In ‘The CEO Struggle: View From the Top’, we saw how the CEO’s environment can make or break resilience. Under pressure, a vicious cycle can emerge. Past a certain tipping point, a CEO’s struggle harms not only the individual and their entourage, but the organization. The ripples can damage the economy, society, and the environment.

Preparing the ground

A professional gardener will check and prepare the terrain to ensure a new tree is compatible with its ecosystem. The same goes for a CEO hire. “Set the conditions,” insists Sandy McKenzie. “What’s the culture of your organization? The expectations?” These need to be clear from the outset. “Otherwise you are creating an environment where that person is likely to burn out.”

But organizations and boards are often uninterested in groundwork. “Unless there are obvious dysfunctionalities, or the hiring organization actually wants us to have a look, you can’t challenge them,” observes Fredy Hausammann. “The task is clearly to find the CEO.” Talking to teams and flagging problems may be a natural part of the process. “But that is a side effect, and they may not even buy into that, or give it enough attention.” Many hiring organizations not only sidestep the question of their new CEO’s ecosystem, they have a biased view of it. “60-70% of the success of a project is understanding your client, because the clients don’t know themselves that well,” says Joseph Teperman. “When they describe themselves, it's a mix of wishful thinking with reality.”

The uncomfortable truth

Challenging boards is even more difficult, says Nakki Furuta. “60 or 70 year-old former CEOs of excellent companies don’t want to be told, you are wrong.” This presents boards and nominating committees with a three-horned problem. It may create the perfect storm for a CEO struggle, before he or she even joins. First: a biased, overconfident or incomplete picture of their own ecosystem. Second, lacking an objective assessment to restore the balance and fill gaps. Third, ceding to the pressure to fix a succession problem fast, and fear of ‘analysis paralysis’.

Sandy McKenzie invites clients to consider the business case for getting the hire right first time. Clients might not like what they hear, "but often it will lend towards a better hire, reducing costs.” Hiring organizations and boards have a right to diplomacy. But they also deserve honesty. Joseph Teperman is fearless. “You can decide not to hire me again, but you pay me to tell the truth.”

Square pegs and round holes

Sandy McKenzie also emphasizes evaluating the top team. “Yet clients don't see the value, or they've experienced it done wrongly, or don't want to be assessed themselves. They almost don't want to know.” A failed hire costs time and money, destabilizes the organization and its reputation. “I have been known to say, there’s no problem getting 3 candidates to the table. The search will have a 50% success rate – maybe 75% if you assess that individual to understand them.”

He compares this to slotting a piece into a 5,000 word puzzle. “If you’re recruiting the CEO of an aerospace company, and one candidate is CEO of its key competitor, you assume they'll run this business equally well. And I always say, no. Not only are the culture and the business different, so is the psychological blueprint of your group executive team. Your success will depend on how that team functions and operates. Not on you as an individual.”

A further preparatory hygiene is an objective board evaluation blending data, discernment, and analytical rigor. A 2024 PwC/Conference Board review[i] revealed that only 35% of C-suite executives of large companies in the US rate their boards’ overall effectiveness as excellent or good. Amrop’s process enables a board to identify skills and experience gaps, align with corporate strategy, and develop criteria for key hires. Rather than asking non-executives to mark their own homework, data is collected from board members and executive management alike, involving other stakeholders if necessary. Methods include one-on-one interviews, shadowing, and the BET survey, covering 14 key performance areas in 4 domains. “Ideally, this would be done before a new CEO is recruited,” says Fredy Hausammann, “so that the non-executive board can then also reflect and adjust, giving the CEO a better sounding board.”

Checking the ‘why’

“Purpose is fundamental to this equation,” says Sandy McKenzie. “CEOs need to think very carefully about the environment that they're walking into. If you’re going into private equity and you’re all about something other than the money, then your purpose is out of sync with the shareholder and business.” If purpose is the overarching reason for a CEO’s being, motivation is the psychological drive towards action. “Most CEOs are very ambitious,” agrees Fredy Hausammann. “Their motivational drivers need to be looked at carefully. Are they really willing and able to work for the greater good of the company, its people and clients?” Not all executives know what their purpose is: whilst purpose is key to resilience, the opposite may not be true, says Sandy McKenzie. “Many confident, resilient and optimistic individuals won’t have deeply thought about it.”

Stress-testing and deep diving

Assessing the C-suite and board are two aspects of preparing a sustainable CEO hire. What about the candidate? “There is a high awareness of CEO capital, and the importance of the nomination,” says Fredy Hausammann. Given the stakes, the assessment of a CEO’s resilience requires a range of instruments, tests and investigations. Again, these blend data and discernment.

The limits of the CV

A CV is indicative rather than conclusive. An executive (increasingly aided by bland, normative algorithms) will likely omit precious information. Amrop Global Board Member Oana Ciornei: “Value isn’t created by the leaders with the most polished resumés, but by those who lived through black swan moments, crisis, systemic shocks.” [i] These are the building blocks of resilience and agility. A sharp-eyed research team or a well-networked headhunter must read between the neat lines.

Psychometric testing

The quest for the resilient, emotionally intelligent and mentally robust CEO requires a deep cognitive and behavioral examination. One tool, the psychometric assessment, is neither exhaustive nor predictive. But it is extensive. Instruments include the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), SHL and PAPI (Personality and Preference Inventory). “A CEO appointment should be complemented by a full-day psychological assessment,” insists Fredy Hausammann.

Can psychometric testing determine a CEO’s resilience? “One of Hogan’s main benefits is the dark side of behavior,” says Sandy McKenzie. What will this person look like under pressure? What blind spots appear?” He adds: “Pressure is a critical factor.”

But psychometric tests are still only part of the orchestra needed to express the full ‘music’ of a human being. Emilie Boullet Lacoste. “Hogan is a good tool. It gives us tendencies, avenues.” Nor can a psychometric test reliably foresee a burnout, says Roland Theuws. “It's not a science, it's not quantifiable, more the sixth sense of a headhunter.”

Interviewing, the ultimate stress test

This is where the in-depth interview comes in. An expert consultant blends System 1 thinking (fast, automatic and intuitive) and System 2 (slow, deliberate and analytical). The dialogue reveals a candidate’s true aptitude and emotional intelligence. Conducted face-to-face, it also transmits a sensory impression of a candidate’s all-important physical health.

Just as a CV can gloss over difficult moments, senior interviewees may throw up smokescreens. After all, leaders are primed to perform and manage impressions. As seen, many have difficulty discussing their weaknesses or failures, especially if they’re caught up in the vicious cycle seen in our last article.

Nakki Furuta estimates that at least 60% of CEOs are incapable of self-observation. “One factor for the 40% who can, is their experience of overcoming failure. The rest don’t admit to it.” Roland Theuws always asks candidates to give an example of something going wrong. He likes a tactic of Eelco van Eijck, Managing Partner of Amrop in the Netherlands, who asks: “If you could buy a strength or a capability, which would it be? The candidate then has to admit what they lack. Some get nervous, start looking at the ceiling.” Candidates may offer platitudes or disguise a strength as a weakness: ‘patience’, or ‘slowing down’.

“Self-questioning also means questioning one’s actions,” confirms Emilie Boullet Lacoste. “But they don’t have time – the world goes too fast today. And, because they're mostly very clever, they say they do. Then you ask them to give examples. And you have your answer.”

Other candidates seem to effortlessly surf through challenges and questioning. But this can also signal narcissism or antisocial personality disorder. The ability of such individuals to fly under the radar is why multi-sensorial scrutiny is so important.[i] According to some estimates, 4% to 12% of CEOs exhibit psychopathic traits, outstripping the 1% prevalence in the general population and more in line with the 15% rate found in prisons. [ii] As reported in our first article in this series [iii]  a research team exploring CEO narcissism found that 18% qualified — 3 times the general US population (5%). [iv] “Such people are also good at hiding who they really are,” says Roland Theuws. “What’s more, they have an interest in being nice to a headhunter.”

But the misinterpretation can run both ways. It is vital not to mistake a resilient executive’s coolness, courage and focus under pressure as psychopathic traits. This is why the 360 degree evaluation is so vital. “The CEO has to exemplify wellbeing, that’s the zeitgeist,” says Joseph Teperman.

6 building blocks of CEO resilience. What Amrop consultants are looking for.

1.     Has a clear individual purpose.

2.     Practices agile leadership.

3.     Cultivates emotional intelligence.

4.     Seeks and processes feedback.

5.     Learns from failure.

6.     Ensures a healthy, mindful lifestyle.