Is Your Leadership Team Ready for H2?
- Ed Voelsing
- Jul 14
- 6 min read
Every July, leadership teams across the country gather in conference rooms to review the first-half numbers: Revenue. Margins. Cash flow. Forecasts. Sales pipelines. Capital projects. Strategic initiatives.
Hours are spent analyzing what's ahead for the second half of the year. Ahead of pace? Falling behind? Were the forecasts accurate? What are our customers saying about the rest of the year? Do we make any adjustments in budgets or strategy?
Yet one question is often missing from the agenda: Does our leadership team still match the business we're trying to build?
That's a much harder conversation. And it's one too many organizations postpone until the end of the year—after opportunities have been missed, deadlines have been pushed, balls have been dropped, employees have become frustrated and quit, and competitors have pulled ahead.
The midpoint of the year isn't simply a financial checkpoint. It's the ideal time to conduct a leadership audit.
Businesses Can Change Faster Than Leadership Team Can Evolve
One of the greatest challenges facing growth companies is that organizations evolve faster than people:
The scrappy founder who bootstrapped the business to $5M is now struggling to manage a $30M rocket on its way to $60M next year.
The executive who successfully led a $30 million regional business may suddenly find themselves responsible for a $1B global enterprise.
A Vice President who once excelled in an everything-is-on-fire chaotic environment may struggle to bring order during a period of rapid growth or acquisitions.
An owner who has always made every decision personally may discover that the company now requires leaders who can operate independently.
None of this means someone has failed. It simply means the business has changed.
The real question isn't whether your leaders were the right people twelve months ago – it’s whether they're the right leaders for the next three years.
Separate Performance Problems from Leadership Problems
When an executive struggles, the first instinct is often to conclude they aren't the right person for the job. Sometimes that's true. Often, it isn't.
Before deciding if a leadership change is necessary, organizations should ask these questions:
1. Were They Set Up to Succeed?
Even exceptional leaders fail when expectations aren't clear or are unrealistic.
Were goals defined? Did they receive the authority necessary to make decisions? Did they inherit a functioning team? Were priorities consistent? Were they given the resources needed to make the magic happen, or did you give them a bucket of coal expecting diamonds?
Poor performance isn't always poor leadership. Sometimes it's poor organizational design.
2. Can Coaching Close the Leadership Gap?
Leadership is a learned skill. Some executives need help becoming more strategic. Others need stronger communication skills. Some struggle with delegation. Others need financial acumen or executive presence.
In my experience, coaching succeeds when three conditions exist in the leader:
Self-awareness
Humility
A genuine desire to improve
Without those conditions, there is little chance for improvement. Coaching becomes an expensive going-through-the-motions distraction and delays the inevitable.
3. Has the Business Outgrown the Role?
This happens far more often than people realize. The skills required to start a company aren't always the same as those required to scale one.
Sometimes redefining the role solves the problem. Sometimes adding to their team and delegating responsibilities can help.
Sometimes the organization genuinely needs someone who has successfully led at the next level before.
5. Can they be reassigned?
If a leader's role has outgrown them, can they still provide value in a different one?
For example, it's common for companies to promote their best salesperson to be the sales leader, and then they fail spectacularly (sales and sales leadership are two different skill sets). Could they be sent back out in the field? Or put them in charge of new business development, enterprise sales, or training new sales reps?
Another common shift I've seen is a founder hiring someone to run their company so they can go back into the lab or the dev team with a fancy title but a lot less responsibility. It's still their company, but they only have to focus on what they're best at doing.
4. Are They Simply the Wrong Fit?
If expectations have been clear, resources have been provided, coaching has been attempted, and the role has been clarified or restructured—but the same issues persist, or they resist change—it's time to acknowledge that moving forward with that leader just won't work out.
You are not doing them or the rest of the team any favors by keeping them in place. Additionally, tolerating their failures at the expense of the team and the mission can be an indictment of your leadership, which will be noticed eventually.
Keeping someone in a role they cannot successfully perform isn't kindness. It's avoidance.
Taking Action
If you have decided that it’s time to swap out a leader on your team, proceed with caution, confidentiality, and tact.
Hopefully you have an HR leader you can trust (if not, let me know; I have many HR consultants I can refer you to). You want to avoid any legal blowback.
Be prepared to spend some money. Consider a generous severance (including COBRA coverage) for the incumbent; pay out any pending bonuses or vested stock options or equity, in accordance with their contracts, if applicable.
A good-faith payout now can save a lot of money and distractions later if they decide to take legal action.
Consider how you want to replace them. Timing can be everything. I’ve seen everything from an incumbent hiring their own replacement to take over to termination on the spot.
Instant termination
If they are a true disaster where every day is worse than the last, get them out the door as soon as possible, before they can do more damage. Especially if they are creating legal or HR liabilities, breaking codes of conduct or other illegal or unsafe situations. If an executive is being fired for cause, you can often avoid any severance. If unsure what to do, send them home and keep them there until an investigation can be conducted or general counsel consulted.
Collaborative Replacement
Sometimes an executive asks to be replaced or agrees they are not the right person for the job. You can then conduct a search while they are holding the fort, and possibly starting to look for a new job. This can be remarkably collaborative, depending on your history and relationship with the executive.
Most of the searches I've conducted for a client in this situation have been when the incumbent has already found a new role within the organization or is planning to retire and wants to hire and train their replacement.
There can be a sense of urgency, especially if they are leaving soon, but having them as a resource for the new leader can be helpful.
Conducting a Confidential Search
I routinely conduct confidential searches for clients while the incumbent continues to do the job. Often without the knowledge of anyone in the organization beyond the CEO or board members. They can be remarkably awkward and involve some cloak-and-dagger secrecy with NDA's, offsite interviews, and projecting an all-is-well front to the incumbent who is going to be replaced soon.
The awkwardness can be worth it, allowing a leader to be transitioned out and their replacement starting shortly thereafter, avoiding any leadership gaps.
Remember that finding and hiring the right executives can take months, not weeks. A typical search can take 8-12 weeks, with another month before the new executive starts.
A good rule of thumb is 4 months from the start of a search to the new leader's start date. (This can be shorter if you partner with a good search firm like mine, or you have a deep enough internal leadership bench to promote someone.)
You want to be able to time when a new hire comes in the door without losing what momentum you already have.
Timing Is Everything
Many companies wait until January to make changes to their teams. Keep in mind that, based on the 4-month guideline, if you started in January, your new leader would be starting in March or April – with a third of the year already in the books.
Waiting until Q1 often means you don't solve the problem until well into next year.
A better plan would be to start now, and give your new leader some room in Q4 to reset the board, participate in the budgeting process, and hire for their team as required.
This allows them to hit the ground running for the full year.
Final Thoughts
Your H1 review shouldn't conclude with updated forecasts and revised budgets. It should leave you with confidence that the people responsible for delivering those results are equipped for what's ahead.
Some leaders might need clearer expectations. Some might need coaching. Some need expanded responsibilities. Some need to transition into different roles. And occasionally, organizations need to bring in new leadership to support the company's next stage of growth.
The important thing isn't that every leader stays; it’s that every leader is the one the organization needs at this point in its journey.
If you think this might apply to your team, and you’d like to hear my professional opinion, let’s set up a call. If it calls for putting a plan in place to conduct a leadership search for your team, I’m here to help.
Ed Voelsing is the Founder and Managing Partner of The Rivet Group, an executive search firm working with middle market industrials across the US.
Comments