If either hired from outside or promoted from within, it’s tough enough to succeed in the top job when the organization is successful and the environment stable. But it’s much more difficult when things are not at their best, expectations are high, and the board & investors are demanding change.
These situations call for a new strategy that produces more innovation for top-line growth, new ways of operating that bring greater efficiencies, and better ways of winning customer loyalty. Even more vital is to master the political & personal challenges that most new leaders face for the first time … such as putting in place new organization structures, replacing people who have been inherited with a new team more up to the challenge, forging supportive relationships with the board or a new boss, and managing the inevitable stress that comes with the job.
Dan’s advice & counsel helps the new leader prepare for and then navigate the all-important transition period as she begins a new era for her career as well as for the company. It is then that first impressions are shaped, relationships formed, and the tone of the leader’s tenure is set. If hired from outside, she faces new norms and a different political environment, but has left behind a support system that helped make her a success. If promoted from within, she is now managing people who were peers or bosses. In either case, time is compressed and pressure increased.
Dan helps by:
- Constructing a taking-hold plan. Learning, visioning & coalition building are the master challenges for any top leader in a new position. Taking hold plans offer tested & practical ways to master these three challenges and ensure early successes & solid relationships.
- Interpreting the political environment. The most successful new leaders are politically savvy without being labeled as “political” … Dan’s counsel helps the new leader stay on the right side of this fine line.
- Assessing the culture. Understanding the culture is a key success factor for the new leader whether hired from the outside or promoted from within. Dan identifies warning signs & underlying traps that could derail a new leader … then he recommends practical, tested steps for dealing with them and for a plan to strengthen or change the culture.
- Providing advice on relationships that matter most. No leader succeeds by just operational or strategic abilities. Also needed are great relationship-building skills with managers as well as board members. Dan has been a pioneer in this area for decades and helped hundreds of leaders in new top roles shape the most important relationships.
- Providing counsel for the leader’s new direct reports. Inherited senior people experience as much change & adjustment as their new boss. They often need help to form a winning relationship with a leader who has a new style or to respond to new demands and expectations.
- Creating a personal leadership strategy to extend early successes beyond the transition. As the leader learns, envisions, and builds coalitions, she must turn attention to gaining commitment to a new way of operating, often altering the organization structure and reshaping the top team while ensuring the support of the board. Delicate issues which must be successfully addressed the first time.
