How a New CEO Impacts Projects

Dear Valerie: We have a new CEO joining our small brand (where I’m in charge of the lab) and I’m a little nervous about how our team is going to be impacted. What types of changes can I expect, in your experience?

—Nervous Neil

Dear Nervous:

Change can be hard, especially change in leadership. New CEOs are put in place for a variety of reasons, but they are all charged somewhat with executing the same things—company strategy, increasing revenue and/or profitability, and—if necessary—completely steering the ship to take the company in a new direction. I like to embrace this type of change because new leadership brings a fresh set of eyes to an operation, helps make me a better leader by shifting my leadership skills under the new leader’s style, see different ways of doing things, and challenging myself to deliver top performance.

I understand you may be concerned that your entire work dynamic may change. It’s unlikely your day-to-day activities will. However, factors like the reason for your new CEO hire, the financial health of the company, and overall business strategy is probably going to determine whether your team is going to get bigger, stay the same, or get smaller. The latter is unlikely since it sounds like you’re already a small team.

Regardless, I would imagine your team would stay in place for some time. A good leader doesn’t make changes right away, but rather makes observations and asks questions. It might be good for you to prepare a list of what your day looks like—not the actual tasks that you do, but for what things you and your team are responsible and accountable. I would like to think they would ask you about this matter! Also, think about if you have the right roles and people in place to handle it all. Are there any gaps that would make your team higher performing? What does your team look like in one, three or five years?

Does a New CEO Kill Projects?

One thing that may change is the product launches. It’s common for new leadership to kill projects that you have worked so hard on. It can be incredibly frustrating to have projects canned after so much investment in time and energy. I always found “doing work for nothing” really frustrating in my previous life.

Are projects killed because the new sheriff in town doesn’t like them? Completely possible. Do new priorities arise in the organization, rendering a project obsolete? Absolutely. You must be OK with both scenarios. Business is business and business changes. Just because your team worked hard on something, doesn’t make it a good concept, a concept that will succeed in the marketplace, or a concept that your company can successfully execute.

Keep Track of What You’ve Learned

Companies change, realign their strategy and focus, or get clarity on where the market is headed. But all of your hard work wasn’t wasted. Take away key learnings, and more importantly, track them. I always kept a Rolodex of all the projects we ever worked on, with context built around the when and why, so there was a good record of what we tried to do and why it couldn’t go to the market. There is always a right time and right place for a product concept to be successful, and it was always handy to have when we were ready to resurrect a project and fulfill an organizational need.

Of course, it’s not always greener grass with a new person in charge. Sometimes CEOs are not good leaders, nor possess a good vision, or understand the business in which they’re overseeing. No matter the situation you’re in, I can assure you have a positive road ahead of you. Keep your head down, continue to work hard and consider every day a teaching moment for you and your team to grow. 

Valerie George

askvalerie@icloud.com

Valerie George is a cosmetic chemist, science communicator, educator, leader, and avid proponent of transparency in the beauty industry. She works on the latest research in hair color and hair care at her company, Simply Formulas, and is the co-host of The Beauty Brains podcast. You can find her on Instagram at @cosmetic_chemist or showcasing her favorite ingredients to small brands and home formulators at simply-ingredients.com