CEO evaluation

Performance
The first step in conducting a CEO evaluation is to decide what criteria you will use to determine how well the CEO is leading the organization. Measures of success flow from strategy--not just the easy-to-quantify measures that boards are often tempted to use, such as margin. The board and CEO should first develop a long- and short-term organizational strategy upon which all agree and which all thoroughly understand. A designated group of trustees and key leaders should meet to determine this strategy and present it to the full board.
The best performance measures are integrated and comprehensive. Seen together, they tell a story about the organization's values and goals. Measures in a health care setting include financial benchmarks, such as net income or margin, and quality-of-care metrics (developed with the medical staff), such as readmission and postsurgical infection rates. Patient and employee satisfaction measures and hospital-medical staff relations are often used to round out the CEO "scorecard."
But hard measures are only one part of the equation. What often derails executives is not the actual results but the actions and behaviors--such as strategic thinking or skills in building community relationships--needed to achieve those results. The board must be able to articulate the actions and behaviors it expects and clearly communicate them to the CEO.
Christopher Bennett, board chair of Woodstock, Ill.-based Centegra Health System, which comprises two hospitals, a psychiatric facility and outpatient clinics, says, "A full 40 percent of [our] CEO's evaluation is based on building relationships with the broad community, the

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CEO Evaluation form