In most companies, highly valued at-risk leaders seem to be tolerated in their roles. In my experience over the past 30 years working with leaders, there are key characteristics that help to identify these executives on the brink of derailing from their role and career:

1. They possess clear, towering strengths usually in their functional or business acumen.  For example, the sales leader who consistently makes her numbers or the CIO who has brought the company huge productivity gains through IT systems.

2. They also have a “dark side” to their leadership styles that causes turnover, lawsuits, lowered employee morale, customer turnover and ineffective teamwork, to name a few outcomes.

3. Their behaviors have been tolerated for years. It is still eye-opening to me that when I am called in to help these executives survive the current situation, their negative behaviors have been tolerated for years. Unfortunately, the external coach can be called in at the end of a 1-3 year career, making it difficult to turn things around. 

4. These executives contribute at a level very difficult to replace or, worse yet, go to the competition.

5. The costs of replacement are extremely high. As noted in #4, and in addition, there are numerous studies on the direct costs of executive replacements, which generally indicate 5x to 9x annual compensation (include severance, search firms, relocation, lack of productivity, successor assimilation, opportunity costs, etc.). These potential failures can cost shareholders $1mm+.

Several steps can be taken to determine if the executive is salvageable or just an exercise in futility:

1. The executive must be at a point where he knows that his behaviors are no longer tolerated or it’s not in his best interest to behave in ways that are detrimental to the business.

2. The executive is technically competent to perform the role he is in and not over his head with technical components of the job.

3. The boss (usually C-Level) has decided to confront and deal with the leadership challenges, and communicated the consequences for not changing leadership styles.

4. The executive is coachable, meaning he is open to feedback, willing to change and try new, and oftentimes, uncomfortable behaviors.

5. You are able to find a suitable external coach who can build trust and rapport quickly with the executive so that he will change.

6. There is enough time left to make the changes. For toxic behaviors, these should be eliminated within 2-4 weeks, since many have become habits. We have found that over the years, working with many of these executives, at least 6-9 months are required to actually implement new changes in leadership styles. 

If these conditions do not exist, you should be somewhat wary of making the investment in training and coaching to turn the executive around and try to save him or her. Sometimes, these conditions seem to exist, and the coach finds that the executive is not coachable and should inform the executive and company. If you decide to stop the investment, there are alternative options to consider, besides termination, like demotion, repositioning to a new role, etc. Sometimes this can work, but rarely does.

A good starting point is the use of 360-degree feedback, or “surround sound,” to enable the coach to ensure the executive actually understands and accepts ownership for his leadership style and its impact on the business. The 360-feedback may be in the form or interviews and/or competency surveys with direct reports, peers and the boss.  As in Kurt Lewin’s change process, it requires unfreezing to start behavior changes before you can refreeze new behaviors. The 360-approach often helps get the executive to commit to making changes.

So use the checklist above when confronted with a leader who is causing issues to the point it is negatively impacting the business.