How to start strong in a top leadership role

Executive overview

One-third to one-half of new CEOs are considered failing within 18 months. Over 90% wish they'd managed their transition differently.

The transition into the top job is unlike any other: a spotlight that burns intensely, no true peers, accountability for everything. It is also a rare institutional unfreezing moment — a window when people will tell you things they won't say later, and when the organisation expects change.

The best CEOs treat the first 6–12 months as both a personal transition and a moment of institutional renewal.

Don't make it about you

The reality distortion that comes with the role — everyone laughing at your jokes, deferring to your views — pushes CEOs toward an ego-centric frame. Guarding against it requires a deliberate mindset shift.

• Legacy focus → organisational purpose
• "What do I expect of others?" → "What conditions help others succeed?"
• "How do I complement my weaknesses?" → "What team do we need to win?"
• "What's broken for me to fix?" → "How do we respect our past and disrupt our future?"
• "How do I get the organisation on board with my vision?" → "How do we co-create a shared vision?"
• "How will I know if I'm successful?" → "What's the scoreboard for us as a team?"

Listen first, then act

A broad listening tour is the foundation. People will tell you things in the first weeks they won't share three months later — the organisation begins to refreeze quickly.

Four steps in sequence:

1. Broad listening tour — customers, regulators, community groups, employees; ask "what are people not telling me that they should?"
2. One version of the truth — a fact base across strategy, commercial position, costs, capital, org efficiency, reputation; use an independent party or mandate a truly outside-in view to cut through self-reporting and "watermelons" (green outside, red inside)
3. Short list of bold moves — derived from the intersection of organisational passion, external opportunity, and real capability
4. Elegantly simple communication — flash fiction-style: a pithy phrase that contains the whole strategy (e.g. "the technology company that makes banking joyful"; "we help athletes beat their competition")

Nail your firsts

The primacy effect shapes how people perceive you: the same five words about a person produce very different impressions depending on which comes first. First impressions as CEO set a trajectory that gives or denies a slipstream of goodwill.

• Prepare disproportionately for first board meeting, first analyst presentation, first town hall
• Err toward complete candor — problems only grow if you wait to surface them
• Use a consistent narrative across all stakeholders; CEOs can't maintain multiple stories
• With the board: open with a balanced "things going well / things I'm worried about" session
• With the street: focus on the say-do ratio — only promise what you believe will happen, then deliver it
• Apply the Stockdale paradox: maintain hope while confronting brutal reality honestly

Play big ball, not small ball

Spend time on things only you can do, in ways that magnify your effectiveness. Avoid getting mired in things that don't move the needle.

• Set explicit time boundaries — e.g. hard cap of 30% on external activities per month, enforced by your EA
• Use a colour-coded calendar with clear buckets for different types of work
• Before accepting any commitment 2–3 months out, ask: "If this were tomorrow, would I regret saying yes?"
• Anchor discretionary time to the short list of bold moves — how many meetings actually advance those?
• Manage energy, not just time: sequence depleting meetings with energising ones (e.g. governance meeting → client interaction); avoid back-to-back depleting blocks
• Many CEOs found they perform better in the mornings — schedule tough decisions accordingly