Of the seven things that most often lead to executives’ failing in their first 18 months in a new job, role risk is particularly hard to get a handle on. Role risk occurs when expectations and resources or key stakeholders are not aligned. This is complicated by hopes and perceptions across key stakeholders rarely matching the current reality. Thus, new leaders must look, think and work across multiple dimensions at the same time to manage this risk.
Some of those dimensions are 1) level: up, across and down, 2) internal vs. external, 3) formal vs. “shadow” power players, 4) time horizon: past, present or future, 5) attitude: contributor, detractor, watcher. The permutations and combinations falling out of this are daunting and partly explain why it’s so hard to manage this. In an ideal world, all the stakeholders’ expectations and view of resources would match across all these dimensions. Not only do new leaders not live in ideal worlds, they must function with incomplete information about the world they do live in.
We’ve learned in our executive onboarding and transition acceleration practice that the route to success is through 1) gathering the best possible information from scouts, seconds and spies, 2) getting a head start on the most critical relationships as soon as possible, 3) controlling your message at all times and 4) following through on your change campaign far longer and far more thoroughly than you’d ever imagine necessary. You can go to https://www.www.primegenesis.com/publications.html to download a more complete, free white paper on this subject, but here are a couple of things to keep in mind:
1) Gather the best possible information from scouts, seconds and spies. Scouts are people outside the organization that can tell you what’s going on. Seconds are people within the organization committed to your success – people like your boss, coach, HR. Spies are people deep within the organization that can tell you the real truth. You need to work with all of them to get the best possible information and figure out if the role risk is minor, manageable, mission crippling or insurmountable and then act accordingly.
2) Get a head start on the most critical relationships as soon as possible. This has been one of PrimeGenesis’ biggest contributions to the field of onboarding. Creating time by getting a head start even before the start can make a HUGE difference – particularly with “watchers” that are on the fence about you, your new role and things in general.
3) Control your message. It’s almost a cliché that everything communicates. You’ve heard it before. You know it. So why would you ever let anyone else decide what you’re going to see, say and do as you’re making first impressions. You must take charge of your own communication from the very beginning.
4) Follow through on your change campaign. This goes to the misalignment of hopes and perceptions with current reality. Getting those aligned, by definition, means that something has to change. And getting anyone to change anything, really change anything, is a hard, on-going task. Don’t think for a moment you can will it into being. It will require consistent, on-going effort. If you stop applying pressure too soon (as many do), things will fall back to their pre-change state.
