Boards stopped giving new CEOs time to find their footing

The clock doesn’t start on day one anymore. For decades, the “first 100 days” framework allowed new executives a structured runway—time to listen, assess, and earn trust before making consequential decisions. That window quietly closed. What replaced it isn’t a shorter timeline, but a fundamentally different set of expectations. Boards aren’t granting CEOs time to “learn the business.” They expect judgment from the start, and the tolerance for ambiguity has collapsed. Successful leaders must...