Last week's hire of Microsoft's new CEO, Satya Nadella, reminded me of a talk I recently gave to a group of senior executives in Seattle about how companies should do more to groom leaders from within, as opposed to looking outside for their next star.

    At the time, succession was a big topic; Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer were actively planning exits from their everyday roles. In the audience, a woman raised her hand and said that many employees were concerned about who will be brought in and what kind of cultural changes they could expect. Employees, she added, wanted someone capable of transforming the culture of the company so it could compete for talent against competitors, such as Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL), as well as others in the mobile world as it begins to capitalize on its acquisition of Nokia.

    Back in Nov. 14, 2013 when I gave my talk, Microsoft's (MSFT) employees weren't sure what was going on since they had heard little from John W. Thompson, the board member heading up the search. The most information he had shared to date was a list of some 100 candidates that he included in a blog post. All that mystery was having a negative impact on the current employees I spoke with, most of whom admitted to feeling anxious and of spending time dusting off their résumé as they waited to see what would happen.

    As I explained to the audience, the mistake so many boards make these days, as in the case of Microsoft, is that they think succession is all about identifying candidates. But it's really about organizational thinking, not just about one person.

    It's no longer enough to simply hire a search consultant who goes and finds candidates they think will fit or a board of directors coming up with a short list. It's about first tapping the collective wisdom of the organization, the shareholders of the community, to mine for the best ideas for the future evolution of the company and the characteristics of someone who could lead it forward. Search is still important but only after the organization has done its pre-thinking on the parameters of strategy and the future.

    These themes are covered in my new book, Fall of the Alphas: The New Beta Way to Connect, Collaborate, Influence -- and Lead. Unlike the Alpha way, where the board owns the entire process, the Beta approach involves a group of highly-placed, influential employees and community members -- what I call, a "tribal council." The council helps the board select the right leader who fits with the organization's goals and cultural traditions. It would not only help the board gain clarity on what needs to be done, but it would also take a leadership role in helping integrate and guarantee the success of the new executive into the company culture.

    In many ways, Microsoft could have selected its new CEO differently: First, it should not have just been the sole job of the board of directors to identify candidates. That's such an Alpha way to go about it. They also waited too long; the board should have better communicated with internal and external candidates long before the CEO job was open. That forced them to conduct a search under duress with the world watching.

    上周，微软（Microsoft）任命萨提亚•纳德拉为首席执行官。这让我想起了不久前在西雅图对一批高管说过的一番话，内容是企业应当如何从内部选拔负责人，而不是在外部搜寻。

    当时，继任是个重大话题——微软董事长比尔•盖茨和即将离职的CEO史蒂夫•鲍尔默正忙着从日常事务中脱身。听众中间有位女士举手发言，她说许多员工都很关心谁将成为新一任CEO，以及这个人可能给他们的公司文化带来怎样的改变。她还说，员工们都希望这个人能让微软实现文化转型，以便和竞争对手，比如谷歌（Google）、苹果公司（Apple）以及移动领域的企业，争夺人才。原因是，微软对收购诺基亚（Nokia）的资本化已经开始。

    我讲这番话的时间是2013年11月14日。当时微软员工还不知道情况如何，因为负责遴选新CEO的董事约翰•汤普森一直保持着沉默。那时，汤普森透露的信息只是他在博客里列出的约100名候选人。当时，这样的一团迷雾让我接触到的员工受到了不利影响。他们当中，大多数人都承认自己感到焦虑，而且都在静观事态发展的同时准备好了自己的简历。

    我对他们说，如今太多的公司董事会都犯了和微软一样的错误，那就是他们认为继任就是寻找候选人。但实际上，考虑继任问题需要从公司的角度出发，而不仅仅是着眼于具体的某一个人。

    简单地聘请一家研究咨询公司来寻找和发现他们认为合适的人选，或者由董事会挑选几名候选人已经不够了。首先要借助公司的集体智慧和社区股东来找到公司今后发展的最佳思路，同时确定能带领公司前进的人要有哪些特质。搜寻仍很重要，但要把它放在公司确定了策略指标和未来的方向之后。

    我在新书《管理阶层的崩塌：联络、合作、影响和领导的新途径》（Fall of the Alphas: The New Beta Way to Connect, Collaborate, Influence -- and Lead）谈到了这些话题。和董事会掌控一切的传统方式不同，这种新途径牵涉到一批职位高、有影响力的员工和社区成员，我把他们称为“部落议会”。这个机构帮助董事会选择适合公司目标和文化传统的领导者。它不仅可以帮助董事会弄清楚需要做哪些工作，还能发挥领导作用，帮助新的领导者融入公司文化，同时确保这项任务的圆满成功。

    微软本可以用另一种方法来任命新CEO，包括几点：首先，挑选候选人的工作不应只由董事会承担。只有传统方式才会这样做；此外，微软董事会等待的时间过长，他们本该在CEO职位空出来之前早早地和内外部候选人进行更好的沟通。长期等待造成他们不得不在全世界目光的注视之下开始寻找新任CEO。

    Microsoft missed an opportunity to have a succession plan in place where internal candidates would already have a relationship with the board and with the organization's leadership. If Nadella was on the short list of prospects, they also could have developed a development plan to integrate him into all the strategy discussions across the company and given him exposure to the Board prior to the transition taking place.

    Beyond Microsoft, succession is a big issue for just about every company. The Center for Creative Leadership has estimated that 40% of new CEOs fail in their first 18 months.

    You need only check the news or perform a quick Google search to find a list of failures. Look back at the issues at Walt Disney Co. (DIS) when Michael Eisner brought in Michael Ovitz; the two clashed almost immediately and could not co-exist. AT&T (T) used search firms who didn't take cultural fit into account when they hired John Walter, who abruptly resigned barely nine months into his job. And when GE (GE) searched for Jack Welch's successor, he and the board chose three internal candidates, but the two who weren't picked for the top job left the company. That, in turn, caused the company to lose valuable human capital assets while also creating a cultural setback for the organization.

    The Beta approach is to give the people in the organization, the community, a voice in choosing their next leader rather than solely giving the board that authority.

    Dana Ardi is the founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, an executive search and consulting firm. She has served as a partner/managing director at CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners Private Equity, and was a partner at Flatiron Partners. Dr. Ardi has a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a master's degree and doctorate from Boston College.

    微软错过了制定继任计划的机会。有了这样的计划，内部候选人就能和董事们以及公司领导层建立联系。如果纳德拉是其中一位候选人，他们还能制定出发展规划，从而让纳德拉参与到整个公司的决策之中，并让董事会在他成为CEO之前对他有所了解。

    不光是微软，继任对所有公司来说都是件大事。创新领导力中心（Center for Creative Leadership）估算，40%的新CEO都在上任18个月之内黯然离职。

    只需要看看新闻，或者在谷歌上随便搜索一下，你就能发现一批这样的失败案例。想当初，迈克尔•艾斯纳让迈克尔•奥维茨进入沃尔特•迪士尼公司（Walt Disney）担任二把手就带来了问题——两人几乎马上出现了冲突，无法共存。美国电话电报公司（AT&T）通过猎头公司找来了约翰•沃尔特，但猎头方没有考虑这个人选是否适于前者的公司文化——短短几个月后沃尔特就辞去了总裁职务。通用电气（GE）为杰克•韦尔奇寻找接班人时，韦尔奇和董事会挑出了三位内部候选人——其中两人落选后离开了GE，进而造成了宝贵的人力资本损失，还让GE在文化方面受到了打击。

    新的途径能让公司和社区成员在挑选下一任领导者的过程中获得发言权，而不会让这项权利完全掌握在董事会手里。（财富中文网）

    本文作者是管理研究和咨询机构——企业人类学顾问公司创始人。她在私募基金公司CCMP Capital和JPMorgan Partners Private Equity担任合伙人兼董事总经理，还是风投公司Flatiron Partners的合伙人。阿尔迪在纽约州立大学水牛城分校获得学士学位，在波士顿大学获得硕士和博士学位。

    译者：Charlie