Preparing for the CEO Journey

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A Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association Q&A with Spencer Stuart’s Claudius A. Hildebrand.

Dr. Claudius A. Hildebrand, member of Spencer Stuart’s global Board and CEO Practice and Leadership Advisory Services and co-author of The Life Cycle of a CEO.

Dr. Claudius A. Hildebrand, member of Spencer Stuart’s global Board and CEO Practice and Leadership Advisory Services and co-author of The Life Cycle of a CEO.

Dr. Claudius A. Hildebrand is a key member of Spencer Stuart’s global Board and CEO Practice and Leadership Advisory Services. He recently co-authored The Life Cycle of a CEO,1 the product of an unprecedented study of the performance patterns of every 21st century CEO of the S&P 500 and more than 100 in-depth interviews revealing the distinctive stages of the life cycle of a CEO. In his client work, Hildebrand helps leaders uncover their edge and maximize performance.

Hildebrand’s work on the evolution of leadership is regularly cited in the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. He specializes in supporting senior executives to purposefully build long-term success, serving as confidant, coach, and adviser to many current and aspiring CEOs. He earned his PhD and MPhil in management from Columbia Business School.

Q. “While layoffs slowed in the second half of 2024, biopharmas including Bayer, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Johnson & Johnson cut hundreds or even thousands of employees over the course of the year.”2 As CEOs strive to turnaround their fortunes in 2025, what are the realities and challenges that you might share with them given the research findings from your book, The Life Cycle of a CEO?

A. Hildebrand: We as humans think in cycles, such as the macro-economic cycles, industry cycles, and product cycles. But one cycle that we often overlook is the leadership cycle. Where is a leader on their own evolution and how can they unlock their full potential? In our studies, we analyzed the performance of over 2,000 CEOs from S&P 500 companies over the 21st century and interviewed 100-plus leaders.

What we discovered was a pattern of spikes and falls that leaders must navigate successfully. These findings can help not only incumbent CEOs, but also aspiring ones to anticipate the issues they are likely to face throughout their respective CEO journeys.

CEO Life Cycle

  • Launch: At this juncture, the CEOs are drinking from the firehose but also swept up in a powerful “honeymoon” tailwind of optimism and momentum as an incoming CEO, typically accompanied with the boost in share price.
  • Calibration: Similar to the music industry, even breakout freshman CEOs often have their optimism checked during this phase where sometimes a sophomore slump occurs and expectations change. After two years, the honeymoon period is over as this executive is no longer the “new CEO, it is just CEO.”
  • Reinvention: If the CEO is still in place after three to four years, this period often is characterized by the need for reinvention. Our research uncovered how it is often harder to reinvent in one’s own place.
  • Complacency Trap: A period where performance may begin to stagnate, as many CEOs run the risk of becoming complacent, as well as boards which have become too trusting of the CEO and may not be fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities to help support as well as challenge the CEO to achieve his or her aspirational key performance indicators.
  • Legacy: For those CEOs who have survived the annual gauntlet of performance expectations, these fortunate leaders need to strategize about supporting their replacement for a smooth handover.

Given this analysis that was performed, my recommendations for incumbent and aspiring CEOs to consider include:3

  • Planting flags and building roads: As a leader, it is important to chart the course while also laying down the infrastructure for your team to follow.
  • Giving up control to be in control: To lead effectively at scale, you must relinquish a degree of control. For many leaders, this concept tends to be an intellectual exercise rather than an emotional experience, primarily motivated by their need to preserve hierarchical control.
  • Playing to win or avoiding to lose: There exist two motivational systems in us. We are either "playing to win" or "avoiding to lose." It is vital to understand which message resonates with your team and how you can motivate them effectively.

Q. While several biopharma C-Suite leaders have shared their personal journeys via this HBS series4 to readers who aspire to become CEOs, what advice would you recommend given your expertise around CEO performance at one of the top global leadership advisory firms?5

A.Hildebrand: First, don’t win the role, win the race. As I shared recently, the reality of a CEO’s tenure is actually a series of up-and-down stages—a life cycle, where the most successful executives learn to manage or even bend the performance curve in their favor.6 Aspiring CEOs should take advantage of the years prior to build their leadership muscles through wide-ranging stretch moves that will often extend well beyond their comfort zone. These experiences will help to build the necessary skills and mindset needed to achieve long-term success – not just the title.

Second, one needs to identify blind spots, which are the weaknesses that we are not aware of and craft strategies to address them effectively and efficiently. Building upon findings from one of our research reports, what distinguished aspiring CEOs who beat the odds was their self-awareness and ability to continuously reinvent themselves.7 Being self-aware and able to continuously improve is a crucial element to secure and thrive in a coveted CEO role.

Third, and perhaps most challenging, is when a leader needs to address the flat spots, which are one’s weaknesses you already are aware of, but for whatever reason are so challenging to address because of ego and a variety of other human aspects. But by being intellectually honest and having the humility to accept and work on one’s personal deficiencies, it is a differentiated mindset that can position a CEO for sustainable success. This mindset addresses the inevitable pain points which many CEOs will eventually face including:

  • The false assumption that once I get the CEO role; everything will be fine.
  • The inaccuracy to believe that once a M&A deal is closed, the forecasted synergies will be realized with little friction.

The key takeaway from our extensive research is that b-school case studies often lionize protagonist CEOs for their big bold decisions and grand oration mobilizing others, but it is actually tenacity and the steady grind that wins the day.8

About the Author

Michael Wong is a Part-time Lecturer for the Wharton Communication Program at the University of Pennsylvania. As an Emeritus Co-President and board member of the Harvard Business School Healthcare Alumni Association as well as a Contributing Writer for the MIT Sloan Career Development Office, Michael’s ideas have been shared in the Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review.

References

1. https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/the-life-cycle-of-a-ceo

2. https://www.biospace.com/job-trends/layoffs-continued-across-biopharma-in-2024

3. https://www.matttenney.com/Claudius-Hildebrand-on-the-inspire-greatness-podcast/

4. https://www.hbshealthalumni.org/s/1738/cc/21/page.aspx?sid=1738&gid=11&pgid=2677

5. https://www.spencerstuart.com/

6. https://www.fastcompany.com/91216833/the-3-most-common-leadership-myths

7. https://www.spencerstuart.com/-/media/2021/december/lastmile/the-last-mile-to-the-top-future-ceos-who-beat-the-odds.pdf

8. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/researchers-rated-every-s-p-500-company-ceo-since-2000-heres-what-they-found-dba3a8ce

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