Don’t lay back. Some executives let someone else manage their onboarding into a new role. This increases their chances of falling into the 40% of new leaders that get fired, forced out, or quit within 18 months. Instead, be on your front foot: get a head start and manage your message as you converge into the new organization, and then pivot to building a team that can help evolve it.
Get a Head Start
The weeks between accepting a job and starting it, the fuzzy front end, are the most underused asset in a transition. Many new leaders spend them wrapping up the old job. The best use them to map stakeholders, build a 100-day plan, set up logistics, and jump start key relationships.
Some of the best examples come from leaders with an extended runway. MasterCard gave Ajay Banga nine months as COO to listen and learn before he became CEO. Ford gave Jim Hackett a year running Ford Mobility. He arrived as CEO with a 100-day plan built around four goals: revenue opportunities, the fitness of the company, capital deployment, and innovation. Mary Barra didn’t have a runway like that. After her CEO announcement at GM she moved quickly to hold informal conversations with board members, plant leaders, and regulators, so the relationships were already taking root by Day One.
Hackett could have done more, which may have contributed to his ultimate failure. Time spent building critical relationships before the start is never wasted. Leaders who skip it find the organization’s momentum was working against them before they ever showed up.
Manage Your Message
Everything you say and do, and don’t say and don’t do, communicates. If you haven’t thought through your message, either someone else will position you or you’ll improvise under pressure, and some of the improvising will cost you.
Start by sorting your audience into contributors, watchers, and detractors. You won’t convert detractors, so don’t try. Turn contributors into champions, turn watchers into contributors, and get detractors out of the way.
Then remember that no one cares about you. Their only question is “What does this mean for me?” So don’t open with your résumé or a PowerPoint about yourself. Don’t criticize your former company or anyone in the new one. Don’t redecorate your office before you’ve earned the right to. Lead with emotional connection, then the facts about the current situation, then an inspiring call to action, in that order.
The Red Cross’s Charley Shimanski got this right when he took over their disaster response organization. His message came through in everything he did in his early days, reinforcing how the success of the mission rested on his team’s shoulders, giving them pride in being the best part of people’s worst days.
Build Your Team
After Day One, the only thing a new leader can do entirely alone is fail. Success at this level is a team effort, and the most successful leaders over-invest in the team during their first 100 days.
Start by co-creating a burning imperative with your team. Tell people what to do and you get compliance. Sell, test, or consult and you get contribution. Co-create and you get commitment. That co-creation is also the pivot from converging to evolving.
Then pick an early win, over-invest to deliver it, and celebrate it publicly. IBM’s Sue Hed and A&P’s Sam Martin both showed how early wins build a team’s confidence in itself and in its new leader.
Finally, get the right people in the right roles, and do it early. The number one regret experienced leaders report is not moving fast enough on people. As the saying goes, water the flowers and pull the weeds.
Converge, Then Evolve
Fit, delivery, and adjustment are the three ways new leaders fail. The front-foot approach addresses each. Starting your converging with a head start helps you fit in more easily. Conveying a clear message helps focus all on delivering what the organization needs most. Then pivot to build a team that can adjust to the inevitable changes down the road.
Take the initiative. Nobody else is as invested in your onboarding as you are.
