LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONS: BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR CANDIDATES – ONE OF THEM IS YOUR NEW DIRECTOR
By Kathryn Martin and Mary Baily Wieler
As a Trustee, when you think about navigating a leadership transition, what comes to mind? For many, it is launching a Search and hiring the next Director. For some, it may be creating a Succession Plan. In reality, navigating a successful leadership transition begins well before launching a Search and goes well beyond the hire! In this four-part series of Tips for Trustees, we'll look at the full continuum of leadership transition –and how Trustees can prepare in advance, navigate and leverage once a transition is known and ensure that the investment in your new candidate pays off. We'll look at the two parallel but integrated tracks – preparing for the transition and launching the search. These moments of organizational change create unique opportunities for clarity, focus and accelerated momentum through reaffirmed vision for and by the Board.
Navigating Leadership Transitions – a Series of Four Tips for Trustees:
#1: Leadership Transitions: Start Preparing…Now!
#2: Leadership Transitions: Employee Dynamics: A Road Map for Trustees
#3: Leadership Transitions: Move Forward, Be Confident – Be the Expert!
#4: Leadership Transitions: Build Relationships with your Candidates – One of Them is Your New Director
FINALLY: THE SEARCH!
When looking at the entire continuum of leadership transition, the responsibilities for Trustees during an Executive Search process start well before the launch of the search (See #'s 1, 2 & 3), and end long after the new Director's first day on the job. Set your candidates up for eventual hire and success – going from applicant, to candidate, to finalist, to a newly-appointed Director that can hit the ground running. This process begins with the first auto-responder an applicant receives and ends well after the new Director begins, and ensures that you are leading candidates to a "Yes" from your very first interaction with them, and then – just as importantly –- ensuring that they are able to do their best work once they arrive.
Put the museum's best face forward… while gaining key "intel" on the candidates– From the candidate's very first moment of contact with your museum via email application or phone call, how candidates are responded to, how they are followed up with, and eventually – how they are hosted at in-person interviews and on-boarded once they start the job – all convey what kind of an organization they will perceive you as being. Treat candidates like potential donors!
When it's time for in-person interviews, it's key that you help the candidates visualize working for your museum. All too often candidates leave after an interview, an offer is made and then the process stops because the candidate hadn't taken full advantage of being on-site in order to help raise and address some of their (and their partners) questions. Time is lost as the process is delayed, or worse candidates drop out.
BELOW ARE SOME EASY STEPS TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CANDIDATE'S TIME AT THE MUSEUM:
-Provide a tour of the facilities, and show them their future office.
-If appropriate, schedule a variety of social events in order for the candidate and the Search Committee to interact in less formal situations; similar to what will occur once hired.
-Set-up a private tour with a real estate agent for all finalists – touring the community, neighborhoods, schools, answering questions that the candidate may not feel comfortable asking the Search Committee. This can be a critical step in helping to ensure that if you end up making an offer, they feel like they have key information needed to make a decision.
-Designate Transition Committee members (that are good ambassadors!) to drive, greet and host – this helps to create opportunities for quiet conversations and personal connections to develop (rather than hiring drivers, Uber, etc.)
-If appropriate, schedule meetings for candidates to meet with their future staff – both in groups and 1:1. We recommend that the staff sign confidentiality pledges at this juncture.
THE SEARCH COMMITTEE AND THE ENTIRE BOARD MUST BE ON ITS "BEST BEHAVIOR" THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS
-Stay in touch and follow-up – While you may be in negotiations with your top candidate, ensure that you thank all the finalists the week after their visits, and re-convey the planned decision-making timeline. Remember, your top candidate may not accept your offer and you want your finalists to remain engaged, and available (and thinking they are your top choice).
-REMEMBER: Confidentiality, Confidentiality & Confidentiality now includes the entire Board.
-When negotiating, remember that how you conduct yourself reveals to the candidate how it will be to work with you at the Museum. Now is the time to invest in the future of the Museum (appropriately), determine what the candidate values (it's not only salary), and move forward.
-Once you have an accepted offer, remember to thank the other candidates. Again, you just never know!
-CELEBRATE! After the Board votes and the finalist has formally accepted and authorized the information to be made public, plan a full day of activities around the announcement. One museum recently embargoed the Press Release for 2 hours after the vote to allow the Search & Transition Committee members, staff and the new Director to make personal phone calls to key stakeholders and thank them for their input. Even a voice-mail heads-up was greatly appreciated by all.
AFTER THE HIRE: YOU'RE NOT DONE! – ENSURE YOUR INVESTMENT IN A NEW DIRECTOR HAS BIG RETURNS!
While the on-site interviews required a great deal of time, after the new Director begins should be the busiest time for Trustees in the transition process! The Transition Committee takes charge and implements their Transition Calendar like the one found in Executive Transitions.
Help the Director adjust to the move and get settled (even if they are local). - For candidates moving from another community to be a part of yours, there are myriad details they are dealing with. Finding housing, physicians, and schools can be daunting. Trustees can be a welcoming resource during this time; enabling the new Director to focus on on-boarding rather than the stress of what happens outside the office, and continually feel good about the decision they've made to lead your Museum!
ASSEMBLE ORIENTATION MATERIALS
Although much of this information will have been provided to the new director as part of the finalist interview process, the new Director will need to have ready access to essential information about the museum and its internal constituencies. This information will help make sense of the countless people the Director will meet and the mountains of material he or she will need to absorb in the first days and weeks on the job, A Transition Committee should enlist the help of staff in pulling together the items in the list below. Make sure to ask the new Director if there are other things that would be helpful too.
– Board Roster with business affiliation and expertise. Consider including a photograph of each Board Member.
– Board Minutes for the last year
– Board Committee Structure
– Board Manual
– Staff roster, including photographs
– Staff organization chart
– Position Descriptions
– Employee Policies and Procedures Manual
– Office and Facility Procedures
– Volunteer roster, including photographs
– Volunteer organization chart
Organizational Information (if applicable)
– Bylaws
– IRS Form 1023, Application for Exempt Status
– Copy of IRS letter granting 501(c)3 status
– Annual reports for the last two to three years
Management and finance
– Strategic plan and periodic updates on progress
– Current and prior years' budgets
– Two years of audit reports and management recommendation letters with contact information for the auditor
– Fund-raising event descriptions and dates
– Grant proposals
-Funding documents from foundations, corporations, and government agencies
- Program descriptions, including attendance statistics
– Exhibition schedule
– Recent museum publications, such as member newsletters and program brochures
Position the new Director as a community thought leader and influencer – immediately & continually. The Transition Committee should coordinate with Development & Marketing/PR staff's Transition Calendar for the new Director – which may include listening tours, town hall–style meetings, donor and member receptions and special events. Create a Trustee-led schedule to introduce the Director throughout the community. This may include private dinners, non-museum events, and civic meetings. Every week Trustees should be initiating invitations to the new Director. In some cases there will be a need for the Director to focus on addressing urgent internal issues. In all cases, this must be carefully balanced to allow external strategies to occur simultaneously.
Revisit and adapt the Transition Calendar on a quarterly basis. Continue this effort throughout the year.
Invest in their leadership – Ask the Director what they need to be effective in their first 90 days/year. Some Directors may be comfortable in asking for what they need, while others may hesitate to ask for "help." Create an easy dynamic for this kind of discussion to occur frequently, in order to ensure they have the resources, contacts, feedback and Trustee response time they need to do the job well.
It may be a good idea to provide "First 90 Days" leadership coaching whether there is a perceived need or not. As in other industries, coaching is considered a management tool that successful leaders employ. Like an experienced captain of a ship navigating through the Panama Canal, they are required to hire an expert to Pilot them through those "specialized" waters. Strong leaders benefit from having an outside expert available to help them successfully navigate their transition (in and outside of work) as they prioritize urgent needs, position themselves in ways to benefit the museum, and lead authentically and boldly.
Build upon the Vision that you conveyed through the interim period. Create inspiring goals of Impact that the Trustees, Director, Staff, volunteers and community can work together to achieve.
And remember: Navigating transition does not end on Day One of the new Director. In some cases it can take upwards of five years.
Kathryn R. Martin
​San Diego-based management transition expert & leadership coach/strategist
Passionate about helping organizations and individuals have the impact they envision, Kathryn R. Martin is a leadership coach & strategist, professional interim leader, and a frequent speaker and author on navigating personal, professional and organizational change. Martin was Vice President at Arts Consulting Group (ACG) from 2003-2015, and she has served in numerous Interim Executive Director roles, including the Linda Pace Foundation in San Antonio to launch the David Adjaye Ruby City building project; ArtPower!, the multi-arts presenter at the University of California San Diego; and Malashock Dance. Martin is currently Interim President & CEO of the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts in Milwaukee. Martin has supervised, trained, and coached more than 20 ACG professional interim executives placed in cultural organizations across the United States. She will be a featured speaker at MTA's Spring 2016 Forum in San Juan, PR.
​Contact: 858-761-4928
​kathrynmartinconsulting@gmail.com
Mary Baily Wieler
​Mary Baily Wieler became The President of The Museum Trustee Association in January of 2014. She served as Board Chairman of MTA from 2010 to 2013. A resident of Baltimore, MD, Mrs. Wieler is a member of the Board of The Walters Art Museum. She was President of The Board of The Association of Baltimore Area Grant-makers, Secretary of The Board of Greater Baltimore Medical Center and a Vice-President of The Enoch Pratt Free Library. She was honored as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women in 2006. She holds a B.S. from The Edmund T. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
mary@museumtrustee.org
Leadership Transitions: Start Preparing… Now!
As a Trustee, when you think about navigating a leadership transition, what comes to mind? For many, it is launching a Search and hiring the next Director. For some, it may be creating a Succession Plan check-list. In reality, navigating a successful leadership transition begins well before launching a Search and goes well beyond the hire! In this four-part series of Tips for Trustees, we'll look at the full continuum of leadership transition –and how Trustees can prepare in advance, navigate and leverage once a transition is known and ensure that the investment in your new candidate pays off. We'll look at the two parallel but integrated tracks – preparing for the transition and launching the search. These moments of organizational change create unique opportunities for clarity, focus and accelerated momentum through reaffirmed vision for and by the Board.
#3: Leadership Transitions: Be Confident – Be the Expert!
#1 – Leadership Transitions: Start Preparing… Now!
By: Mary Baily Wieler and Kathryn Martin
A leadership transition is in your Museum's future; it's a "given". And yet, even with this awareness and good intentions, few museum boards are prepared when an executive change occurs. As a result, Trustees inadvertently put their institution at risk or, at minimum, lose the opportunity to leverage this moment strategically as they find themselves scrambling, struggling with decision-making, doing damage control in the media, and being re-active.
There are many good resources available on Succession Plans and Check-lists (Listed Below) to help Trustees create the necessary chain-of-command and decision-making protocols to be used. In this Tip, we add the larger context and provide actions that can be taken today to make your Museum strong so that it is prepared when the time for transition arrives.
Here are two areas of action to ensure you have the resources, decision-making protocols and a plan for creating a specific Succession Plan before you need them:
1. Create operational and governance structures, and resources today, which can prepare your museum to withstand (and thrive in) an eventual leadership transition. Invest. Now.
- Invest in a strong professional staff (now). As a trustee: Do you know if operationally, staff must rely on the Director for all key decisions within their area? What do they need to become empowered? Having a strong "number 2" leader in place can certainly be a part of a strategy, as well as ensuring there are strong staff throughout the organization. Trustees approve the museums' budget and thus can support the current Director in preparing for transitions by building depth and breadth in the staff, investing in professional development, requiring management and accountability, and providing shared organizational budgets to foster understanding of how each department fits into the overall goals. Museum talent should be assessed annually to accurately identify long-term potential and critical competencies for each position. Are there leadership gaps in your museum now? If so, create a plan to remedy these gaps either through internal mentoring, professional development or external hires.
- Create consensus (now): Where is the Museum going and how are you going to get it there? It's much easier if the Museum is on an exciting course (which should always be the case!), when a transition occurs. It can give everyone a sense of focus and determination to make the goal happen. It also helps create important context when determining the particular skills and attributes the next Director will need. Having a clear direction will provide opportunities to tell your story of continued momentum and success – including when you're attracting qualified candidates. Take a three-year outlook- Ideally in the form of a living strategic plan, or at minimum it could be reaching consensus through facilitated annual Board Visioning Retreats.
- Build a strong, effective Board (now). During a time of leadership transition it is the Trustees who implement the Succession Plan. In some cases, this will be a big change in the leadership dynamic. Founders and long-time Directors may, through their successful leadership, have created a board dynamic that is not necessarily fully engaged in solving the challenges of operating the Museum. Practice good governance now, so that when Trustee leadership is needed later, your committees are strong. An objective Trustee self-assessment survey (like the one in MTA Publication "The Leadership Partnership") can be a helpful way to gauge whether or not your Board is operating according to industry-recommended best practices, so that changes can be implemented.
- Research transition costs (now). Transitions cost money and take time. A lot of time. Prepare by doing your research on what costs you will likely face so the Board knows what it can afford (severance packages, farewell events, candidate recruitment, travel, criminal back-ground checks, hosted receptions and donor events, relocation costs, on-boarding, welcome receptions, and other events geared to introducing the new Director to the community). Talk to colleagues and research Executive Search firms and methodologies, and/or the often hidden costs of doing it on your own. Consider the benefits and costs of hiring a professional interim leader, as compared to other interim scenarios.
NOTE: In an Arts Consulting Group, Inc. (ACG) study(1) of more than 450 arts and culture organizations with CEO-level vacancies conducted during the early 2000s, results echoed what ACG experts throughout North America encounter on a regular basis. Almost 55% of all respondents indicated that the senior management executive gave (or was given) less than six weeks' notice before their departure — with one-third giving (or being given) less than two weeks' notice.
The ACG study also revealed that of the organizations that chose an existing staff member or board member to fill the interim role, 84% saw decreases in their contributed income during the transition period.
The instability (or perception of instability) created by the departure of a Director can affect the financial bottom-line, including loss of contributed income. It can also disrupt momentum and tarnish the organization's relationship among key stakeholders if the gap between permanent leaders is not addressed thoughtfully. The intangible costs of a leadership void, whether planned or unplanned, coupled with the stress placed on the Board and staff, can take a toll that can create substantive challenges for the museum, the Search firm, and the Director who eventually takes the leadership role.
2. Establish an initial framework in which decisions will be made before it becomes necessary. How will decisions be made, by whom, and when? Although it is unrealistic to map out a specific transition plan before the change is known, the decisions you make today, while your team is still in place, will ensure that no matter what you encounter down the road you are as prepared as possible, and can take the swift action that may be needed.
The most crucial part to outline in detail now: What (specifically) do you want to occur in the first 6-24 hours of learning of a leadership change? The urgency in how/what you need to implement beyond the initial steps, will depend on your specific scenario, outlined below.
- Day 1 – 14: Determine what type of leadership transition you have, and choose a relevant response and action plan. Whether planned or unplanned, and whether months or a year from now, this is the moment when leadership roles shift slightly. Trustees have the responsibility, rather than the top executive leader, to collaborate with staff and to create and implement an integrated plan that ensures operational success and addresses the unique internal and external dynamics that exist during transition.
In the museum field, Boards typically face one of three scenarios:
1. A long-serving Executive or Founder announces his or her retirement. Determine how and when the transition will occur, how the Search will be conducted, and how the transition will be messaged. It is important to not only to honor the outgoing leader but to ensure that the Museum conveys its strong and exciting future!
2. A Director resigns to take a new position elsewhere with adequate notice but not enough time to perform a complete and effective search. Similar strategy to #1; with the additional need for leadership to be addressed during the interim period.
3. An organization's leader resigns with little or no warning, circumstances require the Board to terminate his or her employment, or there is a sudden death or personal tragedy. This is a scenario where hours, rather than days or week, matter. Depending on the scenario, the Board may need legal representation, and the details leading to the departure may not be able to be made public. Convening an emergency Board or Executive Committee meeting may or may not be possible. Develop a list of the team needed (President, legal counsel, Press/Media professional) to make decisions and create the messages communicating to the Trustees, the staff, Social Media, stakeholders, and the press. The sudden vacancy creates an immediate need for interim leadership1 to fill the roles and responsibilities of the position and maintain organizational effectiveness.
- Day 7 – 14 Appoint and convene the Transition Committee, charged with navigating the time of transition and collaborating with senior staff and other transition specialists.
– Develop and approve the initial and subsequent strategic messaging and communications plan.
– Develop and guide the implementation of a Transition and Interim Strategy & Timeline.
While many Boards feel compelled to begin the executive search process as soon as a departure becomes a reality, others understand that time is required – especially if following a long-time leader – to evaluate both the organization's strategic direction, resources and leadership attributes necessary to reach its aspirational goals. At a later date, a Search Committee can be formed and charged with finding the successor. This Committee should be ready to work in tandem with the Transition Committee as the search process evolves.
Does your Museum Board have a Succession Plan in place? Does it need to create one? Do make sure that you have the chain-of-command decision-making document in place – but don't stop there. Continue to plan for the future by familiarizing yourself with the dynamics, strategies and resources needed to successfully navigate times of leadership transition. Create operational and governance structures today, to help you withstand (and even thrive in) an eventual leadership transition. Invest. Now.
1 "The Performing Arts in Transition: Executive Leadership on the Move." Arts Insights. Bruce D. Thibodeau, 2002. http://www.artsconsulting.com/pdf_arts_insights/insights_sept_2002.pdf
Museum Trustee Association, Executive Transitions.
Order at http://www.museumtrustee.org/category/publications/.
Museum Trustee Association, The Leadership Partnership. Order at http://www.museumtrustee.org/category/publications/.
Korn Ferry, Succession Matters, 2015. http://www.kornferry.com/successionmatters.
Foundation Center, Succession Planning for Nonprofit Organizations: A Resource List, http://foundationcenter.org/getstarted/topical/succession.html.
National Council of Nonprofits, Succession Planning for Nonprofits, https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/succession-planning-nonprofits.
Texas Association of Museums, StEPs Resource: Texas Association of Museums Succession Plan, http://resource.aaslh.org/view/texas-association-of-museums-succession-plan/.
Transition Guides, Stepping Up, Staying Engaged: Succession Planning and Executive Transition Management for Nonprofit Boards of Directors, http://www.transitionguides.com/resources.
Kathryn R. Martin, San Diego-based management transition expert & Leadership Coach/Strategist
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