A big Don't: Don't be afraid of alienating a successful CEO.

• Author: Tichy, Noel M.

Bob Knowling points out that in his experience, boards of directors frequently shy away from forcing the issue on a CEO when the CEO is riding high. "This reticence," he says, "on the part of even well-intentioned directors all too often boils down to a situation when you've got a strong-willed CEO who's got some real momentum in terms of quarterly earnings and the stock price is doing well. This makes directors a little reticent to take on the CEO and force the discipline around succession planning. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the situations when this happens is when you've got a very strong-willed CEO. I mean, I was a CEO for 15 years and I've been a board member for 30, and I can tell you from personal experience, most CEOs are egomaniacs. That's how they get there in the first place."

He recalled one egregious incident where he sat in on an executive session of the board and made a sincere attempt to personally press the issue on a reluctant CEO who was achieving demigod status based purely on his financial results. Was he putting in the time developing the next generation of leaders? Hell no--he was focused on the quarterly earnings...