Falling Up, Part II

Because of the number of comments I received from my previous post on Falling Up, I thought I would address the issue of both how this happens and why it takes so long to find some people out.

Part of the answer can be found in the wonderful theorem written by Lawrence J. Peter called the Peter Principle.  It is about people getting promoted to their level of incompetence.  (Rather than write about it here, please go to the link.).  Many empty suits simply push themselves beyond their own level of competence. This is particularly true of senior people.

Previously, I received an anonymous comment about some executives whose strategies don't work.  They are so bent on taking control that they fire the people who have knowledge and know-how to do the work.  This leaves them in a position where their scheme backfires because the very people who they let go are the only ones who, with direction, might be able to handle their clients.  And by letting them to, these executives have to do the work themselves.  Often, they are incapable.  I fully agree.

I believe that what happens with many executives is that when hired, they create turmoil, intentionally or not..  Rather than studying and assessing the situation, defining the issues and developing a plan to address the issues they have found, many come in and immediately fire those who might be a threat.  They bring in their own people.  Their scheme is to surround themselves with loyal sycophants who will do their bidding.  The havoc caused by this often lasts for more than a year and often obscures the issue of their own ability.

When the smoke clears it can often be 18-24 months, especially if the person is a department head.  It often takes management at least two years to begin to determine that the person they brought in cannot handle the situation.  Because boards, if they function at all, only meet quarterly, it can take months before they actually define the problem – sometimes the senior people brought in are actually put on the board, so it takes even longer for the strongest board members to furtively meet and determine a course of action.  

I was once joined the board of a not-for-profit.  It was losing money and, from the first board meeting I attended, I realized that the board was dysfunctional.  I also knew I could fix it.  It took me three years to become elected chairman.  During the years before assuming power, I tried to define the issue.  It took until I was made chairman to realize that I had to create a new board. An even larger problem than the incompetent board was that the executive director lacked the skills and interest to handle the issues confronting the organization.  It took many months to resolve the problem because the first thing I had to do was change the board to get enough support to terminate the executive director. 

Ad agencies are no different. They have the added issue that they are always worried about about clients being upset by change.It can often take management a long time to work up the courage to discuss the impending changes with clients.  My observation is that, ironically, most of the time when the change is initiated, clients express their support for the agency.

The point is that it may take three years to define the problem and then it can take another year (or so) to resolve it.  Often, in order not to lose face, rather than firing incompetent senior executives, agencies will tell these people to look for a job.  (Of course as recruiters, we almost never find that out.).  By doing this, the agency has time to look for a replacement, but that, of course, generally leaves the ineffective executive in place during the search. It takes most senior executives a long time to find a job.  Over $200,000, the pyramid gets narrow.  And most senior jobs come with very specific background requirements. So it often takes these people a year or two (or longer) to find a job.  

It generally takes four to eight months to replace a senior executive.  Why so long?  I recently placed a CEO.  After he was identified, which took only two months, it took almost two months to negotiate his contract and then a while to extricate himself from his then current company (often senior people have agreements requiring six weeks or longer of notice period before leaving).

These things just take time. Junior people take less time, but as everyone knows, it can take eight to twelve weeks tojust find and hire an account supervisor.