Independence by Design™ #485: Steve Moss | You Found the Leader. Now How Do You Make Them Stay?
Steve Moss has spent his career figuring out why senior executive hires blow up. It almost never has to do with whether they can do the job.
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If you are thinking about hiring your first real C-suite leader, or you have already been burned by one who didn't work out, this conversation is going to hit close to home. Steve runs Executive Springboard. He matches new executives with mentors who have sat in that exact chair, and his retention rate is 95% over 18 months. We got into the real stuff. Why coachability matters more than IQ. What Steve calls the "passed over and pissed off" problem. Why he thinks the CHRO is the missing seat at the table. And how to build a leadership bench when your company can't afford the price tag of an off-the-shelf C-suite.
Top 10 Takeaways
- 50% of senior executives fail within 18 months. And it's almost never because they can't do the job.
- Mentoring is not coaching. Mentors share their scars. Coaches ask questions. Consultants tell you what to do.
- The "passed over and pissed off" problem will blow up your culture if you don't address it head on.
- Consider building before buying. Your internal person who knows the culture might beat an external hire who takes six months to find and another six to ramp.
- The CHRO is the missing seat at the leadership table. Not open enrollment. Strategic talent and culture as a counterweight to the CFO's numbers focus.
- Executive presence is character, substance, and style. Change your style to fake presence and everyone will smell it.
- AI adoption is lumpy. Most organizations know they're behind. The real risk is employees adopting unsanctioned tools while leadership sits on their hands.
- AI doesn't replace the need for leaders who can think. It amplifies whatever's already there. Clear goals or confusion.
- Coachability is the number one predictor of executive success. Not functional skill. Not IQ. The willingness to ask for feedback and act on it.
- Managing change is managing other people's grief. Go too fast and you'll turn the corner to find nobody followed you.
Steve Moss is the founder and president of Executive Springboard, a network of 100+ current and former C-suite executives who mentor leaders to help them excel in new roles. Before founding Executive Springboard, Steve was the chief marketing officer at Pillsbury International, Nestle Ice Cream, and Imation. He reversed Smirnoff's decline in Canada and set the brand on six consecutive years of growth, expanded Goldschlager from the US to 20+ countries and four continents, and has had 50+ direct reports go on to become VPs or presidents. Steve holds a BA from Georgetown University and an MBA from The Wharton School. Executive Springboard offers structured 8-month mentoring programs for senior onboarding, promotion readiness, executive engagement, off-boarding, and outplacement. The company works with organizations from $20M to $10B in revenue across all industries. Steve previously lived in Minnesota for 26 years and now operates from Maryland. Learn more at ExecSpringboard.com.
Chapters:
(00:00) Steve Moss, founder of Executive Springboard - AI roundtables reveal most organizations know they're already behind
(03:21) Executive Springboard expands from onboarding to full executive career lifecycle
(16:00) 50% of senior executives fail in 18 months — almost never the job skills
(18:24) The "passed over and pissed off" problem will blow up your culture
(22:42) Mentoring is not coaching: mentors share their scars, coaches ask questions
(34:00) The CHRO is the missing seat at the leadership table
(50:46) Executive presence is character, substance, and style — fake it and everyone smells it
(59:49) AI adoption is lumpy: employees go rogue while leadership sits on their hands
(1:09:21) Build before buying: coachability beats IQ, managing change means managing grief
Resources:
Executive Springboard — ExecSpringboard.com
Kevin Cashman / Korn Ferry — Vice Chairman, CEO & Enterprise Leadership. Definition: "Leadership is authentic self-expression that adds value." — Korn Ferry Profile | CashmanLeadership.com
Leadership from the Inside Out by Kevin Cashman — Amazon
The AI-Driven Leader by Geoff Woods — Referenced by Ryan as a first-principles framework for AI adoption — Amazon
Ben Bomar / Lithyus Group — Institutional knowledge retention and off-boarding (Minnesota-based) — Lithyus.com | LinkedIn
Meg Gold / Bonde Community — Referenced for the authenticity gap between corporate leaders and owner-operators — JoinBonde.com
Cyndi Gave / The Metis Group — Referenced for Job Scorecards and Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test — TheMetisGroup.com
Ep. 260 — Steve Moss (previous episode) — YouTube
Kim Clark — CRO and Predictable Revenue expert, iBD collaborator — Ep. 480
Pat Hobby — Fractional CFO, iBD collaborator — Ep. 438
Nick Bradley — Private equity expert ($5B in deals), recent iBD podcast guest — Ep. 481
Ikigai — Japanese concept: what you love, what you're good at, what you can be paid for, what the world needs
Leadership IQ Study — Research on why executives fail: coachability, EQ, motivation, personality, functional competence (only 11%) — LeadershipIQ.com
Kubler-Ross Change Curve — Reframed from grief model to change management model