Transition Coaching Of Leaders For First 90 Days

New leaders need to reflect and examine their own leadership attitude and perspective

“Executive coaching focuses on developing a top executive’s full potential by coaching them to think and act beyond existing limits and paradigms. Transition coaching has three overall goals: to accelerate the transition process by providing just-in-time advice and counsel, to prevent mistakes that may harm the business and the leader’s career, and to assist the leader in developing and implementing a targeted, actionable transition plan that delivers business results.”

- Prof Sattar Bawany (2018a),
Development and Coaching of NextGen Leaders, Business Expert Press, Business Insights

 
Talent management represents an organization’s efforts to attract, develop, and retain skilled and valuable employees. Its goal is to have people with the capabilities and commitment needed for currentand future organizational success. An organization’s talent pool, particularly its managerial talent, is often referred to as the leadership pipeline (Charan, et. al., 2000).
 

Today’s dramatically changing work environments demands that organizations have to continuously ensure that there is a robust leadership pipeline ready to be deployed now and in the future. Identifying, assessing, selecting and developing the next generation or potential future leaders are, therefore, critical strategic objectives for ensuring a sustainable, competitive organization. The business case for doing so is clear as supported by extensive published research (Bawany, 2018a). 
 
Today’s businesses face unprecedented challenges operating in a global environment which is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). Leaders are also confronted with increased competition, globalization, demand for growing social responsibilities and a stream of technological revolution causing disruption in the marketplace. Hence organizations need to strengthen their leadership bench strength and also ensure the availability of leaders today and tomorrow to take on the responsibility to ensure the sustainability of the organization (Bawany, 2018b).
 
The high impact and cost of new leader derailing within the first year are staggering. As Michael Watkins states in his book, The First 90 Days, “studies have found that more than 40 to 50 percent of senior outside hires fail to achieve results (2003, p. 8). The reason for most of these failures is not the lack of intelligence (IQ), skills or experience, but rather the inability of these executives to assimilate effectively into the new culture or new role and make the necessary “mindset shift” as they go through fundamental changes in roles.
 

The biggest trap that new leaders fall into is to believe that they will continue to be successful by doing what has made them successful in the past. There is an old saying, "To a person who has a hammer, everything looks like a nail." So too it is for leaders who have become successful by relying on certain skills and abilities. Too often they fail to see that their new leadership role demands different skills and abilities. And so they fail to meet the adaptive challenge. This does not, of course, mean that new leaders should ignore their strengths. It means that they should focus first on what it will really take to be successful in the new role, then discipline themselves to do things that don't come naturally if the situation demands it.
 
Another common trap is falling prey to the understandable anxiety the transition process evokes. Some new leaders try to take on too much, hoping that if they do enough things, something will work. Others feel they have to be seen "taking charge," and so make changes in order to put their own stamp on things. Still, others experience the "action imperative" - they feel they need to be in motion, and so don't spend enough time upfront engaged in diagnosis. The result is that new leader’s end up enmeshed in vicious cycles in which they make bad judgments that undermine their credibility.
 
New leaders are expected to “hit the ground running.” They must produce results quickly while simultaneously assimilating into the organization. The result is that a large number of newly recruited or promoted managers fail within the first year of starting new jobs.
 

Successful new leaders re-define their need for power and control. Team members normally value a certain amount of freedom and autonomy. People want to influence the events around them and not be controlled by an over-bearing leader. When the manager is an individual contributor, he or she is close to the work itself and they are the master in control of their circumstances; their personal performance has a big effect on their satisfaction and motivation.
 
The situation is different when they are promoted and become a leader. Their personal contribution is less direct; as they often operate behind the scenes. Leaders create frustration for everyone when they try to be involved in every project and expect team members to check-in before beginning every task. World-class leaders delegate. They learn to trust. This means giving up some control. Leaders learn to live with the risks and know that someone else may do things a little differently. Every person is unique, and they will individualize certain aspects of their work. When leaders don’t empower and delegate, they can become ineffective and overwhelmed. In turn, team members feel underutilized and therefore less motivated.

Finally, leaders learn to transition in other critical ways. They learn how to live with occasional feelings of separation and people don’t always accept their decisions when faced with gut-wrenching situations. Leaders have a view of the big picture in mind. But the challenge for leaders lies in balancing the needs of many stakeholders: owners, employees, customers, and community. Because of this challenge, team members can feel alienated when unpopular decisions must be made. Leadership can be hard. It is impossible to please everyone all of the time. While the need for belonging and connecting with the group is important, leaders know the mission and vision take precedence. Sometimes a leader should make waves, champion change, and challenge people’s comfort zone. Leaders may not always relish conflict, but they are not afraid of it either. Leaders are guided by standards, principles, and core values. Leaders focus on what is right, not who is right.
 

Effective coaching is a major key to improving business performance. Executive Coaching focuses on the qualities of effective leadership and improved business results. It is comprised of a series of structured, one-on-one interactions between a coach and an executive, aimed at enhancing the executive's performance in two areas:
 

 
What if there was a proven process to support new leaders in their role while significantly increasing return on investment and ensuring a positive economic impact for the organization?
 
One such process is Transition Coaching; an integrated and systematic process, which engages and assimilate the new leaders into the organization’s corporate strategy and culture to accelerate productivity.
 
Transition coaching encompasses the goals of executive coaching but focuses on a specific niche, the newly appointed leader (either being promoted from within or being hired externally). Leadership transitions are among the most challenging and difficult situations executives face. Take the case of a leader who might enter a new position thinking he or she already has all of the answers or, just the opposite; the leader might lack a clear understanding of the role’s expectations. The goal of transition coaching is to reduce the time it takes for new leaders to make a net contribution to the organization and establish a framework for ongoing success.
 
Those promoted from within will have to be mindful that a smooth and effective assimilation of ‘role-to-role’ transition is critical to theorganizationor businessperformance. The organization depends on leaders to execute and meet objectives and has bet that internal candidates are better valued at less risk. Organizations understand that successful transitions ensure future capability. Transition Coaching is the key to achieving this.
 
Many newly placed executives fail within their first two years in the position for reasons ranging from their inability to adjust to a new role and develop strong relationships to a lack of understanding of the business imperatives. What new leaders do during their first months in a new role greatly determines the extent of their success for the next several years.
 
An unsuccessful transition can negatively impact an organization through poor financial results, decreased employee morale and costly turnovers. So rather than risk this sink or swim gamble, organizations can improve the process of transition coaching.
 
If organizations use the right transition strategies when on-boarding a leader, they will not only help prevent failure but will also create additional value by accelerating the new leader’s effectiveness. Transition coaching engages the new leader in the organization’s corporate strategy and culture to accelerate performance.
 

Leveraging on Transition Coaching for Onboarding of Leaders in First 90 Days

Transition coaching has three overall goals: to accelerate the transition process by providing just-in-time advice and counsel, to prevent mistakes that may harm the business and the leader’s career, and to assist the leader in developing and implementing a targeted, actionable transition plan that delivers business results.
 
While many of the issues covered by transition coaching are similar to those included in executive coaching, such as sorting through short and long-term goals and managing relationships upwards as well as with team members, transition coaching is focused specifically on the transition and designed to educate and challenge new leaders. The new leader and coach will work together to develop a transition plan, a roadmap that will define critical actions that must take place during the first 90 days to establish credibility, secure early wins and position the leader and team for long-term success.
 
The transition coaching relationship also includes regular meetings with the new leader as well as ongoing feedback. Frequently, the coach conducts a “pulse check” of the key players, including the boss, direct reports, peers and other stakeholders, after four to six weeks to gather early impressions so that the new leader can make a course correction if needed.
 
The entire transition coaching process (Refer to Figure 1) developed by the Centre for Executive Education (CEE) provides new leaders with the guidance to take charge of their new situation, achieve alignment with the team, and ultimately to move the business forward. Organizations make a significant investment when they recruit and hire new leaders, and they have much to lose if a new hire does not succeed, possibly several times the hire’s base compensation.
 
Figure 1: The Transition Coaching Approach

 

* The Transition Readiness Assessment for the NextGen Leaders includes Cognitive Readiness competencies which include Critical Thinking Skills, Emotional& Social Intelligence Skills; Developing Others (Managerial Coaching); Cross-Cultural Communication; Effective Negotiation and Managing Conflict
 
Conclusion
The new leaders need to reflect and examine their own leadership attitude and perspective. Develop an intentional plan to work on areas that need improvement. Whether a manager is moving into a new position or looking to get back on the road to success, executive or transition coaching work to bring out the best in the new leaders through the support of a professional relationship. Both relationships are built on a foundation of trust and confidentiality. The ability of coaches to provide leaders with an outside resource that can also act as a sounding board helps them become the successful leaders they were meant to be.
 
Organizations must clearly define the purpose of coaching, gauge the process, and evaluate results. Coaching is not just about providing support. Ultimately, coaching should deliver what any business needs – real results.

Author Bio

Prof Sattar Bawany is the CEO of the Centre for Executive Education (CEE). He is also concurrently the Regional Managing Director & C-Suite Master Executive Coach of Executive Development Associates (EDA) in theAsia Pacific. He is also the Adjunct Professor of Leadership and member of the Advisory Board of the Curtin Graduate School of Business (CGSB) of Curtin University, Australia. Visit www.cee-global.com Connect Sattar Bawany

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