When the boss unexpectedly departs

Dear Bob …

All of a sudden, I don’t have a boss.

I’m the CIO for a smallish company (25 of us in IT; 250 employees total). We’ve been modestly successful until recently. Like most other companies, the downturn hasn’t been kind to our P&L.

Yesterday we were told the CEO had left the company, effective immediately, to pursue other ventures, whatever that means (and I’ve been reading your ManagementSpeak long enough to have a pretty good idea).

Other than that, all we know is that the board is actively looking for a new CEO.

My question to you is this: As CIO, what should I be doing right now? My head is swimming, and I find that I’m just reacting to situations as they come up — I don’t have a plan.

What do you think?

– Bossless

Dear Bossless …

The phrase “Party at Bossless’s place!” comes to mind, but I don’t think it’s what you’re looking for.

First things first: You might be thinking about jumping ship right about now. I’d advise against it. For one thing, this is a terrific opportunity for you to show what you can do beyond leading IT. There’s a leadership vacuum at the moment (more about this in a moment). To the extent you are able to fill it, it will be visible to both the board and the outside world.

And jumping ship right now would be very bad for your “brand.” A standard interview question is to ask why you’ve decided to seek new opportunities. You’ll have a hard time formulating a reply that doesn’t sound like “I’m abandoning everyone who looks to me for leadership because the situation makes me nervous.”

Second: Tempting as it is, don’t keep your head down until it all blows over. Do the exact opposite — be the one to get everything organized. Call a meeting of the inner circle – the CFO, COO, CMO, and yourself (or whatever positions fit the bill), and as a team, list the key administrative responsibilities the CEO used to handle that won’t go away, and decide who will take over each until the new CEO shows up.

While you’re together, agree on how each of you will communicate the situation to your teams. Having a consistent set of messages is crucial for preserving morale right now, because it conveys confidence the company’s leadership team knows what it’s doing.

The message format is pretty simple: Describe the situation, explain what the leadership team is doing to keep the business running until the board selects a new CEO, and express confidence in your teams that they know what has to get done and will do their parts (and thank them for their professionalism and loyalty in doing it).

One more item for the inner circle: Make sure one of you has the task of contacting the Chairman of the Board (most likely the CFO), who almost certainly has the interim CEO title. You need to let him know how you’ve organized things. You also need to know the procedure for approving expenditures in the interim.

Very important: If the CoB hasn’t already figured this out, communicate the importance of presence. The CoB has to come on site a few times, walk around, and talk with employees. They need to know they haven’t been abandoned. As interim CEO, this responsibility matters a lot.

You also should recommend that during the interim, the whole inner circle should meet regularly with the CoB — a single point of contact might be tempting, but isn’t healthy since it effectively adds another layer of management when the business is already under stress.

This all has to happen fast, because you have to call an all-hands before the sun sets. Internalize the key messages so you don’t have to read them from a sheet of paper. In the meeting you want to explain and answer questions, not recite.

And then, have fun. It might not be party central, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that working on your own initiative has a lot to be said for it.

So much so that you’ll find yourself wondering how to provide a similar experience to your own teams … without having to resign your position, of course.

– Bob