.);
• identifying and interviewing potential candidates;
• keeping the full board apprised of the search process
• recommending final candidates to the board;
• facilitating the board’s decision-making process about the finalist candidate; and
• facilitating the board’s offer to the finalist candidate.
Care should be taken when choosing the directors to serve on the search committee. To be effective, they must have a deep knowledge of the organization, its culture and its challenges. These directors need to demonstrate sound insight into, and the ability to be objective about, their own biases. The search committee members should also be inclusionary team players: they need to ensure that all directors are appropriately involved in providing input to the CEO Leadership Profile, are tapped into as sources of potential candidates, are kept apprised of the progress of the search, and are appropriately involved in the decision making process, as agreed upon with the full board.
NOTE: The Chartered Accountants of Canada produce some excellent educational publications on board governance, I refer to them often. The information above is from their publication ‘Top 20 Questions Directors Should Ask About CEO Sucession
