问题公司选帅新思路

    如果一处房产很长时间都卖不掉，那么我们总会这么想：人们最终放弃购买肯定是有原因的。这种情况对于工作职位来说也是一样，尤其是高管级别的职位。

    如果一个首席执行官职位已经空缺了很久，它可以说明很多问题，但其中没有一样值得潜在的人选期待。

    西尔斯公司（Sears）设立过渡首席执行官已经有三年时间，直到今年5月才由安布罗西奥接任首席执行官职位。劳埃德银行（Lloyds Bank）首席执行官安东尼奥•霍塔奥索尼奥最近由于慢性疲劳症而辞职。公司过渡首席执行官蒂姆•图基也计划于2012年年初离职。如果霍塔奥索尼奥身体没有好转，劳埃德银行将会任命大卫•罗伯茨担任过渡首席执行官。

    时代公司（Time Inc.）是时代华纳（Time Warner）的下属公司，也是财富杂志（Fortune）的母公司。这家公司对高管职位空缺问题并不陌生。在过去九个月时间里，该公司就是由“过渡管理委员会”掌权。直到上周，时代公司宣布其首席执行官由数字营销机构狄杰斯（Digitas）的前任首席执行官劳拉•朗格出任。

    投资者对于这种类型的管理断层问题感到非常不安，他们担心的理由很充分。其中一个原因在于，达特茅斯大学塔克商学院（Dartmouth's Tuck Executive Education School）管理学教授悉尼•芬克斯坦称，前一任与下一任首席执行官之间的时间空档说明公司内部存在领导力发展方面的问题。

    公司拥有明确的继任计划自然能够避免领导层的动荡。芬克斯坦称，如果首席执行官能够密切关注人才的晋升情况，一般能够挑选出理想的接班人。如果公司最高管理层中包括负责人事的高管，那么该公司也会倾向于将领导力发展作为优先事项。

    When a house sits on the market for a while, we tend to think the people who passed on it rejected it for a reason. The same goes for a job, especially an executive-level one.

    If a CEO position stays open for too long, it could indicate a couple of things, none of them all that promising to a potential candidate.

    Sears had an "interim" CEO for three years, until Lou D'Ambrosio took over this past May. Lloyds Bank (LYG) CEO António Horta-Osório recently stepped down claiming it was on account of chronic fatigue, and the company's interim CEO, Tim Tookey, plans to leave at the beginning of 2012. If Horta-Osório doesn't feel better, Lloyds will bring on a replacement interim, CEO David Roberts.

    Time Inc., a division of Time Warner (TWX) (and Fortune's parent company), is no stranger to this problem. An "interim management committee" has been running the ship at the magazine publisher for the past nine months and a replacement, Digitas CEO Laura Lang, was announced last week.

    Investors get restless about these types of management gaps, and for good reason. For one, lag time between CEOs can indicate a problem with leadership development within a company, says Sydney Finkelstein, a professor of management at Dartmouth's Tuck Executive Education School.

    Unsurprisingly, companies with clear succession plans can sidestep leadership blips. CEOs who keep a close watch on talent rising through the ranks tend to have a good sense of the ideal candidates, Finkelstein says. Organizations that have an HR person in their C-suite also tend to prioritize leadership development.