The topic of CEO performance and the process of discerning what this has been has leapt to my attention while considering the how's and wherefore's for a couple of clients. And then I saw this section in a Philadelphia bizjournals article:
Evaluating the performance of the CEO
In addition to financial performance, the CEO needs to be evaluated for their tone at the top and the organization’s culture, both important determinants of an organization’s success. How do board members assess tone and culture? They get to know the employees reporting to the CEO. If a CEO prohibits this contact, it’s a red flag.
An important measure of CEO performance is their response to hotline reports to the audit committee of the board. If a hotline report concerns unethical or illegal actions or a tyrant manager within the organization, the CEO needs to be held accountable for how they deal with the issue.
I have come to accept that performance reviews of CEOs/executive directors is met much head scratching on the part of boards. What to do, what to do.....
I believe the real problem lies in not considering such a review but considering what should be evaluated. This challenge raises in-turn an even more critical source of the challenge - not at the beginning of every employment period, having goals/metrics for performance. Performance measurements are not rocket science but they certainly demand some thought and dialog between the board who will evaluate and the exec who would be evaluated. But of course we have to take the first step: committing to the activity.