How I Begin Leading When I Take Over as CEO
When a new leader takes the helm of a company, all eyes turn to the strategy. But before strategy comes something more fundamental: presence. Who are you? Why are you here? And will you stand with us when things get difficult?
This article is not about theoretical leadership models. It’s about what I’ve learned through trial, error, and deep reflection about how to begin well when taking over a company. Because how you enter shapes everything that follows.
What this is really about.
This piece is for CEOs and business unit leaders stepping into complex organisations often mid-flight, with legacy systems, layered cultures, and investor expectations already in motion.
We often over-index on the first hundred days as a performance milestone. But it’s not about timelines. It’s about motion. Specifically, the kind of motion that builds clarity, coherence, and trust from day one.
The problem is not the plan. It’s the pressure to perform fast.
When you take over a company, the temptation is to act quickly, change the org chart, restructure the strategy deck, and announce bold goals. But speed alone doesn’t build alignment. In fact, it often masks misalignment.
Real transformation begins with orientation. That means three parallel assessments:
The business: Where are we strong? Where are we exposed?
The context: What is the market, the regulatory landscape, the investor climate?
The leader: What do I bring to this challenge that is unique, and what will not work here?
It’s not uncommon for leaders to bypass the third.
You are part of the system now. And your presence is already shaping it.
My first day in a new organisation doesn’t begin with a speech. It begins in a closed room with my direct management team. No observers. No legacy leaders. Just the people I will rely on to move the business forward.
We spend time together not talking about KPIs, but establishing emotional clarity. I need to see their energy. Their hesitations. Their expectations. And they need to see mine. The goal is not to impress. It’s to make one thing clear: we are in this together.
That moment can’t be outsourced. You either create it or leave a vacuum.
You don’t inherit trust. You build it in layers.
After management, I meet the wider team, not through broadcast emails or internal newsletters, but in person, in groups. If the team is large, I find ways to be visible. A note. A walkaround. A message on every desk. It doesn’t matter how it matters that there is a “before” and “after” to your arrival.
One frequent misunderstanding is to view trust as a byproduct of competence.It’s not. It’s a result of emotional consistency. You show up. You listen. You create space for discomfort and signal that truth is safe here.
One example: In a former role, I inherited two sales teams locked in quiet competition. On paper, they were colleagues. In practice, they undermined each other. The strategy couldn’t fix that. What fixed it was naming it publicly, early, and empathetically. The team shifted because we made the unseen visible.
Slow down to move well.
One of the best pieces of advice I received was this: slow things down to win time.
In a pressure-filled environment, this sounds counterintuitive. But the goal isn’t to act fast, it’s to act with clarity. If you trigger motion before the vision is absorbed, you don’t build momentum. You create noise.
Think of a room full of molecules. When you add heat without direction, everything bounces. But when you align the field, movement becomes forward motion. Strategy becomes execution.
Your job is to calibrate that field.
Leadership is not theoretical. It’s personal.
We all carry assumptions from past roles, MBAs, and mentors. But leadership is not plug-and-play. You have to adapt both to the context and to yourself.
What works for me may not work for you. I prefer direct engagement, calm consistency, and visible ownership. Others prefer structured detachment. There’s no universal formula. What matters is coherence. If your posture and your words are aligned, people will respond. If they’re not, they will retreat.
Takeaways for leaders stepping in.
Do your triple SWOT: Assess the business, the environment, and yourself not as separate domains, but as one integrated system.
Create emotional clarity early: With your management team, your broader staff, and with yourself.
Don’t rush alignment: Slow things down to ensure shared understanding before triggering action.
Name the hidden dynamics: Culture lives in the unsaid. Say it empathetically and give others permission to do the same.
Lead with conviction, not performance: People don’t need theatrics. They need presence.
Final reflection
The first act of leadership is not direction. It is a connection. Without it, the best strategy will stall. With it, even the hardest challenges become possible.
And the connection begins long before results.
François Jacquemin
P.S.: Want to watch the video version of this article? Go to https://www.francoisjacquemin.com/covered/how-i-begin-leading-when-i-take-over-as-ceo