Rusty O'Kelley

And then talk with the board about what you see is the key metrics, what's the dashboard you're going to create, so that they can monitor progress and hold you accountable.

So for a company where we recruited a new CEO from the outside, before even the official transition date, she started working with her board, interviewing them to understanding what they believed were priorities.

It's in a very tumultuous time for this sector, for this industry.

And she went on a listening tour with all their stakeholders.

And she right now is probably three months in with her new role.

And she is preparing for what will be her second board meeting of here's what I've heard and here are my priorities.

And she's already started making decisions.

So she hasn't held back.

But she really went out of the gate very early, even before the official transition, of course, with the blessing of the outgoing CEO in the chair, to listen and then test back themes and come up with a set of actionable priorities because the company, the organization is in a tough spot right now.

Several things come to mind.

First is to have, of course, a dialogue and seek to understand why.

What is motivating the disagreement?

Is it a misunderstanding of facts?

Is it a misunderstanding of priorities?

So really try to ask the second and third order questions with the board members with whom you as CEO is not aligned.

Sometimes it is just priorities and where people are focused.

I'm actually currently dealing with a situation now where a CEO has a very specific point of view on where the board should evolve in terms of the board composition, given the strategy of the company and the skills that are needed and the speed and pace.

And the nominating committee chair has a very different agenda, not necessarily in terms of skills, but in terms of speed and pace.

And it has caused quite a lot of tension between the two.

And what has happened is they've had to have private conversations and then conversations with the NAMCO to realign.