Rusty O'Kelley

Emma, thank you for having me.

It's a pleasure.

A new CEO needs to recognize that you've not had an experience like this.

If you've been a president or a CFO or a business unit head, you're used to dealing with and reporting to one person.

When you've been elevated to an enterprise CEO, public company, or private company, suddenly you have multiple bosses and you can get multiple perspectives.

So what's really important for a new CEO is that they take the time to meet with each board member early in their tenure.

We recommend where there is some time before the official transition to start meeting with them and get to know them as people.

It sends an important signal of humility.

What you're trying to understand is how do they think?

What motivates them?

What's important to them?

What are hot button issues to them?

What we recommend is, of course, going to meet with and talk with every board member.

When you're talking with them, ask them what are areas of concern for them.

Ask them where they see the strengths of the company, where they see the opportunities of the company.

They also need to talk to important stakeholders, employees, regulators, of course, investors.

And then within six months, come back to the board and say, based on my listening, these are my priorities.

And confirm with the board with some clarity what those priorities are.

No more than three to five.

The list will be much longer, of course, but you can't do everything and prioritization is important.