Excellence at the Top With Bill Pasmore & Pasmore Advisors
Bespoke Leadership Solutions for C-Suite Leaders
For decades I have been hand-crafting leadership solutions for CEOs of some of the world’s largest and most interesting corporations. This is close-in work, at times beginning with helping to select the right person to lead the company forward to building an effective team around them, to seeing transformational strategies through to success.
Each assignment is uniquely individualized; there’s no cookie-cutter approach here. I either work alone or with a few people; this work doesn’t lend itself to large project teams. It’s personal.
Board
Member
OD Network Lifetime Achievement Award
Decades of experience working exclusively with CEOs, Boards & Senior Teams
Columbia
Professor
Noted author and speaker
The right leader, the right team and the right approach
It starts with the CEO. If the right person is already in place, we go from there; but if there is a vacancy or succession planning is required, I take a comprehensive, data intensive, objective, evidence-based approach to assessing candidates and helping to select the right person to lead into the future. I don’t do search so I have no favorites and no conflict of interest; I look at internal candidates through the same lens as external candidates. My work is based on both experience and four decades of being a research professor and professor of practice, where the rubber meets the road. And I understand that in the end, it isn’t just about the numbers; the person has to be a good fit for the culture, be able to work effectively with the board and provide the leadership that the company needs.
Once the right CEO is in place, I advise them. Sometimes it’s personal coaching and sometimes it’s organizational consulting. Both are usually required. Success begins at the top but there isn’t a formula to follow; each situation is unique.
The next step is to put the right top team in place or to increase the effectiveness of the current team if there’s no need for changing the players. In some instances, this involves developing individuals over time to be ready to take part in the action at the top, and gradually transforming the team over time. In other cases, the situation calls for speed and comprehensive change. Like succession, putting the right people in place should be based on objective data, with a full understanding of both the business challenges and the personal qualities that being an effective team member of the future requires.
Then, the top team formulates a transformative strategy that often requires deep changes in the organization in order to build new capabilities to implement innovative business models. Getting from thought to action on this requires constant attention to what is and isn’t working and doing something about it.
Selected CEO succession clients:
A Collaborative Approach to Executive Leadership Development
This work can’t be done to people; it can only be done with them. Many firms take their clients on change journeys but don’t let them drive. I learned long ago that my goal has to be to work myself out of a job. If the CEO and top team don’t understand and own the work, it goes nowhere. No one can do it for them. I need to help people design the car and sometimes teach them to drive it; but eventually they have to drive. If the work I do isn’t one hundred percent collaborative, it will fail.
C-Suite Level Service Offerings
Each of my executive coaching service offerings is hand-crafted. No two situations are alike. Of course, they are based on solid science about what works. I’ll never advise a client to do something I know will fail, even if they have a strong preference to do it. Like a medical doctor, I don’t let patients choose treatments that would do more harm than good. Achieving success, saving time and minimizing frustration are the goals. Change is hard enough already.
CEO Succession Planning
Finding the right CEO for the future is more challenging than ever. Learn how my approach to CEO succession is different.
Executive Team Composition and Coaching
Next to the CEO, the top team has the highest impact on the future performance of the organization. When the team is made up of individuals who have the right skills, knowledge and experience and they work together as they should, the organization benefits from the synergies of their efforts. When the wrong people are at the table and they are out to kill one another, the organization suffers, sometimes irreparably.
Advising on Strategic Change
With the right CEO and a strong team in place, the real work of strategic change can begin. I advise the CEO and senior team on how to go from a vision to a strategy to designing an organization that can execute the work to be done. Because this is a learning process, I make sure there are built in feedback loops to collect data on performance against objectives, problem-solve and implement actions to address the additional challenges that are identified.
Executive Coaching
My CEO leadership coaching is designed for high-performing executives who want to lead with impact, agility, and vision. I partner with you to elevate your leadership, tackle your greatest challenges, and move from insight to execution with confidence.
Client Testimonials
Books
Empowering organizations through proven change methodologies
Advanced Consulting: Earning Trust at the Highest Level
Braided Organizations: Designing Augmented Human-Centric Processes to Enhance Performance and Innovation
Creating Strategic Change: Designing the Flexible, High-Performing Organization
Designing Effective Organizations: The Sociotechnical Systems Perspective (Wiley Series on Organizational Assessment and Change)
Handbook of Collaborative Management Research
