How can I secure my first CEO role?
I’ve been fortunate enough to be recruiting senior leaders in the not-for-profit and charity sector for over 15 years now and a huge part of why I love my job is the amazing people I meet every day. But in all the time I’ve worked alongside the sector, the question I’m asked the most is ‘How can I secure my first CEO role?’
I love this question as it allows for great creative thinking and a through exploration of transferable experiences and skills that people often don’t realise they have.
In a market place where candidates are increasingly specific about their next move there’s a real opportunity for those seeking their first CEO challenge to shine. The days of Board members assuming their next leader will bring existing CEO experience are gone – and this makes our job all the more interesting!
What is key though is that we support both our clients and our candidates to ensure they can be as successful as possible in the post.
So, how can you secure your first CEO role?
We know how competitive CEO roles can be. And how frustrating it is to go through a long recruitment process only to hear ‘sorry, the person appointed was already a CEO’. But we’re committed to ensuring organisations’ have the right talent, regardless of titles, that harnesses diversity and ensures they are fit for the future.
That’s why it’s important to us to champion career progression and support in whatever way we can.
1. Reflect on what you can offer
We will work with you to ensure we’re all clear about what you offer. To do this, its’ important to reflect and think back on your career. When have you gone beyond the job description and why? Perhaps you’ve supported your CEO and Director colleagues? Examples could be when developing organisational strategies, planning for change or managing through the pandemic. What challenges did you face? What was your approach and what did you learn as a result?
Leaders make great CEOs but not all CEOs are great leaders. Leadership is about how you inspire people to follow you. If you have led managers you are likely to be able to lead Directors. Have a think about some of your tougher challenges. How did you seek to resolve them and more importantly, how did you support the people involved along the way? Do you simply tell people about change or do you try to seek their buy-in, using champions, listening and consultations? Do you prefer to direct people or do you use a coaching approach? Do you have examples of where you have identified and championed staff to progress? What leadership role do you play in the wider organisation? Do staff in other teams identify you as a leader and if so, why?
You may not be a financial expert but if you’ve managed budgets you’ve likely had to deal with financial complexities. Have a think about how you maintain an overview of the finances. What’s important for you to measure? Have you had to address financial issues? These could be to do with income or the financial systems themselves. You may well have worked with financial colleagues but how did you ensure they were providing you with the information you needed?
Perhaps you’re not solely responsible for reporting to your Board but this doesn’t mean that you don’t have transferable governance skills. Do you sit on any subcommittees or have you worked with Trustees on special projects? Have you presented to Trustees? You may bring your own Trustee experience which gives you an excellent governance perspective as well as great strategic, leadership and financial experience.
As well as your skills have a think about what makes you tick and what approach you bring and ask yourself if this matches the opportunity. Do you enjoy growing organisations or are you the right person to stabilise and consolidate?
2. Be inspired
A key thought too is why this organisation? There will be challenges as a CEO and it can be a lonely role until you build a peer network. Does the cause inspire you to work through the tougher periods? Can use your passion for the cause to inspire others? Why does it matter to you? If you can communicate your passion through the recruitment process the Board will be reassured that you can leverage this to secure stakeholder buy in.
By reviewing these questions you can start to make a note of some of the examples you can draw on in your application and at the interview. All too often we look forward and forget to look back but it’s worth taking some time to think about the experiences that have shaped you. This includes transferable experiences. You may not have secured a six-figure gift from a philanthropist but if you’ve identified partnership opportunities, built personal relationships from scratch, dealt with objections and negotiated a win:win outcome then you already have great skills that can be built upon. Don’t be afraid to share these examples and be clear about how you would plan to develop these skills, including through training, network support and your own research.
Hopefully, you will have the opportunity to ask the organisation questions before your final interview. Think about what you want to find out in advance and how you can use the opportunity to start building relationships. Try to be your authentic self; if you were meeting your own team or Chair how would you act? Knowing what you do, what questions would draw the best out of them and give you a clear insight into the challenges and opportunities?
In the interview itself it’s key that you prepare, do your research and spend time on any presentations. But the most important rule is be yourself. You want to present your leadership vision. That way, if you’re selected you know you have the buy-in from the Board to carry out that mandate. If not, then it wasn’t ever going to be the right match for you or for the organisation.
3. Don’t be afraid to seek support
Once you secure the role it’s time to celebrate! But also, to get yourself into a position where you feel prepared and supported. Be sure to have an honest conversation with the Chair. What areas of development do they feel you have and what could help you to develop here? Are you able to secure a mentor or coach? How about your peer network? The CEO role is a lot less lonely when you are connected to others facing similar challenges. Prospectus is used to making relevant connections and we run a number of leadership events to support you to develop your own networks. We also provide a valuable free guide to the ‘Chief Executive’s First 100 Days’; a usually paid for joint publication we created in collaboration with ACEVO, the organisation for civil society leaders. The first 100 days can fly by and this guide offers great preparation and planning to ensure you are as effective as you can be in this key period.
We will also stay in touch with you as we want to hear all about your plans! Use us and our networks – we want you to be as successful as possible too!
Are you an aspiring leader? We want to hear what is important to you and what you would find most helpful to know. Get in touch and tell us here.
Aspiring Leaders Webinar ‘How to become a CEO in the not-for-profit sector’
In November, we hosted a webinar for leaders looking to make that step-up to be a first time CEO.
We were joined by three fantastic charity sector leaders who are all at different points of their leadership journey. The speakers shared their experiences, tips and knowledge so that the audience could come away armed with the knowledge and tools needed to help in a leadership career. Watch aspiring leaders webinar here
If you would like to be notified of any of our future events please sign up here.
