Mugabe’s uphill task

President Robert Mugabe’s State of the Nation Address today will not be an ordinary speech to brief the nation about what has been happening and the way forward.

 It will be an uphill task to prove that he is still fit to lead the nation for the 18 months or so to complete his current term.

All the signs so far indicate that Mugabe is tired. He now tends to doze off during crucial meetings. That is to be expected for a 93-year-old.  It would be foolhardy to expect Mugabe to have a clean bill of health.  At the same time is it not asking too much to expect Mugabe, at 93 to be fully functional?

Maybe this article from the Harvard Business Review entitled: When it’s time for the CEO to go can help:

By Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

“At a directors’ meeting of a specialty appliance firm I was advising a few years ago, the agenda featured the selection committee’s report presented by Stefan, chairman and CEO. The board members had expected to get a list of the candidates to succeed Stefan, who was past retirement age. However, Stefan informed the board that, despite an extensive search, the selection committee had determined that no candidate was yet qualified: the three insiders needed at least four to six years’ seasoning, while the outsiders (in spite of their outstanding track records) lacked the kind of expertise that would fit the future needs of the company.

“After a short discussion, the board agreed that Stefan should postpone his retirement for another four years. Yet several directors remained troubled. Something wasn’t quite right. Were there really no competent external candidates out there? And why did no one in the company qualify? What had happened to the leadership development pipeline all these years? As the company seemed to be on a holding pattern for the past two years, wasn’t it time to bring in somebody new? But was it also possible that the members of the selection committee, knowing Stefan’s attachment to his job, were in reluctant to confront him about succession?

“How long should a CEO stay in his job?   The most common response I usually have from CEOs is seven years, plus or minus two. It’s a reasonable number: seven years is probably the period of maximum effectiveness for most people in what can be a very stressful job.   I think also that the nature and challenges of the job evolve over time, going through three distinct phases:

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