Act while the view is still forming.

The cost of the alternative

In AlixPartners' 10th annual PE leadership survey, 86% of CEO departures from PE-backed businesses were initiated by the fund. In their 2026 survey, 83% of PE executives said unplanned CEO turnover lengthens the hold. In my experience, replacing a portfolio CEO typically costs more than £250k and adds substantially to the holding period.

Before that decision, it is worth one serious attempt at recalibration by someone who has sat in that chair. Sometimes the leader is wrong for the phase. Often the signals are wrong, not the leader.

What you are probably seeing

• Board packs getting fuller while the meetings get less useful
• Challenge answered with justification rather than judgment
• Issues reaching the board late, packaged rather than raw
• Permission sought on decisions that are theirs to make
• The most useful conversations happening after they leave the room

That is the stage where the leader can still change the pattern, because nobody has named it yet. Run the Portfolio Read on one CEO or C-suite leader in your portfolio. Eight statements, three minutes.

Why support aimed at the business misses the CEO

In Heidrick & Struggles' 2026 High-End Independent Talent Report, interim leadership makes up 51% of on-demand projects in private equity. Interim CFOs, experienced operators, transformation leads. Almost none of it is directed at the CEO as an individual. That's not a criticism of how PE operates. It's how the structure works.

I have been on the other side of it. My first PE backers sent an operating partner in to help, two days a month, then a day a week. I don't think the backers did anything wrong. I think I mistook supervision for support. The friction between a fast-moving CEO and a governance structure built for process is often a translation failure, not a capability failure. Read the story.

For search partners placing CEOs

If you place CEOs into PE-backed businesses on a success fee, you've got more riding on this than the placement itself. Your name is attached to it long after the placement's done.

I know the difference between getting hired and actually landing the job, and it's usually not about capability. It's everything that happens in the first few months that nobody warns you about. If you've placed someone who's good but new to this level, or new to PE, that's exactly where things go wrong.