How to Think About CEO Succession Planning

By Bob Weissman
Former Chairman & CEO of Dun & Bradstreet

The overriding mandate for every Board of Directors is simply this:  Act so as to ensure the continuing success of the institution.  And, as we consider the components of a Board’s responsibility for achieving this end, the job of building a robust management succession process is perhaps the most important.

In a well-managed company there will be many competent executives who ought to be in the pool of potential successors to the CEO.

But we also know that we live in an

The Hidden Dark Side of Politics in the Workplace

There are many people with successful track records when it comes to playing the game of politics in the office. They manipulate people as though moving pieces on a chessboard. They are masterminds when it’s time to take credit for work others have done. They know exactly what to say to make others look bad. If something goes wrong, they know whom to throw under the bus. It works and it looks glamorous.

However, advancing your career is analogous to building a

Why You Should Stop Fixing Things

Whether you try to fix a person, family, corporation or country, your attempts will most likely be in vain. The approach to fix something is fundamentally flawed. That approach operates on the premise that something is wrong. And once it’s fixed, everything will be better. One of the biggest challenges to fixing a person or situation that is considered broken is that they may defend their position as right, even if they know it is ineffective.

In the case of a company, there may be merit in wanting to extinguish a culture of silos and increase collaboration. While many enterprises are successful, they are

Do You Know Which Situation Calls for Which Leadership Style?

By Bob Weissman
Former Chairman & CEO of Dun & Bradstreet

Back in the dark ages of my business school education, most of the time in class was spent on learning the theories and practices of business; marketing, financial analysis, logistics, etc. Very little was offered in the way of providing insight into the mysteries of managing people. Oh, there were case studies that asked for a perceptive situational analysis and a description of the remedial action to be taken, but it was implicitly assumed that if you could articulate an effective course of action, all parties involved would automatically step up and execute perfectly.

Of course, when I got out into “the real world”, I found that real life was

4 Most Important Jobs of a CEO

When we entered the 21st century, few expected so much change after a decade. We are beleaguered with technology advances that take us to new heights each day, erratic economic cycles and global competition. In addition, companies have grown to enormous mega corporations, larger than ever in history. And in the times of knowledge workers, covert information, once privy to only the C-suite, is readily available given globalization and widespread social media. Overlooking it all are CEOs who have become the latest