The Right CEO for the Moment: How Leadership Shapes Trust and Culture Change
CEO succession remains a major boardroom issue. Russell Reynolds Associates recorded 101 CEO departures across major global indices in the first half of 2026. In the S&P 500, 88% of incoming CEOs were internal appointments, the highest first-half proportion in its nine-year dataset.
Trust and change are proving equally difficult. Deloitte’s 2026 Human Capital Trends research found just 18% of UK respondents believe their organizations manage change effectively. Separate LHH research found improving employee trust, engagement and transparency was the top people-strategy priority for CHROs in 2026.
David Ribott is the founder and Managing Director of Ribott Partners, with more than 9,000 hours of executive coaching experience. His work focuses on CEO succession, board effectiveness, organizational trust and leadership decision-making.
Speaking exclusively to Motivational Speakers Agency, David discusses what boards should look for in a new CEO, how leaders build trust across an organization, and why culture transformation can lose momentum before it reaches the frontline.
Q: What should boards consider when appointing a new CEO, and how does the organisation’s current position shape the type of leader it needs?
David Ribott: “Boards need to identify what kind of CEO they're hiring for.
“One of the challenges in CEO succession is understanding the context of the organization at its current state and what is needed of the new CEO moving forward.
“Are you hiring for a wartime CEO, metaphorically speaking, or a peacetime CEO?
“Is the new CEO inheriting a stable situation where you've got large market share and you're looking at long-term sustainability, which means the incoming CEO has a long runway for success?
“Or is this a business turnaround situation where you've lost market share and potentially been in the red for a number of years, which is one of the reasons why you need a new CEO, a new person taking the helm?
“If you can identify that, it gives you a sense of what CEO you need and what time frame they're going to be in role.
“If you're hiring for a business turnaround, the moment they stabilize things, you do need to start looking at a different CEO who can take them from that stage to the next.
“I think this is the challenge. You sometimes have CEOs with a very specific skill set who overstay their tenure, and then it comes at the consequence of the business.”
Q: How can CEOs build a high-trust culture, and what role does leadership behaviour play in maintaining that trust across the organisation?
David Ribott: “It's simple. Align your words with your actions.
“It's simple to say, but putting it into action is where the challenge comes in.
“If a CEO can align their words with their actions, that's phase one.
“The second part is that you can't reward bad behavior.
“If you're trying to build a high-trust organization, you need to understand what's happening downstream.
“How is your senior leadership team behaving and managing its own team? Go down a layer below.
“The challenge isn't always at the top. The challenge is how it is cascaded downstream and whether it is consistent with the measures from the top.
“If your frontline workers see bad behavior in leaders and see it go unnoticed, unpunished and unaccounted for, that will erode trust.
“If you can address these things, you're in good shape.”
Q: Why do culture transformation programmes often lose momentum between senior leadership and frontline employees?
David Ribott: “Similar to the previous question, the signal from the top could be support, but there can be a gap between your senior management team and your frontline employees, depending on how far the distance is.
“It's almost like playing a game of telephone.
“When I was a kid in school in the 80s, the first person you tell a story to, the further removed it gets from that initial conversation, by the time it comes back full circle, it's evolved into a very different story.
“Transformation behaves the same way.
“If the chain of command, the chain of communication and line of sight on what's happening from one phase to the next isn't measured and monitored for quality assurance along the way, you're going to have gaps.”
This exclusive interview with David Ribott was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.
