Leadership Transitions: Why They Matter & How to Get Them Right

Leadership Transitions Matter
With the accelerating pace of change, leadership transitions have become more frequent and more consequential. Senior executives are stepping into high stakes new roles at unprecedented speed. How effectively they make these shifts can determine whether their team, and their career, thrives or falters. Every transition at the top reverberates throughout the organization, shaping strategy, culture, and performance.

The Size of the Impact
McKinsey reports that:

• Successful leadership transitions correlate to 90% of the new leader’s teams meeting performance goals over three years.
• When leadership transitions are mishandled, the effects ripple quickly through the organization — employee engagement drops by 20%, and team performance declines by 15%.
• And the most distressing of all the statistics reported is that between a quarter and a half of leadership transitions are at least disappointing and at most deemed a failure.

What’s Going Wrong?
Even though challenges for new leaders can often be anticipated and mitigated:

• Action learning leadership development data tells us that most leaders are ill-prepared to take on their new role.  60% of new managers underperform during their first two years and 85% receive no training prior to switching into the role of manager.
• New manager training feedback shows that new people leaders face common challenges like complex organizational politics, misaligned goals, and minimal support as they take the reins of the new position.

Organizations try to boost the chances of success of their new leaders by providing mentors, onboarding programs, or executive coaching, but we know from people manager assessment data that these approaches are helpful to some, but they’re not enough.

A Better Leadership Transition Preparation Plan
To take on the new challenge of leadership, follow a proven three-pronged approach.

1. Assess Yourself and Your Team
   First, you need to know where you are starting from as a leader. Get a proven leadership assessment of your leadership readiness, performance, potential, and skill gaps so that you and your boss can create a customized individual leadership development plan to set you and your team up for success.

   Then seek a thorough understanding of the business’ current performance, organizational culture, team members’ competence and attitudes, and what the company expects of you. This evaluation of the current state should provide a 360 degree view of what matters most and to whom.

   This initial assessment step usually takes about 90 days.  While you will probably feel pressure to make immediate changes, take your time and plan strategic changes carefully.  Only make immediate changes that everyone agrees will have a dramatic and long overdue impact to show that you are listening and can get important things done.

   Have you allocated the time required to assess the current situation?

2. Engage Your Team to Design a Collective Path Forward
   Our Organizational Alignment Research found that strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing teams. Once you get the lay of the land and everyone feels heard, it is time to co-create a compelling path forward.  The key is to actively involve your key stakeholders in the process to ensure that they understand, believe in, and are committed to the collective path forward.

   High performing teams agree upon 6 areas that make sense for their unique circumstances:

   • • Team goals and accountabilities
     • Roles and responsibilities
     • Success metrics
     • Interdependencies
     • Team norms
     • Processes

   As long as you are clear, fair, and encourage knowledge sharing, keep in mind that you are in this role to develop and execute a team vision with a high performing and highly engaged team.

   Do you feel confident in your ability to co-create a team charter for success?

3. Take Action
   This stage is where the rubber meets the road, and it requires persistence, high support, and a cadence of accountability. Some moves won’t work as you hoped; be ready to adjust as needed. Celebrate the successes and learn from the failures.

   You will know you are on the right track when your team’s goals are aligned with overall company goals, the way work gets done move priorities forward, and your team works proactively for the benefit of all.

The Bottom Line
Leadership transitions are pivotal moments that demand deliberate planning and disciplined execution. Take time to assess the landscape, align with your team on a clear strategy, and move forward with aligned focus and intent. Your ability to lead through transition will define not only your own success — but the success of your team.

To learn more about being a successful team leader, download How Strategic Clarity Distinguishes High Performing Leaders – The Elite 6%