My new CFAO started in September and I am excited that every seat on my senior team is now filled.

I’ve been reflecting on how new CEOs often have to onboard staff while they’re still onboarding. Some may arrive to an open seat. For others, their transition into the organization prompts departures. Either way, you end up onboarding a senior leader while you are still onboarding yourself.

That sounds like it could be a problem. In practice, it is manageable, and it comes with some advantages.

Start with the learning overlap. Much of what a new chief needs to know is what you as the new CEO just learned. That includes the strategy, the relationships with key volunteer leaders, and the major directions of programs.

Fortunately, that information is fresh because you just did the work of learning it. You remember what confused you and what took too long to find. Share it. Your six months of learning can shorten theirs.

Then address the functional area. You will not know the details of their function. A CEO six months into the job usually cannot explain the history behind every audit finding, policy, or vendor contract. Some of that knowledge lives in notes. Some lives with the interim who carried the work during the vacancy. In my case, my controller covered the role during the search, and she is regularly huddling with the new CFAO to pass along information.

The new executive will need to chart a learning plan of their own. Your job is to make sure the plan exists, that it covers the right ground, and that you check in on it. You cannot supply every answer. You can supply the time, the introductions, and the expectation that learning comes first.

Finally, look outside the organization. Nonprofits and associations often hire leaders from other sectors. A strong leader from a corporate setting may not know how dues revenue behaves, how board committees work, or how volunteer leaders shape decisions.

You cannot close that gap alone, and you should not try. External training works faster. In the association space, ASAE and CESSE are good places to start. Both connect new leaders with programs and peers who understand how associations run.

Expect to learn together. When I brought in new staff while I was still new, they asked questions I could not answer yet. Those questions send me looking, and I learnt things I needed to know anyway. With an early hire, you have the benefit of two people looking at the organization with fresh eyes, and it is one of the better parts of hiring early.

If you have onboarded a senior hire during your own first year, what did you share first, and what would you do differently?